Customer Reviews

Cooperative Games and Sports, Joyful Activities for Everyone (Second Edition)

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I just finished reading Terry Orlick's new Cooperative Games and Sports book and loved it. The best thing about it was that the games and activities are designed to focus on the fun of playing together rather than the outcome. I have ordered 10 more copies of the book to give as gifts to my friends that have children.

I have used several of these activities successfully with elementary school aged children with and without disabilities. I am not a big fan of competitive games or games of elimination so I prefer activities such as offered in this book. I was attracted to the word 'joyful' in the title because I think that 'joy' or spontaneous enjoyment are lacking in a lot of peoples' lives - and I was pleased to find this book not only includes 'joyful' activities but that it was written using positive and encouraging language. I have purchased several books promising appropriate activities for young people and found that they frequently include games and activities that are not original and/or have the potential to cause discomfort or embarrassment, or that there is a focus on games of elimination, and/or the activities just don't sound like fun. None of these issues applies to this book. Although the activities are grouped by age, I find this book most helpful for working with younger children.

This book is a great resource for recreation planners and teachers of all age groups. Orlick used trial and error to figure out which games were best for each age group, and I feel that they are accurate observations, especially with the preschool age group. It's hard to find games for that age that promote cooperation and are fun. You'll find quite a few here!

My children's yoga class love the games in this book, we have had hours of fun.Its great to watch children figuring things out and having to communicate their ideas to make the games work.Easy to use with ideas about what age group would respond best and how to make the games more challenging as they master them.Money well spent if you work with kids and love to play.

I have bought this book twice because I gave a copy to a friend doing mission work. It has three big things going for it. First, it addresses the biggest problem you have working with kids, making the games so that everyone can be involved all at once. Second, the games are actually good (unlike so many other books). Third, the index at the front of the book is brilliant. You would think every book of kids games could provide you with an index of each game, group size, indoors or out, and materials needed, but as far as I have seen this is the only one that does. It makes the book indispensible when you don't know how many kids are going to show up for your event, or when you will need to set up quickly.

On top of all of that the author provides concise experienced discussion of how well the games work, how to adapt them to different situations and how to overcome any potential hiccups in the way the game works.

As a youth director I have scoured every library in the area looking for good game books and ordered some on line. This one is in a completely different league from all other books I have seen, it is so much better.

I only have two complaints about the book. First, some of the games are really just team building exercises and it isn't exactly clear when the games are complete. Since kids aren't used to working together, the games have a net positive effect on them, but expect a little resistance when you try to get kids to cooperate that are used to competing. I think for that reason it is helpful to have more than one adult handy to help make these games work and prevent them from devolving too fast.

Second, the book doesn't include all the classic back yard games that I wish would have been included, but I think that is more than made up for by the variety and quantity of unique games that are presented.

At the end of the day this book is actually helpful when preparing games quickly and it is truly inspirational when it comes to adapting the resources you have to the circumstances you are in so the kids can have a good time.

I've used this in preschool and K-2. It has some good ideas; you can alter them to your needs, of course. I would have liked to see more active games; some are a bit sedentary for young ones. They do like to move around a lot.