It’s mayhem. It’s madness. It’s Mad Libs. We love it in our goofy giggly house and it’s part of our Delightful Dailies. Sometimes my kids peacefully play them individually, or we complete them round-robin style like we did today with our Coop Group. It’s word play at its finest - actually at its silliest…especially when your kids pick tortuous toots, boisterous burps, and tumbling toilets as their fill-in-the-blank words.

Today we played with word play and had our Mad Hatter Mad Libs Virtual Playdate. Who wouldn’t want a crazy hair and hat day with their friends?!? The gaggle of kids had a few minutes to giggle at their friends’ hair - styled with toilet paper rolls, or a party cup, or Princess Leia buns, or bows galore, or pipe cleaner accessories, or Unicorn pink horn hair. Then, our host, “Candy Pop” fantastically facilitated the word play and silly story-telling. Here’s how she did it.

1) Preparation

Every RSVP was emailed a list of fun words for a few parts-of-speech categories. This was a three-page sheet of short lists of adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and verbs with spots for each kid to write in their own creative choices. The instructions were to review this sheet, circle ones they like, and fill in their favorite words ahead of time. This print-out is downloadable for free here.

This cheat sheet was provided so that there wouldn’t be a bunch of pausing and waiting for kids to think up a word. But, of course, these are kids, so we all had a ton of practice in patience while waiting for each kid who hadn’t settled on a prepared word, thoughtfully choosing their most perfect word for their turn.

2) Word Play Stories

Using Mad Libs we already had in our home and Word Play ones that we found online, five stories were planned. Some were chosen because of the time-period. It’s April so we had a Easter bunny story and an April Fools at the Zoo story. Knowing there would be sporty people there, there was a sports one. Since most of our girls love rainbow unicorns, we had a unicorn story too. Since almost everyone in the group likes going to the park, we had a park one too. Knowing your audience and what they enjoy will help you hone in on the appropriate stories.

3) List the Participants

After announcing the name of the Mad Lib story, our host, Candy Pop, made a list of participants and used that to keep an order of who to call on so that no one was skipped or doubled-up.

4) Round-Robin

Candy Pop would read a name, the word she needed from that person, and then filled in the blank with their spoken word. The rule was one word per child in the order of the participant list.

5) Read the Story

After completing all the blanks for a story, Candy Pop read the story energetically. Sometimes there were giggles. Other times, complete silence. (Wait, is everyone muted? No, they just don’t find it funny! Kids.)

We’ve done this group activity at parties, at Christmas Day dinner, and just as a family for table time. This was the first time we hosted it virtually. It’s creative, fun, and educational. Sometimes it sparks uncontrollable giggles, and sometimes there might be a little chuckle. But either way, it’s crazy, and it’s play - and that bonds us together.