Tales of the Game Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

Julius Pollux was a Greek who was born in Naucratis, a city well known as the only ancient Greek colony in Egypt. In his "Onomasticon", a book containing Greek terms, he mentioned a game called "apodidraskinda", which, according to his description, was an ancient equivalent of hide and seek, as well as other variations of the game.

Answer: 2

One of the great things about hide and seek is that it only takes two people - a hider and a seeker - and has a very brief set up time. Once the basic rules are established as to the perimeters of the hiding places and how far the seeker needs to count with his eyes closed, all that is left to do is for the seeker to finish counting and shout, "Ready or not, here I come"!

Answer: It

Chosen randomly in the first round of play, the seeker is "it"; in subsequent games the person who is "it" is the one who is found first, and, therefore, the loser. If the person who is "it" cannot find all the other players, he has the option of calling "Olly olly oxen free", which is a way of telling the others to come in free, as a loser in the game has already been established.

Answer: Home Base

It is important to establish a home base or safe area when playing hide and seek. In some variations of the game, the players who are hidden have an opportunity to run to home base if they are not found, where they proclaim themselves "free".

Answer: Sardines

When playing Sardines, it is important for the original hider to choose a place that can potentially fit as many other people as are playing the game, as people can become packed in like sardines in no time! The loser of the game is the last person to find the group, and he becomes the hider in the next game.

Answer: Tag

In one variation of hide and seek, once a person is caught the game becomes a game of tag, where the hiders want to reach a designated area before being tagged by the seeker. The first hider who is tagged then becomes the seeker for the next game. Kick the can is another variation of tag hide and seek, where, once discovered, a hider has to race to kick the can before the seeker can.

Answer: Hider

Usually Ghost in the Graveyard is played at night. This is especially fun because it gives an added dimension to the game. Only one of the players hides and the others become seekers. When one of the seekers finds the hider - also known as the Ghost - he yells, "Ghost in the Graveyard!" so that all the others can hear.

Then everyone runs to the safe area, hoping to avoid being tagged by the Ghost. The first player tagged by the Ghost becomes the Ghost in the next game; if no one is tagged, the Ghost will be the Ghost in the next game.

Answer: Peekaboo

As Jean Piaget pointed out in his work on cognitive development in children, children do not understand the concept of object permanence. That means if they cannot see something, they do not understand that it still can exist. They are delighted to play peekaboo games, even simple ones that involve covering Mommy's face with her hands and then discovering that she is still there. My granddaughter is just four months old, and already delights in covering and uncovering her own face while playing peekaboo.

Answer: True

Believe it or not, there is an international competition that is called the Nascondino World Championship. It began in 2010 in Bergamo, Italy, and is played by adults in teams. The competition takes its name from the Italian word for hide and seek - "nascondino".

Answer: It encourages overeating.

Hide and seek does not involve food, so it cannot encourage overeating. In fact, it is great exercise, especially when the game is played outdoors in a larger area, since it involves running and moving about. While young children frequently cry out, "Here I am!" when people come close to their hiding place, as they get older they realize that they must control their impulses or they will always lose the game. And kids do not like to lose! In addition, it is a great idea to mix up the counting routine. Rather than count by ones, count by fives or tens instead, just for practice. If they are having trouble learning the alphabet, or just need reinforcement, have them say the alphabet instead of counting.