The main tricks in playing card games with kids…

Stuck with the kids or grandkids in a doctor’s waiting room or an airport? Looking for an easy way to entertain them? If you have a deck of cards and the kids are old enough to recognize numbers, you have it made. There’s no need to have special cards to play lots of old-fashioned favorites, as well as others that may be new to you. While you’re at it, teach them basic card-playing etiquette, too.

This is a two-person game, perfect for a grandparent and grandchild because it requires some thinking but not a lot of sophisticated strategies.

Each player is dealt ten cards face down in two rows of five, with the remainder of the deck face down between the two players. The youngest player goes first, taking a card from the deck. If it is any card from ace to 10, it is used face-up to replace the face-down card in the corresponding position. The player then looks at the replaced card and places it in the corresponding spot, if possible. Kings are wild and can be played in any spot.