From your desktop computer, laptop, digital tablet, or even your smartphone, spending time on Facetime is a great way to communicate, especially during the wicked winter weather.

Not only is it possible to communicate with family and friends from remote locations and still be able to see each other, but you can also have fun and play games together.

Research shows that some shrinkage in some regions of the brain and the impairment of memory function can occur after long periods of social isolation. Also, after being away from other people for long periods, social interactions can become more awkward, such as running out of things to talk about or feeling anxious.

Keep your social interests consistent when the weather gets colder to benefit your mental health and the strength of your friendships with this list of seven Winter Games to play with others on FaceTime when you all are trying to stay warm.

1.) Truth or Dare

This winter, you should keep in mind that gaming helps people connect. With FaceTime on iPhones, iPads, or Macbook Pro laptops, gaming mates can engage in a game of Truth or Dare and get to know each other better.

Individuals or groups can alternate with each other to ask and answer questions. Questions don’t get answered if they tell the truth; the individual can take a dare instead. This could lead to many juicy details about each other or to a heap of hilarious, daring actions to laugh about.

2.) Newlywed Game

If you are looking for ways to connect with your spouse, consider using gaming to strengthen your marriage. The Newlywed Game is an example of a FaceTime game for couples who find themselves in long-distance relationships or are on a virtual date night.

The way that the Newlywed Game is played is that the couples ask and then answer questions about their relationships by posting photos in a private shared album or by typing responses on iMessage. Whoever has given the correct answer the quickest is the winner.

Here are some sample questions:

• Where did our first date take place?
• What was the first present I gave you?
• What is my favorite color?
• What are my parents’ names?
• Who is my favorite singer?
• What is my favorite TV show?
• Where did our first date take place?
• What is the name of the college I attended?

3.) Word Association

If you are looking for a fast vocabulary challenge to play on FaceTime, give Word Association a try. The game started with the first person saying a word and the other player replying to it with a word that is related to it.

Then player one can respond to the word from player two with another related word. Every round continues until one player repeats a word, hesitates, or gets stuck without an answer for more than five seconds.

4.) Snowman

If you are looking for fun family games to play on Facetime for your children who are learning to read and spell words, then it is time to play Snowman on FaceTime.

To get a game of Snowman going, first, one person writes dash lines to stand in for each letter in a secret word, similar to what you would see in a game of Hangman.

The second player starts guessing which letters may spell out the word. If a letter they guess is correct, then the other player writes the letter on the appropriate dash mark. But if the guess is incorrect, then part of the snowman gets drawn.

There are nine opportunities to give a wrong guess before the snowman is completely drawn, with one mouth, one hat, one carrot for a nose, two eyes, two arms, and three circles for the body. If the complete snowman is drawn, the person who picked the word is the winner.

5.) Read My Lips

Finally, Read My Lips is the seventh exciting winter game you can play on FaceTime when you and your loved ones aren’t in the same room. To play Read My Lips, players will use their listening skills and body language to succeed.

One caller taps the mute button and says a single word or an entire phrase while the additional players try to guess what that particular word or phrase is. The caller can repeat the phrase as often as they would like. They can answer questions by nodding “yes” or shaking their head “no.” The other players have either 60 seconds or less or 30 or less to guess the word or phrase.

The post 5 Exciting Winter Games to Play on FaceTime appeared first on StreetWise Journal.