h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is an old Boy Scout game, but it's pretty fun for kids 8-10...

Arrange a bunch of items on a blanket and cover them. Then gather all the kids around and uncover the stuff on the blanket and give them 2 minutes to memorize everything they see there.

Then recover everything and give them paper and a pencil to write down all the items they remember - winner is the one who remembers the most stuff.

Oh but it's hard and not that much fun, and it's always someone horrible who wins (the person you only invited cos they sat on your table at school)

Don't they do that as an aptitude test at some weirdo job interviews?

It depends on what you put under the blanket - Barbie dolls and little tea cups and stuff for a girls' party. They seemed to like it.

And I don't know about the whole job interview thing, what kinds of positions were you seeking?

Not me, just things you hear.

Like apparently potential Microsoft employees were supposed to explain why round manhole covers are better thn square ones (it's cos they can't ever fall down the hole, but square ones can if you put them diagonally)

To be fair I'm a Cub Scout Leader and Kim's Game is aimed at improving children's memory skills, and is not a birthday party game. There are some good games posted here but can i recommend the scouts website at http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/activity/games/index.htm for some games for all ages.
Cheers

For a party it's best to forget the pencil and paper - too much like hard work! Instead just remove one article - first one to guess which one's gone gets a prize (e.g. sweet). Then put the article back and take another. Makes it faster and more chances to win. Only problem is when you find you have one kid with the photographic memory. They get fat on sweets

It's a brilliant novel, which I must read again. And the game had a very serious function in the training of spies.

TRiG.