Football squares for kids and families, no money needed
Squares is the best football game for kids because it needs zero football knowledge. A seven-year-old with the 3-0 square is exactly as invested in the first quarter as the uncle who has watched every game this season. Take the money out and it is a family game about matching numbers, with a built-in reason to watch until the end.
Explaining the game in one minute
Show the grid. One team's numbers go across the top, the other team's go down the side, and every square is a pair. When a quarter ends, look at the score, keep only the last digit of each team's number (17 becomes 7, 10 becomes 0), and find the square where those two meet. That person wins the quarter. Do it once with a finger on the screen and they have it. The full rules are in what is football squares.
Setting up a no-money board
- Create the board and leave the price per square blank. Boxpick treats it as a just-for-fun board: no pot, no payouts, just winners.
- Add each kid by name. They can pick their squares on a shared tablet, or you can have the app deal them random squares, which avoids the "I wanted that one" problem entirely.
- Give everyone the same number of squares. Four each for a family of six fills a quarter of the board; add grandparents and cousins to fill more, or leave the rest open.
- Draw the numbers together before kickoff. The animated reveal is the moment kids love, one digit at a time on the TV.
Prizes that are not money
- Q1 winner picks the halftime snack
- Q2 winner picks the movie after the game
- Q3 winner gets out of one chore
- Final score winner gets the trophy (a real one, from the dollar store, passed around all season)
- Everyone who wins a quarter gets a sticker on the season chart
For a classroom or a youth group, a small prize box works, and the random-square option keeps it fair and quick.
Keeping them watching
The trick with kids is the live board. Put Boxpick's TV party mode on the television and their squares glow when they are in the lead. When a quarter ends, the winning square lights up with a celebration, and the kid holding it gets to be loud about it. That is the whole game for a nine-year-old.
Holiday boards are the easy start
Thanksgiving and Christmas both have multiple games with the family already in the room. The Thanksgiving squares and Christmas squares guides cover running boards for each game and prizes that fit the day. Regular season boards are free to host with no limit, so a kids board and a grown-ups board on the same game costs nothing.
Can kids play football squares?
Yes, when there is no money involved. Squares is a simple matching game: each square has two digits, and at the end of each quarter the square whose digits match the last digit of each team's score wins. Kids pick it up in one quarter.
How do you play squares without money?
Leave the price per square blank so the board is just for fun, then attach whatever prizes you like: pick the movie, first slice of pizza, no chores, a sticker sheet. The board, the draw, and the live winners work exactly the same.
How do I explain the last-digit rule to a kid?
Say the score is 17 to 10. The 7 and the 0 are the only numbers that count. Find the row with the 7 and the column with the 0, and whoever is in that square wins the quarter. Have them trace it with a finger once and they have it.
Do kids need a phone to play?
No. A parent can add each kid by name on the board and either pick squares for them or have the app deal random squares. Kids can watch the live board on the TV or a shared tablet.
A board the whole family can play
Leave the price blank, add the kids by name, and let the winners light up on the TV.
