Games for Intellectual Children
The intellectual child cannot have a boring ol' regular birthday. He or she demands a refined party full of debate and sharp wit. Once you've selected the guests, music, and menu for the party, all that's left to micromanage are the games.
"Smart kid" Games
Intellectual children love "smart kid" games like Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, and Kissinger/Nixon: The Blame Game. While most kids see Pictionary as a chance to draw vile pictures and prove they can't take turns, intellectual children cherish the opportunity to display 97% percentile communication skills. A truly discerning child will see games like these coming and may wish to avoid class implications of playing mass-produced, name-brand board games (assuming your child is a liberal intellectual).
Surrealist Party Games
The Surrealists sure knew how to party. If your kid is still going through his or her Surrealist phase (characterized by reading Breton, loving Magritte, and being a lobster) these will impress. Exquisite Corpse is an example of a game that isn't fun but has a rich enough historical background to woo kids who care about that kind of thing. Time Traveler's Potlach has a bizarre enough name to keep your child smiling while he Googles it.
Salon
Does your little girl love Gertrude Stein, French expatriates, and fiercely judging others' writing? Maybe a salon "game" is right for her. She should pick some topics for discussion from the news or contemporary academic journals and guests take turns firing rhetorical salvos. Delightful!
Bureaucrat
Policy wonk intellectual kids and their big-government liberal arm-chair political pals will love this one. Children work together to develop a broad and multipurpose system of forms and filing to break the elements of the party into appropriate order. You can only manage what you measure, and by requiring forms for any party activity you can manage all the fun. Get new versions of the forms for every year!
Role Playing
Intellectual kids often love to read. If their friends like the same books, you can play party games that involve role playing their favorite characters. Nothing is more fun than acting out your favorite parts of Tropic of Cancer.
Whatever games you decide to play at the party, make sure almost all the guests will like them. A party isn't just about the birthday boy or girl having a good time everyone should get to have fun. Unless they're a backstabber, in which case they can just play Scrabble and like it.
