How to Play High Low Buffalo: This family conversation starter is an easy way to encourage children and adults alike to open up about their day and what made them happy, sad, or interested. It’s low pressure and something you can do any time, anywhere!
Our family has been playing a game called High Low Buffalo for a couple of years now, and it’s been incredibly productive in squeaking out little tidbits from our kiddos’ days that they might not have normally shared with us.
I cannot (for the life of me!) remember where I first heard or read about this conversation-starter idea, but it’s likely that I don’t remember because I didn’t think it would play as big of a role in our family as it does.
How to Play High Low Buffalo
After school or during dinner around the table, we’ll tell the girls we’re going to play High Low Buffalo. They know by now what this means, so they usually start thinking immediately about what their answers will be.
- They’ll tell us their HIGH from the day, also known as the best thing that happened that day.
- They’ll tell us their LOW from the day, which is generally something that made them upset. (The responses to what their LOW was are sometimes quite amusing if they’ve actually had a great day overall.)
- Finally, they’ll tell us their BUFFALO, which is just something random from the day that they want to share.
Once they participate, both Hadley and Sadie love to turn it back around and ask us the three questions. “Mommy, what was the high of your day? What was the low of your day? Now tell me your buffalo, Mom!”
I’d highly recommend teaching your kids this game and experimenting to see if you learn more about their day than they possibly may have shared with you prior. Enjoy!
PS: This cube of questions sits by our kitchen table, and we reach for it every time we have guests for dinner. It’s so much fun! I always ask people to humor me and “just do four cards”, but everyone always wants to keep going and answer more!
MORE: A gift guide for those who love to play games and entertain | Classic games to play with family and friends
Let’s chat!
Have you ever heard of or played High Low Buffalo?
In what setting are you typically able to get your child to open up the most to share with you about things going on in his/her life? Hadley enjoys snuggling in bed at night and having “girl talk”, which is often when she’ll tell me things I didn’t know. I’d love to hear how you gently pry out these kinds of things from your babes. 🙂
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo