I spy

This article is about the guessing game. See also I Spy for the television series. I-Spy was a series of spotter's guides for children, popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

I spy is a guessing game usually played in families with young children, partly to assist in both observation and in alphabet familiarity. I spy is often played as a car game.

One person starts by choosing an object (perhaps a cow) and says "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with the letter C". The other players look around and suggest things it might be: "Crow" (no), "Car" (no), "Cloud" (no), "Cow" - yes. The person who guesses correctly gets one point and also gets to choose the next object.

When played in a car, a family need to decide beforehand what to do about items within the car (usually excluded) and things that are no longer visible (the field with the cows is a mile back - usually permitted but the 'I spy'er has to say "I can't see it any more" and "I can see it now").

A slightly more challenging version uses phrases - "I spy something starting with B A W C" for "Black and white cow". Another variation of this game is to play using colors, such as 'I spy something that is green'.