I enjoy a good board game. A holiday in my family was not complete without a fun game after the big meal. My daughters, thank goodness, enjoy games, too, but I have a feeling I'm teaching them some bad habits.
The best example is Candy Land. If you have played the game, you probably know what my big pet peeve is... the dreaded card that takes you to Candy Cane Forest. I hated that card as a kid, I hate it as an adult. One of my girls will be soooooo close to winning and them BAM! she draws the candy cane card. I've started taking it out of the deck, along with some of the other picture cards that take you back near the beginning... but lately they've started questioning why they never seem to draw that card.
My daughters have, fortunately, reached an age where they can make it through a board game without becoming distracted. They're really starting to grasp the concept of games. The problem is, if the game is taking too long, I won't point out when they skip a square here and there. I know I need to start becoming a stickler for rules, but for now, I guess we'll just make up the rules as we go.
November 24, 2010
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7 comments:
So far my kids have no attention span for board games, and I'm afraid they get it from me. Hopefully they'll like quick-moving games (like Apples to Apples and Boggle), or maybe they'll even develop an appreciation for regular board games as they get older - I do think it's a great way to spend time together as a family. And they'll all play chess if Mike has anything to do with it - hopefully not the way I did as a child, where the pieces make cordial diplomatic visits to one another (or get knocked down by marbles in bowling games).
When I was teaching 1st grade, we had a whole class meeting around board game rules. Even though they had the same games at home, many were used to playing by different rules. I had parent volunteers take some of the games home, read the rules, and then they came back to teach the kids how to play the game according to the game makers rules. However, we allowed exceptions to the rules. The kids just had to state any rule changes at the start of the game and a majority had to agree. It worked out well. So, in my class, as long as the kids agreed they'd prefer to play the game without the candy cane card, it was a-okay to remove it and play as though the card never existed.
I think it's great that your girls can last a whole game. I'm really looking forward to the day when my guys become interested in playing games. We picked up Memory game at a yard sale over the summer, and I tried teaching them to play with just 8 cards. But it was no use. They're still too young. Someday...
I think we finally attempted Memory around age 3... a total of 8 cards in hopes that they could each find two matches. It took awhile for them to understand, but now they think it's pretty fun (Memory is a great speech tool, too).
No big deal if the kids change the rules. By third grade they will monitor themselves and everyone else.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I have such great memories of playing games with my mom when I was growing up. And for years my hubby and I would play UNO (or something similar) at least once a week. I am so looking forward to playing with our girls! I think it will make an awesome family activity...even if we do choose to "bend" the rules a bit here and there. :)
My mom always went by the rules of any game we played. Not a surprise that I am the same way. I don't even like playing Monopoly with money in Free Parking. Rules are what make games fun.
I try not to change the rules too much since I don't want my girls playing with other kids who have no idea about the "new rules."
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