Monday, December 8, 2008

Branching out to board games

A few weeks ago I created a card matching game for Jack -- just a 4x4 grid of animal and plant playing cards for which he searches for a match card one at a time. This went so well that I thought maybe it was time for some board games. I've ordered some for his birthday and Christmas, but Hans brought home Candyland from Target this weekend, so here we go.

First of all, I just have to say, what happened to Candyland? It was so perfect (see the photo) -- I don't like the "modern" look of it at all. I looked around a bit to see if anyone made the classic version, but no... Dora the Explorer Candyland yes.

Anyway, playing Candyland with Jack is a really good test for a parent's patience. The first game he moved randomly around the board, back and forth, with no regard to the cards. But today we did a whole lot better; Jack moved his gingerbread man as the cards instructed and even took card one at a time. He doesn't yet understand the concept of winning and I have the feeling there should no hurry with that lesson.

The other games on the way are Hi Ho Cherry O, Hiss, and Caribou. Anyone have other suggestions?

2 comments:

Tammy said...

our favorite is GO Fish with the
"I spy" cards

Hi Ho cherry O is good

and if you really want to try your patience you can try Snakes and ladders

Anonymous said...

You can buy, or even make, a set of cards to play some version of Concentration. For those who don't know the game, you deal out several rows of cards (the entire deck), face down. Usually there are just two cards of each kind, but you could increase it to four of a kind, I guess.

Anyway, then the game begins by players, in turn, turning over two cards at a time. If the player selects two cards that match, he/she "wins" and get to try another two. The player continues until it's not a match. Then the other player gets his/her turn.

The winner of the game is the one who has the most card at the end.

I think they sell this as a board game, but stores that sell decks of "Old Maid" (that can't be politically correct nowadays!), "Rummy", etc., might have these matching games too.

Isn't Lotto sort of the same concept?