Fraser's taking a break this week so I have a bonus turn at the
We've just this week really started gaming with Otto, who turned 3 in March - and my goodness, was she ready for it!
The first game we dug out was Colour Clowns - you can read about our second session at BoardGameGeek. This is an old game, which is still available in very limited quantities, where each player has a mat with a picture of three colourful clowns. Players roll dice (one shows colour - purple/orange/green - and the other shows shapes - triangle/circle/square) to see which part of which clown they need to make - the hat (triangle), face (circle) or tummy (square). If you roll a purple circle, you need to make the purple clown's face (which is blue) purple - by placing a pink perspex circle on top of it. There's not much game there, and it gets bogged down at the end as people roll three or four purple circles in a row when what they need is a green triangle ... but for a three year old who is just learning about mixing colours, it is fantastic. It's still her first choice off the shelf, although these days she prefers to play with the shapes rather than bother with the dice:
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One player starts by playing one of their cards into the centre of the table: "I have an elephant." They then flip the card and ask, "Who has a snake?"
Any player with a snake card can then play their snake, flip it and ask, "Who has a giraffe?" - etc etc
Again, not much of a game. It's billed as great for early readers/pre-readers - and, to its credit, it is well designed enough that Otto, at three, can play it quite competently. She's learning to deal cards and is learning about trick taking and game responses.
And practising animal noises.
I recorded part of our game this evening. (107 KB, 27 seconds, MP3)
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This is a delightful game, and a good introduction to the use of dice, without the intense yawnfest of many roll-and-move games. Also, it's short.
Preparing for our Family Boardgame Night at Biggie's school, we've broken out some other new kids' games this week - Catch the Match, Frog Juice and Gopher It. They're all good games for kids around 5-8 years, but they're not games I'd get out to play with adults.
Lastly, since a couple of people asked for these, here are the photos of the completed Tikal game from last week.
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Biggie and I had fun counting out sweets for the pieces - small jelly babies for explorers and big ones for leaders, 'squirts' for tents and snakes for temple guards.
Here are the final photos of the game all packed up for presentation:
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Until next time, happy gaming!
Melissa
4 comments:
Thanks for posting the photos. Great job on the baking and decorating project. It's fun to hear about playing games with Otto, and we already know what a great gamer Biggie is. Good luck with the school game night.
Thanks Gerald :)
Iain, it's up to us to make a difference! I hope some of what I wrote today is helpful for you - there really aren't a lot of games for the very young.
"And practising animal noises."
An important part of any gaming group... Way to teach 'em young!
haha! start at an early age.
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