The most memorable RPG adventure yet...

by Angie

Tonight I got to experience a moment I have been waiting and hoping for since becoming a parent, but didn't expect to happen for quite a few years down the road. My 6 year old daughter Katie ran an RPG adventure of her own design for me and my husband!!! Her very first adventure, and she did REALLY good. I am so proud of her style, creativity, attention to detail, voice acting, on-the-fly problem solving, descriptive language use, world building, and storytelling skills! She has always loved stories and had a very imaginitve mind, but seeing it all come together so well was quite amazing.

 We played through a 3 scene adventure in the regular Story Realms style, and Katie tried very hard to use the full system of Story Realms to run her adventure. In the Story Challenge, she stated the goals for the players, and told us how to reach them on the progress bar. She had us describe what we want to do an make skill roles. She gave amazing scene and character descriptions. During the action challenge (the most mechanical part of the game) she set out the progress tracker and again told us our goal and how to reach it. She pulled out the disaster tracker and told us about the monsters goal and what would happen if they reached it. She got out the threat tracker and explained to us how threatening the encounter was, and what would move it up and down. It was a very clear execution of our resolution system for Story Realms, and I was very impressed because while young kids (age 5 and up) can play Story Realms, it take quite a bit of skill to be the Storyteller, and I was just so pleased to see her do it and to comprehend what the trackers were for enough to be able to use them as a core part of the challenge. She did all this with the bare minimum help from us, we weren't leading her through any of it!

My favorite part was when the Queen of Summer Fields was helping to equip us for our quest to go recapture the dark creatures that had escaped their prison and were rampaging around and causing destruction. In this room she described, there were several types of weapons. I asked about the dagger and Katie says in her very eloquent sounding Queen voice "That's the Dagger of Hope, it will bring light to you on your darkest hour" I was so suprised and awed by the great description and had to pick it, half because she made it sound really cool and half because I couldn't WAIT to see what she had in mind to do with it.. When would my darkest hour fall, and how could I not bring hope to light the way?? The sentiment was beautiful, and I couldn't help think "This was made up by Katie when she is only 6, what kind of amazing ideas does this girl have in store??"

I'm biased for sure, but I also think that Katie is a natural storyteller with an amazing gift for weaving together dramatic tension, humourous moments, elegant descriptions, interesting personalities, and most of all paying attention to her players and incorporating their ideas. I can't wait to play her next adventure. I am so glad I got to experience this with her tonight, and that shared memory of her first RPG adventure will be one the three of us cherish for a long time to come.

 There are so many benefits of this type of experience: imagination and creativity development, positive social skill building, paracosmic play, problem solving, creative writing, public speaking, and story structuring, and as a parent who is also a teacher I can't hep but think it's really cool to see our family having so much fun playing together, while also providing an opportunity for all of us to develop and refine these valuable skills. Win-win! Roleplaying games has been a big part of my life for many years, I even met my husband Randy though a roleplaying group in college. I look forward to enjoying many more adventures my children bring to life, as long as they're running games, I'll play!

I can't wait to experience all the stories they decide to tell!

To wrap up, I'm really happy because I had a fun gaming experience with my daughter and husband that I'm not likely to forget anytime soon. That 1 hour and 23 minutes was some very meaningful interaction because we were bought into Katie's world and worked together to bring her story to life, and make it OUR story. She was so proud of herself throughout it all, and all of her hard work and careful consideration in planing was really obvious.

I HIGHLY recommend trying out a rules-light or story-driven roleplaying game with your kids. Play a few times with them to get the general rules down, then if they are interested turn them loose to guide you through an adventure.... you'll be glad you did! Don't worry about getting the rules just right, focus on fun and enjoy the glimpse into the world of your child's imagination!

Have you played a RPG ran by your kids? I'd love to hear about it, and how you felt afterwards! Leave a message in the comments below and lets celebrate our kids' leap into the wonderful world of RPGs together!

Mastermind!

by Katie

Problem -solving is in this game! Yep. That’s what the game is all about to me.

 There are two players in Mastermind, the codemaster and the codebreaker. The codemaster puts out a secret code of colored big pegs. Then the codemaster needs to make sure to keep their code secret and also put out little pegs for the codebreaker so they know some information. The codebreaker tries to figure out the code by guessing the pattern. Like if my mom puts out green-white-purple-orange and she is the codebreaker, I would look at my secret code and see how many pegs she has that are the right color in the right places, and how many are the right color in the wrong place and put out little pegs for that. You have to get them exactly right, in the right place.



Breaking the code!



When you are the codemaster you have to be really smart about your code because the other person might guess it in only one turn, so it’s good to be tricky. Also when you are the code breaker you need to use your thinking brain to put together the information you got from all of your other guesses and think-think-think hard to figure out the code.  

When I’m the codemaster I like to trace a line with my finger from each color in the guess to my secret code to make sure I’m putting out the exact right little white and red pegs. I don’t want give the codebreaker the wrong information!

The strategy is to look at everything all together. My mom calls that logic. I think that means to look back at your previous moves to make sure you don’t just guess the same wrong thing. I’m learning how to use logic to solve the mystery of the code!



Jack sneaks in and moves the pegs
around for extra challenge!



I like this game one hundred and fifty nine! That means I like it like almost infinity. It might even be one of my favorite games in the whole world of games. Totally. It’s different than my other favorite game, which is of course Settlers of Catan. I learned to play Mastermind yesterday and if you put all the times I’ve played it so far together I’ve played it about 16 times already!

I want to say thank you to the nice people at Pressman Toy for sending us all those games. I hope they are having a happy day like me, because I have new games to play. I hope all you blog readers have lots of happy games to play too.  Have fun playing games!

Perfect Stride

by Randy

Hello! We have another review for you today. The wonderful people at Funleague Games provided a review copy of Perfect Stride, a game about horse riding. It's a very thematic game that Angie, Katie and I tried out; here's what we thought.

A Horse Game!

This is a game about horses. I wasn't sure I could get into a game about horses, but I was happily surprised. Players assume the roles of riders who are racing to complete the most jumps and stay in the lead. The theme might not appeal to some, but this game does a great job of bringing the theme to the forefront in look and feel.

Pretty Game

The first thing that you'll notice about this game is the art; it's a beautiful game. Every card has unique art, with no duplications (save for a few cards with multiple copies). The full-color paintings really bring the theme to life. A rough count tells me that there are around a hundred unique illustrations on cards alone, not counting the box and rulebook art; there aren't many games that can boast this much art of this quality. Additionally, we found oursleves taking the time to stop and read the flavortext on each card; Katie in particular enjoyed that. Katie was even inspired to draw her own idea for a card for the game, and she rarely does that.

Game play


There are two versions of play for Perfect Stride: the basic game and the full game. Angie and I played the full game first to get a feel for the rules, and then started off with the basic game with Katie. After playing through the basic game, we talked with her about the other cool cards in the game and she decided she wanted to try those out, so from that point we were playing something in between the two.

Both versions have riders competing to go through a course of jumps. Every horse will have a kind of jump they're good at, and each jump has a Difficulty. You need to have enough Effort to meet the Difficulty, and you get this from skill cards. Each horse that makes the jump gets a ribbon (this game's victory points), and moves to the next jump. Pretty straightforward and simple.

The advanced version is far more interesting and strategic. More of a racing element is present, and being in the lead will earn you more points. There are also events that happen at every jump, which can change the difficulty for better or worse. There are also power-ups for horses called Horse care cards.  What I found to be very interesting is that the advanced game has a bid mechanic  for determining who's in the lead. Everyone starts with four cards representing speeds (Walk, Trot, Canter, Gallop) and a draw value for cards that decreases the faster you go. I found that this in particular was a great element for bringing the racing element to life.

Just one more note about the game play: the minimum age on the box. I really feel that the designers have assigned too high of a minimum age by saying it is for thirteen years and older, and think they should consider altering that on later printings. I don't think any of the concepts present are that difficult. I think that about ten years old would be a good minimum age for the advanced game, and eight for the basic. The basic game does require reading and basic math, and that is why I wouldn't recommend that too much younger. Our five year old daughter Katie loved it, but needed help with the reading (and just a little with the math). I'm worried that some parents who would otherwise pick it up for their children may skip it due to that, which is unfortunate, since it is a wonderful game.


Katie's idea for a Horse Care card!

Katie shares her thoughts on the game:

What did you think of the game?
It was awesome! I like horses.

What was your least favorite part?
Nothing!

Can you tell us more?
The cards are great. They can get you past jumps. Sometimes they are jumps and can get you ribbons. I think the person that did the art made great pictures and details. I want to play again with the horse care cards and event cards. Speaking of playing again, let's play right now!

Finish Line

There you have it! We liked this game quite a bit, especially Katie. There's a fair amount of randomness in the skill cards, moreso than in most games we play, but that is actually good for a family game in that it levels the playing field a bit. Honestly, we were surprised at how much we like the game. Though I don't imagine it will be one that Angie and I necessarily clamor to grab off the shelf, we were quite happy to see Katie so engaged in the theme; I get the impression it will be a game that she will want to play again soon. And here I thought we were going to skip the "Daddy, can I have a pony? Please?" stage!

Katie's Game Goal Update

By Katie

My goal for the year is to play 100 different games and I played half of a half of my goal in a half of a half of a year... Which is a quarter on both of them. So I'm a quarter of the way done! That feels good to me because that means I've played at least a whole bunch of games from trying to get my goal. Goals are good because sometimes you get them and then you feel really really proud of yourself.





I wrote down all the games and so the circled numbers are how much I rate the game. My ratings is how much I like the games, it's just kinda random depending on my mood. Like sometimes I feel like its small or great or weird, you know, so then I give it a number to explain how I feel. It's makes sense to me.

 Thoughts about the first 25 games of the year

       1.    Mastermind Towers: I think mastermind is a really cool game and I
           liked it.

2.     Wits and Wagers Family: I think that its cool because my whole family played it and it has family in the name which is like us, my family.

3.     Connect 4: Connect 4 is a cool game because you try to match 4 in a row and that’s the name. I play this with my friends.

4.     Pictureka Matchureka: I think this is neat because it has 5 games with the same cards, and all the games use them.

5.     Quack Quack: This is kinda complicated because you have to find the right colors. I like complicated games.

6.     Formula De: What I don’t like about this game is it isn’t complicated enough. I like it anyway but ya know, not at least so much.

7.     Uno: I played Uno with my grandma and grandpa and I liked it and I like them.

8.     Frank’s Zoo: I just don’t have anything to say about this game. I don’t remember what I was going to say about it when this came up. I’m easy about forgetting things.

9.     Guess Who Extra: I play this a lot with my friends. I like the funny faces and the aliens and monster boards best, also the robots.

      10.  Polterdice: That one, well… it was… fun I guess,,, but it started getting sort of too easy and kind of boring and apparently we stopped playing it.

      11. Enchanted Forest: I like this because you try to find the right things under the trees. I have to remember things, like if there’s a star and I don’t need it but the next card might be the star so I have to remember where they are.

      12.  Forbidden Island: I really like this one. I keep playing it because its complicated and that makes it interesting. I like working together and helping people, you gotta help each other out of the island because it’s sinking.

13.  Stone Age: I played this with my dad and another time with my whole family. It is a little long, I like long games too but sometimes I really have to quit before its finished.

14.  Squint: Squint isn’t complicated, only I like other things about it. One of them is I like making pictures, and I don’t remember the rest but I know there’s other things I liked.

15.  Froggie Boogie: I like to play this and so does my brother, he likes the frogs. I think my dad likes to play this sort of but my mom yes because she loves games.

16. Crazy 8’s: Nothing to say about this.

17.  Zingo: I like Zingo because I just think its cool!

18.  Amazing Labyrinth: You try to get through the labyrinth and grab the last card out of the pile and get that before anybody else gets their last card. Funny and crazy.

19.  Go Fish: It is mediocre. I don’t know what that means, I just said it. It’s a good thing I think.

20. Castaways of Deadman’s Bay: This is a good game because there is a Jack like my little brother and Kate which my name is Katie but my real name is Kathryn but my parents sometimes call me Kate so that’s really cool.

21.  Memoir ‘44: Super! I’m secretly known as Flash, and also on my team is Super Tulip (which is a new super hero) and Batman and Ironman. We all fight to save people. Memoir 44 is cool because it has fighting in it and you have little army guys and you have to knock the whole other team out to get medals. I’m smart, and you have to be smart to play this game.

22.  Battleship: I think it’s cool and there’s nothing else to say.

      23.  Tsuro: This game is kind of miniature. I want that to mean crazy and a little frustrating in a good way.

      24.  Trans-America: That was trainy. There’s a map of the states.

      25.  Rock-Paper-Scissors: I can’t think fast enough and decide so I have to turn around of close my eyes when we’re counting. It takes me a while to choose what I want to do. I like to play it with my mom, sometimes my dad, but not Jack because he doesn’t know how!

Whew! It was like the longest conversation in the world to talk about that many games. My mom wrote down everything I said and it was kind of like writing the biggest blog post ever. I hope you enjoyed reading it and I hope you like games because that’s what our blog is all about. I love love love love games. Every kind of game that’s complicated, sign me up!

I was going to give my mom a high five for finishing this but my hands were full so I thought about using my nose, against her hand... but then I figured that would hurt so now I'm cracking up! Hahahahaha! Silly me. Bye-bye everybody!



Hands on the Nintendo 3DS

by Angie

This week Katie and I got a chance to check out the Nintendo 3DS. As many of you know, this new device sports the ability to play 3D games without glasses. Unfortunately, we discovered some warnings on the box and in the accompanying literature that apparently 3D might be "bad" for young kids. The information I could find basically says prolonged viewing may interfere with the development of healthy eye-sight, and Nintendo is claiming the 3D features of the 3DS should only be used by kids over age 7. Fair enough, it seems like a standard legal disclaimer and probably decent advice. For anyone concerned, the system sports a whole host of parental controls, including the ability to password lock specific features (such as 3D viewing). We decided we weren't too worried about it, but we would make sure to limit 3D time for Katie. I explained it to her and she was in agreement, she suggested maybe only 10 minutes a day. We turned on the password protected 3D viewing just in case and were ready to play! Our test subjects were the built-in software that comes with the system and the game Rayman 3D.

Shoot My Face!


New... shiny!!! Worth it?



The first thing we did was try out the preinstalled game Face Raiders. Within minutes Katie and I were laughing so hard as we sat on our kitchen floor taking turns throwing balls at the 3D faces flying all over the room. This game is a 3D augmented reality game, and what that means is it uses the cameras on the 3DS to recreate in the game the actual physical environment you are in. In the case of Face Raiders, you take a picture of a face, and the game turns it into a 3D flying helmeted bad guy that is cruising around whatever room you are in, in this case we were being attacked by hosts of Katie-faced 3D figures in our kitchen. It's hard to explain how cool this is in words, but it was definitely a neat experience. The 3DS uses a built in accelerometer and you are basically swerving all over with the device and knocking holes in the virtual mockup of your environment. Jack came running in and took a look at the screen and said "Oh no, broke our kitchen!" then promptly ran behind the device, checked out the cabinets, came back and said "Coooool!! I turn?". I do wish it didn't make you turn around so much when fighting though. It was fine on the kitchen floor, but when I tried playing this game in the car I was simultaneously impressed at how fun it was to see the real-world environments (the gas station, the street, and Randy driving!) and also irritated that it kept having me be attacked from behind, which required physically turning around to get those enemies. It diminshed the otherwise crazy-fun experience into a neck craining and frustrating one. I didn't mind enemies in about a 180 degree arc in front of me, but anything outside that range seem like it would only be fun if you were standing up playing... which I rarely am. Another complaint is that it was very hard for us to get the camera-images to line up just right with the guide marks, and the end result was a weirdly distorted 3D effect on the faces. Low-lighting further increases the challenge, and apparently our house is pretty dimly lit. Overall though, Face Raiders is pure fun. Another one of those zany nintendo-style ideas that is always pushing video games further. I loved the laugh-out-loud silliness and fun factor, but I think it was the weird idea, the use of augmented reality, and smooth accelerometer controls that really made it fun more than the 3D effect.

Really Real?

We tried to play around with the AR cards included with the game, but apparently the lighting in our house made it difficult for the cameras to focus on the cards, and it seemed like we really needed to do it in a brightly lit room where we could walk around the card. Not my ideal playing conditions, so I guess I just gave up on it. Looks like that had some potential to be fun and cool, but the limitations on it made it seem so-so appealing to me.

Rayman.. in 3D

Not much to say here. I liked it when the butterflies flew out towards me. The rest of the game... not so much fun. I don't think the 3D effect made it worth the timewarp back to the early 90's when blocky "3D" platformers were all the rage. Clunky controls and camera angles.. etc. It wasn't a "wow"-me title. If you liked the game the first time around, it might be fun to revisit with the new effects, but after a few minutes I was completely checked out (and more than a little nauseous.).

3D, 3", $300 (Almost)

So, is the 3D awesome and worth the hefty price tag?? In my opinion, no. At least not yet. The launch lineup of games doesn't include any of the big system-selling titles that I would expect (Mario, Zelda, and their friends) and is overall not that impressive to me. Additionally, as someone who is prone to migraines I found the 3D effect to be somewhat nasuea and headache inducing. The 3D effects are only viewable from an optimal distance and angle. In other words, if you don't hold the device precisely at the "right" location, you'll be seeing blurry double-takes as if you were at a 3D movie with no glasses on. At least that's how it was to me. Now the thing I LOVE about a handheld system is portability of playing. I like to play in the car or lounging on the couch or late at night cuddled up in my bed. I constantly found myself having to adjust from my comfortable position to a more rigid one in order to properly view the 3D effects. Even when I get it to the optimal range I'm still seeing small flickers, so if you're one of those people who is sensitive to the flickering of flourescent lights (like I am) you might experience a bit of that with the 3DS as well. Overall, the 3D effect was kinda neat when I got it to work right, providing a good depth of field 3D effect without glasses and an occasional 3D pop-out effect. Pretty impressive really, if you're willing and able to hold it just right. Honestly folks, it's a limited viewable range... no looking over someone's shoulder or holding the device even a fraction of an inch off center. The 3D slider allows for some adjustment of the depth, and you can turn it off at any time. Some exciting upcoming features such as streaming 3D movies from Netflix sound like they might be cool, but I'm worried about the comfort and practicality of viewing a 3D movie on a 3 inch screen at approximately 14 inches from your face in exactly a straight line.

Play Time

The thumb stick feels pretty fluid and comfortable. Seems like a decent improvement. The device plays DS games, so that backwards compatability is always appreciated. My biggest disappointment is that when playing DS titles, the viewable screen area was smaller than the DSi. Not by a lot, but enough to notice. It was like taking a step back. After exploring the 3D features a little we ended up just playing our Pokemon Black/White games, and I found myself really wanting to just play on my DSi.

Final Verdict

Admittedly, I am a bit of a Nintendo fangirl. I think I've owned every single Nintendo console including practically every model of each of the handhelds. I've had at least one Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance SP, DS phat, DS lite, DSi... did I miss any? As such, it pains me a little to say this... my final verdict on the 3DS is to wait it out. I'm sure there will be a new-improved version in a year or so, and/or a price drop. Once there's a decent game lineup and all features are fully functional I think this system has some potential, but right now it's just seems like kind of a "neat trick".

The end of the story... we traded the 3DS for a DSi XL and I'm totally happy about it.

GIANT screens!!!

Have any questions, or your own thoughts on the 3DS? Leave a comment!

Have you entered our Say Anything Family Giveaway? There's still time left! Check it out here: Say Anything Family Giveaway! 



Gotta Catch 'Em All!

by Randy

So... the craze has struck again. My wife and daughter just got.... the new Pokemon games. Yup. Plural. This weekend marks the introduction of Pokemon Black & White into our household. Today, I visited not one, not two, but THREE stores to get all the Pokegear necessary for my girls to feed the Pokebeast. We went to Best Buy and bought Pokemon White for Katie, then Target to get Pokemon Black for Angie and then to Borders to get the Pokemon strategy guide volume one.

For your enjoyment, here is a picture of Katie, caught in the throes of Pokemadness:

I'm pretty resigned to both my girls each toting around their Nintendo DS for a month, as they did with Heart Gold and Soul Silver last year.

                   



Katie's Ideas on Princess of the Hill

by Randy & Katie

Hello, everybody! After I explained my game idea for Princess of the Hill to Katie and showed her some of the concept art I've whipped up she had some ideas for me. Here is what she said to me... enjoy!

Katie: "It's a four player game of princess battlers. That's the name! Call it 'Princess Battlers'! They fight with paint scrapers. They're really strong princesses."

Randy: "How should the game be played?"

Katie: "I'm still thinking about that. Every player has two scrapers. They have to knock all the other princesses off the hill. "

Randy: "Okay, anything else?"

Katie: "Yeah... they should have hundreds of pants, hundreds of shirts, hundreds of everything."

Then Katie was inspired to draw some pictures. Katie saw me drawing this one:

And then she followed up with these of her own:

The game board:

Accessories:

Well, that's what Katie has to share. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

Castaways of Deadman’s Bay

by Katie

We played a new game, Castaway's of Deadman's Bay. It’s a battlers game about pushing people off the plank, striking them, or insulting their crew. The battlers are pirate captains! It’s awesome, AWE-some! Mom and I play “Kate” and daddy plays the one named “Jack”. Because the characters are named Kate and Jack like me and my brother that just makes the game so special!

How You Play: You play a card and try to trick your dad by playing a card and mindreading like I do. You pick a card and if it’s the right one KABOOM, BAM, and then BABABOOM to win! Power ups are the cards you can play to make your moves better so they do more damage.

What is easy: This game is easy, really easy. The reading parts are OK because I can show my mom since we’re on a team. My mom read me the cards and since I heard them a bunch of times I know what they say. I can tell them apart by the colors. The cards that, like, power up a move match the color of the move and that makes it easy to tell what they are.

What is hard: None of it was hard actually

Insult for the win!!

What I like best: My favorite part is that we are so good at pushing him off! I like that we got to knock him straight off the plank! We won by figuring out what daddy was going to do… he thought we were going to charge because we had the most charge power-ups but I knew he was going to think that so I just threw down an insult and that won the game! I love the thinky parts of the game where you try to guess what they are going to try to do!

What I like least: That Jack is too little to play, but I anyway had fun with it.

How much I like it: I like it two-hundred and forty-four. 2-4-4. That means I really like it and it’s one of my top favorites. I want to play it again and again!

This is what my mom wants to say:

"I really liked the fact that the emphasis on this game was on thinking through what your opponent might do and trying to outguess them. The game was simple, but provided a good skill building opportunity for the younger gamers in your family while still remaining interesting enough for parents to have fun playing. Plus, it’s pirates!

This is the first game of this type we’ve played with Katie in which I think she really got that element of trying to read your opponent and use deductive reasoning to figure out the best move. It’s a great gateway into a whole range of strategy games in which it is important to try to predict what your opponent is going to do… Race For The Galaxy, Yomi, and Agricola to name a few. It’s definitely a game I can see playing “again and again” with our little pirate captains."

This is what my dad wants to say about it:

"Let me start by  saying a big hearty "Thank you!" to Ian Volkwein, the designer of this game, for providing a review copy of this game. We really enjoyed this game, and Katie is excited to play it more. I like the bluffing mechanic. This game is a great introduction to games that include anticipating your opponents moves, and those that use "Rock-Paper-Scissors" mechanics. In this one, you want to match your opponent when defending and choose differently when attacking. The powerups and action cards keep it fun and exciting. I definitely recommend this for younger gamers. There is card text, so it's best for those kids who also read. You can read more about this one at Ponderzombie Games. Yarrr!"

 That's all...

I didn’t want my mom and dad to say anything on this blog post because it’s MY blog post and they can just write their own, but they really wanted to so I just let them do it. Then what they wrote was cool, so I’m kinda OK with it now. I just didn’t want you readers to think their words were my words. That’s all. Thanks for reading my blog!

Elfenland!

by Katie

Hi blog readers! This is a post I wrote a while back, and we forgot to post it! I love this game so much so I wanted to tell you all about it. The one thing you should know about Elfenland is that it is cool but it is hard but it is fun but also it's enjoyable and sometimes it's frusterating, but I love it. It's all those things, so if you play it just remember that!

Elfenland

How you play: First out you have 8 cards. Now I’ll pretend that these are my 8 cards. The first player gets the card with this guy on it, the first player card. Then you go around taking turns to pick out 4 tokens. The tokens are what you use to put out on the board to show where you can travel. The tokens you pick should match the cards in your hand or you won’t be able to go anywhere. The starting player starts traveling, they move their boot first. How you move your boot is first you pay cards to move along the tokens that you already put out. You pay depending on how many symbols are on the card for where you want to go. It doesn’t matter who put out the token you use to get places. You can use anybody’s token to get places. When you get to a place that has a marker of your color then you get to take it and put it in front of you. If you get the most markers of your color you’re the winner.

What I like best: The thing I like best about the game is getting almost all my markers

What I liked least: The thing that I liked the least is that I didn’t win. Just that

What was hard: The hard part of the game was trying to get a token when you have to draw from the pile and you want it to be a pig but sometimes it is something different.

What was easy: The easy part of the game is picking out a token from the face up pile, even if it’s upside down

How much I like it: 120-190-106. That means I like it almost as much as Zooloretto, the animal game I wrote about before.

The Putting Things Back Together Post

by Katie

The stack of games Katie has been organizing! What a helper!!!

I’ve been organizing games a lot and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. I’m really good at organizing games! One of them is still out, but I’m working on it because I’m bagging everything up. It has a lot of little pieces. What happened is Jack was dumping games a lot, so I’m trying to reorganize them and fix them up.  First I get a box off the shelf, and if the pieces are all messed up I sort them out.  After I sort them I put the pieces back in their card holders or in the trays if they are chips or whatever. Then I get some baggies, and put all the things of the same type that don’t have anywhere to go in one baggie. I just go through and do that again and again until everything is all sorted and put away nicely. We’re also check the constructions (*instructions!) to see what the game is supposed to have, then we look at the game pieces very carefully and make sure everything is there. If some pieces are missing or lost we look for them or try to find something else to replace it. Like dice or whatever. We get them out of our loose game pieces box. Then I put them all back together.  Then I move on to another game. I’m doing this to help take care of our games and be a big helper for mom and dad. Also it’s fun to look at all the pieces!

Taking turns

by Angie

Here is a little clip of Jack playing a game with us. I am really proud of two things in this video....

First, isn't Katie the most patient big sister gamer ever? She demonstrates patience even when things look pretty grim ("Then I wont ever get a turn..") She really wants to let him explore the games, learn to love playing together, and have fun gaming. I was so proud she didn't reach over and take the dice from her brother. Go Katie!

Secondly, despite the fact that he didn't want to, Jack shared. He passed the last die over to Katie so she could have a turn... eventually! Good job buddy! We kept playing after this video, and each time around the table he was a little less reluctant to pass the turn along. He's learning, and we're proud of our little ones.

In case you missed it previously, or for more info on our philosophy about playing games with kids you can check out an archived article about it here. We're all learning to play together, and most of all having fun!

Please feel free to share your proud gaming moments with the little ones in your life, let's celebrate their developing generosity, patience, and good sportsmanship!