Games

I have been trying to teach Ashley some board games and play sometimes with just her in the mornings before school.  I love games-they are fun and teach such great lessons (Greg teases me that I don't ever do anything without some ulterior teaching motive behind it with the kids) like taking turns and good sportsmanship. 

I had a new, never been opened game for toddlers called The Ladybug game-everyone chooses a ladybug to be and you move through a garden trying to avoid the praying mantis and catch aphids to feed to the ants.  It was really cute-we were playing with the boys though and I think it dragged on a little to long with 4 players to really hold her attention super well.  I would still recommend the game though.  I bought it at Target or Wal-Mart.

We have also tried playing Memory-I separated the pieces into 3 bags because if you use them all it's way too many pieces.  She seemed to get frustrated with me not letting her turn over more than 2 cards at a time and not letting her have the matches that were pictures she liked just because I was the one that had found the match.  We'll try the board game version again another time.  Right now she seems to prefer the Princess memory game and McQueen memory games that she can play on my phone.

The favorite is Hi Ho Cherry O!  If you are not familiar, each player has a tree and a bucket.  You start with 10 cherries on your tree and the goal is to "pick" them all and get them into your bucket.  The spinner gives you the option of removing 1,2,3, or 4 cherries at a time or if you land on the dog or bird you have to remove 2 cherries from the bucket and put them back on the tree.  You can also have a bucket spill and have to put all the cherries in your bucket back on the tree. 

Ashley loves playing this game!  The boys enjoy it too.  Sometimes it is a pretty quick one but other times it can drag on if you keep having to put the cherries back on the tree. 

Playing this with Ashley makes me think of my dad.  He was not overly fond of board games in general and when I was older found out that he absolutely hated playing this one!  I enjoy it though and it is also a good sneaky teaching game about numbers.

We were happy that more games came on the container-Greg and I were getting tired of Go Fish, hearts, and a few others.  The boys enjoy Mille Bornes (French traveling card game where you have road obstacles and car trouble to overcome while accumulating miles).  We have played Uno, Blokus, and recently have done Life and Monopoly.  Scott had played Monopoly with a friend at his house.  He and I had a game that lasted about 3 days and I finally gave us both a sizable bank loan to build with and we divided the remaining properties so we could get on with the more interesting part of the game.  He really enjoyed it.  Ryan and Greg played as a team in Life and soundly beat me and Scott.  They landed on all the good spaces where you make lots of money and we didn't. 

This reminded me of many hours and games that stretched over days of playing Monopoly with my cousin, Steven, who lived across the street.  I wish I knew how many games of Monopoly we had played at Aunt Lynda and Uncle Alvie's kitchen table.  We also did something fun with Monopoly as teenagers-me, Steven, my friends-Stan and Kim, and my Dad.  We played underwater in a tank to raise money for muscular dystrophy research by breaking a record of the longest underwater Monopoly game. 

I want to play Clue with the boys sometime soon.  I think they will like being detectives and tried to guess who committed the crime.

What games do your kids like?  We are always looking for new ones to try.