Summer is here and we’ve started a new tradition in our house, as part of our continuing effort to reduce the amount of television our kids are watching. About three or four times a week, we will break out some old fashioned board games and play them around the table. We’ve got two kids – a five year old and a six year old – so everyone is old enough to get in on the fun.
We’ve had a lot of wordplay and puns at the house this summer but not much actual word games with the kids. My wife and I do play regularly – my preference is for Boggle and she prefers Scrabble and Hangman. The kids aren’t quite at the point where they can play. My daughter is able to play Draw Something, where the visual element and limited dictionary makes this a decent entry level word game for kids.
Clue has emerged as the early favorite for games the entire family can play – my daughter played it at her school during the final week of school this past year and came home wanting more. Was It Mrs. White in the conservatory with the revolver? Or Ms. Scarlet with the pipe in the kitchen? And what exactly was Professor Plum up to anyhow? It brings back memories 🙂
Blokus has also become popular – in this game, you have to lay down as many of your tiles (shaped like tetris pieces) as possible in a board of squares. The goal of the game is to lay down your tiles in such a fashion that you can force the other player “out” – where they cannot lay down any additional tiles. The person with the most squares remaining loses. I was actually surprised at how quickly my kids picked this one up – I figured the geometry would make it difficult for young kids. But hey – apparently you can learn something playing Tetris 🙂