As you know, we are big on cards and board games in this family. In the past I've discussed my lame attempts to turn Pretty Pretty Princess into a strategy game, my suggestions for making War more interesting—and cheating at it (so the kid wins, but still), and so on. So, with all these extra days between the end of Julie's preschool (one final sob; OK, I'm done) and the end of Steph and Pete's school (tomorrow!), Julie and I have been playing lots of games in the mornings. Here's a rundown of our current favorites:
1. Trouble. Is there anyone my age who doesn't hear endless refrains of "Pop-o-matic, pop the dice! Pop a six and you move twice!" every time they play Trouble? I like Trouble. It's quicker than Sorry! and it's fun. There's a nice balance between luck and strategy.
2. Chutes and Ladders. I love Chutes & Ladders. We have the newish version, showing those lovable, whimsical kids, but I'm pretty sure all the "good" versus "bad" behavior depicted is the same as in the old version I grew up with. Some of the examples are really puzzling. For instance, you get to advance only 8 squares for eating a healthy meal and growing taller, but you get to go ahead 10 squares for baking a cake? What gives? And you backslide only 4 squares for riding your bike recklessly and breaking your arm (which I did 7 times in a row yesterday! Broke my arm, got a 4, broke my arm, got a 4, etc. Julie thought that was the greatest thing ever.), but you lose a whopping 43 squares for dropping a pile of dishes? And some of the pictures are still so dated. How about the kid who hides a comic in his history book and ends up sitting in the corner with a dunce cap—What is this, the '50s? (Julie says, "Oh, he's in time-out and has to wear that hat.") And the kid who walks in the puddles without his boots or coat and catches a cold (Hello? Rain doesn't cause colds, germs cause colds!), then has to sit with his feet in a tub of hot water. Have any of you ever put your kids' feet in a tub of hot water when they caught a cold? Regardless, a fun game.
3. Memory. We used to call this Concentration when we were little, and we played with a standard deck of cards. Now we have a real game of it, with pairs of cards featuring dogs, birds, shoes, books, bunnies, paintbrushes, and so on. I consider myself a pretty good Memory player, but Julie is unstoppable. It's almost scary. I have beaten her only once in the last year or so. Even Andy, who is better at it than I am, has trouble beating her.
4. Race to the Roof. This is a little-known Ravensberger game that we inherited from Lauren. You have to move through the levels of a house and try to get to the attic. You rearrange the room cards each time, so it's always a little different. Pure luck, but fun. It's the kind of game where you can be about to win and then get sent back to the beginning. Or, as I like to say, "Oh, Julie! Would you mind going down to the basement for me?"
It ain't necessarily so! A study conducted in 2005 suggested that catching a chill does make a person less likely to fight off cold viruses. http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/11/14/cold.chill/index.html
Posted by: Elena | June 19, 2007 at 01:07 PM
But, still, you need a germ to get sick -- being chilled just lowers your defenses.
Posted by: Karen | June 19, 2007 at 01:18 PM
I will call you up next time Hijo wants to pay Chutes and Ladders. It is definitely not my favorite. But I'm very glad we graduated from Candy Land.
Posted by: Janeen | June 19, 2007 at 08:53 PM
I haven't ever come close to beating either of my children in memory. It's really quite sad...
Posted by: Peter C. | June 20, 2007 at 12:07 AM
You can get only the abstract here
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/21/070521fa_fact_lepore
but the New Yorker had an interesting article in May on the Game of Life
Posted by: JohnBoy | June 20, 2007 at 11:03 AM