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Game On!
Rated by 4 members
"Mommy, are you trying to lose?" Julia, 9, accuses. It's now the dead of winter in the Northeast and, forced inside, we play a lot of card and board games. Julia and I are facing each other over a rhyming board game and, although we've outgrown the let-them-win phase, I don't have to try too hard to beat her at this one.
"I want to play games that are as hard for you as they are for me," Julia says. Unlike her brother Henry, 7, who sometimes needs to be coaxed to the game table, Julia is our most enthusiastic player. Put to the challenge by my competitive daughter, I do a little digging with some other families and our local independent game store, Eureka, (www.eurekapuzzles.com) and get some superb recommendations that challenge us all.
The first new game we try is a deceptively simple card game called SET where you find and match patterns using, according to the game's makers, "spatial" and "intuitive" thinking. I must have a wire loose somewhere because after playing this game for a few rounds, it becomes quite clear I am terrible at it as I lose again and again. The nice -- and unusual -- feature of this game is that as few as two players can play.
We also found Blokus, a highly-recommended board game that tests spatial ability but also requires a bit of strategy in blocking your opponents. It's quite competitive for four players and we all become addicted. Julia is currently our reigning champ.
We're also enjoying the recently-released themed Monopoly games, like the Dog Lover's Edition and space-themed Night Sky Monopoly. Henry loves Red Sox Monopoly -- as trading his favorite baseball players is much more enticing than Boardwalk or Park Place ever were. These new versions also feature a 60-minute speed-play option for shorter games, making the three-day-long Monopoly game a thing of the past.
Also catching our fancy is Ringzz, a game that definitely becomes more interesting the more you play it, and Guesstures, a charades-based game which often sends us all into fits of laughter.
Earlier this week when Julia and I faced off during a particularly heated, and close, game of SET, she smiled at my loud groan over losing to her -- again -- saying, "Mommy! It's only a game!"
Member Comments On…
Game On!
We love to play the dvd games like scene it or high school musical dvd game.our favorite is the illinois monopoly.my toddler love the memory game like bob the builder,dora the explorer,and sponge bob
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We agree with the games mentioned. SET is definitely a family favorite and always interesting to see which newcomers have the visual skills to do this. Other "off the beaten track" but awesome family favorites are Visual Eyes (just awesome), Kinder Bunnies, Phase 10, Sleeping Queens and any of the Gamewright Games. And, my favorite...doodledice!
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We love Blink! It's a very quick (usually just 2 or 3 minutes!) card game where you match cards by the number, color, or shapes of the items on the cards. We also love several of the Cranium brand games,such as Cadoo, Whoonu,Bumparena,Conga, and another quick playing card game, Zigity. My kids are ages 11 & 5, and they both love all of these games. The best are the Cranium ones.
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I can't believe no one has yet mentioned Uno! We recently got Disney Scene It? and My kids (5 and 8) play just as well as I do. My 8 year old likes to sit at the table with the grown-ups and play Pictionary and Taboo. Occasionally there's a word she doesn't know, but someone can explain it to her or we just skip to a new card.
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Wits and Wagers is another fun one. My 8-year-old is the reigning champion in our house. It's funny, fun -- and SHORT (15 minutes). Combines guessing about things no one around the table knows (sample question: what is the weight of the largest piece of gold ever mined?) with the strategy of betting on the best answer.
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Sequence is a fun card/board game that we like to play--it's about matching cards to spaces on the board so it's easy to play but challenging in terms of strategy. And if you want simple, my six year old LOVES to play "hangman"! The one game my toddler and 6 year old can play together is Elefun--where the elephant blows little butterflies up and out his trunk and the kids try to catch them in a net. (I like it too!) And to think, all I had was Old Maid...
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We love Ringzz and Blokus too, as well as Rat-a-Tat Cat and the old favorite from my own chilhood, Trouble.
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Here's a list of our current favorites we play with our 6.5 year old daughter:
Phase 10
Mancala
Rummicub
rat a tat cat (Gamewright Games)
sleeping queens (Gamewright Games)
Labrynth card game
Pick Picknic (Rio Grande Games)
Take Off! (played more cooperatively than competetively)
We also like the games distributed by Simply Fun - www.simplyfun.com
They are a home sales company, and their games are pricey, but they are well made and well thought out. Our current faves from them are "Walk the Dogs" and "Aargh"
We also play cooperative games we found at our local toy store:
The Secret Door, the Sailing Game.
Everyone either wins or loses together!
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Our favorite ones are - Scramble, Mancala and Monopoly....
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Two of our favorites for inter-generational play are Phase 10 and Skip-bo. The grandkids love Apples to Apples as well, not my favorite!
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