Monday, October 3, 2011

Board games

Husband's gotten a bunch of underground board games - board games that no normal person hears of, but are rather fun to play. And nearly every evening, before bed and before story time (notice how the schedule of activities keep shifting up, leaving us with very little room for creative stuff- though we do get time, more on this later) we end up sitting together, husband as the dealer and what Anjali calls the "decision maker" and the two girls as players. I join in sometimes, quite often if the game is to my liking and can be played in under fifteen minutes, which, in many of the games is hardly the case.

To a girl who grew up thinking that board games are things like scrabble, chess and monopoly, the new bunch of eight or so board games are rather like an alien world - a very computer game like scenario (and a quick search shows spinoffs in baord games rather like computer games), albeit a (much) more healthy one.

My favorite by far (simply because the rules are easy enough for Anjali and Sophia to follow) is kids of Carcassone. I have played it a couple of times, once with husband and thhe kids and the second time with Anjali alone while Sophia sat a couple of feet away, alternately peering over my shoulder and asking us to play Castle panic with her.

Sophia gets into the board games mood only if the games are rather bloody and involve all manner of evil goblins and trolls (hence the penchant for playing castle panic).Yesterday, the girls were so involved in playing it (after Carcassone) that they didnt even ask for tv as I sneaked food (pasta with spinach, tomato sauce and cheese) into their mouths while they were playing.

At any point that Sophia starts to lose interest and runs around, husband would say things like "Sophia... you are a troll... while you are waiting, all these people are going to pass under your bridge. Are you going to let them?" And Sophia would get all excited and go "bleh bleh bleh bleh" and say things like "you must kill them! You must eat them! You must put ayows on them"

I guess this is the point when i should start to get worried.

Well, she cant quite read yet, but she know very well which are the archers and swordsmen and knights in the Castle panic game. And she knows them by color and when to exchange them with Anjali.

We usually dont play the games to completion. For castle panic, it is usually until the time we notice the kids' attention running out. Thats about 15 monsters or so down the road, something like half an hour of concentrated activity

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