On the indoctrination of children....

On the Indoctrination of Children...


In the inaugural post I made the (potentially-self defeating) declaration that I wanted to spend the entirety of next year getting more use out of my game collection and to that end set the goal of playing at least one game a day for that year.

Accomplishing this goal is going to take more than a little dedication from not just myself, but the entire family.  The fact is that there are simply not enough game meetups to meet the requirement, and even if there were, attending them would negatively impact the aforementioned family.

Fortunately, my game collection is, I believe, up to the task.  Even taking into consideration the fraction of the collection that was moved down under with us, there is enough variety there to keep all players engaged.  This was, of course, part of the calculus that went in to deciding what games were moved in the first place.  We intentionally moved some key kid games, and quite a few two-player games for my wife and I to play together.  I would like to note however that the choices made were not perfect.  There are a few 5-6 player games that I relegated to storage because I foolishly thought that I would not be able to find enough willing players during my two tear tour in OZ.  Fortunately, there are others with a copy of Cosmic Encounter here, and I will relish my games of Rex that much more upon my return.

Now, back to this evening, and the children.

My kids are aged 7, 4, and 2.  I have learned to approach these creatures differently when it comes to games and the ultimate goal of moulding them into dedicated gamers themselves.

The youngest, for obvious reasons, is largely excluded at this point, though my wife has had some success in introducing games like Yahtzee Junior to her in combination with the older two.  But for the most part, her presence in or near games is destructive, either figuratively, literally, or both.  While she does sho interest, her interest involves claiming pieces for her own, scattering pieces randomly, or just demanding enough my my wife's attention that I ultimately lose her for the session. As such, the common strategy is one of distraction, either with a flashy screen, or food.  Anyone who has toddlers knows that even this is never 100% successful.

The older two are much easier to deal with, mostly.  The four year old is at least capable of recognizing patterns and understands the concept of taking turns ( an essential life skill, by the way and one of the chief reasons it is critical that ALL children should be gamers ).  The seven year old has the same skills to a higher degree, with the addition of some concept of forethought and strategy.

What is lacking in both (sometimes more so in the elder) is focus and attention span.

Case in point.  We played two games this evening.

First game up was Sequence for Kids.  Box rated for 3-6 years old.  The elder son was fully into the game and understood the goal and the strategy.  The four-year-old was getting hung up on the having to keep track of his cards and did not quite grasp the concept that he needed to hold them so as to hide them from the other players.  Baby-steps.  The other lesson learned was for the elder son.  While he was into the game, his focus was entirely on this train of thought and his actions, to the extent that he had to often be reminded that it was his turn.  I have been trying hard to teach him that watching what the other players to is VERY IMPORTANT.  It not only helps you retain interest, it is instructive on how to play the game better.
Two rounds were played, my wife won one, the younger son won the other (if only because I did not capitalize on information gleaned from aforementioned child's poorly hidden hand of cards).

Second game was Pirate's Treasure from Ravensburger.  This is a game that I picked up quite some time ago at a thrift store but to date had never gotten it on the table.  For those of you that are unfamiliar with the game, it is somewhat like Battleship, but with a few twists.  It is primarily a memory game.  The players arrange 30 tiles face down for one of their opponents.  The goal is to move around the field, revealing tiles, and looking for certain key tiles in sequence.  A die roll determines how far you can move, so there is a certain amount of luck/unpredictability to where you go.  That luck factor is what makes this more than just a game of Memory.
For a game that is rated age 7+, I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun it was.  My son was into the game, and it moved fast enough that he did not have enough downtime to zone out.  Since the map is set my the players, there is the potential for some interesting doublethink were this to be played by four adults.

Final result for the evening, indoctrination proceeding according to plan.