Family game night popularity increases; Games improve kids’ math skills
Here’s an interesting article published by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on Sunday. It highlights the ability of board games to bring families together. At the end of the article, there’s a snippet that mentions a study conducted by a Carnegie-Mellon professor that shows that board games can improve math skills. Certain number skills increase as much as 40%. Just one more reason to get your family board games on.
Color Scheme: Great idea, bad execution?
Board Game News recently posted a review of the game Color Scheme published by Educational Insights. When I read this review I LOVED the idea of this game. It’s like Connect Four where you try to match several colors in a row. The unique twist of this game is that the color tiles are translucent and you can play multiple colors in one spot so that the COLOR CHANGES! What a great concept and a great way to teach kids about color basics.
I was sad then to read this review and learn that the game play and game construction were lacking. Most people don’t really realize or appreciate all the play testing that often goes on before a game is released to insure the rules work well and create an enjoyable gaming experience. It sounds like our friends at Educational Insights didn’t do enough game testing. Hopefully they’ll learn their lesson and republish this great idea down the road with the needed improvements.
Color Scheme retails for $34.99, but can be purchased new at Amazon for $23.45
Have any of our readers played this game? What did you think?
Board Games For Families: Carcassonne Game Modified For Preschoolers
My husband and I are avid game players and this trait has rubbed off on our children (ages 3 and 5). We have bought a few games specifically made for younger children, but they don’t tend to be very exciting for grown-ups to get involved in WITH the kids. So we have come up with variations on games that we enjoy that enable our kids to participate with us. Here are a few examples of games we’ve modified successfully:
Board Games For Families
Bohnanza – Planting and harvesting beans to collect coins
TransAmerica – A race to build train tracks between all your cities
Rook – Collecting “tricks” to earn the most points
Carcassonne New World- Earn points by dominating cities, roads, and farms
Last night we pulled out our Carcassonne game and decided to try it out with our two kids. Here is a summary of some modified rules/tips if you try it with your own preschoolers.
Carcassonne Rules (modified for little ones)
- In the New World version of Carcassonne there is an added component called “Surveyors” which cause you to have to wipe your “meeples” off the board as they move across. When playinng with younger children … SKIP this aspect of the game completely.
- Allow your child to enjoy building roads and cities at will. Don’t try to dictate too much strategy to them. They will have fun thinking of it like a puzzle and as they get older they will start to develop the strategic thought process that goes along with this seemingly simple game.
- Have your pre-schooler do all of the movements to keep score. This will help him to work on his math and counting skills. Who knew the Carcassonne games could be “math board games” as well?
- Don’t try too hard to really beat your child. This should be obvious but if you are playing with a competitive spouse you can tend to get caught up in beating him/her (not speaking from personal experience here or anything). You don’t have to be obvious about letting your little one win, but don’t be too vicious either or it sucks the fun out of it.
- Read the official Rio Grande Games Carcassonne: New World rules to learn more about the traditional playing of this fun game.
Our 5 year old was able to play the modified board game for families and he totally understood the game play. Our 3 year old just wanted to lay her pieces down in the middle of our board and got ticked when we tried to move them out of the way 
Gotta love kids!
