Games kids play

**Trudes** · 9th April 2010, 08:00

I remember when we were kids we all got a new board game for Xmas which would get played during the 4 weeks we spent camping at the beach..... never to be played again no matter how much you nagged someone, ANYONE to play with you.

So these days when kids have so many other things to entertain them, TV, video games of six million different kinds and breeds, internet, ipods, etc etc, I wonder how many sit down and play a good old fashioned board game that encourages discussion, fights, brings out the cheats, the defeatists and the power hungry.

I wonder this because on Wednesday the 13 year old I look after had a friend over and they were engrossed in a game of Monopoly.... not the boring old one we all would have played, but some new New Zealand edition with credit cards and a little ATM type of machine that gets rid of all the paper money. They were having a great time, no TV on etc, fantastic. So I asked if they'd played Risk, no, what's that, cool, I bring it tomorrow.

So I bring Risk and the 13 year old and two of her friends play it. Oh my God!! That was an entertaining 3 hours!! We had a Hitler, a Stalin and a Castro in the room, hilarious! They couldn't quite grasp the strategy side of the game, thinking that it came down to the luck of the dice (which it does a little, but not really) and I tried explaining the concept of amassing large armies to take over continents, not to spread them to thin and put in some defenses, but no, 3 greedy power hungry dictators wanted it all, right now! Bloody funny, I couldn't stop watching or laughing. So all in all 3 hours well spent, they may have learned something apart from new ways to call each other "bitch" and I didn't have to listen to 3 hours of "The Jonas Brothers" or "Hannah Montana"

**Number One** · 9th April 2010, 08:22

Ha ha good call - I am trying to get Sully one to play board games. Operation is my all time fav but I have yet to coax him into a proper game of it....must remember that sometimes the child needs to win too

Damn my competitive spirit

**MisterD** · 9th April 2010, 08:30

Tangential to the subject...we had #1 son's 4th birthday party picnic up at Cornwall Park a few weeks ago and I chanced across a few conkers lying around. So of course I took them home, bunged a hole through the middle and strung 'em on old shoe laces.

Now 4 years old is a bit young to grasp the co-ordination required to play properly but we had a great time whacking at each other and bruising knuckles. The thing that surprised me though was his Kiwi Grandfather who had never seen conkers played before! What kind of a backwards country is this?

**Genie** · 9th April 2010, 08:38

can you please explain just how to play conkers...we have picked some up on the way home from school but I can't remember how to paly at all and no body aroudn here had even hard of it!!!! Thanks

**Trudes** · 9th April 2010, 08:41

Originally Posted by Number One

Ha ha good call - I am trying to get Sully one to play board games. Operation is my all time fav but I have yet to coax him into a proper game of it....must remember that sometimes the child needs to win too

Damn my competitive spirit

Operation!! I used to love that.... zzzzzzzzz ahh shit, buzzed again! lol
Yeah the girls wanted me to play Risk with them today, but after watching how they played yesterday I don't think that's such a good idea, they get a little pissed off when their nanny beats them, and it wouldn't be hard considering they had no defenses. It's hard to lose on purpose eh?

Originally Posted by MisterD

Tangential to the subject...we had #1 son's 4th birthday party picnic up at Cornwall Park a few weeks ago and I chanced across a few conkers lying around. So of course I took them home, bunged a hole through the middle and strung 'em on old shoe laces.

Now 4 years old is a bit young to grasp the co-ordination required to play properly but we had a great time whacking at each other and bruising knuckles. The thing that surprised me though was his Kiwi Grandfather who had never seen conkers played before! What kind of a backwards country is this?

We used to play conkers, cheap entertainment, that and soldiers with that grass stuff with the seed head on it when you whack it hard enough the soldiers head goes flying off!!

**Genie** · 9th April 2010, 08:44

soldiers

I still play that one with my daughters....

**Stirts** · 9th April 2010, 08:59

What is the game where as a kid you used to throw rocks at the neighbours kids? That game was so cool!

**Genie** · 9th April 2010, 09:04

you threw rocks, we threw pine cones...oh I miss being a kid

**MisterD** · 9th April 2010, 09:16

Originally Posted by Genie

can you please explain just how to play conkers...we have picked some up on the way home from school but I can't remember how to paly at all and no body aroudn here had even hard of it!!!! Thanks

Wikipedia

We always played the rule that you keep taking hits at your opponent's conker until you miss.

**MSTRS:Me** · 9th April 2010, 09:38

We used to use chestnuts as missiles with shangais...o what fun that was.

**neels** · 9th April 2010, 10:40

Originally Posted by Genie

oh I miss being a kid

Just remember, growing older is compulsory, growing up is optional.

**Ronin** · 9th April 2010, 10:59

Originally Posted by Stirts

What is the game where as a kid you used to throw rocks at the neighbours kids? That game was so cool!

That would be the childhood version of posting on KB.

**jim.cox** · 9th April 2010, 11:16

Originally Posted by MisterD

his Kiwi Grandfather who had never seen conkers played before!

That would be right. Conkers is a Pommy thing - not Kiwi

**slofox** · 9th April 2010, 11:34

Originally Posted by Trudes

...3 greedy power hungry dictators wanted it all, right now!

Do you suppose this is indicative of the "here and now" aspects of modern society?

I can recall waiting for the next episode of the favourite radio serial - either daily or weekly. I can't imagine modern kids waiting for anything...or am I just a curmudgeonly old bastard..?