Connor the board gamer
(This entry also posted to mightybear; sorry for the duplicate if you follow both!)
Connor's interest in board games extends beyond traditional kids' games and those of his own devising. He seems to have an especial interest in abstract strategy - which makes sense for a Kid Chess kid, but I suspect it also has something to do with wanting to make sure he can beat Chase in everything they play. If so, that strategy is likely to backfire; Chase is better at focusing and will probably be trouncing Connor in such games before too long.
Anyway, we've been playing Othello and Chinese checkers since Connor was younger than Chase is now, but this year has seen an uptick in interest on the board game front. Over the summer we got two 21st-century creations, Qwirkle (basically Scrabble with shapes and colors instead of words) and Pentago (a five-in-a-row game), both of which the kids really like (though Qwirkle takes a little too long for their attention spans).
In the past few weeks, Connor has been going through my collection and asking me to teach them how to play the games he finds interesting. One of the first ones he took down was Monopoly, but we never finished the game we started. 1
Then he found Pente, which, as another five-in-a-row game, was more of a hit; our kids have always been fans of Tic-Tac-Toe. Regular readers will recall how Connor beat Mommy at the game when she attempted to prove to him that it was impossible to win against an awake opponent - and then forgot to stay awake.
This week, however, Connor seemed focused on the games of the Far East, otherwise known as "Games Daddy owns and knows the rules to but can't actually play very well". 2 On Sunday, we played Chinese chess (xiàng qí), and then last night it was Go. When I mentioned that Go was originally a Chinese game, and they called it wéi qí, Connor said, "So qí means 'game'!" Smart kid.
Of course, he then asked me what xiàng and wéi mean. I should have expected that - dumb dad. 3
Chase likes these games, too, and he and I had a fun game of 6x6 Go last night. But he'd be just as happy playing Uno; Connor is the instigator when it comes to variety. It's not just the abstracts, either; he's a fan of themed games like RoboRally, too. He also likes card games, especially Dominion.
So both of them like their games, and it's nice that I can usually tempt them off the PC or Wii to play something more physical.
Not too physical, though; I'm sure this is a shock, given their parents, but neither kid is much into the sports. We are trying to encourage them to stay fit, though, and Connor is taking the Presidential fitness challenge this semester. After the first session, I asked him how it went, and he said, "Great! I couldn't do a single pull-up! I just hung there until they came and got me down!"
That's my boy!
1I carefully recorded the game state so we could resume it at some point. Which I'm absolutely willing to do . . . if one of them brings it up.
2A category which arguably includes regular western chess, too, but as mediocre as I am at that game, I'm far worse at these.
3For the record, 圍wéi means "surround" or "enclose", so Go is "the Surrounding Game". Things are less clear-cut in the case of Chinese chess, since the word 象 xiàng can mean different things depending on context. The more common meaning and usual answer is "elephant"; besides appearing in the name of the game, it's also what they call the two pieces that correspond to the bishops in western chess - which were called "elephants" in the original game that both versions of chess descend from. So we'll go with "The Elephant Game". What did parents do before the Internet? "Good question, son. Let's drive to the library!" ?
Connor's interest in board games extends beyond traditional kids' games and those of his own devising. He seems to have an especial interest in abstract strategy - which makes sense for a Kid Chess kid, but I suspect it also has something to do with wanting to make sure he can beat Chase in everything they play. If so, that strategy is likely to backfire; Chase is better at focusing and will probably be trouncing Connor in such games before too long.
Anyway, we've been playing Othello and Chinese checkers since Connor was younger than Chase is now, but this year has seen an uptick in interest on the board game front. Over the summer we got two 21st-century creations, Qwirkle (basically Scrabble with shapes and colors instead of words) and Pentago (a five-in-a-row game), both of which the kids really like (though Qwirkle takes a little too long for their attention spans).
In the past few weeks, Connor has been going through my collection and asking me to teach them how to play the games he finds interesting. One of the first ones he took down was Monopoly, but we never finished the game we started. 1
Then he found Pente, which, as another five-in-a-row game, was more of a hit; our kids have always been fans of Tic-Tac-Toe. Regular readers will recall how Connor beat Mommy at the game when she attempted to prove to him that it was impossible to win against an awake opponent - and then forgot to stay awake.
This week, however, Connor seemed focused on the games of the Far East, otherwise known as "Games Daddy owns and knows the rules to but can't actually play very well". 2 On Sunday, we played Chinese chess (xiàng qí), and then last night it was Go. When I mentioned that Go was originally a Chinese game, and they called it wéi qí, Connor said, "So qí means 'game'!" Smart kid.
Of course, he then asked me what xiàng and wéi mean. I should have expected that - dumb dad. 3
Chase likes these games, too, and he and I had a fun game of 6x6 Go last night. But he'd be just as happy playing Uno; Connor is the instigator when it comes to variety. It's not just the abstracts, either; he's a fan of themed games like RoboRally, too. He also likes card games, especially Dominion.
So both of them like their games, and it's nice that I can usually tempt them off the PC or Wii to play something more physical.
Not too physical, though; I'm sure this is a shock, given their parents, but neither kid is much into the sports. We are trying to encourage them to stay fit, though, and Connor is taking the Presidential fitness challenge this semester. After the first session, I asked him how it went, and he said, "Great! I couldn't do a single pull-up! I just hung there until they came and got me down!"
That's my boy!
1I carefully recorded the game state so we could resume it at some point. Which I'm absolutely willing to do . . . if one of them brings it up.
2A category which arguably includes regular western chess, too, but as mediocre as I am at that game, I'm far worse at these.
3For the record, 圍wéi means "surround" or "enclose", so Go is "the Surrounding Game". Things are less clear-cut in the case of Chinese chess, since the word 象 xiàng can mean different things depending on context. The more common meaning and usual answer is "elephant"; besides appearing in the name of the game, it's also what they call the two pieces that correspond to the bishops in western chess - which were called "elephants" in the original game that both versions of chess descend from. So we'll go with "The Elephant Game". What did parents do before the Internet? "Good question, son. Let's drive to the library!" ?