A lifetime time ago, when we were still kidless, we used to get together with friends and spend the evening eating a home-cooked meal, drinking homemade wine, chatting and, eventually, playing Carcassonne. I know, you thought I was going to write “passing out” or some such, but nope, we just played this nerdy board game.
What with a toddler around… forget it! The tiles would go all over the place, get lost, and what’s worse, Mama would lose because she would constantly get distracted.
Or so we thought. Then David, the owner of Eureka, a puzzle and games shop here in Brookline, suggested we play the game with Amie. Just treat it like a puzzle: let her match the tiles up! It’s very simple: match grass to grass, road to road, castle to castle.
Amie took to it right away. We take turns, and to make it more interesting draw tiles from one another, then put them down on the “board”. We play for about half an hour, and she has become quite good at filling up tricky gaps in the landscape.
I’m sure there are many more games around that can be adapted like that for much younger kids. Yes! You can relive the fun and games of your old life, or at least somewhat modified versions of them….
Rivers Roads & Rails (Ravensburger) is a great game to play with little ones as well. Same concept: lots of tiles, great images, create a landscape. We still play it with our teens as well, so it gets a TON of use!