My daughter has been making games for as long as I can remember. While I think most kids at one point or another have made up a ‘game’ or two that they then force their parents to play with them, my daugher has done so many, many times. It probably didn’t help that she found my dice collection when she was very young, so she was always asking to borrow a couple for some new game she was designing. Still, I think the first time I really took note that this might be something other than the norm, was the day she recreated Candy Land using the house hallways, rooms, and interlocking foam squares as a life-size game board.
As soon as she had learned to speak, I began playing games with her. One of the earliest games I played with her was a very simplified game of Uno. We also had a number of classis, such as Candy Land, Monopoly Junior and Othello. Then, of course, there’s always the standby card games, Old Maid, War, Go Fish and the like. By the time she headed off for Kindergarten she had long been kicking my butt at normal Uno. By 3rd grade she was easily a match for me at Cribbage. I could go on, but I’m hoping you get my point. Games, especially casual games, are something that we play a lot of, and that she’s pretty good at.
While I haven’t brought any longer-format gaming systems into the home, such as role playing or extended card games, such as Pokemon, I’ve certainly continued to bring in more games overall. From card deck versions of games such as Sorry, Monopoly and Life, to more board games (Blokus and Yahtzee come to mind), we continue to expand the collection. Dominos, dice, whatever, we’ve played a lot. And as she has gotten older and the games we play have gotten more sophisticated, so have the games she has designed. Still, she was always MacGyvering the pieces from paper, cardboard, or pieces from other games we owned.
Why am I telling you this? Give me another week, and I’ll get to the point. I’m excited, she’s excited, and I hope you will be, too.
