Boardgames for 5 and 7 year-olds -> ideas?

Today a friend of mine from the university came to visit me with her 5 and 7 years-old boys. They were amazed with our boardgame shelfes and I think that if it was their choice, they would have opened each and every box to see what was inside. I was so fascinating! So many boxes, so many colours, they were really exited about it.

The first game we played was eläin pyrämidi. My all times favorite game to play with people from all ages. And of course, it did not disappoint me, once again. They loved it, were really exited and the game worked really well.

After eläin pyrämidi, we played Pingwin (also known as "hey, that's my fish", or also by "pingfiini peli", hehe). Pingwin was a little hard for the 5 year old, but the 7 year old got it right away and had a lot of fun. My friend, the mother, also had a lot of fun with Pingwin, specially to see how her kids would deal with simple strategic thinking.

The kids were really exited and wanted to play more and more games. I took Halli Galli from the shelf, and we started playing. Right away we realised that the 2 adults were way too fast, and also the 7 year-old had a big advantage, because his little brother counted a lot slower than him. Halli Galli must be a fast game to be enjoyable, and with that pace, it didn't really make a lot of sense.

So, the four of us had a lot of fun this afternoon, and probably the boys will be coming by more often after the exiting experience. I wanted to ask from you guys, what games do you think could be interesting for that age? Clearly the 7 year-old could play a lot more games, different and with simple strategic thinking. Would be nice to have a game that is suitable for both ages, where the older one can think, and the younger one doesn't get bored.

Any suggestions?
Greetings,
Mari

ps: I have borrowed Velhojen Yö for them, and it has been there for a couple of weeks now. They have enjoyed the game, as I suspected. That is a great game for that age. Kids from 4 to 8, in general, have a big fascination with the darkness, and enjoy playing games, doing things in the dark. For that reason Velhojen Yö is great, since it's a game to be played in the dark.

Viikonlopun ferneemiset Tampereella

Lauantaina ja sunnuntaina hääräiltiin Hervannan hämärien ja Toppisen poikain kans lautapelien parissa.

Lauantaina ensimmäisenä viisinpelinä painettiin Vegas Showdownia, mikä on aina mukava ja sopivan tiukka vääntö. Tällä kertaa peli meni käytännössä niin pitkälle kuin voi, eli kierroksia tuli ihan maksimimäärä ja johtopaikka vaihtuikin monta kertaa ihan 2-3 viimeisen kierroksen aikana. Lopulta peli meni tasan Marille ja Tarelle, enkä mäkään jäänyt kuin 2 vai 3 pistettä. Visa ja Heikki hiukan kauempana.

Lauantaina testattiin myös San Juanin lisäkortteja, eli Alean Aarrearkkua. Ihan kohtalaisen hyviä ja tasapainoisia kortteja useita. Mä esimerkiksi käytin useita kertoja [joku saksankielinen nimi]-korttia, jolla sai kierroksen alussa vaihtaa 0-2 korttia kädestään. Pari kertaa sieltä tuli ihan hyvää tilalle. Lisäksi rakensin residenssin (tjsp.) jolla sai bonuksia pelin lopussa näin: 4p jos oli 3 samanhintaista rakennusta, 3p lisää seuraavasta 3 ryhmästä, 2p ja 1p seuraavista. Eli max 10p. Ihan mielenkiintoinen tälli.

Tarmo painoi ison seiskan hintaisen katedraalin (joita on vain 1 ja se on heti näkyvillä ja sen voi kuka vaan rakentaa koska vaan). Sillä sai samalla 4+3+2+1 -kaavalla pisteitä pelin lopussa muiden rakentamista kutosen rakennuksista. Tää vaikutti aika vahvalta ainakin nelinpelissä, jossa täydet 10 tuli aika helposti.

Lisäksi kaikkia ärsyttämässä oli Heikin pelaama vartiotupa, jonka takia muut saivat pitää vain 6 korttia kädessään kierroksen lopussa. Tämän takia itse rakensin towerin aika alussa. Aiemmin en oo sitä juuri koskaan käyttänyt.

Muita pelejä lauantaina olivat Mhing ja Tsuro.


Sunnuntaina melkein samalla ryhmällä uudestaan, mukana myös Vanha-Viitakoski. Pelattiin ensimmäinen kuusinpeli Reiskaa. Aluksi varsinkin Tare vähän epäili, että tulisi kaikki vuorot joka kierroksella, mutta niin ei käynyt. Peli meni itse asiassa siihen, että kaikki luottivat että muut tekevät esim tuotannon, joten sitä ei sittein tullut ollenkaan, kunnes yhdellä vuorolla 4 pelasi yhtä aikaa =). Muutenkin tuntui siltä, että Reiska skaalautuu pirun hyvin kuudelle pelaajalle, eikä mitään haittaa isommasta pelaajamäärästä ollut.

Pelattiin myös pari erää Once Upon a Timea, jossa suomenkielisellä kierroksella juttu lähti ihan lapasesta. Tarinan pääosissa olivat esim Rogues Gallery ja Mikuli ja tapahtumapaikkoinana esim Siilin välikkö ja yläkenttä. Sekoo katto.

Visan kanssa painoin pikasen Tarokinkin välissä. Kokeiltiin myös normipakan korttipeliä nimeltä 25, mutta siitä ei innostuttu.

Peliehtoo Heikkilässä.

Jarmo ja Eevaleena puhui mut päivällä ympäri lähtemään Heikkilään pelailemaan. Kaupan kautta mentiin sitte Venesjärvelle ja Pete jo odotteli pihassa. Pelailemas meitä oli minä, Jarmo, Pete, Eevaleena Eevaleenan kaks pienempää sisarusta Anttimikael ja Josefiina.

Ensimmäiseks taidettiin pelailla Ubongo Extremee. Sen pelailu oli vähä mitä oli :D Mut siitä kyllä tykkäs ainakin Josefiina. Se tykkäs tehdä niitä vielä pelin jälkeenki :D

Toinen peli oli Pictionary. Jarmo ja Pete oli joukkue ja Eevaleena ja Anttimikael oli joukkue. Mä olin vähän niinku mukana Jarmon ja Peten joukkuees arvailemas, mutta en piirtäny ollenkaan. Sit olin ylituomarina, eli päätin että hyväksytäänkö vastaus vai ei, jos tuli sellanen tilanne :D

Kolmas peli oli Alias. Pelattiin kahdella kolmen hengen joukkueella eli minä, Jarmo ja Pete vs. Eevaleena, Josefiina ja Anttimikael. Siinä pelis kyllä kaikki selitti :D Oli ihan hauskaa kyllä pelailla sitä pitkästä aikaa taas :D

Neljäs peli oli Diamant. Oli tosi mukava päästä pelaan sitä kuudella hengellä! Pete sai 22 pistettä, Anttimikael 21, Jarmo 16, minä ja Eevaleena 15 ja Josefiina tai saada 13. Että aika tiukalle meni :D Jotain tohon suuntaan ainaki pisteet oli :D

Sit Pete lähti ja loppuehtoo me piirreltiin kuva-arvotuksia :D

Ihan mukava pelailuilta oli! :) Täytyis kyllä ottaa uusiks joskus!

Muutama kuva pääsiäisen pelailuista.

Tässä on ny pari kuvaa Ricochet Robots -pelistä, ku Mari pyysi. TYYYYKKÄS kaikki varmaan, ku laitoin nää tänne :D No, saa haastaa oikeuteen :D

Paparazzi Mood 1 - The Boardgames

During this easter holidays Heidi and I were a little bit in paparazzi mood. We took pictures of our 2 main activities: board-gaming and disc-golfing. So I thought it would be a nice idea to share some of the pictures, and some of my thoughts with you.

For me, the two nicest games this weekend were Pompeji, of course (my new favorite), and Ricochet Robots. The boys played a lot of Notre Dame too, among other games.

Ville, Heikki, Petri, Tapani and Jarmo playing Notre Dame

The Robot game was specially nice when playing on Sunday evening, with lots and lots of people. Having a lot of people trying to solve the puzzle was very interesting and exiting. Also the new extra robot gave a nice boost on the game, people wanted to solve the puzzle so that they could finally tell their own idea of a new rule to the extra robot, and it was fun, fun, fun.

Heidi, post the pictures of the whole crew playing the Robot game, it was great!

Pompeji is a nice and light game, easy to learn and family friendly. The only problem is that if you forget to do one little thing in the beginning of the game, I mean, if you do the set up wrong, the game is pretty much screwed. I think this weekend we did all possible wrong things in the set up... But I hope that because we did so, we have learned it and it will not happen again. Once the set up is done correctly, the game is really nice. Burning other player's tolkiens give a funny atmosphere, and I really like the "running away from the city of Pompeji" last phase.

Maybe the reason why I like this game a lot is because its really easy to get into the theme, I mean, populating the city and running away from the volcano, but at the same time it's completely nonsense and abstract. I would never throw my sister-in-law's children into the volcano in order to let my people run away from the town, hahaha.

Tarmo, Ilka, Markku and Olli playing Yspahan

I still owe Ilka 32 hugs for the right of taking and publishing this picture..
I have uploaded most of my pictures in my picasa album. Check it out, enjoy :)

Happy easter! Mari

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time there was a lady that took a 30 hours trip to get to Tampere in Finland. She went to visit her daughter and son-in-law.
The young couple love to play games and at every Monday night they open their house to everyone who likes to share some playing experience.
That was how the lady got to know the game “Once Upon a Time”.
She immediately got fascinated with the game.
The first story telling person surprised her deeply. He created a long, detailed and unexpected scenario for the game. The lady realized that imagination skills and creativity were strongly being mobilized.
The game continued and it got clear that each player was asked to collaborate at the started story but also move it to a personal goal. The story has to keep coherence but each player contributes to a new and unexpected direction. This means, being together acting as a team and being separated on your own at the same time. “This is an interesting living exercise; flexibility to others and also looking for your own interest”. This was the ladies thought.
But very soon she also got to sense that the most real and most interesting aspect of the game is that even it demands some competition and strategy skills the real fun and what makes everyone laugh spontaneously is to share everyone’s imagination on creating a common authorized weird story.
After two weeks in Finland, the lady went home to her country. Some days later she remembered that her husband was studying English together with some friends. “Why don’t invite them to play? It may be a funny language learning experiential opportunity”.
In a very short time she got 8 people together. This people are not used to play games but got curious to know what it was about.
Guess what? They had a wonderful night together, lots, lots of laughs and fun.
The need to find words in a foreign language to be able to understand and continue the story got to be an urge and a very interesting motivation without affecting the spontaneity that everyone was living to each other. Even the ones with less English skills did not feel giving up and everyone had the best time together. This group of friends decided to translate the wording of the beautiful cards into Portuguese, their native language. In very short future the rules book that already exists at the internet, will be followed by an available cards translation in one more language. If you get interested just ask me or Tapani about it.
The lady got very happy with all this new experiences and is looking forward to find new fellows to share the joy creating new stories, practicing and developing her imaginative abilities.


Irmgard Birmoser de Matos Ferreira (Medi)
irmgardbmf@gmail.com