Getting Gifts for your Kids

Today I want to share a few thoughts with you on purchasing board games for young children. With Christmas coming up, this becomes a very sensitive subject. If you get it right, your kid will love you for it and you will be sharing time with them at the table. If you get it wrong on the other hand, the game you purchase will just lay around gathering dust and mainly contribute to a growing pile of odds and ends you would rather get rid of at the first opportunity. Since I am assuming you don’t want to get it wrong, read on.

Choosing games for early years can be complicated especially since no two kids develop at the same rate as they grow up. For instance, when I recently decided to purchase a new board game from Neil, I was faced with a dilemma that was difficult to come to grips with. For starters, Neil’s attention span is evolving, this is normal. He has improved in leaps and bounds this year mind you, but he still needs to be reminded to play on once a game exceeds the 30-minute mark. Working around this is possible though you need to be attentive to what the child (in this case Neil) finds attractive or engaging.

Colours play a key role with Neil for instance. A colourful game has a higher probability of being accepted or played (and replayed) than say a blander one. Neil likes bright, brilliant colours with emphasis on primary colours. I noticed this in his current choice of board games which are invariably very colourful with striking artwork. He will play what I am defining as blandly coloured games if you make him, but he will not ask you to play with it again.

Shapes, models and miniatures are important. If a game has some sort of miniatures or cut-outs/standees that he can manipulate, then he will like that game. For instance, while he was too young to play the classic board game “Talisman,” he nonetheless had a blast playing with the miniatures or moving them around the gaming board. In another example, in the game I recently bought him “Catan Junior,” the pirate lairs and ship miniatures, not to mention the phantom pirate scored high in his perception of game quality.

Rule sets (or their length and complexity) is another aspect you need to seriously consider if you are buying a game for a 6-year-old. You cannot bring a game to the table with a 30-page manual and expect the kid to like it. Rules need to be few, clear and more importantly concise. Also gaming aids used in the game need to be graphical or icon-based rather than text based. You need to remember that these kids are starting to get a grasp on words and sentences so forcing lengthy rulesets onto them will not be seen as conducive to having an enjoyable time.

Dexterity games will inexorably score remarkably high with kids like my son Neil. These games expect players to manipulate pieces to achieve a goal. If then you couple this with some exciting gimmick, say like a pirate popping out of a barrel (“Pop, Pop, Pirate” comes to mind) then you have a winner.

So, we spoke about colour, miniatures (or standees), short or concise rulesets, and dexterity games, there’s another aspect that needs your attention, and I have left the juicer one for last. Here I’m referring to theme, and how it can be the deal maker/breaker. Kids fall in and out of love with fads like crazy. My son started out as a dinosaur lover before switching aggressively to Pokémon (that lasted for nearly 2 years) and now it’s “Goo Jit zu” even though I don’t think this fad will last long. In between these fads there were Avengers/Marvel superheroes and poppits.

During the dinosaur phase, Neil was introduced to “T-Rex the Board game” which was a fantastic introduction to board games for him. It has colourful dinosaur minis you get to move around the board, a menacing T-Rex and gameplay which was basically a roll-and-race. The T-Rex mini in the game with its own black dice, which is rolled together with the player dice, does feel like have a T-Rex roaming around the board hunting the other dinosaurs belonging to the various players. It’s fun, exciting to a point and Neil still brings it out occasionally when the mood strikes him.

Later during Neil’s Avengers' phase, I coincidentally happened to buy Marvel Splendor. Admittedly I did not purchase it with him in mind nor was I expecting him to like it. Still, as at today, this game is one of his favorites' and one which he periodically asks me to bring to the table. It is also a game which he actively tries to win and succeeds to from time to time.

Apart from all this, it all boils down to what makes your kid want to play as well as the best time to play with your kid. From my experience, kids are at their best early in the day, as the day progresses, they will become tired, restless and not be up for a full game. In my son’s case, the best time to play a board game is either morning or early afternoon. Late afternoon or evenings are just not the right time to start off a longish game. For clarity, longish in this sense is anything that plays longer than 30 to 40 minutes.

Regardless of all these aspects which in themselves are important, if you want to score a winner with your child, you need to remember that your success or lack thereof will all bubble down to how frequently your child will bring a board game to the table of their own accord. Also, while in time they will most probably give you a run for your money, you need to tone down your competitive streak and allow them to win a few games just to build their confidence. If a game is something that “mummy or daddy always wins” ...then the likelihood of them bringing that board game to the table will go down exponentially. Having said that, your child could be ferociously competitive by nature and come back at you even if they lose to you...but my experience is a bit different.

Ultimately, when we buy such games, we are buying something that is intentionally bought to foster socialization, live interaction as well as teach a few skills along the way. Games would be pretty much useless in my books if they are geared towards exclusively solo play with no added value in terms of skills learnt. For this reason, I invite you to take your time when choosing a game for your kids, make the purchase pay for itself by fostering better communication, quality time and more importantly nurturing important skills like forward planning, negotiation, strategizing and cooperative play.

 Until next time!

 C.