Ought to be about £10, available all over the place
I am always astonished at what parents find to be the most tedious games to play with their children. I know a woman who finds playing cards with her kids so dull she sneaks off for a line of cocaine, actual cocaine, during sessions. Other parents say that they would rather play “shops” or “at the doctors” or “monster chase” for hours rather than, e.g., Snakes and Ladders.
Me? I love playing cards and board games. But finding one that all my children can understand and that doesn’t descend into a full-on fist fight after three minutes is tricky.
But behold: Dobble! Many of you will know about Dobble already – it’s kind of like snap and it’s easy but also a bit tricky and even Little Sam, who has no patience for this sort of caper, can understand it and enjoys playing it and screaming DOBBLE!!!
A terrific stocking-filler.
I love dobble. UNO is also brilliant. I hate Happy Families and would rather stick pins in my eyes than play it
Dobble’s so popular! Cool 🙂
I used to work at a board game shop. If you want to flesh out your collection, try things from Peaceable Kingdom (http://www.peaceablekingdom.com/) – Feed the Woozle is very popular – and Gamewright (http://www.gamewright.com/gamewright/index.php?section=games&page=index) – can normally pick up directly from Amazon, or maybe price check with https://boardgameprices.co.uk/
Also the “Tell Me A Story” cards from eeBoo often go down very well with preschoolers – easier than story dice when they’re little.
My kids and I love dobble …I frequently buy it for school friends’ gifting. And I find I can get through a game of dobble without having to sneak off to powder my nose 🙂
Thanks will take a look at this. I like games, puzzles and Lego. Don’t mind dolls. I hate playing shops. I had a week over the summer where it was real shop/pretend shop/real shop/pretend shop/ and cocaine wouldn’t have left a dent in the tedium. (I think we’ve reached a peak/nadir of cool, non-mumsy, I-don’t-give-a-shit parenting with that one though, and maybe it’s time for us to all talk about how wonderful we find it again) Also those lunacy-inducing imaginary games where you just can’t do anything right – “we’re playing Thunderbirds and you’re Virgil, no, wait you’re John. You’ve got to float in your satellite. Float John! John, you’re not floating!!”. Magical.
Oh and my five year old enjoys Top Trumps now, that’s ok.
I can highly recommend a game called Zingo. It’s basically Bingo, but in a format very little children can get into. My three and a half year old and five year old are perfectly capable of sitting and playing it together, and if the four of us play it’s one of the few games that doesn’t drive either me or my husband completely crazy. The downside is you usually need to order it in somewhere, it doesn’t seem to be stocked regularly.
It does get more interesting (stressful) dw my teenagers now watch Dexter and Prison Break and we have to check one of their bedrooms when we remember for illegal substances. I did catch my eldest watching Fawlty Towers on Netflix the other day, I was really shocked as he is usually engrossed in something gross and xxx rated, so there is hope! Maybe the lady you know has a bit more of a problem than she is letting on me thinks. When they were little I usually found a glass of wine did the trick, call me old fashioned!
C’mon birdies EAT MY BIRDSEEDS.
However many times I think of that, I am always reduced to helpless laughter.
C’MON BIRDIES!!! COME AND EAT YOUR BIIIIIRDSEEEEEEEED!!!!
*brrrrr* at the memory of that. I might suggest to her that we play it later
I love Dobble- also it’s so short that I can actually agree to play it with my children when the ask (unlike when they ask to play something like Monopoly and I want to screech, “do I look like the sort of person who can just drop everything for three hours??!”)
Also, Shopping Basket. My 3 year old quickly grasped this and now regularly beats us.
Junior monopoly is good for younger children, half an hour maximum.
Super, thanks! Have just ordered it.
I am kinda looking forward to being able to play games with my son. He’s two in a couple of weeks and although we can read stories together, do play dough, etc. he’s too wee really to play actual games, be that games he’s made up in his wee head or actual games I played as a child, and I’m looking forward to it. Is that incredibly naive of me? Elaine x
no
No Elaine, I’ve had brilliant fun playing with my kids, I can reach a zen state arranging tiny Playmobil furniture, being a patient, voicing dinosaurs, building LEGO to exact specifications, I’ve even occasionally enjoyed being Optimus Prime, but there will be times where you’ll be thinking “Do you really need me for this?” and that’s ok too xx
My kids are getting a bit old for board games now (sob) but our enduring family favorite is Tier auf Tier.
Count yourself lucky you are at the Dobble stage (I LOVE Dobble) – I recently had to endure a 4 day ‘Risk’ marathon against the 11yr old son. I honestly thought at one point I would die at the table and he wouldn’t notice he was so engrossed.
My four year old loves monkey bingo