When we lived in Illinois such a long time ago, we had fun playing board games with neighbors and other friends. Ummmm.... I remember one time playing Rumi-Blok with very good friends. He was an astrophysicist at Northwestern University. She was a mathematician.
If you know how to play Rumi-Blok you would instantly know this wasn't a smart move on our part.
Sheesh! What were we thinking?
Yup. Numbers. And I have never liked math much. It always amazed me how I could convince my first graders that math was fun and easy to learn.
Anyway, how did we do with our friends? We were slaughtered! Pitifully! Did we have fun! You bet. I recall there was a lot of laughing.
Our kids have learned to love board games too. Our son often gives his niece, KC board games and whenever we've visited them in Illinois, Kalani can hardly wait to play another game with Uncle Keola. In fact, one of their favorite board games was a collaborative game called Pandemic. Yup. Pandemic.
Anyway, when we moved back to Hawaii over a decade ago and knew the kids would be visiting us we stocked up on board games......
which we never played with, most never even opened. The kids had too many other things they preferred doing like... going surfing, swimming, hiking, etc.
With Coronavirus keeping us homebound, I took out a game again. I avoided Rumi-Blok. I learned my lesson with our astrophysicist-mathematician friends. Art is an electrical/environmental engineer. When I took out Scrabble, Art groaned. He said I was much better at spelling. And it's true. I am a better speller.
So who won?
I was slaughtered. Badly. I was ignominiously pulverized.
Sigh... Even Scrabble requires a lot of strategizing, calculation, scheming, plotting, etc. Art seemed to know exactly where I planned to go and would block it. He also planned his words to constantly hit the Triple Word Score whereas I just went for the fastest word I could think of. Arrrghhh...
Before going to sleep that night, he hugged me and said, "Thank you for letting me win, Sweetie."
Riiiiiigghhhhhttttt.....
Sheesh! What were we thinking?
Yup. Numbers. And I have never liked math much. It always amazed me how I could convince my first graders that math was fun and easy to learn.
Anyway, how did we do with our friends? We were slaughtered! Pitifully! Did we have fun! You bet. I recall there was a lot of laughing.
Our kids have learned to love board games too. Our son often gives his niece, KC board games and whenever we've visited them in Illinois, Kalani can hardly wait to play another game with Uncle Keola. In fact, one of their favorite board games was a collaborative game called Pandemic. Yup. Pandemic.
Anyway, when we moved back to Hawaii over a decade ago and knew the kids would be visiting us we stocked up on board games......
which we never played with, most never even opened. The kids had too many other things they preferred doing like... going surfing, swimming, hiking, etc.
With Coronavirus keeping us homebound, I took out a game again. I avoided Rumi-Blok. I learned my lesson with our astrophysicist-mathematician friends. Art is an electrical/environmental engineer. When I took out Scrabble, Art groaned. He said I was much better at spelling. And it's true. I am a better speller.
So who won?
I was slaughtered. Badly. I was ignominiously pulverized.
282 points to 214 points
Sigh... Even Scrabble requires a lot of strategizing, calculation, scheming, plotting, etc. Art seemed to know exactly where I planned to go and would block it. He also planned his words to constantly hit the Triple Word Score whereas I just went for the fastest word I could think of. Arrrghhh...
Before going to sleep that night, he hugged me and said, "Thank you for letting me win, Sweetie."
Riiiiiigghhhhhttttt.....
I am terrible at any kind of strategy game, but Scrabble is the worst for me. Friends are reluctant to play with me because they always say I know too many words. And that love of words is my downfall. I get excited about a word and forget about looking for points. Rearranging letters to take advantage of triple word score -- not gonna happen if it messes with the word I'm in love with. I'll be Art was focused on strategizing maximum score and you were focused on rearranging letters to see how many different words you could make.
ReplyDeleteWe are not gamers. When I have played at this stage of life I have not been bothered to get very competitive and strategize. In Scrabble, any word will do. :)
ReplyDeleteI loved Scrabble.
ReplyDeleteI used to play scrabble with family, and I enjoyed it but was never all that good at it. I am just not a very competitive person, unless it has anything to do with exercise, and then I try to make myself do better against myself. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've played with JB, but he cannot spell. We haven't played much!!!
ReplyDeleteMy kids beat me all the time, online!
Haha! Wow, good for you guys--gee I haven't looked at a board game since the 1970s!
ReplyDeleteI kept a couple of board games when we moved, but I can't find the box they're in. The only thing that's shown up are some decks of cards.
ReplyDeleteBeen a long time since sitting down with a board game. Don't know if I could do Scrabble now with out spell check.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, we played a lot of board games. I still like them, but Tom never has. Now I only play them with my daughter and grand kids, which is seldom.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I don't play Scrabble for the points, so I never win. I just like making words and extending the pattern on the board, which makes it easier for whoever I'm playing against to win.
I love board games . We don't seem to play them anymore.
ReplyDeleteSo funny and cute! I am super competitive and I like games that are a combination of skill and luck. My husband and I used to play backgammon when we were younger and before kids. It was back and forth of winning and losing. Then one day we played checkers. Checkers is not a game of luck. It is pure strategy. I lost. Tried again and lost. After that I wouldn't play checkers with him again.
ReplyDeleteSounds a lot fun!
ReplyDeleteI do not play any games for a while.
I've never played it.
ReplyDelete