Update and my Q on games for kids

(Are they still making the Magic Eraser? I looked at two stores for one this weekend and couldn't find one. Or did all those kids getting their skin peeled off get it yanked from the market?)

Remember Shelley, who was wondering about her daughter's learning Swedish? She sent in an update:

"Thought you might be interested in an update on my 3-y-o's Swedish language development ... if you recall I asked you about that some time ago. Well, she was in Sweden for 4 weeks on a family vacation, and spoke a lot of Swedish there, more than I've heard her ever speak before, which was great but not that surprising -- I mean, an immersion experience does wonders for kicking passive language development up to more active usage of the language, and it has always been clear that she has 100% comprehension of Swedish. But what's been so unexpected (and delightful) is that she's continued to develop the Swedish usage now that we're home, and is using even more Swedish now than when we were there. She blends Swedish and English in sentences, in paragraphs, and all the time with her father (the actual Swede) and me (the fluent non-Swede), but *never* with non-Swedish speakers. She has total understanding of who speaks Swedishand who doesn't, and often will ask what something is called in English or Swedish. The other day she picked up a Swedish kids' book and remarked, "Hannah can't read me this," (Hannah is a babysitter we use sometimes.)

The other day we were at a picnic, and a mom there was playing with her kid and with Lise, showing them cards and asking them to name the objects on them. She showed Lise a card -- her face lit up and she started to say something and stopped. The woman, who knew a bit about her, said intuitively, "you can tell me in Swedish," and Lise said triumphantly (and correctly), "snigel!" She then looked at me and asked what it was called in English.

So the point is, she's getting it. Exciting stuff!"

Snakk om straks! (Talk about luck!) I'm glad to hear that. Any other stories about dual language acquisition welcome (Menita, Lisa C, and anyone else I'm blanking on now).

Speaking of card games....my older one has been fascinated by card games for weeks. We started with Go Fish, and then moved on to War (but we didn't tell him it was called War, so he started calling it "Aces, Winners, and Fun" but is now calling it "Aces Win Everything"), and then this weekend taught him Solitaire. He's picking up the nuances and the rhythm really quickly, in an almost scary way. I noticed that he was unconsciously counting cards last night, for example.

So I have two questions for you all:

1) What should we move on to next? A co-worker suggested chess, but I'm not sure if it's too early. He's 5 and reading and counting cards. Have any of you taught your young kids chess? Some people seem to think it's a mind-building miracle, akin to teaching Latin to preschoolers (experience with teaching Latin also welcome, while we're at it). Or should I just go straight to Texas Hold 'Em?

2) Can someone tell me the card vocabulary in Spanish so he and I can practice Spanish while we play? I've got ace (as), the numbers, queen (reina) and king (rey). But I don't know jack or joker (is it chacal or am I remembering wrong?). And I need to know how to say "Go fish!" Hearts are corazones and diamonds diamantes, but I don't know spades or clubs. Gracias por su ayuda.

Comments

[Cathy]

I think my step-son learned to play chess when he was 5 or so. Sounds like yours will be able to keep track of all of the different kinds of moves the pieces can make.

Uno is lots of fun (and they make simpler character versions now too.) I have a fun game called "Moose in the House", Tsuro is popular in my house (reminds me of the old Windows game, Pipes), and there are old classics like Connect 4 and Battleship.

[Jane Plane]

What about Crazy Eights? Or gin rummy? We just started playing gin rummy with our almost seven year old, and he's really getting it. Crazy Eights is a good place to start because it gets kids to begin thinking about playing strategically.

There are some nice online sites for teaching kids chess. It's something my husband and son have been doing for about six months.

[sue]

I'm not sure if the Magic Eraser is still around, but a great alternative is the e-cloth. It cleaned the hood of my stove with one swipeand no scrubbing - all the grease was gone! And it doesnt creepily disintegrate like the Magic Eraser. There might be a local distributor for you in NYC, but I ordered mine off of Amazon. A little pricey but so worth it!

[bklynjen]

So far this summer, my just-turned-six year old is all about UNO. I wish we had gotten it for her earlier. (It was a bday present.) I"m really enjoying it too, even though she cleans my clock frequently. Another good card game is Rat-a-tat Cat, made by the same company as Moose in the House.

[mayberry]

Yes -- UNO! Fun and great for math/numbers practice too. we actually use the UNO cards to play a variation on war too -- I sent that in to Parent Hacks.

[Jan]

I learned to play chess around that age, though sadly I never developed into any kind of a genius at it. :)

I loved 'concentration' at that age -- you know, the card game where you put all the cards face down and take turns trying to find pairs? That was great fun, because I could legitimately beat the grownups at it (my brain not filled yet with such scintillating details as the lyrics to Prince's Let's Go Crazy or every phone number since ever for every friend I'd ever had). Also Crazy Eights is pretty much just like Uno without having to have a separate deck.

Now, who can tell me what card games I could teach my 3 (but knows her numbers) year old?

[Charisse]

Hi Jan,

my 3-yo loves pair-based (rather than sets of 4) Go Fish and Old Maid. She needs a little help holding her cards in a fan, but likes the matching and ritualistic aspects a lot.

Moxie, it sounds to me like the smarty-pants 5-yo is totally ready for Hearts. A bunch of budding sharks in my carpool taught me to play when I was not much older and it was awesome. It's got a touch of strategy but the choices aren't as open as poker or bridge so it's easier. I still enjoy it as an adult though, which is a plus (I say that having sat thru a zillion games of Candyland and Orchard in the last 6 months). Orchard is wonderful for your 2 1/2 to 3, just play it with a glass of wine in your hand!

[Liza]

I learned chess around that age too -- it was fun, but I never got amazing at it. The down side is that once you learn chess, checkers seems boring. So maybe checkers first?

[fahmi]

My cousin picked up chess at 5 - he got pretty good at it. I stopped playing with him when he came close to beating me (and I was 8 years his senior!). I think Battleship, Connect 4 are all good games.

In my family, we are all ludo nuts (I believe it's called parchesi in the States?) so we kids all learned to play as soon as we were old enough to know numbers and colors.

For card games, we also played a lot of old maid and slap jack. (Make sure no one has rings or bracelets, and that nails are trimmed)

[MommyProf]

I tried teaching Offspring chess at 4 and 5 - she could handle it, but didn't find it very interesting until she was 7. I highly recommend Set and, for a language game, Apples to Apples Junior.

[Sarah]

I second the game, "Rat-a-Tat-Cat". I think the company that makes it is called Gamewright. They make really fun card games for a variety of ages. I'm a teacher and have often played many of their card games with my students who always love them! My son is only a year old, but I'm anxiously awaiting the days we can play games together.

[Melissa]

"He's picking up the nuances and the rhythm really quickly, in an almost scary way. I noticed that he was unconsciously counting cards last night, for example."

Um, hello? Obviously you need to teach this kid blackjack and poker!

But Uno is pretty fun . . .

[emily]

I LOVE Apples to Apples and am glad to know there's a junior version.

[Heather]

Skip-Bo is such a fun game for kids. Like Uno, they make a kids version, but from your descriptions of your son it sounds like he could get the adult version.

[tina]

I second Set--you can play with a partner or on your own, too.

This is a great site to explore, start here perhaps:
http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/21064
mostly board games but card games are included too.

[Maureen]

Not sure that this is so much for creating intelligence but I remember it being such a fun game growing up and is great for a family of three or more... Spoons. Lots of laughing involved with that one. I second the hearts (or even Spades) suggestion. We started learning Bridge very early on and it is a great way to learn how to count cards and a good way to use basic math (counting the points in your hand, thinking how many points you and your partner have, etc.). If you think your child is smart enough to start chess they'd also be smart enough to try basic Bridge (although for Bridge you need four people to play which sometimes can be the most challenging part of bridge). Two other suggestions - canasta - a complicated version of rummy - and also Spite n Malice (you'd probably want to rename) - a two-person game that is pretty fun. By the way, another fun game you might want to try is dominoes - from the basic dominoes to a great game called Mexican Train.

My boys are 2 and I can't wait until we can start playing card games. Hsve fun!

[Blanca]

I'm from Spain and my baby, 9 months old, was born here. My husband is from Spain too and we talk spanish at home all the time. My baby is not talking yet but he can differentiate between both languages for sure since he's pretty young. Around 4 months old I notice that he'd look at me weird when I was speaking in english and his teachers in the daycare say his face lit up whenever somebody talks to him in spanish. Even a single word.

I didn't know they could pick the difference so soon. We're waiting to see if his first word will be in english or spanish. They say that bilingual babies start talking later that babies that grow up in a monolingual environment. So we'll have to be patient.

For the cad game: spades are "picas", clubs are "treboles", jack is called "sota". As for the Jokers, those are "Jokers" or "comodines". Keep in mind, as with english, spanish vocabulary will be different depending where the spanish speaker is from. I've never played go fish so I don't know what we say for that but the direct translation of "go fish" would be "ve a pescar". Hope this helps.

I taking notes of the games for years to come.

[Sally Big Woods]

We taught our older daughter (now 6 1/2 years old) "war", Uno and go fish, when she was 5. Then my husband taught her poker. She also loves this game called,"Rat-A-Tat-Cat", that she took up at 5 1/2. Uno is still a favorite.

You can also do a memory game with a regular deck of playing cards and see how many matches you can get.....

[Angelica]

About the vocabulary, I think it might be different in other Spanish speaking countries but at least in Spain is: spades are 'picas', clubs are 'treboles' and the jocker is 'el comodin'

[Maria]

Would he enjoy the card game BS (or, I Don't Think So!) If he's counting cards, he'd probably get a kick out of that one. I remember playing that with my mom and sister, and the 3 of us would be laughing so hard we'd cry.

[Roasted Squid]

This is a language comment. I'm pretty much an ABC (American Born Chinese), so my Chinese is conversational, not fluent. My husband speaks no Chinese. This has not deterred me from trying to speak Chinese to my now 28 month old son. They say that the foreign language speaker has to speak 100% in that language to the child, but it's been hard as 3 way conversations have to be in English, so effectively I speak to him approximately 70% in Chinese. As he's gotten older it's been decreasing as more complicated concepts just pop out in English. Unfortunately, I'm the only regular person he hears speaking Chinese as my parents live far away, and daycare is in English. We do go to a Chinese class on Saturdays for one hour, but I'm not sure how much impact an hour a week has. In some ways it's been frustrating as I would love for him to grow up bi-lingual. He does understand Chinese fairly well, although he has demonstrated a clear preference for English. He also knows the difference. When my relatives speak to him in Chinese, he laughs and comments "Chinese!"

Anyway, I recommend the card game "Set." Very addictive, even for adults.

[caro]

Oooh, I'd forgotten about Set. I love that. I hadn't thought of it as something kids could get into, but thinking about it now I wonder if it's the sort of problem solving (like those memory/matching games) that kids often do better than adults.

[Jenni]

We are a gaming family and are fanatic about Settlers of Catan. The version for kids (4 and up), Kids of Catan (or Kinder Catan) is great for little ones (and a bit like a gateway game to adult games).

My favorite card game for kids (I think it's 8 and up, though) is Frog Juice. Silly fun that teaches some useful skills.

What about Othello? Checkers?

[Anon]

There's a Kids of Catan?????? My group of friends LOVES Settlers (it is easily the best game I have ever played, and the standard by which we judge other board games), and one of them just had a baby. I can't wait to tell her about Kids of Catan. Not useful for a few years, but still!!

Another game we like, but which may be too difficult for very small kids, is Telephone Pictionary (http://www.mbinde.com/games/telephone-pictionary/).

[Madeleine]

I quadruple the suggestion of Rat-a-Tat-Cat. Having my daughter count up her own hands improved her adding-in-her-head skills immensely. And she beat me often, because she knew when to stop and I would keep trying for perfection.

Also in the "special deck" category, Blink is fun and so is Ruckus (no number skills in either of those, just silliness and speed). I would go ahead and try blackjack and see if his addition is up to it yet.

[Maura]

No suggestions on the card games (though I'm taking notes for when my little guy gets interested).

BUT - I just went shopping at Sam's Club and found 8 packs of Magic Eraser, so it's still being made and distributed. Must just be a matter of finding it.

[Charisse]

Oh, I forgot about BS!! That's a great family game. Very useful for teaching about bluffing, tells, and other things he will need to know in order to take all his friends' spending money in all-night penny poker sessions at camp. ;)

I am hereby investigating Set and this Catan thing!

[Shara]

I picked up Magic Erasers here in the city recently. Can't remember where (Target? Duane Reade?). But yes, they're still here!

[Lisa C.]

Ali's Farsi is still hit-or-miss, but his Freach has really taken off. We see my parents several times a week, and my dad always speaks French to him. I will be happy when he turns 5 next year, because then he can go to language camp and the language school down the street, as well as weekly lessons.

[Amy]

Why not checkers... rather than trying chess? My dd loves checkers. Also Uno, Old Maid, and she's getting the hang of Gin.

[Gretchen]

I'm going to second, third, and fourth the suggestions of "Blink", by Out of the Box games (the same people who make Apples to Apples, which is also a ridiculously good game). It's less than $10, comes in a travel tin so you can tuck it in the car or purse for playing when you're stuck waiting somewhere, and a game takes less than 2 minutes. Basically, you're trying to match the number, color, or shape that shows up on the cards in your hand with one of the piles on the table. But there are no turns - whoever gets the card on first gets to leave it there. Think lots of fast and furious flinging of cards, in a game that a 5- or 7-year old can legitimately win. And it's easy to teach, too, since you can handicap it by giving one player slightly more cards to start with.

Excellent, excellent game. They've got them at Target, usually with a bunch of other small card games at the end of one of the toy aisles.

Also, what about Jenga for coordination and strategy? And the thrill of knocking it over, of course!

[Cat, Galloping]

They're still selling Magic Eraser in the 'burbs! Did kids really get their skin peeled off?

Gatito has been hearing exclusively Spanish from his nannies since he was 4 months old. He's 20 months now and chatting up a storm in both languages. For a while he only knew one word for each concept, either English OR Spanish, but in the past month he's starting knowing both blue and azul, agua and water, etc. (My personal favorite is a cheery ahaha for naranja-- orange.) Mostly he doesn't get yet with whom to use which language, but he's starting to get that, too. Probably makes it a little tougher that his nanny's English is fluent and I speak some Spanish, so he tends to be understood no matter what. Anyway, it's a *blast* watching the language skills develop. I'm so glad we decided to have his nanny speak Spanish to him.

[ALG]

Didn't have time to read all the comments, but my grandfather taught us all to play gin rummy when we were fairly young--maybe in the 5-7 range. (Younger kids in my family learned when they were younger.) It was fun.

[luolin]

The first thing I ever learned in Spanish school (Middlebury summer language schools) was "te toca (a ti)" for "it's your turn"--playing cards with the advanced students the night before the session started.
("It's my turn" would be "me toca (a mi)"

[Rachel H.]

My oldest learned chess at about 5, and kiddo the second is learning now (he's nearly 5). I personally don't enjoy chess much, so I taught them games I like -- for example, Carcasonne and Settlers of Catan. But, I'm a board game geek! The whole family has been playing Arkham Horror lately :). Clue Jr. has been a big hit too.

[Diane]

I'll admit, I cannot understand the justification for calling "War" by some other name. As if eradicating that word could somehow eradicate the root problems in our world.

[paola]

Regarding dual language acquisition, I have a 2.5 year old who I speak English to (I'm Australian)but hears Italian from everyone else as we live in Italy. I have noticed that he has a much better English vocabulary as he spends all day at home with me, and is now starting to put little phrases together in English, although he often gets word order around the wrong way ( switches subject, object) His Italian is quite good, but I still believe he definitely understands English better. I have found that children who speak the dad's language as a second language are usually less able to speak it well as they obviously spend less time with dad, and that is the case with Noah. He has now begun to switch between languages depending on who he talks to, and even talks to 6 month old Zoe in English as he hears me speaking to her in English. It is just so interesting for me as I am an English language teacher and I am am learning so much about first language acquisition by seeing his progress.

Paola

[Shelley]

A game my 3-y-o loves is Memory, you know, the game where you try to match pairs of identical picture cards... you turn the cards over in a big block on the table, and then each player gets to turn up two cards. If they match, they get to keep the pair; if not, they turn them over again, and players try to remember where the matching cards are when they turn over a picture they've seen before elsewhere on the board. My husband and I were delighted to discover that she can whip both our butts at that game.