It is without doubt the greatest family game ever created. Not just in my humbled opinion, but after doing a little research, it turns out that Monopoly is on nearly all ‘greatest family board game’ lists out there.
With the introduction of Junior Monopoly, Electronic Banking and the licensed editions (Star Wars, Frozen etc) the creators really have made this traditional masterpiece accessible to the whole family.
What’s more, it’s a hugely beneficial game to play with your children. At the most grass roots level, Monopoly teaches turn taking and counting for younger children and then caters for more complex learning the older you get; maths, strategy and money management are just a few examples.
I’m 29 and still learning about mortgages and tax!
I remember playing the game with my parents when I was a child and insisting on being the banker. Either because I was fiddling the books or because I had a desire to improve my maths skills. I’ll let you decide which you think it was ;)
I also remember insisting on being the battleship. (It just appealed). Luckily, my dad instead on the racer, mum the scottie dog and my brother the boot. The iron, top hat and thimble were all but redundant in our gaming quests.
It’s strange how these tokens (playing pieces) were so important to the playing of the game. They are certainly iconic and I know for a fact that if I didn’t get my finger tips on that battleship, I wouldn’t have played. I’m sure it was like this for you and your family?
Right?
These tokens are at the heart of the game and right now, YOU have the opportunity to influence the future of the tokens. You have the power to change the line up. We could be saying “goodbye” to the battleship, the scottie dog or the cat and “hello” to something brand new. A mobile phone, a beach ball, emoji’s, a speed boat and a hashtag to name just a few that you could choose from!
Your job is simple. From 10th January 2017 GST until 31st January, turn takingyou can have your say on which tokens you want to keep and which ones you’re giving the boot to. Remember: this vote means the line-up of tokens can completely change and it could be down to you!
I, for one, will be casting my vote to keep hold of the battleship. Monopoly wouldn’t be the same for me without it!
So what are you waiting for? Follow this link and vote for your favourite now.
In the words of SpiderMan “With great power comes great responsibility.” So vote wisely. BATTLESHIP… *ahem*
I love to see articles about boardgaming and kids. However I have to disagree about the statement about Monopoly being the best family game out there. It is certainly the most well-known and popular, but there are some truly brilliant kid’s games out there that don’t have player elimination (making people bankrupt doesn’t send children a good message IMO), sheer luck (you move and acquire property purely through the roll of dice) or the acquisition of money at their heart.
The issue is that in the UK you have to go to specialist board game retailers to find good ones because the shops only stock Hasbro.
Haba (a German company) make some excellent games – I would say for children up the age of 5 or so the following are great
Coconuts – see my review here https://isitmygo.co/2017/01/09/coconuts/
Richard Scarry’s Busytown
Animal on Animal (by Haba)
Rhino Hero (by Haba)
Enchanted Tower
Looping Louie
Click Clack Lumberjack (a bit like a reverse Jenga)
Robot Turtles (teaches preschoolers about coding)
Check out the Children’s Top 100 games on BoardgameGeek –
https://boardgamegeek.com/childrensgames/browse/boardgame?sort=rank&rankobjecttype=family&rankobjectid=4665&rank=1#1