"I want to make them so you don't have to keep buying them"

Soooooo.
Life happened.
My kids are growing up, achieving great things, inspiring me to achieve great things, and drawing my attention to where it really ought to be and that's on them.
I'm still gaming but i don't necessarily get the time to write about it all the time.
But i haven't forgotten board mamma, i sometimes thing abut coming back to write for it and my head fills with grand promises and dedication levels i fer i will not be able to maintain.  This of course leads to me not writing anything for it.

Recently however my oldest girl has announced to me that she wants to 'make a board game'!

I"m so proud.
I figured why not make this a long term project, keep records of it, it may never become anything, probably won't even but the journey is often more interesting and important than the destination.
So why not use Board Mamma to keep record of the process.

At this stage I've told her we're gunna have a serious look at this project during the Christmas holidays when she doesn't have school and i don't have uni to consider.  Until then she's to consider themes, because it's the easiest place to start.
Thus far I've heard preferences for a princess game, and/or a game about cars.  She's six, it's going to be simple to begin with.
Over the next few months i want to play games with her and look at the mechanics of them, deck building, story telling, draughting etc and see where her preferences lie, what she finds the most fun.
This is the beginning of what i think could be a very enjoyable journey with my girl, one i imagine my youngest will join in at some stage and one that will engage the whole family in one way or another.

 Yes the small one has shorts on.

Leave of abcense over.

wow I've been slack
I'm sorry for my absence there's no real excuse for it.

So what i'm going to do in an attempt to return is not commit to a weekly production but stick to producing thing to read as the fancy takes me, which is actually kinda often if i'm going to be honest.  I still have my list of things i'd like to write about so I have plenty to say, If you care to listen then stick about, give me a chance and i bet you'll soon be wishing i'd just be quiet.

Until next time (which will be soon)
Play!

Introducing Zooloretto Dice, WINNING! and Language.

Zooloretto Dice

The first play through of this with my girls we didn't quite play all the rules, we kinda skipped the minuses at the end. They are only 4 and 5 after all.

It's quite an easy little game and they understand the set collection aspect. My four year old even does a pretty good job at checking off the boxes herself.

There's very little depth in this game although playing it with an adult in the mix the second time through it was clear that some strategy could be applied to the game with minds a little more mature than my girls possess at this stage.

The girls were however enthusiastic about the game asking to play it again not long after our first play through. The second time we played we did so with all aspects involved and came across the real competition part of the game. Who can get those bonus points checked off first. We had a small issue with my youngest deciding that if she couldn't mark off the bonuses when she felt she should she didn't want to play. So I had to decide what was more important here, playing right, or merely just playing. We let her mark off whatever boxes she wanted and endeavored to remember which ones were actually valid during scoring. Because in the end it didn't really matter the point was to play the game together.

Winning

We played a number of games together over the last few days, our little family. My husband played a game of Tsuro with the girls while I sat her here and told you all about spies. And we came across something that's possible the hardest lesson when it comes to gaming. The desire to win. Miss 5 did not win this game, a game she plays quite well, and it resulted in a lot of pouting, announcing 'but I wanted to win' and not wanting to play again.

To be honest I was kind of proud with her. There were no tears, just many pouts, and there certainly were no tantrums. This is quite frankly better than I've seen some adults achieve. She didn't want to play the game again, so we didn't force it, and two days later she was again playing it this time with me in the mix as well. Once again she didn't win, in fact miss 4 did, she was very tired from having a very late night the night before and I don't think there was even more than a seconds pouting involved. She's growing up so fast.

Now that I've celebrated my girl here's the issue I have been thinking on. I think that it's hard to learn to lose gracefully, for anyone, and yet an important life skill all the same. And my confession is I have an element of 'pouting' involved in my game playing. It's not that I mind losing a game, I don't so long as I had fun playing it. However my husband and I have played a lot of the 'Game of Thrones LCG' in the past, spent way too much money on it as well, and the fact is, I just plain suck at this game. I do. I'm aware of it, and even though that's the case I've played more games of this than almost any other game in my life, with the exception of Magic the gathering back in my college days. In all those games I dare say I could count how many games I've managed to win on maaaybe two hands. I'm into a 'I must win' kinda person but it's just not fun being pummeled into the ground, it isn't, and when it happens time and time and time again to be honest it wears very thing. Now the thing is, I don't think that this is a simple case of 'I didn't win it I don't want to play it' such as miss 5 demonstrated to us the other day, I think it's a more more reasonable position . Maybe I’m wrong. I know my husband doesn't seem to think so, partly due to the fact that my lack of interest in the game now results in his inability to play it as often as he'd like.

Opinions, ideas and a discussion welcome on this topic.

Language

Another topic that arose whilst playing Tsuro was the language of the game. Dragons is fint, and path is fine, but oh 'you're dead' made for some interesting discussions.

DH: “You can't place that tile sweetie it'll kill you.”

Miss 4: “But I want to be dead.”

DH: “But you can’t deliberately kill yourself hun it's against the rules.”

Miss 4: “But I want to kill myself.”

Miss 5: “If you want to be dead [miss 4] I can help you.”

To be honest I was in fit of giggles as this was going on. However it was suggested that the language f the game be looked at, they are still babies after all talking about dying and killing each other. So we started talking of running each other off the board. As grown up we don't even really think about the language of these things some times but when the words coming out of yours kids mouth sound so out of place when you play these games with them I figured perhaps we need to think more about what we say. They know it's just a game, so maybe it really is ok. I don't for a moment believe that children are stupid and will translate what they see and hear in games to reality. And yet I see examples of it in my to every now and again. Miss 5 has told me in no certain turn that the Doctor is in fact real and that she wants him to come visit her in his Tardis. In fact she believed in him before she every believed in Santa. So maybe right now for their age it does matter. It was an interesting topic to think on, I’ve heard of 7 year olds playing zombie games, great for them, and maybe the year and a half between them and my miss 5 makes all the difference in that level of understanding, maybe that 7 year old is just special, I’m not sure, but I’m fairly certain my kids aren't ready for that sort of theme and the language that comes with that sort of game. I know when I was about seven my parents tried to get me to alert them to the presence of cops should I see them while we were driving places by saying 'pigs' I told them it wasn't nice to call people pigs and henceforth cops have been 'kittens', language matters and I’ll be guided by them as time goes by. Still inappropriate language leads to rather wonderful conversations like the one above.

Here are some cute pictures from this memorable game of Tsuro (in the sun)

Just before Miss 4 defeated us all.

Miss 5

Miss 4

Kids (girls) and Spies

So it's a favourite genre in this house, the spy move/tv show.

My husband and I have enjoyed some bond movies, the Bourne movies, the Mission Impossible movies, and my husband loves the jack Ryan moves. We've ploughed through Chuck and Burn Notice many times. There's also Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Alias and Nikita (we enjoyed the 90's version as well).

It was a rather pleasant event then when my oldest, while we were looking for a book for me to read to her, stumbled across these books. http://ej12girlhero.com/

EJ12 A ten year old Spy who works for SHINE part time and is a typical ten year old the other part of her time.

Not only did we find these books, (and there are many of them) but Miss 5 was enthusiastic about me reading them to her. We've almost finished the first book now and she still reminds me to read her a chapter before she goes to bed. I love these books so hard. Not only are they spy books with a female protagonist, but she's of an almost relatable age to my miss 5, in addition to this there's, from what I’ve seen so far, a very strong hint of environmental consciousness involved in the stories as well.

This interest has led to further delving into the theme for miss 5. We're currently sitting through the first viewing of 'Spy Kids' and the craft projects that can come out of this, finger print lifting (more science than craft really), Fake ID making (is that BAD parenting?), Disguise making.

I did have miss 5 ask me recently though why the spy toys are in the 'boys' section of the toy in the shop. This of course led to me telling her there was no such thing as boys and girls toys and we proceeded to look at the walkie talking, torches, invisible ink books etc.

So why was I excited that my girl showed an interest in this stuff. Well aside from her otherwise disturbing preoccupation with princesses (damage done before I knew what I was doing) and her adoration of pretty pink everything, this was a chance to share something we enjoy with our girls. But these shows/movies/books demonstrate, courage, puzzle solving, self reliance, team work and a desire to do the right thing. And they do this without being all wrapped up in fluorescent pinks and purples and a layer of romantic/sappy material that makes me generally nauseated to think about.

I was happy to find that there was something for my girls to help them engage in this genre. Wile I don't see the need to for a female protagonist in order to draw girls into things, I personally never needed it, it seems to be a reality nevertheless and it's available. Check it out guys it's really pretty awesome.

Dice Men Cometh and New Approaches

So I fell off the every Sunday report thing, mostly because it's become hard to repost on this when nothing is happening here in terms of games

Mostly because I seem to wake up on Monday and thing 'damn yesterday was Sunday'

In the last week though there have been more games, between a house warming party with gamer friends and my purchasing of Zooloretto Dice, and my husband and I actually going to our local gaming groups event tonight ought to give me something to write about tomorrow morning.

What am I here to say today?

Well our very active local games group (HoGS) has managed to secure themselves a radio spot. I know I know radio is kind of antiquated these days but still, it can be listened to on Wed night on Edge radio 99.3. The last three weeks of the show re stream is also available on the edge radio website

The segment is call 'The Dice Men Cometh', they're on facebook 

It's kind of exciting and fun to listen to people we know talking about games we play and the pro, cons, recommendations and warnings they put out there. It's worth a listen to, if you're at all interested not only in computer games but the local scene for the hobby.

Now on to the future of Board Mamma.

I love board games and hope to raise board gamers in my home. Their benefits are amazing and they have become a way of life in this house in many ways. I will continue to report on board gaming life within my family and friends.

However as a mother of two amazing girls there's so much else I spend my time giving attnetion to that I feel like sharing.

For instance raising my girls to be 'self rescuing princesses',

Bring to their worlds not only board games but superheroes, dr who, batman (he's my fav. so he is to be mentioned outside of the standard superhero banner), computer games, books, science and empowering music.

I have a number of websites I use to help keep me informed in what's available, and people I bounce theories off, and even a number of friends who are raising young boys and get to discuss the issues that arise from some of these things I endeavor to instill in my girls.

I will say this though. Ever since I’ve actually been paying attention to what enters my kids worlds, what influences are in their lives, I’ve had so much more fun raising my little geeks than I did when I mindlessly just assumed if it's for kids it's ok.

I did at one point have a tumblr account I updated on occasion called 'Raising Geeks' which I had to stop because tumblr just sets my poor laptop to overheating.

So all in all Board Mamma is going to become welcome to my parenting efforts, but hey, it involves stuff anyone who is reading this loves so why not!?!?!

With all that in mind I will be doing an entry about game storage very soon so stay tuned.

Zooloretto dice game first play through report will come soon.

Thoughts on Eldritch Horror to come

what we (miss 5 and myself) think of 'Frozen'

and I shall discuss the costume choices of my girls when faced with a dr who costume party.

The phenomenon that Skylanders has become in out house

LEGO! All the lego and how EVERYONE in this house loves it (as well as thought on lego friends)

and yes I’m going to write up a post tomorrow about the games I manage to play tonight.

I have my list, YOU have my list. Stay tuned.

Sunday Sample

It's Sunday morning and I have a birthday party to go to so this will be short

this week has been game-tastic.

There are 6, count them, SIX new games in the house and one expansion

Kingdom Builder

Tokaido

Pizza party

Say Anything

Family Fluxx

Seasons

and the expansion is

We Didn't Play Test This Either.

I've had the chance to play Say Anything and Tokaido thus far but not with the kids.

Pizza party looks to be a simple little game, would fit in a stocking well and the kids should be able to play it too. I'll get them to sit and play some games asap I swear.

Xmas is in four days I think most games you might have bought have in fact been bought already and that's a good thing because the local store owner was saying her shelves are all but bare, she's got new stock coming in soon though, before the big day for those running a little late to the party.

At this stage the best I can do is say my list of games to play with the kids now comes to...

Walk the Plank

Pizza Party

Tokaido

and I’m sure there are others.

My wish list is shrinking fast at this time of year which is great, I think there's even another one under the tree.

So not a lot to add this week, Husband is off work now so maybe we'll get more played as a family for the next couple of weeks.

I do have a list of entries i want to get to in the new year I'll start working on those after the big day.

In the mean time Merry Christmas everyone I wish lots of family, love, friends and fun...

AND GAMES!

Raging Board Mamma! (COMPLETELY NOT BOARD GAME RELATED)

This won't happen often i promise, and it has NOTHING to do with board games.

Don't mind me, i'm just going to rant for a bit

In my experience as a kid, I cared not for whether my favorite characters on TV were male or female. I never understood why it mattered, so what if Astro boy was a boy, I’d call myself Astro boy and be the coolest person in the game any way. I never pretended to be April O'Neal...why would it? It was the turtles were were cool so I pretended to be one of them. Gender didn't matter. So when I saw Batman Returns in the cinema twice, as in we came out of one session, bought tickets and went straight back in, I was there to see batman. In black, and all manly like (I was about 9 so it wasn't like that at all). The Disney princesses of the day bored me for the most part, and seriously who wouldn't get bored waiting to be rescued? And I had care bears, My little Ponies and VOLTRON in my toy box like any kids of the 80's.

Jump forward to having my own girls, I'd spent very little time thinking about how girls were represented or marketed towards because who cared? Really, girls like what girls like just as boy like what boys like, why the heck not? We make up our own minds, right?

Well to an extent, yes. But as a mother of two girls, and being in the middle of weathering a Christmas season I have to say my husband and I find ourselves both completely disgusted and utterly confused at some of the things we see.

The example that first comes to my mind when I think of shocking advertising material is Disney's boxes of books.

My husband spotted this and was truly disgusted. Our youngest LOVES Toy Story, and Finding Nemo, I personally loved The Lion King when I was young. In fact of the 'girls' books we regularly view 'Tangled' and “Tinkerbell' The rest, not so much. This could be why.

But Disney has changed and evolved through time. There are a number of their 'Princess' movies that we let the girls watch now, and this isn't actually an anti Disney post because we see things like this on the shelf as well.

Google Search Result: Nerf for Girls

Ok, so yes I did the search with this result in mind, because I knew what would come up. Nerf, for girls...seriously? Why does it have to be pink, and purple? I'm a long time hater of the colour pink, largely because it was expected that as a girl I’d like it. However, that aside...why?

I'm going to start with my least outrage-y stance here, the colour.

It's pink, so does the colour make this

Nerf Rebelle Crush Blaster

appeal more than this?

Nerf Vortex Firestrike

WHY? Because it's pink? If you look closely the Firestrike is clearly cooler, no question, it has a laser pointer (light beam) built in.

Colour aside because even my husband acknowledges that the pink, white ad black does in fact look cool (“But why does it have to be for girls?”)

Let's look at the names of these weapons.

The Crush Blaster

The Sweet Revenge Blaster

And my personal favourite, The Heart Breaker Crossbow.

Seriously?

The standard range of nerf have these:

Hailfire Blaster

Firestrike

Strongarm Blaster

Electro Storm

And so many more that are no where near as offensive.

Why do the 'girls' weapons get names that clearly imply not only personal Vendetta's but romances and or romantic feelings. Girls are perfectly capable of more than just soft squishy feelings towards other people, and we certainly should be held in better regard to think that should our squishy feelings not be reciprocated, or go unnoticed that we might take up arms and assault the offenders.

Seeing the names of these weapons makes me see red (not pink, a full blown red), it really winds me up and I want yell at everyone nearby that it isn't acceptable!!!!

No, one last thing about the 'girls' Nerf range, the entire thing is called the 'Rebelle' Range.

So as a girl if you are so inclined to enjoy partaking in the shooting of your friendship a fun manner, you are in fact a rebel (and of course it's girl so it's two l's and an e worthy).

To be honest I didn't notice much of any of this until my husband pointed it out to me, and that was merely because I wasn't paying a lot of attention to it, I don't much care for nerf, it's just not my geek point. But my husband sure did.

We've discussed the other range of toys that's been under fire for 'girly-fying' their toys, LEGO. They did make things pink and purple yes, and sure there's more stereotypically 'girl' things in the Lego friends range, but there's also karate practitioners, and Inventors, and vets. So at the very least they have tried to keep the field relatively even. And to be honest my girls get a mix of all the Lego ranges quite happily.

I see so many things coming out for 'girls' and it being just what the boys get but in pink. It's really very frustrating. Superhero underwear...great, love to see that for girls it's annoying that they only get tinker bell, princesses and Dora to choose from. But why is the batman symbol pink? I'd love to see more dinosaur, and superhero and star wars clothes in the 'girls' section. Or perhaps with the exception of some articles which are specifically designed for one gender or the other (yes I’m aware it is necessary for some things) just have a general clothing section and ditch the genderisation.

Toys certainly NEVER need to be categorised by gender and I even shop in some shops over others because they format their catalogues by category (dress up, building, vehicles) rather than girls and boys sections.

In my world my friends allow their children the freedom to like what they like, boys that like pink and play with dolls, girls that love green and play with cars, movies and tv shows that have both male and female protagonists, not just one or the other. But not so for everyone else and people must be falling for this marketing if they're still doing it.

Please, Stop and think, and maybe if we as consumers just stop buying into this garbage they'd change their tactics.

Maybe...unlikely I know but still

Rant over.