Family Fuller

Recently Colin has been very into games. It started with a couple of Thomas card games, then I bought Candy Land for him. A mistake on my part. It could be the most boring game ever made. You don’t really even need to be there to play - you don’t have to make a single decision. Candy Land progressed to Sorry, which is only slightly better. Then when we got sick of Sorry and moved him on to Uno which is fun.

Over the weekend we made a huge leap to Monopoly. We played on Saturday and Sunday, both times for over an hour and a half. Colin made big strides in understanding and counting. In the beginning he would count the dots on each die, but by Sunday if a 5 and a 4 came up he would just say “nine” without counting. He also got much better at understanding money and properties. Granted he has no idea about strategy at all - but he did just turn 4. It was really quite fun to play with him and I am just amazed that he can sit for that long to play a game.

Now the latest is chess. He found this tiny chess set we got in Russia on our honeymoon and has been begging to play. It isn’t the nicest set and one pawn is missing but he managed. Chuck sat him down right after the monopoly game and explained it all to him. I gather Colin did alright with it because I overheard him say “Oh you move the push-up (bishop) in a diagonal, like the letter “A” and the knight like a letter “L”.

Yesterday, during Holden’s nap, he wanted me to play chess with him. I told him I would if he set it up. He remembered where all the pieces went and then I asked him to explain how to play - here are the videos:

Setting up the Game

Playing Chess

He really has no concept of understanding moves. When we were playing yesterday he attempted the “I am going to get your king with my king” strategy - not easy Again chess is way beyond his level, but he tries. I am just excited he likes board games because I love them!

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