Get ur game on
I quit regular TV in 2011. It was a happy moment when I realized a thing I was giving a substantial amount of time to was making me monumentally unhappy and I knew how to immediately fix it. No sports. No news. No commercials. It was immediate and wonderful.
I had gotten so sick of the mind-numbing, unending amount of shows and movies in front of me, sucking away my time and motivation. I was sick of the kids choosing television over their bikes and scooters. I was sick of turning on a show every night after the kids went to bed. I wanted interaction, liveliness and I wanted to use my brain.
So, we got rid of cable and bought a Roku instead. We would watch Netflix occasionally or on special occasions rent movies on Amazon. We saved a bundle of dough and immediately found more happiness and more free time.
And it was easy during the summer. We swam. We hiked. We played tennis. We camped. We picnicked. We explored. It was amazing. But then came the winter months and riding bikes and scooters, playing tennis and hiking became more difficult.
We needed something we could do at home during the rainy winter. So, Chris and I turned to our childhood to find a solution: we decided to become board game nerds.
I grew up in Alaska where, you guessed it, the winters are dark, cold, and long. My family played a lot of Scrabble and Nertz (also known as Dutch Blitz). Chris' family also played a lot of games growing up, but we both had lost touch with what was new and exciting in the world of board games. Frankly, Scrabble didn't sound very exciting anymore and while Nertz will always hold a special place in my heart, its a group game. We needed something that Chris and I could play on our own and games our kids could understand.
So, we headed up to our little neighborhood game store, Cloud Cap. Cloud Cap is a perfect example of what is right about Portland. A fun, quirky, warm gathering place for cool-gaming-geeks, Cloud Cap is a mix of a gaming store and a gaming space. When we first walked in, honestly we were a bit intimidated. We were looking around, trying to find the best place to start. We ended up in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section. The owner walked up and asked us what games we had played. We answer that we’ve played a bit of Settlers of Catan and other classic games. Kindly they took us by the arm and steered us away from that section stating, “you aren’t quite ready for these games yet.”
We ended up buying a game called Lords of Waterdeep. LOW was a great introduction to gaming at a deeper level. It has a pretty basic game mechanism, but its still fun and strategic. We were addicted. We also added to our collection a deck-building game called Dominion. Dominion is fast paced with fun themes and only takes about 20 minutes to play through one round. We played these games at least once a week for half a year.
Chris and I were having so much fun shirking TV-life and embracing our inner gaming-nerds that we decided to get the kids in on this gaming action. At this point, the kids were 4 and 6 years old, so we needed something that was easy, fun, could keep their attention and didn't incite a riot of competition between them. You know what I'm talking about: have you ever sat down to play a game with kids and ultimately everyone at the table ends up in tears (including mom and dad)? Yeah, that was us.
After some research, Chris found games made by a company called Peaceable Kingdom. Most of Peaceable Kingdom games are cooperative games, meaning everyone is on one team working towards a common goal. Our first Peaceable Kingdom game was called Count Your Chickens. Easy, fun and cute as hell. Bailey was addicted. Our game collection for kids grew from there.
Another thing we learned is to trust the box. If the box says an age limit, by God, stick to the age limit. Somehow game creators know the emotional and strategic capacity of children based on their age and we’ve found that the recommended ages are almost always right.
Flash forward to today, 5 years later, and we are still cable free and nerdier than ever. Chris and I just finished an amazing board game series called Pandemic, Season 1. You play the same game 12 times, but each time you play, you get more story, the rules change and the gaming mechanism gets more complex. We also are loving Star Realms, Caverna and Terra Mystica.
The kids have recently gotten into Gamewright games, which make super fun games for kids 6+. Last night, we had a Camp Crush show, so Grandma babysat and the kids taught her how to play a fun game called Dragonwood, which is a dice rolling/RPG game for kids and Monster Factory (Rio Grande Games) - an easy tile building game all ages and fun for groups!.
It's been cool to see gaming become a part of our family’s DNA. We may all be nerds, but that’s cool with me. At least we're nerds together.
Just to clarify: we are NOT perfect at this. We still have shows we watch on Netflix, we still play Nintendo. We have not thrown away all screens. Now we just have a go-to family activity that involves us interacting with each other, sitting around our messy dining room table, figuring something out together. And I like that.
The weather has gotten colder and winter is officially upon us. I'm curious what you do to keep yourself and family occupied during the colder months! And hey - wanna have a game night? ;)
XOXO,
Jen Deale
Boss Lady at Camp Crush, SBP Smoothies, and Cooper & Bailey
PS - big news for Portland area friends: We are playing at the Doug Fir on Dec 19 with two great bands, The Get Ahead and Foxy Lemon. Buy your tickets to our show at the Doug Fir coming up in just a few weeks! YAY! Ticket sales go to support Portland Homeless Family Solutions, an amazing local nonprofit doing great things for families in need!