Chutes and Ladders

[theeye]

So the Poopster, Daddy and I were playing Chutes and Ladders earlier today. You remember Chutes and Ladders: board game for 3-5 year olds.

We each take a couple of turns and it seems like the spinner keeps coming up with the same couple of numbers. Daddy gets seriously bent out of shape: That spinner is biased. How can I be expected to play a game with a biased spinner? It just isn't fair!




I have a three year old who keeps pushing the spinner over to '2' because he likes the number two and a 42 year old who's worried about whether or not Chutes and Ladders is fair.

Shoot me now.

[thinkerlady[$]]

My son was babysitting a three year old in the neighborhood. They were playing a board game--either Chutes and Ladders, or Candy Land I don't remember which. Anyhow, he said everytime the kid spinned--he started counting to 10. He moved and stopped whenever he felt like it. Consequently he 'won".

The kids response everytime--"Ha Ha! I win, you stink" Can you tell that he is the youngest of 3????

[CurtisEdmonds]

My second law review article was entitled "Snakes and Ladders", which is the British name for the game. Very apropos, too.

[sleeper54]

"Eye" said in post #1 :

--snip--

We each take a couple of turns and it seems like the spinner keeps coming up with the same couple of numbers. Daddy gets seriously bent out of shape: That spinner is biased. How can I be expected to play a game with a biased spinner? It just isn't fair!




--snip--

Shoot me now.

Gee, I wonder if any of the 79(!) reviews on Eps address possible bias on the spinner part ??

Hasn't been reviewed in 10 months...


...tom...

[hymie]

I flexed the cardboard base of the spinner, and all was well after that. It's a 1-6 spinner, so I had proposed replacing it with a die toss.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

thinkerlady said in post #2 :
My son was babysitting a three year old in the neighborhood. They were playing a board game--either Chutes and Ladders, or Candy Land I don't remember which. Anyhow, he said everytime the kid spinned--he started counting to 10. He moved and stopped whenever he felt like it. Consequently he 'won".

The kids response everytime--"Ha Ha! I win, you stink" Can you tell that he is the youngest of 3????

IIRC, my edition of Candy Land came with cards with colored squares; you drew a card and went to that square (or special place, if it was a picture of the Lollipop Garden or something like that).

[poseidon]

"Eye" said in post # :
Shoot me now.

I thought you were for gun control...

[jenninca]

I made up a reading version of Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders to play with my kids to review for the reading test. I would never have guessed that fifth graders would be so excited to play preschool games. Every day when I came in the room, half a dozen of them came up to me and asked, "Are we playing Candy Land today???"

Cindy

[theworm[$]]

the omniscient sea-god said in post #7 :


I thought you were for gun control...

Anyone that pulls a gun on the Eye will have to deal with me!!!!

You can shoot her with a pea shooter! That's it!

[sleeper54]

MJ said...


IIRC, my edition of Candy Land came with cards with colored squares; you drew a card and went to that square (or special place, if it was a picture of the Lollipop Garden or something like that).

And sometimes you got a card with two colored squares , like a double move...

Spinners are way too vulnerable to fraud...


...tom...

[theeye]

Well, we played Chutes and Ladders again tonight. And I have a confession to make.

I just can't get through a full game of Chutes and Ladders. It's just intolerably boring. And Candyland is even worse. I always end up lying and telling the Poopster that the game is over after some small handful of moves.

So whaddya think? Am I a Bad Mommy? Can you make it through a full game of this without going beserk?

[KateTPZ]

"Eye" said in post # :



I have a three year old who keeps pushing the spinner over to '2' because he likes the number two and a 42 year old who's worried about whether or not Chutes and Ladders is fair.

Shoot me now.

Welcome to parenthood - boys are so much fun!

[emeleel]

sleeper said in post #10 :


And sometimes you got a card with two colored squares , like a double move...

...tom...

And in our house, sometimes you get a card with THREE colored blocks on it!

Sean was too fidgety for a full game when he was 3, so we had to toss out the picture cards (every time he got one, it always - ALWAYS - ended up sending him back a considerable distance which was more than his 3 year old psyche could stand) so Daddy made up 3-block cards on the computer and printed them out.

Of course, the boy and his now-existant sister are respectively 7.5 and 4.5, I think it's time to go back to the regular rules. (They don't play it much anyway, they like Life, Monopoly, chess and checkers much better)

[theworm[$]]

"Eye" said in post #11 :
Well, we played Chutes and Ladders again tonight. And I have a confession to make.

I just can't get through a full game of Chutes and Ladders. It's just intolerably boring. And Candyland is even worse. I always end up lying and telling the Poopster that the game is over after some small handful of moves.

So whaddya think? Am I a Bad Mommy? Can you make it through a full game of this without going beserk?

Bad Bad Mommy! You can't lie to the kid!!!! That's just WRONG! What you're supposed to do is invite his little friends over to play with him! They are young enough to find the game fastinating!

TheWorm - who's visions of a happy family sitting around playing games together has just been shattered!

[theeye]

The kid and his friends can't play Chutes and Ladders by themselves yet. They haven't figured out the part where you don't get to just move your pawn to any old space you want.

[theworm[$]]

This is part of being a parent! Please don't be like dad. He used to "play" monopoly with me while he took a nap. I had to roll the dice for both of us and move the pcs for both of us. He never bought properties. He just snored till I got bored and put them game away!

[theeye]

Don't forget that the Poopster is three years old. As far as he's concerned, a few turns is a game. When he knows how to play Monopoly, I'll play a whole game with him.

Hell, when he knows that Chutes and Ladders isn't over yet, I'll play the whole game.

[theworm[$]]

OK!

[sleeper54]

"Eye" said in post #15 :
The kid and his friends can't play Chutes and Ladders by themselves yet. They haven't figured out the part where you don't get to just move your pawn to any old space you want.

Hey, it builds that all-important self-esteem to let them win early and often...


...tom...

[hymie]

For shame, eye! Chutes & Ladders boring? Nonsense! You are just not approaching it in the right way. There are deep and sophisticated questions to ponder, even for C&L Solitaire, with only one pawn. For example, what is the average number of turns to complete the game? What is the average number of times each square will contain a pawn during a game? In a two-pawn game, what is the probability that two pawns are on the same square after a given number of moves?

Obviously a Markov chain analysis is called for. The large number of states and the limited number of target states each state can proceed to also suggest that computers are needed for the analysis and that there is room for significant optimization in the programming techniques used.

[Redlass]

Have you tried Hi-Ho Cheerio? It isn't nearly as long. Neither is Frog Tennis or the cooperative games they have out like Thomas the Tank Engine and the Magic Railway. There is also Don't Break the Ice and Don't Spill the Beans that take a little less time and can be big hits with the little guys.

Chutes and Ladders is an incredibly long game. I usually didn't mind Candyland, though our guy has now moved on to Trouble and Sorry. (Trouble can be a lot of fun--you get to hit the thing in the middle to make the die pop.)

[CurtisEdmonds]

Hy said in post # :
Obviously a Markov chain analysis is called for. The large number of states and the limited number of target states each state can proceed to also suggest that computers are needed for the analysis and that there is room for significant optimization in the programming techniques used.

Once you figure that out, maybe you can start on the project about whether baseball teams are better off having their best hitters bat first or hit cleanup.

[theeye]

Bridgette said in post #21 :
Have you tried Hi-Ho Cheerio?

Hm. No, I haven't. So you recommend it? For three year olds?

[conradd]

Favorite pre-school games with Shane were Cootie, Memory, and Yahtzee. There are preschool Yahtzee games but I think Shane would have gotten bored with them fairly rapidly. He was one of the few 3yos in his Montessori class who knew what a full house was.

Deb

[theeye]

Deb said in post #24 :
He was one of the few 3yos in his Montessori class who knew what a full house was.

Deb

The Poopster, at the age of two, knew to answer the question 'What wins in Omaha?' with the correct answer: 'nuts'.

[poseidon]

What wins in Omaha? Anyone from any other part of Nebraska.

Michelle and I were wondering just last weekend how come so many Nebraskans have a huge smile on their face whenever you see them driving around Colorado. We figured the answer must be that they're not in Nebraska.

[Redlass]

Oops! It is Heigh-ho Cherry-O, and yes, it definitely works for 3-year-olds. There is some minor counting involved, but the adult can help with that. And (if I'm remembering correctly) there are pictures of cherries rather than the numbers, so the child can match up the cherries with the pictures.

[cristina1]

Mousetrap is the favorite here. Devon also loves Memory. Games like Chutes and Ladders just never seemed to be a hit with the kids.

[pluckyduck]

Eye, darling, this is a great age for games. You're just trying to play the wrong kind. I used to want to shoot myself over Chutes and Ladders, as a Mom.

You need action.



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...toys&n=1003102

Lucky Ducks. This was our second favorite game. I looked for our favorite, Penguin Pileup, but I couldn't find it.

We've played almost all of the games in this Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...152600-7203338

I can recommend the Oreo game, virtually all of the MB games like aforementioned Don't Break the Ice, etc.

Way more fun than boring old Chutes & Ladders.

Andrea

[magenta321]

I'll second Hi-Ho-Cherry-O. The kids I used to sit for loved it. We even created variations on the game. I think you're supposed to have the cherries on the three, then take off 1, 2, or 3 cherries and put them in the bucket. (I'm trying to remember back about 11 years, so, I could be slightly off). Anyway, we'd play the "right way" once, and then we'd play it in reverse, where we'd take the cherries out of the bucket, and put them on the tree. This was because I was the one with the dexterity to put the cherries back on everyone's tree, and then in five minutes, I'd have to do it again.

[theeye]

Cool. Thanks for the recommendations!

How did I forget about Lucky Ducks? Our son's best friend (who's 2 1/2 years older) used to love that game and we played it when we babysat him.

I'll get it right away.

[conradd]

Hungry, Hungry Hippos was a favorite too.



Deb

[cristina1]

This one is a lot of fun, too.

[mtbat]

You think Chutes and Ladders is bad with a three year old? Try Empire Builder. My daughter wants to play Empire Builder, I can't play with JUST her-so my son insists on playing-which means I'm playing for two. UGG. I usually set a 15 turn limit and then shut the d*mned railroad down.

Life is another game my son insists on playing-like EB I play for two. and he loses interest about 1/2 way through.

Yatzee is fun, because he can roll his own dice.

we have a Pokemon game where we get to wack picachoo cards with these little sticky things-that's a good game.

I hate candy land.

[musette]

They have blow up chutes and ladders now too. I haven't seen anyone play it, but it sounds neat.

[lambchops]

bad post

[lambchops]

I just bought a game for my cousin's little guy. He is four, but even his little sis (she's two) plays. It's an updated version of Operation...BRAIN OPERATION!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...=toys&n=507846

They both seem to really like it. The rules (as with the original Operation) are very easily changed/broken/forgotten. It may not be a board game per se, but it is still a blast.