Home Teaching

Of course, some of my memory is a bit vague,...

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My parents didn't play a lot of games with me growing up, except, for some reason, when there was extended family about. Then, it was a light dutch set collection game (Thirty-One), before Canasta, Euchre as I got older. I heard about Monopoly and I don't know when I first played it but I was besotted with it as many kids actually are and got given a copy for a birthday or christmas or something, which only just died, 30 odd years later, but I can't recall playing it that often with my immediate family. Same with Cluedo. We played homespun Scattegories though, I remember that. My parents still play that one, mum will stare at all the things I have and pick it everytime. Dad is a bit more adventurous but I think in another age he would have been right into it, I know he played some Risk and Diplomacy pre-kids.

Anyway - yes, I have my own kids now, games are great for socialisation stuff. Following procedures, cause and effect, magic circle, winning and losing gracefully, all that stuff. That's what they are really soaking up, I hope. Also, absolutely, yes, tinkering with systems. Why does this rule exist? Etc. Especially with my youngest who really enjoys making his own games. Probably the most longstanding house rule we have is that in Zooloretto there are bonus points for babies.

My dad introduced me to Axis and Allies sometime when I was in the 4th or 5th game, which really lead me into 'serious' gaming. My dad had been at a several weeks long training for work in another state and he and some fellow classmates decided that a board game might be a good idea rather than hitting the bar every night. Not sure how they choose Axis and Allies or why my dad was the one who came home with it. All the toy soldiers fascinated me, I was still into GI Joe at the time. My dad taught me and my sisters to play and one of his work friends would also join us. My sisters opted out pretty quick, but I was always ready for a game.
We played all the Gamemaster series games for years, but Axis and Allies was always the favorite. I recruited various friends to play over the years and I bought the old man the Xeno games expansion. The expansion lead to many long weekends of Axis and Allies games. Man I miss those.

We had a few 'house rules' that were really just playing wrong. One day a friend of mine who we had taught to play was bored and actually read the rule book and set us straight on how subs and transports really worked .

Although I know, from my mom, that her and my father tought me to play Candy Land, I have no memory of it. My grandmother teaching me backgammon and my great uncle from England teaching me cribbage are some on my earliest game memories. Interspersed are many games of Uno, Aggravation, Flounder, Rack-o, Careers, and Life (the proper one with Linkletter promissory notes).

Looking back games have been pretty big in the background, something I hadn't thought of until now. Migration into old Avalon Hill games at 13ish was likely natural. I even taught my grandmother to play Gladiator. She did well incidentally.