Connect 4 & More has several ways to play. We normally play the two player version, but tonight we played teams. The goal is to get four of your color in a row. The catch is you have to match the backgrounds to do that. Backgrounds can be black, light blue, dark blue, or any combination of two of those colors. If you cannot make a match you lose a turn and put that tile underneath the stack.
Me Want Cookies is a new to us game. There is an easy level and a harder level, (demonstrated below). Three cards are laid out next to each other. One player rolls the dice to see which desert to start with. All players follow the path from that desert to another desert. Then start with that desert on the next card and use the desert that path led to on the third card. The first player to grab the correct wooden desert wins the round.
It is a fun game. I will practice with Sabrina because she doesn't have the speed that the older players have.
Example: Using the cards above; if a cupcake was rolled, the players would follow the path from the cupcake to the ice cream. Then on the next card follow the path from the ice cream to the pie. Then on the third card follow the pie to whatever it leads to and grab the wooden piece first.
Octopus Garden is a nonconfrontational game, points are scored at the end. On your turn you buy a row of items from the market, replace those tiles from the drawbag, get paid for each oyster, design your garden, and if you have a starfish move it one tile closer to the nearest oyster, which it eats. So there is a lot going on.
Coral protects your oysters. 5 seagrass tiles together earns a sea horse worth 5 points. 3 Sea Anemone together gets you a clownfish worth 5 points. The more Relics the more points you get. Garbage is -2. Oysters are -1, though they give you pearls to buy stuff. Star fish eat oysters and make Feather Worms adjacent to or under them 0 points, but are worth 5 points each. It is a lot to remember.
I Sea 10! is a math game I got to help Sabrina increase her speed and practice simple math. Players take turns flipping over two tiles. If they add to 10 the first player to call out, "I Sea 10!" gets them. If they do not add to 10 they are left face up and can be used on future turns. The sharks eat your points, but that was really frustrating because there are a lot of sharks. We just ignore sharks.
I did not intend for her to play it with faster, older, more competitive players, but she wanted to play it tonight. It would be better for her to play with another kid about her age. I do use it as a solitaire game for her to practice both addition and subtraction. I also sometimes play just her and me to help her increase her speed, but I slow down for her.
Marie-Anne
