Have any of you game lovers, who have or have had young kids, gotten excited when your child gets to the point where he/she gets interested in and are capable of playing games, only to quickly learn the pain of the initial playing of the game while they learn to correctly play the game?  I have felt your pain!!

Over the past year or so my 4 year old daughter Reese has finally reached the point of being able to play games by the actual rules. Every time we learn a new game we start with our “family rules” to help her learn the game and understand it better.  Eventually we play by the correct rules and she can play independently and proudly.  Games that have crossed that independent (no longer painful) threshold so far..

Candyland (no more tears when she is ready to win but spins the ice cream sundae sending her back to the beginning on Minnie Mouse’s Candyland board).

Memory (she can easily beat me at this if she is not distracted)

Chutes and Ladders (She now has “deas” when we play changing the game making us go up the slides and down the ladders)

Sorry (She no longer always gets daddy out because she does not want to take out mommy)

She is a quick learner and a determined little girl!  Game after game success was in the air!

But then along came Guess Who.  This one was taking a LOT longer.  The new Guess Who has 4 different cards to play from (pets, sea creatures, food, and the original people card) and you get to choose what “who” you want to be.  For days we played several long painful games where she would just simply guess “Are you the snake?” “Are you the red dog?”.  Not interested in letting us help.  In addition she would refuse to “not” pick to be the same item each time.. Yellow cat, ice cream sundae, woman with white hair and seahorse..  EVERYTIME.  And if we didn’t play along like we did not know who or what she was, she would get upset.

Guess Who ended up on the shelf in the playroom until this past Sunday.  When she pulled it out I could feel the “pain” start already.  But this time she asked if she and I could be a team and play against Daddy.  This time she let me help her come up with questions and help her answer the ones given to her correctly.  She even agreed to pick new “whos” to be (although she would still announce it once she decided). Pain started subsiding.. we were getting somewhere.

Monday and Tuesday evening it came out again and this time she came up with her own questions!  A few times she even kept who she was a secret.  She slowly started to not need my help!

Last night Daddy was unavailable to play so Reese said she could do it herself.  And she did.  She kept who she was a secret, asked good questions, answered my question correctly and she beat me 3 out of the 4 games (we of course have to play each card at least once).  Before we packed up the game she wanted to play the “food” card one more time.  I definitely said yes!  She has got this!  This is so much fun- I always loved Guess Who!  We made it!!!  I asked my question.. “Do you have cheese on you?”  Right away she said “Nope!”, then stopped and said “Wait! Does a banana have cheese?”  I laughed and said “Have you ever had a banana that tasted like cheese??” She thought for a second, laughed and finally answered “Nope! Mine doesn’t have cheese!”

So maybe  Guess Who didn’t officially cross the threshold yet but after these past few nights playing with her, I think I love the game even more!