As a parent, what do you think a good playing time with your child is? Does the time differ when it's two players or four or is it the same time regardless? I don't care what the "experts" say but rather would hear your answer for you and the childs attention span. Average age would be 5-6 years old: however, 4 and probably up to 8 would enjoy playing the game. I know attention spans will vary across the age differences. I'd like to see if I can come up with a good average with everyones answers. Playing Chutes and Ladders can be maddening if the game goes on too long for me!javascript:emoticon('the')
Very Happy
Thanks,
HR Pufenstuf
Question for parents of young children
Wed, 12/29/2004 - 22:02
Thu, 12/30/2004 - 01:48
#1
Question for parents of young children
I have a 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 yr old. As you might expect, the 6 1/2 yr old has a longer attention span for games than my youngest. Although I think the attention span of my youngest is perhaps largely dependent on whether he likes or is engaged appropriately by the game. If he doesn't like it or is bored, or if it's beyond him he'll just get up and walk away in the middle of it. That happens after about 10 minutes. We did play a card game today, three or four times. Each game lasted about 5 minutes.
My 6 1/2 yr old will play a game for about perhaps 30 minutes on average. Sometimes much longer - over an hour in some cases. It depends on the game. If the game takes a short amount of time, we often play it again, and again, and maybe even again.
You used the phrase "with your child." I'm assuming then that the game(s) your working on are meant to be played with parents and children, not necessarily just a bunch of kids. In this case, sometimes my patience for the game runs out before my kids'. The trick I find is trying to create a game that is enjoyable for both kids and parents.
Chip
Thu, 12/30/2004 - 02:33
#3
Question for parents of young children
Right from the mouth of three different companies, one of which I signed two games with. They want kid games or each round to max out at 12 minutes. I think it should be up to 16 to 20 minutes, but one of my games was avg. 20 minutes and they really wanted it, they had me make the board spaces count lower twice til I got the game play time under 13 minutes before we could move forward with a deal. So even if you feel like I do, watch your play time when dealing with games for the little ones.
good luck with the games you want to make
Thu, 12/30/2004 - 10:41
#4
Re: Question for parents of young children
jhager wrote:
HRPuffenstuf wrote:As a parent, what do you think a good playing time with your child is?
My 22-month old son has an attention span of less than 5 minutes. After a couple of minutes he likes to scatter the pieces and play 72-tile pickup (Carcassone) or 65-domino pickup. The only rule he follows is that we each take turns. There are no winners or losers, but he has connected 4 pieces in connect 4.
I imagine in another 6 to 14 months we will be playing more serious games like Settlers. I'll let you know if his attention span gets any better when we start playing these games. :)
Jonathan
PS The attention span of less than 5 minutes extends beyond games. It also applies to TV, reading books, eating and watching homestarrunner animations on the computer.
PPS If you don't believe me check out the video posted here: http://www.hagerfamily.com/Preston/PrestonPlaying.html
Jonathan,
I have a 31 month old, and he is smarter than I had could have imagined he would be by this age; however with that being said, I can't imagine him playing Settlers any time soon, much less Carcassonne. For one thing he lacks the basic math skills to play such games. He can count, but that's all he's really doing; counting. Are you saying your 22 month old can actually perform the necessary addition to play Carc? That would be amazing indeed.
-Darke
Thu, 12/30/2004 - 14:28
#6
Question for parents of young children
For hrpuffenstuf, No problem,I've already mentioned the games to the members. 1st Scooby Doo; travel game (card game) and Robots the game ( board game). Jan 2005 & mar. 2005. Can't wait, seems like forever.Oh Briarpatch inc.
Thu, 12/30/2004 - 14:45
#7
Question for parents of young children
My 3.5 year old will play games (Chutes&Ladders, Candyland, etc) by the rules for about 5 minutes, and will then proceed to use the playing pieces as characters in imaginative play scenarios.
I was also shocked to hear about Jonathan's 22 month-old Carc player! My daughter and I have played with Carc pieces since she was about two (her current favorite game is having the green pieces be "Larry the Cucumber" and the red pieces be "Bob the Tomato" from the "VeggieTales" series, and the tiles are used to make a "house" for them), but she's still a couple of years away from being able to play the game by the rules, I think. Oh, and she, too, is a genius, just like everyone else's kids!
-Jeff
Thu, 12/30/2004 - 18:29
#8
Re: Question for parents of young children
Darkehorse wrote:
Are you saying your 22 month old can actually perform the necessary addition to play Carc? That would be amazing indeed.
No, I am saying that we play with the game components. We do not actually follow any rules. We will lay a couple of tiles without following any rules and then after a couple of minutes, he'll move onto something else.
He likes the things that daddy likes and wants to play with them too. I use dominos, Carc or connect-four because the games have durable components. The meeples and connect-four pieces are choking hazards, so I watching him closely as we play together. So far he has not tried to put them in his mouth.
I was joking about him playing Settlers in a couple of months. Although, it wouldn't surprise me if by the time he is 3 he can line up the Carc tiles correctly (City-to-City and Road-to-Road). At that time, I plan on creating a Carc Junior set by removing some tiles and simplifying the scoring mechanic.
Jonathan
My 22-month old son has an attention span of less than 5 minutes. After a couple of minutes he likes to scatter the pieces and play 72-tile pickup (Carcassone) or 65-domino pickup. The only rule he follows is that we each take turns. There are no winners or losers, but he has connected 4 pieces in connect 4.
I imagine in another 6 to 14 months we will be playing more serious games like Settlers. I'll let you know if his attention span gets any better when we start playing these games. :)
Jonathan
PS The attention span of less than 5 minutes extends beyond games. It also applies to TV, reading books, eating and watching homestarrunner animations on the computer.
PPS If you don't believe me check out the video posted here: http://www.hagerfamily.com/Preston/PrestonPlaying.html