cooperative games

[madrone]

Do you know any cooperative games? I really have a problem with competitive ones. I made up a Candyland version where we have to work together to get safely through the forest that my son likes a lot. We choose two cards per person that are our active play cards, but they are all of our cards as a group. We have to stay together within one color unit in order to make it through the forest safely. And we cannot use the cards like molasses because we will sink in the swamp. And no one can land on the dotted squares or we all lose because we lost that person. So we have to talk about our selection of cards to figure out how we can get through the forest safely. One of my son's friend's has mikado (pick up sticks). Anyone have ideas on how that could be played cooperatively? And my son knows the term freeze tag from a video. I have told him that I will have to figure out how to play that. Any ideas? And does anyone here have cooperative games that you could share the basics on how to play here?

[amamaslove]

Wow! I will never look at Candy Land the same way again.

Here is a great site for games http://familypastimes.com/
We have many of their games and play them over and over. Right now Round-up is getting a lot of play.

[thedevinemissm]

I love your take on Candy Land!

Though, I have to giggle, b/c DS LOVES to get the cards that send you back (we have the "Disney" version, so it's stuff like Peter Pan's hat), because he knows that means that the game takes longer. DS doesn't like to "win" anything because he doesn't want the game to be over!

How old are your kiddos???

[thedevinemissm]

Duh! : Now I see, they're 4 & 1. Sorry...

Your DS isn't much older than mine. Really, we kind of frame things from a "goal" perspective, though not necessarily cooperative. He loves Twister, we kind of take turns doing the spinner and jumping from colors. We don't really "end" the games, just kind of putter out. We also have a lot of "bingo" style and fill-the-board-by-drawing-objects games (think Lakeshore Learning-ish) that he enjoys. Following his lead, we've kind of tweaked it where if he doesn't have the item on his board, he sees if he is able find it on someone else's board. I guess, someone still technically "fills" their board first. However, everyone in the circle keeps drawing even if they are "finished". The goal of the game becomes to get everyone's board filled. Is this making sense???

I'm looking forward to seeing other responses you receive!!!!

[beanma]

cariboo island by cranium. technically according to the directions the person to put the last ball in the "tumbling tidepool" so the treasure chest opens is the winner, but we just play it so we all win when the treasure chest opens. it's fun and appropriate for ages 2-6 i'd say. my almost 3 year old loves it and my 5.5 year old, too. you don't have to read to play, but it does introduce the idea of letters. it should be widely available at any toy store.

[veganf]

My 4 yo is obsessed with the cooperative board game Harvest Time. We ordered it off Amazon.com.

[sleepypeanutsmom]

Yes, like veganf, I recommend Harvest Time. The same company also has quite a few games. My dd loves the "Max" game as well as Going to Grandmas.

[JenniferC]

We love our co-operative games (maybe more than we need since we stock them!). For your wee ones Harvest Time is great, Princess is very good too. Your son might like the Old Spider and Fly and the Secret Door .

[PiePie]

cranium hullaballo dvd game http://www.cranium.com/

[Flor]

I've used the New Games books from the seventies for outdoor non-competative games like tag.

http://www.amazon.com/New-Games-Book...e=UTF8&s=books

I also have one called more new games.

[oyemicanto]

DD has "A Walk in the Woods" and loves it.

[Starflower]

Subbing.

I just suggested last week that our co-op preschool purchase cooperative games when we replace the old games -- but I couldn't think of any at the time. Now I have some suggestions! Thanks!

And some to put on my own list, too, of course.

[LynnS6]

Family Pastimes makes a lot of great cooperative games. You can get them at many toy stores.

I also have found that often ds doesn't really care about the 'winning' or losing aspect. His defintion of 'winning' candyland was that he got a lot of 'special' cards. He didn't care about being sent back. Even with Monopoly Jr. he cares more about what properties he gets!

[madrone]

Thank you all for the suggestions. My children's ages were out of date but I have updated them. I don't get here very often. Sorry about that.

I will have to see about getting some of the suggested games for our family and will look into Family Pastimes' games.

[Mizelenius]

Most of the games from Haba are cooperative. I think their site specifically states if they are coop or competitive.

[carrots]

My kids like harvest time and the secret door too

[TripMom]

subbing:

[Ravin]

I got DD Harvest Time for Yule so we have it but haven't played it yet.

We have Rivers, Roads, and Rails, which is a matching game and can be played competitively OR cooperatively (we do it cooperatively and that's what the rules encourage). We also play Memory cooperatively (finding matches is a collaborative effort).

[Mamatohaleybug]

:

[nancy926]

Snail's Pace Race
Max
Cariboo