Thank you, Dad

So, I think that I may hate the game of Chutes and Ladders. I loved it as a kid. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dad for playing it countless hours with me. My kids aren't really that big into games. We play them, but not a lot. Their favorite is definitely, Guess Who, but I digress. Collin and Cayla got Chutes and Ladders from someone a few years ago and I was excited to try it with them. Disaster. Check out this board:



So, first of all, the twins' counting was a little shakey, but I thought it was a great way to practice. Except that you can barely tell where the squares begin and end and the forward movement is a bit confusing. First you move to the right for 10 spaces, then you go up to the next row (a mini arrow lets you know this) and move to the left for 10 spaces, up one square, right 10 spaces, up, left 10 spaces . . . . for 100 spaces. And, if are on space 54 and forget if you are supposed to go right or left, just go toward space 55. Oh, yes, and if you land on a "chute" or "ladder", you must go down or up respectfully. But, don't go up chutes or down ladders. And, you can only go up the ladder if you land on the space where it begins, not if you land somewhere in the middle of the ladder. And, sometimes a lot of the game is spent sliding down chutes, so it can take awhile for someone to win. Needless to say, this game was stashed away in some corner closet and is still collecting dust in our house.

Fast forward to last week. I help out in Cayla's classroom for a few hours a week helping to run centers. I'm assigned a center and the kids rotate through 2 at a time, for 10 minutes each. It's fun. I'm able to see Cayla in the classroom setting and I get to know all her classmates and teachers. Well, it was fun until last week. I was assigned the "games" center. And what game do you think we were playing. Oh, yes, Chutes and Ladders. "It can't be that bad", I thought to myself. I only have 2 kids at a time and they are only there for 10 minutes. Here is my word of advice to you. If you are offered the opportunity to play Chutes and Ladders for an hour and 15 minutes with children who have mild cognitive impairments, politely decline and run far away. Aside from the challenges I had experienced 2 years ago with Collin and Cayla, I had:

• a girl who just wanted to pull all the cardboard people off their bases. And, boy was she quick.
  
• a few who kept spinning until they got a "6"
  
• a few who would only go up/down chutes/ladders that matched their character piece
  
• a boy who insisted on moving to the square of the number he had spun. (So, when he was on square 4 and spun a 3, he moved back to square 3 instead of moving onto 7.)
  
• a boy who threw a mini-tantrum because he wanted to be the white boy game piece and the other kid had already chosen it
  

Oh, and my daughter, who did pretty well and told me as she was switching to the next center that, "We have this game at home and I want to play it with you!!!!"