Amtrak flounders and airlines declare bankruptcy, Andy Warhol's artwork experiences another 15+ minutes of fame, and pundits ponder if we'll ever learn from history - and that's in real life! Board games can teach kids the fundamentals of transportation as business, art valuation, and history lessons; however, these games also cost a bit more because they're more sophisticated. Accordingly, cold hard strategy provides little room for warm and fuzzy feelings about each other at game's end - or is that a fallacy?

Since parents are usually sucked into the fun as well as into the problems involved with any board game, Cora and I offer some suggestions this week that might ease the angst involved with some strategy game purchases. Since additional game pieces and complex strategies mean that most of these games leave the little ones out, you might provide the younger set with inexpensive puzzles so that they keep small hands off equally small game pieces:

We like Silverton (Mayfair Games) best, because this game involves history, transportation, and mining/marketing - three major aspects to transportation. Players aged 12+ use surveyors to plot railroads and use prospectors to find mines. Then, players position gold, silver, and other commodities into the right markets at the right time for maximum profits. This is a great tool to passively teach management skills while kids learn about historic markets created in Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah during the mining boom era. Booms and busts can be related to current markets, also, so a trip back in time teaches that this market phenomenon isn't unusual. Playing time is about 4 hours.

Other railroad games such as those included in the Empire Builder line (Mayfair Games), among others, may appeal to you and we were intrigued with them as well. The maps and layouts teach children about geography, rail history, and strategy. The only problem is that the games use crayons to build infrastructures, and some of the crayons don't work well. For more information about this problem and its solutions, visit Shannon Appelcline's review on Australian Rails. Otherwise, the games included in these railroad series may prove fun for teens and adults and length of play time (about 3 hours) can improve attitudes during a rainy/snowy day.

Travel games such as the "10 Days" series (Out of the Box Games) include all sorts of transportation strategies. Plus, they take less time to play (about 30 minutes), and they are suited for players from age 8+. You could begin with 10 Days in the USA (link to another in-depth review) and progress next year to 10 Days in Africa, etc. These games are a great way to learn geography, as all are based on real-life maps, rather than on fantasy layouts.

Few options exist to teach children about art, artists, and the art world. Modern Art (Mayfair Games) is a game which is, unfortunately, based on fake rather than on real artists; therefore, if you want your child to learn more about real art and artists, you need to take her to the museum. However, if you want her to learn about auctions through board games, then this is the way to go. It takes about an hour for 2-4 players age 10+ to take turns as auctioneer. Is the sale based on the artists' past successes, or on the auctioneer's skills? One very passive lesson this game teaches, which may be its best component, is the willingness to break away from the pack. "Groupthink" may bog the game down, and individuality is prized.

The Carcassonne series of card/board games (Rio Grande Games) proved noteworthy, because they take little time to play (less than an hour), they can be played with as few as 2 and as many as 4 players, and the games are geared for ages 8+. Set against the background of Medieval France, the games light a small fire of fantasy for kids while they learn how to create trade environments. Carcassonne: The City received Appelcline's highest score, as it's the most recent and most improved game in the Carcassone series. Additionally, this game provides a precursor for younger kids who might discover that they delight in strategy games that may take hours - nay - months to play?

Cora, to my surprise, showed a keen interest in battle games as a kid, but I discovered that her interest wasn't in warfare as much as it was in games which seemed to last forever and that encouraged strong strategy skills. One game, Risk, was her favorite, but she had to "unlearn" some country names because she took the game so seriously that she applied her map knowledge from the game to actual schoolwork. Unfortunately, this process took time, and the game lost its flavor because Cora learned that it was "fake."

Therefore, when I choose games - especially games based on economics, trade, and settlement of foreign territories - I'm aware that my daughter has taken many of these games seriously throughout her short lifetime. Games that offer deep strategy and colonization ideals as well as games that seem light-hearted often shape how our kids think about their worlds. Additionally, the manner in which adults and children play games together might alter how children perceive parents and other adults. If you cheat or are mean-hearted when you play games with your kids, then don't expect to walk away from the game with warm and fuzzy feelings from your kid.

But, when it came down to a choice between TV time or game time as a method to teach Cora about how certain things in life function, I'll chose the latter hands down every time (even though my parents cheated all the time in gin rummy - I have witnesses). Plus, no matter how busy my teen becomes with other games, like shopping and boyfriends, it seems she always has time for a game of Scrabble with her mom. To find that one game amongst hundreds which provides a "warm and fuzzy" life-long link between you and your child is worth a good hunt for the "right" game in my opinion.

Until Next Week,
Linda Goin