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Carol J. Michel

Award winner author of gardening humor books

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May Dreams Gardens

Games for Current and Future Gardeners

December 3, 2009 By Carol Michel 11 Comments

Remember when you were a baby boomer kid and you got a new board game? First thing you did was find the instructions and read them from beginning to end to see how to actually play the game.

And remember how complete those instructions were? They covered everything you could think of, including how to decide who should go first and whether to go clockwise or counter clockwise to figure out who went second.

Today, I own two such board games. Any guesses as to which ones? I’ll give you a hint… one of them ends with “opoly” and the other ends with “game”.

Need another hint?

Both start with “garden”.

Yes, that’s right, here at May Dreams Gardens, the only two board games in the house are “The Garden Game” and “Garden-opoly”. (Yet more clues that there might be a gardening geek around here…)

Both games are in mint condition, too, because I have yet to find anyone who really wants to play them with me. But they are nice to have just in case.

Now, have you ever seen kids get a new computer game to play in this day and age? The first thing they do is load it up on the computer and then start clicking on different parts of the screen to see what happens. They might click on a “?” in the upper right hand corner if they can’t figure something out right away, and that usually produces a screen showing key combinations that cause different things to happen. But they don’t stop to read any instructions, per se.

Yet somehow, kids figure the game out. I’ve seen it for myself.

A few weeks ago, I got a copy of the computer game Bugfarm™ to review. It’s geared toward ages 7 – 12 so I immediately thought of enlisting the help of my eight year old nephew to try this game out. He said he’d be happy to help! So on Thanksgiving, I loaded Bugfarm™ on to my laptop and took it with me to the family dinner.

After eating a huge big plate of turkey and all the fixin’s and topping it over with some chocolate cream pie, my nephew took over my laptop and proceeded to start playing Bugfarm™.

“Hey, do you think we ought to look at the website first and watch a demo of the game before you just start clicking on stuff”, I asked.

“Cool”, he said, not actually in response to my question, but because he had just encountered the first insect, a spined soldier bug.

The next thing I knew he was in the virtual potting shed loading up a virtual wheelbarrow with seeds, fertilizer and water and taking it all out to plant in a virtual garden patch. I don’t remember too much else, because at that point I wandered off to do something else, as clearly he didn’t need my help to read any instructions. I checked back later because he had drained the battery on the laptop and needed the power cord, and there was a giant spider and a bird on the screen that we all thought might try to eat the spined soldier bug.

Since he seemed to like the game, I gave him the DVD to take home and load on one of his family’s computers. Then a few days later I called over there to ask him if he still liked it. His older brother answered and said he’d go get him, but he wasn’t sure he could get him to come to the phone becuase was playing that game I gave him at Thanksgiving.

Finally my nephew came to the phone and said he was working on harvesting his vegetables and taking them to the market to sell. And he’d gotten the spined soldier bug to fly.

Yes, it appears that as he plays this game, he is actually learning something about insects, gardens and plants.

Overall, he gave Bugfarm™ a very solid four out of five stars. His only other comment was he wished it came in a version that he could play on his Nintendo DS.

Yeah, me, too, because then I would know exactly what to get him for Christmas.

As for me and my two board games, well, once I find a couple people who would like to play them, I’ll get out the instructions…

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: reviews

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Darla says

    December 3, 2009 at 10:47 am

    I dearly love this post…if I were closer I would play your board game with you…my girls would love Bug Farm, and I think I would too. Where can I purchase it?

    Reply
  2. Carol Michel says

    December 3, 2009 at 11:25 am

    Hi Darla, Thank you, and I'd invite you over to play them, too. As for Bugfarm, I believe the only place you can get it is from their website, http://www.bugfarm.com

    Reply
  3. Darla says

    December 3, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    Thanks Carol. You have one of the best blogs around, your topics are never boring!! (very intertaining)

    Reply
  4. CONEFLOWER says

    December 3, 2009 at 1:31 pm

    Loved your post, as I always do. I'd be happy to come over and play the two unused board games with you. I can't get my husband to sit still long enough to play any with me and even if he did, it wouldn't be garden games. Sniff….

    Reply
  5. Rose says

    December 3, 2009 at 1:34 pm

    My grandkids are often on my computer and searching for games to play so this sounds like the perfect game to buy for MY house!

    Carol, the next time I'm driving through central Indiana, if you are home and have some time, I'll gladly play Gardenopoly with you! Will we be buying greenhouses instead of hotels?

    Reply
  6. Mr. McGregor's Daughter says

    December 3, 2009 at 2:44 pm

    I would love for that to be a DS game. (My kids are very into playing with the DS.) I guess I'll have to get the girl Gardening Mama instead. I'll play Gardenopoly with you too. We have regular Monopoly, the special modern credit card version, and Dogopoly, but not Gardenopoly. I guess I'm not garden geeky enough.

    Reply
  7. Colleen Wms says

    December 3, 2009 at 3:01 pm

    I may have to check that game out. I always love your blog posts and photos.

    Carol, I have a "Best Blog" award for you on my blog. There is no pressure to participate though. I know some people do not have the time or just do not accept awards.
    Congratulations you deserve It!

    Reply
  8. Quintilian B. Nasty says

    December 3, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    A couple of years ago, we bought our daughter The Ladybug Game (for ages 3 and up). I highly recommend it for future gardeners.

    Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0008ELWYG/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=4449472875&ref=pd_sl_66bux9i0hn_b

    Reply
  9. Chloe m says

    December 3, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    Good topic! I wish we could get together to play these nerdy garden games…my kids would just scoff at me. Also, the puzzles in the cupboard? Maybe I should just compost them? All anyone ever wants to do is computer stuff and whizbangery.
    Rosey

    Reply
  10. Sherry at the Zoo says

    December 10, 2009 at 3:38 am

    Carol, I had no idea you owned gardenopoly! You should bring it along at Christmas and let's show those kids how REAL games are played!

    BTW…. Seth spent a solid 3 hours on that game the other day. I think they are on to something, but they really to make it for Nintendo so he can take it with him. Poor kid is last in line when it comes to computer time!

    Reply
  11. My Bambino says

    December 23, 2009 at 2:02 pm

    I love gardening and thank you sooooooooo much for sharing the information.

    Reply

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