Playing is a fun activity, it doesn’t necessarily have a purpose and it is free. As we know, freedom attracts irresistibly through the opportunities of exploration it offers, thus nourishing our thirst for knowledge. When we begin to explore, learn and decide in a game, we also train for life, which can sometimes be seen as a game: as free, without a specific purpose, enjoyable and fun.
Exploration begins when we are young, when it is easy to learn that there are rules in this game, constraints meant to balance the chances for all participants and to define a path to reach some goals. How we get involved in the game obviously depends on how attractive those goals are to us. And if we are lucky enough to like them from the beginning, we have more chances to get involved and look for ways to solve, to concentrate and to follow both the details and the events evolution in the same time. Then we have the chance to get to know each other and face our emotions, such as the fear of losing, the joy of a bonus or the sadness of a computing failure.
However, at some point the rules will be contradicted because they will not be agreed at all times, and if they are not correct, they will surely be violated. The discussions and negotiations will present different perspectives, will allow us to weigh in the balance and observe the differences. If the discussions are free, then the rules become just a guide, a set of principles, as it is natural, and then the involvement is real.
I urge you to have this approach when playing Ograda or Fairy tales with the children!
That’s how I thought from the beginning when I was playing with my little girl and trying to find ways to open her horizon. I decided to start with the pony and all the other fun mats that I named and found them work to do, explaining to Tamara that I am an IT engineer and that I need some mechanisms to be able to get involved in games. That’s how we both decided that we could invent a game, we searched for ideas together and tried to put them into practice, we talked and established the principles: without rules, fun, surprises, “At the happy farm” – our first game, had already all the principles implemented. The rules were as non-existent, we followed an intuitive route, we played with the animals from a very small toy farm and we had drawn routes for birds, quadrupeds, people, we couldn’t get confused, I had the opportunity to show him the geometric figures for the first time and I was amazed to see how easily she learn them, as easy as the sense of arrows and bifurcations set.
Ograda is a game inspired by this first game and allows you to play it as it benefits you, below are some ideas and suggestions:
1. Why is it for 3+ years?
From the age of three children can be taught to count, the dice being an appropriate toy, they can learn the idea of a mechanism and have the opportunity to know new information. They can be taught what the difference is between duck and goose, yew and lamb, where the mule lives, how the crows migrate, their vegetables and fruits can be presented. The children have already developed a mechanism by which they memorize, with this game they will have the opportunity to practice and enjoy remembering what they have learned, while being encouraged to find deductive or creative mechanisms to win.
2. How do I control how long it lasts?
Depending on the players and their purpose, Ograda may have a different playing time. For example, if players are caught in an older dispute and are close opponents in value, the game should not last more than thirty minutes. This is where the players know what to do and do not waste any seconds between moves. However, when we play with young children and we aim to teach them more, the game can take a long time, a suggestion would be to reduce the number of cards put into play or to set a deadline for the winner to be decided.
3. Negotiate the rules!
As you saw above, you can set another time for the game, different from the result by strictly applying the rules. Also, you can choose if to guess or not the cards played when another player the other player by passing on red! Or you can agree if you consider or not the rhombus cards!
4. The yard is for all ages.
Like other memory games and Dual N-Back principles, Ograda causes us to focus and memorize in an undecided number of tracks. The flexible route and the multiple decision options make the game both more fun and complex, the interaction forcing the players to find safe ways to win. And there are some new things … Do you what is the purpose of all this structures, like gălbănaș or colejnă?
Let’s play!
