Wonders All Around

Learning Alongside My 5th Grade Wonders

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#SOL19 Day 12: Monopoly

“Let’s play I game,” I suggest.

Without a moment’s hesitation, pre-teen N shouts, “Monopoly!”

I suppress a groan, but E, the youngest, doesn’t have the same self-control. As if we can’t already tell what she is thinking, she snaps out, “You know I hate Monopoly!”

Let’s just say that this game doesn’t always bring out the best in some of our family members.

It seems like a 3-person game would take more effort at peacekeeping than I have me right now, so I tell E we can play a game of her choice later. She happily retreats to her own room, probably to start a new craft project.

As we set up the game, I tell N, “I don’t have time for a marathon game, so which shortened version do you want? Time limit? Auction?”

“Auction isn’t fun with only two people,” he interrupts, already starting a sour look on his face.

“Ok. I’ve got an idea,” I say as I take one property of each color and start shuffling them.

N tries to tell me all the reasons why he thinks passing out the properties randomly like this sucks all the excitement out of the game, but I ignore him and start passing out cards: Connecticut to N, so he gets all of the light blues; Illinois to me, so I get all of the reds. I keep passing out cards, and it works out that N gets his favorite sets of properties, Baltic/Mediterranean and Park Place/Boardwalk. Now, at least, N is willing to give this version a chance.

As I could have guessed, N immediately buys hotels for Baltic and Mediterranean. I buy a house for each of my red properties. Money changes hands many times as we land on each others’ properties. We try to negotiate trades with each other and share a bit of friendly trash talk.

Things start to turn bad for N when he lands on my railroads a couple of turns in a row and I avoid his light blue hotels more than once. He rolls triple-doubles and jokes about choosing to hang out in jail, hoping that I will land on a couple of his properties while he is safe for at least three turns from having to pay me.

Eventually, N hands over the last of his money and property as he lands, yet again, on one of my railroads.

“What’d you think?” I ask.

“I prefer the real version, but it wasn’t too bad.”

“I enjoyed playing together,” I reply. “Let’s do it again soon.”

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