Family Time February – Monopoly

During the month of February, I am featuring games that our family has enjoyed over the years.  February is a great time of year to get cozy with your family and play some games.  I guarantee there will be lots of laughs and memories made.  

MONOPOLY is THE classic family board and is one of our family’s favorites.  This was one I played all the time growing up….yes with my dolls and stuffed animals….but I still played it fairly! Ha! Ha! I remember starting a game on Saturday morning while watching cartoons and finally finishing it up Sunday night before I went to bed….leaving it out on the living room floor all weekend.  Now our family is doing the same thing.  We will start a game and continue it until it is done over the course of a day or two. 

MONOPOLY is a game of luck, change, wheeling and dealing.  You travel around the board buying up properties.  As you land on purchased properties you must pay rent to the other players.  There are other pitfalls along the way; luxury tax, income tax, and cards that require you to pay or maybe, if you are lucky, receive money.  As you build up your property stash, you can then wheel and deal and purchase houses and hotels to require more rent. 

This is not a quick game.  As I said, depending on how many have been playing it can take 1 or more days to truly finish it out.  If your time is limited, you can set a time limit or end it after properties are all purchased or whatever works for your family. 

Monopoly is great for teaching your kids about money.  You frequently have to figure change and you can role play how you would count the money back to the person.  (This seems to be a lost art in our computer generated customer service world, sadly.)

Monopoly is for 2-8 players and for those ages 8 and up, but we have been playing with our kids since they were 6 or so.  Monopoly has several different versions as well to meet this needs of all kinds of players.  You can get Monopoly themed to your favorite city, favorite sports team,  or favorite cartoon character.  There are also several versions including electronic banking, here and now, or monopoly deal.  We like the Here and Now version for a change once in a while.  The money amounts are more realistic and the properties are new, like Disney World.  We also have Monoply Deal which our sons like to play but isn’t my favorite.  It is a card game similiar to Monopoly but can be confusing…at least for me.

You can get MONOPOLY at Hasbro HERE for $14.99 or at your local discount store, often times for much cheaper if you watch for sales.