Finally taught my 8 year old to play Catan last weekend without her giving up halfway through

2 comments

2 Comments

Hold on, an 8 year old actually made it through a whole game of Catan? That is genuinely shocking to me. I've seen grown adults mentally check out after the first robber takes their only brick. The sheer patience required for that kind of resource management and trading is wild. Your kid must have the attention span of a zen master, because most adults I play with start checking their phones by turn three.

taraw1627d ago

Have you tried letting them pick which resource tokens go on the board? That helped a lot with my nephew around that age. We even let him help shuffle the development cards and announce whose turn it was next. I think the key is letting them feel like they're part of the game mechanics instead of just sitting there waiting for everyone else. We also kept the first few games really short by only playing to 7 points instead of 10. Eventually their focus builds up naturally once they start winning and trading on their own.