Best Self Family Post
Adventures In Candyland
9/2/17
Candy Land by HASBRO was first sold in 1949 by Milton Bradley and sells about one million copies per year. In my work with children, it’s been one of my absolute favorites from the start! It’s also the one I recommend most often for families to play at home.
What child doesn’t love candy? A game centered around sweet treats brings easy appeal. This game is great at sustaining a child’s attention with its vibrant colors, exciting twists and interesting characters. I like to add in a few extra steps, to make this fun game double as a therapeutic activity.
This is super helpful for kids who don’t like to talk about their feelings or don’t yet know how to. It’s so important to help them break through those walls, otherwise you will see those feelings show up elsewhere (sometimes as problem behaviors). Playing the game this way is a great way to support your chid’s emotional development. It also promotes trust and strengthens bonds.
Where to start? Review the standard rules of play, according to the game directions. Then add in this special rule: we will match each color with a feeling word, and whichever card we get, we share a story about when we felt that way while we travel down the path. These are the color pairs I typically use:
Color + Feeling Pair Recommendations:
- Yellow; Happy
- Blue; Sad
- Purple; Proud
- Orange; Nervous/Scared
- Green; Excited/Jealous
- Picture Cards; Kid’s Choice/Funny Story
Parents, take this opportunity to validate your child’s emotions and always thank them for sharing with you. Whenever possible, follow up expressions of negative emotion with a positive way of coping. For example, “I would feel angry too if someone hurt me. If that happens again, what can you do?”. Model responses you would like them to learn, by sharing what you would do. Talk about the the characters around the board, identifying which feeling they might be having and why. Don’t forget a lesson a how to cope with the surprise picture cards; that make us go forward (exciting), but also backward (frustrating).
Keep the game fresh by encouraging your child to share a new story each time they arrive at the same color. If you’re in a time crunch or your child has a short attention span, you can always agree to share stories only until you hit a certain point in the game. For example, “As soon as we reach the Licorice Lagoon, we will stop our stories for now and race to the top of the mountain!”.
For older children, closer to age 8-10, you can use more sophisticated emotion words for the color pairings. You can also encourage them to update them from time to time. This helps further develop their emotional vocabulary and keep them comfortable expressing themselves. Even the children who resist at first, almost always come back for more!
I hope you have fun playing with your family!