Last week was my nephew's fourth birthday and I had asked my sister for a list of present ideas (with 4 kids, it's hard to keep track of what toys they have). On the list was "Connect 4" which I thought was very apropos. On Sunday, I got to see how great this game was for all ages.
M and G (7 and 6 years old) already knew the game from school and played it "the real way" developing strategies to try to outsmart the other. B, the birthday boy, didn't quite get all the rules. For instance he'd exclaim that he had 4 if he made a 2 X 2 square or an "L" despite being shown the 3 ways to make "4" (horizontally, vertically and diagonally). Still a great way to get him counting and figuring different ways to make 4. He was also more cooperative than competitive: "Let's make 4 together!" Though, by the end, with some help, he was learning to block. M and B were also placing the tokens in the grid to create designs and creating colour sequences. Coco and K (both almost 2) had a blast practicing their fine motor skills filling all the slots. They quickly learned how to slide the bottom to send everything crashing down on the table which got a laugh every time.
There's so much more to "Connect 4" than I suspected! It will definitively make the list of "must have" games in our house.
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