Australian Monopoly
We recently purchased The Australian Here & Now Edition of Monopoly. It’s been sitting in the cupboard unopened for a number of weeks, tormenting our children while we tried to find time to actually play it with them.
Usually we have a “Friday night Family night” but over the winter months, with being out late at sports training on a Thursday night and then having to leave early on a Saturday morning for sport, the games night went by the by.
So we brought this new game along with us on holidays, confident that without other distractions (eg a television), we’d find plenty of time to play.
However, we’ve been so busy since we left home that most nights we’ve pretty much fallen into bed after tea. It was starting to look as though the holiday would pass us by with the game still in it’s plastic wrap.
Determined not to let this happen, we snuck in a game after tea tonight.
As it turned out, I think this game will make a great caravan game. The board included a couple of places we’ve just visited this trip. The kids were having a great time looking at the locations on the board and discussing which one’s they’ve seen and which one’s they expect to see (eg on our trip next year). It had a lot more relevance than the traditional board game.
We also have a junior monopoly game which has been a great way to introduce counting money, change and so on to the kids. However, it was a bit of a jump in skill from junior monopoly to this version.
And I’m not just talking about the kids!!!
This version is all in millions and 10s and 100s of thousands. Kept my poor little brain going trying to work out the sums for that. A few more games and I’m sure I’ll be ready to be a millionaire!!! 
Trailer Boy was so cute counting all the dots on both dice to work out how many spaces he needed to move. He got a little bit upset though when he got sent to jail. I think 4 is a tad too young for Monopoly. But of course, being the youngest, he has to do what the “big kids” do.
I just love the way games help kids with their learning - and without them even realising.
They had so much fun we’re now having some trouble getting them to go to sleep. I think they’re a little hyped up and a little overtired.
I’d been planning on writing some more about the various attractions we’ve been going to but my head is a little weary after such big days so it may have to wait until we get back. We’ll have to see. I’m also struggling a bit with the internet access here so not sure how often I can get online. Will do what I can as I can.
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Awesome!!!
I want Australian Monopoly!!!
Jack and I were really into Monopoly a year or so ago. It’s great for learning math. I think it’s pretty much how he learned addition.
What is your Monopoly jr. like? I know here we have a couple of versions. We had the one where you own amusement park rides. We started with that and then moved onto regular Monopoly. We have the Disney and Simpsons versions. We don’t need anymore, but I really desire the Australian one.
I just love Monopoly. We haven’t played it with the kids in a while, might have to aim for that this holidays. Scott is a real entrepenuer, beats us all every time. Steph and I like to spend too much! Lucky we aren’t like that in real life
Monopoly is my all time favourite board game, but my husband refuses to play with me. I am holding out hope that I have kids that love games as much as I do so that I will have some people to play with me
Dina - our junior monopoly is a Shrek version. You would indeed enjoy the Australian Monopoly. Are you bringing an extra suitcase when you come out for taking back Aussie goodies?
Sharon - I thought spending was the way to win Monopoly? We used to play it a lot as kids. Takes forever though. We just play on a time limit version with the kids.
Tamsyn - I think all kids love games. Particularly if they’re brought up playing them.
Although I love monopoly (I have 2 different Star Wars, Star Trek, Classic, Danish here and now, Malaysian Here and Now, Australian Here and Now, Indiana Jones, Transformers … and some others) - the drawback is (when playing with kids) that it takes 2-4 hours to complete a game. The electronic editions are less fiddly and quicker (you use a “Credit Card” to keep track of your balance) but also less enoyable. Most people don’t play with all the rules - which does speed it up, but makes it a lot more complicated.