Back to Board Games

Amid all the talk of tech at this week's Kid's Marketing Mega Event (I hosted the Symposium on Media & Technology) I was surprised at how many times kids, parents and speakers mentioned family board game nights. No wonder Hasbro paid $77 million for Cranium.

Frequent mentions of scrapbooking, crafts, Crayolas and outdoor play convinced me that a counter-trend is in full flower. Parents and kids are valiently working to weigh down the anti-tech side of the scale with traditional amusements. Clearly, not all family time is spend gathered around the Wii.

Then I realized I had joined the trend, too. Last week, I had introduced my godchildren to Apples to Apples. They couldn't get enough of it--they never begged once to use my coveted laptop.

Wii Three Kings

In St. Charles, Illinois the most played-with present under my 10-year-old nephew's tree, was the versatile Wii. It stole the crown from the dinosaur kit, the talking globe (from last year), and the Pirateology book. It commanded the attention of three generations of family who were easily lured into trying their skills and who did not necessarily beat the youngest person in the house.

Universal tweens

While in London, I visited a family in Hammersmith Barnes: 11-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister--lovely, sociable kids living with a single Anglo-Guyanese mother.

They were perfect tweens. The boy loved his Wii, the Simpsons, soccer stars, and Playstation.The girl loved her iPod, Ashlee Simpson, Brittany Spears, Jamelia and Hannah Montana.

I offered them an Edgar & Ellen "Rare Beasts" Book. The boy's eyes lighted up. "I LOVE them!" He said. He had found Edgar & Ellen's "Under Town" and "High Wire" in his school library.

Now I'm crossing my fingers that Edgar joins Bart in his heart. And that his mainstream tastes predict that the twins will catch the big tween wave.

Wii gets the table, Playstation gets the floor

In a tiny rowhouse in Hammersmith, a mother who works seven days a week has managed to provide her two kids with every digital necessity. The 11-year-old boy's Wii rules his room's most prominent corner. He even uses it to search the web, as his 12-year-old his sister begrudges him computer time. Of course, she never lets him touch her iPod or CD player, either.

Finally, he has a bargaining chip. Unlike the kicked-aside Playstation and his box turtle, this the first posession he owns that she covets.