Recently I had the unique opportunity to take a look at a really special board game.  I’m not talking about Candyland or Monopoly.

This is a game geared towards special needs children and helping them develop social skills.

The point of the game is pretty straight forward and simple.  You spin the wheel and move accordingly, answering questions and collecting little red chips along the way.

The questions are in 3 different categories, feeling, doing and talking.

The Feelingquestions are geared towards getting the child to better understand feelings. Here’s an example question.

A boy’s mother bought ice cream for his sister but not for him. How did he feel? Why do you think she didn’t buy him any ice cream?

The doingquestions are geared towards towards helping the child to better understand and express emotions and the reasons behind them. Here’s an example question.

Make believe you’re crying. What are you crying about?

The final category, Thinking, is designed to help the child better understand themselves. This is an example of the questions in this category.

A child passes a note to another child. The note says something about you. What does the note say?

I’ll be very honest with you here. When the Lost and Tired family sat down to play this game, we didn’t get very far. The reason for this is because even though the box says ages 2 – 6, these questions were confusing for my kids.

My kids are considered highly intelligent but they really couldn’t wrap their brains around these types of questions.

Having said that, this game would be fantastic in a school or clinical setting. In fact, Gavin explained that he played this exact game while he was in the psychiatric unit of Akron Children’s Hospital.

To me, that makes way more sense than using this in the home environment, especially with younger kids like Elliott and Emmett.

That’s certainly not to say that your child wouldn’t benefit from this at home. It just isn’t ideal for my 2 youngest. Gavin on the other hand, really seemed to enjoy it and is more likely to benefit from it.

Truthfully, I would love to see this game in my kids school.

I could see this being of great benefit, especially in the social skills classes.

I feel that this game has much to offer the right people, in the right environment. It’s just not for us, at home.

However, I will also be hosting a giveaway. The winner will receive their own Talking, Thinking and Feeling Game, direct from Childswork.

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This is definitely geared more for the younger crowd.  I was just wondering what your kids like to do for fun? Do they have a favorite toy, video game, board game etc? This would be cool to talk about because it may help to give others ideas of different things to do. I love how my kids can be laser focused with certain things.  However, I do like for them to experience new things or try something they haven't tried before.  My kids are really into drawing, coloring, TMNT, Legos, Angry Birds and Bad Piggies. I would love to deepen the pool of things they can do for fun.  I'm always looking for fresh ideas. 

I wanted to share this with you fine folks and than ask you a question. Earlier this year,  Elliott's classroom was focusing on The Lorax, by Dr. Suess.  Elliott ate, slept and breathed The Lorax for a long time.  In fact, for trick or treat at school last week, Elliott was dressed as The Lorax, complete with orange (face paint) mustache. When I dropped him off at school, I said to him, I love you my Lorax. It's sorta stuck around and Elliott seems to like it.  It's become a term of endearment and it's very fitting for him.  The Lorax speaks for the trees and animals that have no voice of their own.  Elliott is always looking out for his brothers, especially Gavin.  When I say, I love you…

I fear that we are going to have to skip trick or treat this year. It's only 40°F, windy and it's raining.  The boys will be so incredibly disappointed but we're concerned about their wellbeing.  Assuming my paycheck cleared today, which it hasn't, we were going to take the boys to Chuck E Cheeses. However, perhaps we will have to try later on this week.  There has to be a point where you draw the line when it comes between safety and fun. Do you have an idea of where you would draw the line? Has weather conditions every caused you to have to cancel trick or treating for your kids?