How to Play Candyland

Candyland is a fun, simple board game for children designed to help with color recognition. It's a racing game in which those who play Candyland are sent from one space to another by drawing colored cards from the deck. The new version has changed its rules to make it even more user friendly, so players are now given the option of playing by classic or new rules. Either way, children will learn their colors and simple game play through Candyland.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Candyland board game

1. Select your playing piece (one of the colorful children), and place him or her on the starting space.

2. Choose who goes first. Some people like to decide using "Rock, Paper, Scissors," while others like to use the deck to decide. Using the deck requires choosing a color and declaring that whoever is the first to draw that color is the one who gets to go first.

3. Draw a card once it is your turn.

4. Move your piece to the first space that matches that color. This will always determine how far you move.

5. Be aware of the special spaces on the board. For instance, several of the colored spaces have dots on them. These dots indicate that a player is stuck on that space until she is able to draw another card matching that color. Other spaces are shortcuts that you can use to move to the space at the other end if you wish.

6. Move to the indicated building whenever you draw a card that matches a special location. For instance, if you draw Molasses Swamp, move your game piece directly to Molasses Swamp. This can be a large move if you draw it at the beginning of the game. Be aware, however, that the old rules allowed for you to move forward or backwards when drawing such cards, while the new rules do not permit moving backwards.

7. Continue playing until one player makes it to the finish line at the end of the board. This is done by drawing a card to a color that no longer exists on the board. As with the special location movement, the older rules offer a different variant: you are only able to win when you draw a card of the same color as the final square.

Tips & Warnings

• Play Candyland with your children to help them learn their colors, as well as teach them good sportsmanship.

• Avoid bending the cards so that they don't eventually give away what color they are. It becomes easy to identify cards by their condition, although this is really only a problem for older players of Candyland.