How to Play Monopoly with Young Kids
If your kids are clamoring to play Monopoly at a young age, be glad. It's a great tool for learning to read and count (using the dice and money). But you may have to adjust the rules a bit to deal with a young child's attention span and temper. These creative tips may help you to have a successful game with young kids. But make yourself comfortable; you have to play too.
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Instructions
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Follow the instructions in the game for the Short Version. This really helps, and it is still not very short, so don't expect to always finish even the "short" game. Basically three property cards are dealt each player at the start of the game, and you can buy a hotel with three houses instead of four.
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Play the role of the banker. This game naturally goes faster when Mom or Dad, who can count much faster, plays banker, deals out the money and gives change.
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Help with the dice count and pawn moving as needed. Many young kids have trouble adding two dice together, even if they figure out by counting the little dots the number on each die. Give kids the useful tip that corner to corner is 10 moves; corner to the railroad space is five moves. They will probably not quite understand this and move space by space anyway.
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If kids are prone to tantrums, make it a rule that everyone shares the money in the middle when one person lands on the Free Parking space.
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Encourage kids to purchase all properties in one color, or "neighborhoods" so they can quickly build. Let them buy the missing properties from other players at a good price.
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"Cheat" by letting the bank help pay the fees when the players can't handle the high charges. The player who landed on the unlucky space pays all he can, according to his means, and the bank pays the rest. Of course, if you are out to instill the reality of losing, stick to the rules.
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