I won again! – JD, 4

We reviewed a new game this week. It’s called Dobble and it’s similar to snap, in that two players take half the pack each, turn one card over each, and the first one to spot the matching symbol puts both cards on the bottom of their pack. The winner is the player left holding all the cards at the end.

It’s an enjoyable game and JD picked it up quickly. Obviously I was giving him extra time to find the pair after I’d spotted it, but after a few rounds, he was finding some faster than I was. He was jumping up and down at each mini-victory and really enjoying himself, so I decided to start winning the odd round to make things more interesting. Uh oh.

Sulk

As soon as I spotted a pair before him, he looked crestfallen. A few rounds later, when I tried it again, he proclaimed, “I don’t like this game” and despite encouraging words about the importance of taking part – and the fact that he was winning by a mile overall anyway – the next round I won saw him pick up the pack, throw it on the floor and give it a swift kick – totally uncharacteristic behaviour.

JD can play a game for hours where the goal is steady progress. Equally, the boardgames we’ve played have passed without incident, perhaps because he’s more concerned with his own counters than how he’s performing in comparison to others.

So Dobble was his first experience of clear cut competition and naturally, he struggled with it.

Do high achievers make sore losers?

I suspect it gave him a shock because its at odds with his experiences with learning thus far – he picks things up very quickly, flies through preschool numeracy/literacy challenges and when it comes to things like building Lego Hero Factory creatures, he’s streets ahead of me. I guess he just hadn’t experienced real competition before, complete with little victories and defeats.

We put Dobble aside for a few days and then returned to it. This time he was more willing to accept he wouldn’t win every round, though he still struggled when he thought his pile might actually be smaller than mine. We’ll keep playing.

Of course, he’s at the beginning of his learning journey – he doesn’t even start school until September – so I’ve no concerns, but I’d be interested to know, when did your little ones get the hang of winning and losing gracefully?

Disclosure: Esdevium Games Ltd sent us a copy of Dobble free of charge for review. All reviews and posts are 100% honest.