Whoonu

I've been a fan of Cranium games for awhile.  We loved the Treasure Hunt game when the kids were younger--lots of fun surprises plus everyone works toward a common goal which is nice; now I'm a huge fan of Whoonu.  It's a simple game where there's a pile of cards with various things on them (waffles, reading the newspaper, weddings, fizzy drinks, jumping rope, ...) and in every round the object is for people to guess the favorite things of the person who's 'it.'  You select one or two of the random cards in your hand--the things you think 'it' would love best--and put them in a secret envelope along with everyone else's picks from their own randomly drawn sets of cards.  Then the person who's 'it' looks at all the cards and organizes them in a row--from their most favorite to their least favorite.  And then people get points based on how high up their own guesses were in the heirarchy.  It's a simple premise, but here's why I love it:  It inspires loads of conversation, and there's so much room for surprises.  My nine year old son has complained about living in Brooklyn as long as he's been old enough to complain. Brooklyn's boring, why can't we live in Ohio where it's exciting?  Why can't we have a driveway, kids in Ohio are so lucky...Brooklyn's so boring.  I might have eventually figured out that he was warming up to his city-surroundings, but maybe not, given his 'glass half-empty' personality.  But in a rousing game of Whoonu a few months ago he was given a pile of cards to consider:  Baseball games, hot dogs, sleeping late, watching tv, New York City.  As he sorted through them his face remained passive until he got to the New York City card and his eyes lit up, he beamed, and he plopped it down with a 'well definitely this is my most favorite!' and then organized the rest accordingly.  I was shocked at this dramatic shift.  He explained in a 'duh, mom' kind of tone that New York City's the most awesome place to live--and attributed much of it to the Giants winning the Superbowl and the Mets general awesomeness.  Thanks Whoonu.  I don't think anything could have been higher on his list than watching tv.  

RL