Risk

"Never get involved in a land war in Asia" - The Sicilian "Princess Bride"

One of the best ways to furnish your house in DC is to spend some time aimlessly wandering the back streets. You can get a sofa, chairs, TV, lamps, bed frames, kitchen cabinets, window air conditioners, shelves etc. etc. Just leave the mattresses where you see them.

My most recent discovery was a copy of Risk/Castle Risk that someone left out for the taking. They also left out a copy of SceneIt but someone had already looted the DVD out of it.

Risk is a very educational game.
Geography for example. I know that I'd have no idea where Kamchatka is if I hadn't spent so much time invading across the Bering Strait.
You can also learn tactics. Even if you've never heard of Napoleon or Hitler you'll soon understand why Asia makes such a lousy battlefield.
With the right players it reinforces history lessons. "I just spent 25 armies on Vietnam! Why can't I beat them?" "Same reason the French, Americans, and Chinese couldn't keep it, punk."
And statistics... Can my four armies take your three or will your two dice carve up my three?

So when I saw it with a "free" sign on it I grabbed it. After a couple of weeks the weather cooled enough for me to catch the neighbor kids out and about. So I snagged them and we started a game. Their lives are very different than mine at that age so I knew they'd never played before. We only got through a couple of rounds before having to end the game. But the next night we got a four player game going in the middle of the sidewalk.

We started with the fast start method. This is where you deal all the cards and that's how territories are assigned. I had to help them. On a map of the world they couldn't find the United States, they couldn't find Australia, they couldn't find Africa. But by the end of the game they were starting to work out the continents at least.

Tactics were next. I had to spell out for them that by continually attacking until nothing was left they left themselves open to a slaughter. And if you don't want to attack places with a bunch of armies then others won't want to attack you where you have a mass of armies.

My favorite part was watching the twins. They decided early on to work together. But being brothers that didn't last. They were driven to destroy each other while I hunkered in Australia waiting to swarm out and rain death. Charles learned the value of striking at weak points but he always fought until he had nothing left to attack with. This left him open to easy slaughter.

The twins really got into it. I mean, they're just starting 10th grade and can barely read, but they were getting their countries down and really getting into the game. Charles was running around when he wasn't playing and quit when he saw he was gonna lose. So when the twins asked to borrow it I gave it to them. Their siblings and cousins are gonna scatter pieces everywhere and ruin the cards, but until that happens the two of them should be tricked into learning something.