Tristi Pinkston recently wrote about how she used Monopoly as a Learning Tool while homeschooling. My son purchased Monopoly Here and Now for a family Christmas Gift, and today we sat down and played it… for 6 hours. We did not watch the television, or listen to music, we just sat and played and laughed and competed heavily. Just as Tristi and her family learned a great deal of lessons while playing, we did as well.
The cool thing about the Here and Now version of Monopoly is that a few zeros were added to the monetary denominations and the property values are now through the roof. In addition, the names of many of the properties have changed. On your way around the board, you can now purchase Hollywood, Las Vegas, and Disneyworld.
In the modernization of Monopoly, there are new lessons to be learned. For example, if your computer is hit with a virus, the result could be costly, so guard your computer. If you participate in insider trading, you will to jail… directly to jail, and you can get a tax break for driving a hybrid car. These are just a few life lessons that we talked about in depth during those six hours of playing Monopoly Here and Now.
We also discussed how realistic, or not, the prices on the game board are. The income tax for instance, is accurate, being 10% of total income, or 2,000,000; whichever is less. (This also prompted a discussion of the very rich paying less taxes.) The prices for utilities like cell phone service and internet access were unreasonable and unrealistic. In addition, who rents Disney World? Most people just get a hotel room.
More so than lessons in legal and tax issues and the cost of living, we also learned a bit about ourselves. We learned that my daughter likes to keep cash on hand, got her money by chance, and luck with some minor investments. This did not allow for longevity. My son was strategic. He purchased properties in order to keep others from forming monopolies, and then locked down the most expensive corner of the board. While his strategy was good, his cash flow was low. I, on the other hand, made safe purchases and creative decisions and sacrifices to prevent bankruptcy. Finally, my husband, who walked away filthy rich, repeatedly risked his cash flow to make risky investments. In the end, he owned enough property, and had enough monopolies to bleed us all dry.
The conversation that followed this game involved money strategy and the value of playing it safe versus the payoff of taking risks. I highly recommend that you get into this level of discussion with your older kids, or young adults when playing Monopoly and Monopoly here and now. It is amazing the level of life discussions you can get into while just playing a game.