by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: July 17, 2009   Last Updated: July 31, 2009

Have you ever had one of those rain filled days, when the sky opens, and the electricity goes, and all technology grinds to a halt ? Ever wondered what to do with the kids to keep them occupied ? Well, that is the kind of event that I keep my Uno cards for. Bored minds with nothing to do can be tiresome, and these cards work wonders, both in this situation or in a situation of boredom like travel. Often I travel on the ferry between the UK and France with a pack of Uno cards in my bag because there will always be someone that wants to kill time, and being occupied and having fun is a far better way to pass time than to sit bored out of your brain, watching the clock.

Uno is a good card game. Unlike classic card games, I believe it has a universal fun factor, and is so easily explained that it actually breaks the ice between kids of different nationalities, in that it is extremely simple, and can be made as complex as you like within the framework of the rules, though even here, we have adapted the rules to suit ourselves a bit. I often play with French kids, and their enjoyment is never disadvantaged by misunderstanding the rules since they really are simple.

The pack consists of a variety of cards of four different colors, the majority with numbers on them. These are the mainstay cards that make the game. The fun cards are the little bonus ones that can be played in order to slow down the process of someone who thinks that they are about to win. It's mischievous, and it's fun and addictive, and better played with more than two players, since a two player game limits the way in which the bonus cards work.

Let's try and explain. The rules say that each player has 7 cards. We don't when we play because we like being different. We have ten to fifteen cards each, dependent upon mood. The idea is to play your cards and be the first one to get rid of all the cards onto an open deck, either matching number or color, and although it sounds rather boring it isn't. What breaks up what would be an otherwise monotonous game are cards which change the direction of play, make the next person miss a go, cards where you get to chose a different color, or the ones that force the opponent to pick up extra cards.

How intelligent you want to the play the game is choice really, and I have played it with very small children and found that it actually aids reinforcement of colors and numbers, although the pack's 6 and 9 are very similar (the six having a line underneath it to

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