This holiday, by some strange twist of fate, the Vachette cleaned up in the board game department. Before gift giving started, she possessed zero boardgames. Now she has five.

As you can see, she got some classics, like Candyland and a pirate treasure take on Operation. Don’t Rock the Boat is comparable to Jenga but with penguin pirates. (Anyone detect a theme here?) Outfoxed is a bit like a cooperative version of Clue. And then there’s Robot Turtles, the game for little Programmers!.

Robot Turtles is, at time of writing, the most backed board game in Kickstarter history. I have to say I’m not surprised. With all the talk of STEM education these days, a game that promises to teach kids programming skills would be a natural hit. As I re-read those words that I just wrote, I can detect a hint of cynicism. Well, there is some cynicism there. It’s not that I have a problem with my child learning the fundamentals of programming. I just have different priorities right now. Like learning how to take turns, be a good sport, have fun, and not cheat. Not that she has made any overtures towards deliberate hoodwinkery.

In any case, I am not the programmer in our family, so it’s not obvious to me which programming skills the game is imparting to my daughter, but it’s a moot point. She likes the game, and I am grateful for a new activity for us to do together. And that’s all that really matters.