By: Shannon Brandon-Best
Staff Writer/Preserving Your Harvest
The Archery Trade Association (ATA) created their Explore Bowhunting curriculum to increase interest in today’s youth for bowhunting. Part of that curriculum is the White’s Tale Board Game. This is a 2-6 player game, ages 8 and up, where each player competes as an adult whitetail deer moving through the fours seasons. Everyone tries to have the right resources available to be the first to reproduce and have five fawns, thus winning and ending the game.They also include a vocabulary list of words such as; bleat, cud, estrus, buck rub, sparring and tick and include the meanings. These are included in the different LIFE cards you can pick from.
As a mother of four, I am always looking to engage my children in a board game. The
White’s Tale game is perfect for our family’s game day. With six deer to pick from (3 does and 3 bucks) there is a play piece for each member of our family. Lush, vibrant landscapes of the four seasons are probably the first thing you will notice when you check out The White’s Tale game. This game really brings its theme home. The artwork and the simple, yet curious, game play make me really want to get our family out in the woods.
Play goes clock wise as players take turns rolling the die moving their deer forward trying to land on water and food spaces. Lucky rollers will land on mating spaces which will give them a fawn. But watch out for the chance spaces, just as in life, a chance may give you great reward or may leave you back at start trying to catch up with the herd. Some of the chance cards have you lose water chips, food points or even fawns. Land on a life space and get a glimpse in to a deer’s trials of life; spar, encountering a hunter, crossing a busy highway or finding new feeding areas. As we pulled life cards, and some of them were stumping the younger children, so I allowed all the children to work together to help answer ones they do not know with the child pulling the card giving the answer. This is a great way for our children that are more experienced in the woods to teach the less experienced ones in a fun team building way.
The more food and water you have in your stock pile the better chance you have of winning, just like life for a whitetail. As you move through the seasons you will get in to Spring where you enter fawning time, here is where all the food and water comes into play. If you were lucky enough to hold on to enough food and water you can trade in for a fawn or even two.
If you are looking for a fun family game to engage your outdoor enthusiast The White’s Tale is the game for you. For more information on this game visit http://www.archerytrade.org/news/ata-makes-learning-childs-play. You can purchase your own game online, with a simple search, for the MSRP of $19.99. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this game goes toward the development and support of future outdoor education materials and programs.
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