5 Tips for playing Purrfect Pursuit to make the game more fun and rewarding

1. Use different question categories

The six different categories in Purrfect Pursuit have been selected to facilitate understanding, reflection, and development of six key child developmental areas: Emotional intelligence, Coping strategies, Family, Social, Self, and Fun. However, depending on the strengths and needs of you child/children, you can mix and match categories or choose to focus on a specific area by selecting that category's question cards when setting up the game. For example, if you’d like to know more about how your child’s social skills and development focus on using cards from the social category.  

2. Setting a prize for the winner

Some children just love winning, however, others might need a small motivation boost to actively participate in the game. Particularly kids who may be shy or not used to talking about these topics with family members. However, adding a small price for the winner can give children an incentive to participate in the game leading to more conversation, discussion, and open communication whilst playing. The prize can be something physical such as their favourite dessert or screen time, or it can be something non tangible such as getting to choose what the family has for dinner or the next weekend family activity. 

3. Using follow up questions to expand the conversation

All of the questions in Purrfect Pursuits question cards are open ended questions that allow for players to give detailed answers instead of short one word answers. These questions may naturally lead to further conversation about the question on the card or the answer given. However, sometimes further discussion or conversation may not flow on naturally or we might get caught off by how children answer. This is when using follow up questions can help expand the conversation allowing it to flow on naturally which may lead to further discussion about the topic and how your child answered. For more info on how to use follow up questions effectively see this blog post. 

4. Short or long game

Purrfect Pursuit is a game that brings hours of endless family bonding and fun, however, sometimes you might not have a lot of time available to play or you have children that struggle to focus on a game for long periods. That’s why you can decide on the amount of treasure to win the game before playing. Use lower amounts (eg., 20 treasure) to have shorter games when time is tight and larger amounts to have longer games for more family bonding and fun (eg., 60 treasure). 

5. Model ideal behaviour in answering questions

Purrfect Pursuit is not only great for learning about your children and helping them build introspection, but it can bring opportunities for parents to model positive behaviours and show children ideal ways of answering difficult questions, reacting to surprising answers, and navigating disagreements that may arise whilst playing the game. Parents can also use the game as subtle teaching moments when answering questions by describing how they managed difficult emotions, situations, or challenges in their own lives and experiences.