Now that eleven year old children in England will have to be tested without a calculator in maths tests Monopoly seems a particularly good idea as a fun way to have an economics lesson. The children probably won't even know that this is an education. One will be the banker and all the players have to manage their spending and saving.

How to Play

Note this is a game for 2-8 players and it contains small pieces that could be dangerous to babies and young children. The age range is from seven to adults.

Pick out your playing piece from the very interesting choices. I'm partial to the little boot or the hat but there is a rather nice little car there too. Everyone puts their piece on the starting point, 'Go'.

Roll the two die in turn and the person with the highest score starts their move along the board. You'll pass major places in London, England. Here's the next educational gain - a localised geography lesson. This familiarity with our capital city can be no bad thing and hopefully, bring out a fondness for these places. I think this makes it better than other types of Monopoly sets. I had the Star Wars one but it was not the same as the old style game that I grew up with.

If you land on a street you are free to buy it. Get a set of streets and when you next land on your colour band you can buy a house and as the rounds go on up to four houses which can then be exchanged for the major money making hotels. Try to collect the streets that are in the same colour band. Brown is cheap to buy but produces the lowest rent.

Land on someone else's street or property and you must pay them rent. This can be devastatingly nasty if they have managed to buy houses or worse still hotels. Landing on these pre-owned streets could cost you so dear that you could become bankrupt and re-mortgaging properties will probably put you into terrible debt.

Watch out for being stuck in jail, if you land there or are forced to go by instruction from a chance card (which you have to pick up if you find yourself on the square that instructs you to take a chance card). I f you can't throw doubles from the two die then after three attempts you must pay to get out unless you are lucky enough to obtain a 'Get out of jail free' card on your travels around London. And you've probably had to forfeit the £200 you are entitle to every time you pass GO. Your luck could get worse and you could be fined a parking ticket. Confused? Well there are a lot of rules.

Maybe if more people played Monopoly they would learn to curb their greed in real life by not over-reaching themselves financially. Perhaps, if children are drawn away from the computer to the old-fashioned family game, they would learn much more about reality and not cast themselves into debt. Go bankrupt and it might as well be game over for you!

The downside:

Lots of rules

The game just goes on and on and on. I'm usually feed up by round three of the board.

I always seem to be the one who loses every penny and some.

This game makes me angry, bored and frustrated and some players could do with a lesson in good manners!

I love the idea of an educational toy that brings the family together but this can be a nasty, money grabbing, tedious and upsetting experience, possibly dependent on the mentality of those you play with.

I think it's a great game for thirty minutes to an hour maximum. After this I can't stand it.

I'd say buy it as every adult and child should experience this age old family tradition but if I'm asked to play, from now on, I'll say, only if I can stop my play in an hour and return all my assets to the bank. Monopoly can go from love it to hate it and though I appreciate it has advantages I soon end up in the 'hate it' group.

Currently on offer on the Amazon UK website. £7.74 instead of £14.99