This past Christmas, my family spent a lot of time playing games together. We typically played a crossword-spelling type game, but other games such as the good old standbys that I played as a kid also came out of the closet. My wife and I have 5 children and after spending a great deal on video games this Christmas, and then sitting in my living room watching my children play video games, we quickly became disgruntled with the whole situation.
It was at that time, that we decided to break out the board games so that our children have other forms of entertainment. After all, it isn’t the kids’ fault that they have a 5 second attention span. They need to keep moving and they need to learn how to entertain themselves. I just don’t think that it is Nintendo’s obligation to keep my children entertained.
As a Math teacher at the local high school, I often discuss with my colleagues about problem solving skills.
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Of course there is the probability logic of rolling dice. If you roll dice enough, you naturally think about your odds of rolling two sixes or two fives. It is a natural progression when you play any dice rolling game. Just like when you play card games, at some point you stop think about how to follow the rules, and you begin to think about what the probability that your opponent has a specific card in their hand. That is the corner that must be turned to begin winning. Dice rolling, follows the same logic.
At an earlier age, dice rolling reinforces counting principles.
Counting the spots on the dice and then counting the number of spaces to move is an excellent way to get your kid a head start on kindergarten. As the child plays a the game more, they start thinking about what they would need to get to a certain space. This then become addition and subtraction. At some point they start thinking about how many dice rolls it would take to get to a certain point. This skill is division. These are all very important developmental problems tat a child can learn from playing a board game.
The other issue that board games can help with is the social process of winning and losing. Many kids in our high school do not have the social skills needed to play sports or to succeed in the cut-throat social environment of the high school hallways. Games again can help with this social process. I can tell you from experience that a 6 or 7 year that loses at game must learn to eventually lose gracefully or he won’t find other people to play that game with them. The same can be said about winning. If you don’t win gracefully, pretty soon people will not want to play games with you. How important is that skill.
Parents, guardians, uncles, and aunts, break out those old board games and help the children in your lives learn some valuable life skills. I think you will be surprised how much they can benefit from them.