Board Games and Learning
In a techno-savvy world, it seems that old-fashioned board games have gone the way of the dodo. But before you put those old games out to the curb, you might want to reconsider the value of playing board games together as a family.
Playing board games is more than just an alternative way to spend TV-free quality time together. From manual dexterity to memory enhancement, board games help to develop skills that are necessary both in and out of a classroom.
And you thought that board games were just a fun way to pass time!
The best part is of playing board games that your kids will be so busy having fun that they won’t even know that they are learning!
Take a look at some of the school skills that board games enhance:
- problem solving
- identifying patterns
- quick thinking
- anticipation skills
- vocabulary skills
- math skills
- confidence building
- risk-taking
- persistence
- deduction
- memory
- decision making
- team work
Take those board games off the shelf and dust them off—they are more than old-fashioned games, they are great learning tools!
What are some of your family’s favorite board games? We’d love to know!
Rummikub is an excellent game of math and number combinations. You make your own combinations and then take the game pieces of others to complete more combinations. Available at Toys R Us.
As a teacher, Pass the Bomb is a big hit with my kids. Kids love the excitement of having to create a word before the bomb goes off. When it comes to learning, nothing beats fun.
Our private school have started using this game: it teaches everything to our young boys: http://www.redbaronshop.co.uk The Air Knights This is excellent for 9 year olds and above: they learn how to make the board, pieces (planes) and they learn history. The rules make it a very challenging game yet very simple. I highly recommend it.
How can i get a board game for example scrabble.
Hello Adetunji, in Canada, most of these games are available widely at stores like Walmart, Sears, The Bay and other department stores. You can also play many of them online. Yahoo has many word games: games.yahoo.com/word-games Scrabulous (very similar to Scrabble): http://www.scrabulous.com/ Joe
Chess can also be integrated into math in bringing interests into math. A life of love to learn when children know how to play chess. We can make math worksheets much more interesting by integratiing both math and chess together.
I motivate my students to use their text book articles to create questions and develp their own board games. They have a lot of fun, become very creative and review the class material almost unconciously.
You can try some new games that offer many of the skills we want our children to learn. Games by Griddly Games: Griddly Headz Family Strategy Games with different sports themes, baseball, NASCAR racing, hockey and soon football as well as Wise Alec, a family trivia game that offers 2 levels of play and a lot of fun.
I make simple board games related to the concepts being taught in class.I create theme based games i.e number games and dice games on card paper in coloured print outs and finally laminate them for long lasting use.These games are designed one step higher than routine lesson, so,progression in their learning is also assessed through these learning games.