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!

Playing was good for your child’s health and development. Well, not anymore, and especially not if they are playing with the hundreds of mass-produced, foreign-made toys that can actually be detrimental to a child’s physical well being. Small, removable parts and toxic chemicals used in the manufacturing process had lead to some recent high-profile toy recalls—at least two recalls in the last two weeks.

The health and safety guidelines of toy manufacturing aside, the popularity of these foreign-made, cheaply produced types of toys is a larger issue. The fact that these toys are so popular means that there is demand—that these toys are in homes across the globe. And that’s concerning because the more intricate and detailed the toy, the less imagination is required to play with it. All the various small parts and add-ons, extra bits and support toys mean that every possibility and variable for play is thought of. Sure, it’s a great merchandising tactic, but it creates a scenario where children are less mentally active during playtime—and that’s a dangerous habit to fall into during the childhood years where play makes up a large part of a child’s mental development.

There are several grassroots movements supporting a return to simpler, homemade toys that are not only well made and durable, but also local and toxin-free. They promote the type of toys that are meant to support a child’s imagination process, not replace it.

If you are looking for a virtually free, non-toxic, recyclable, toy that is easy to access and provides hours of imagination-filled play that stimulates and promotes cognitive development there is always the old favorites—the cardboard box, the backyard, playground equipment.

The only toys that children need are those that run on brainpower, not battery power.

Amid the welter of decibel-topping noise generated by violent and intense computer games, the Internet, TV and loud music shrieking from the stereo, I wondered whatever happened to a carefree childhood?

As I watch my neighbors hustle their bleary-eyed children from competitive dance to nightly karate to little league and 5 am ice rink calls and scheduled play times, I really wonder.

I wonder whatever happened to swinging from a rope? Or swimming in an inner tube? Hopscotch? Tag? Hula hoops? Marbles?

Whatever happened to a lazy, carefree summer days at the park and nights lying on your back in a field listening to crickets and just staring up at the stars?

I wonder about the joy of a childhood free of cares: the calm that precedes the onset of adolescent concerns.

Recently I came across an article ‘The lost art of childhood’ by Alex Williams of the New York Times in which he described what he calls a “burgeoning interest in old fashioned games” and unstructured play.

He says the field is growing because many “are spurred by concerns that a decline in traditional play robs the imagination and inhibits social interaction”.

You can’t underestimate the important role of free, unstructured time and play in a child’s development. Yes, there is a time for school and learning and physical education, but in the growth and integration of the child’s cognitive and processing skills, the brain needs activity and time that is exploratory and without strict boundaries. While video games may be fun, they employ a level of intensity and mental engagement that doesn’t encourage creative and imaginative thinking.

Here’s proof

Perhaps the best indicator of a renewed interest in “play for play’s sake” is reflected in the skyrocketing sales of The Dangerous Book for Boys (Collins) by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden. It’s a deliberately nostalgic-style evocation of a simpler childhood, including such boyish skills as making a tree house, skipping stones, and crafting paper airplanes. Almost as soon as it was published, it rose to the number two spot on the best seller lists.

It seems parents are beginning to understand that a busier child is not necessarily a happy child.

What are your plans to make this summer an educational one? Summer school? Day camps? Lazy days at the beach? Whatever your plans, these tips make your summer both educational and fun!

• Read, read, read! Read a book, a magazine, or a comic book. Talk about what you have just read. Make connections, and look up unknown words. Make a chart to track the plot—the key is to think actively about the reading.
• Keep a journal or a scrapbook. Record the day’s activities, or start a short story and add a bit to it everyday.
• Play games. Games like Soduko, Crossword puzzles, or word games like Boggle, Scrabble, and Upwords are great to challenge the mind and keep it sharp over the summer.
• Play nature games. Gather materials from around you: a rock, a shell, a flower, an acorn, a penny, etc. Then arrange all the items and study them. Next, cover the items with a towel and ask players to remember as many items as they can. The one who remembers the most wins! Take turns gathering items.
• Write and perform a backyard play. Tape it, and then watch it together.
• Check out the great summer programs at your local Oxford Learning.

What are your summer learning plans? Let us know by leaving a comment!

Childhood is in serious trouble according to Dashka Slater on Salon.com

Consider the word FUN. Overly concerned with development, parents are sucking all the fun out of childhood. They say manners are fun! Brushing your teeth is fun! Homework is fun! And activities that used to be genuinely fun—building forts, horseplay, and puddle-jumping get described as “good for you” or educational. And activities as simple as pretending are now being observed and analyzed. Is my child playing house as well as other children?

But parents can hardly be to blame for this over-analysis of childhood when institutions like the Association for Psychological Science and the American Society of Pediatrics releasing studies on simple childhood behaviors such as horseplay.

Do institutions really need to study such a thing? Don’t we intrinsically know that horseplay is good for kids? Do we need formal research to prove it?

Do you remember roughhousing as a kid? Do you remember how much fun it was (except for that one time you accidentally hit your head off the coffee table?)

Why do we have to examine every behavior as beneficial to our child’s development or as advantageous to his or her future? And why do we even try to hold childhood up to this impossible standard? Yes school and schoolwork is serious business, but we’re talking play here.

Sometimes it’s okay to just let childhood be good clean puddle-jumping, frog-catching horse-playing fun.

Link:Dashka Slater ‘It’s all fun and games’ at Salon.com