Why Board Games are important for the family
One of my most cherished childhood memories- playing snakes and Ladders with my grandmother. The feeling of joy when the pawn would climb up the ladder and the painful sigh when the pawn had to slide down the snakes’ back – These are memories that still make me smile on the gloomiest of days and memories I hold so close to my heart.
Fortunate was my generation to have so little exposure to technology and board games still ruling the world of indoor games.
So, when I had kids, I got them hooked onto board games too, and look, here I am writing about it!
Board games helped my husband and me find a balance between screen-time and screen-free time for the kids and with the kids. To our surprise, our kids loved it. It proved to be a perfect way for one on one bonding, as we all had each-others full attention.
Ever played a game of Monopoly?
Nothing as awful as paying a big rent to another for parking a pawn in their property, and nothing as thrilling as when their pawn comes on your property, thrice in a row, and you get twice your faux money back!
One of the effects of playing board games is laughter which increases endorphin level, and this is known to elevate the feeling of happiness.
My husband and I used board games to teach or kids basics like colours (Colour Word hunt, Coloured Blocks, UNO, Flash Cards), counting (Number fun, Tambola), spellings (Scrabble, Word Hunt) and simple addition and subtraction (Snakes and Ladder).
Not just educational stuff, kids learn things like hand-eye coordination, motor skills and most of all patience (as they have to wait for their turn) and importance to follow rules. These are life lessons that would come in handy all their life.
There are games for grownup kids too, like Clue, Pictionary, Chess, Card Games, Risk, Abalone, etc, that help in brain development and enhance their planning, strategising and organising skills. Plus, they also teach the kids to make good decisions.
A wrong decision in a game of Solitaire would make you lose the round. Right?
A game of Clue, would teach you how to simultaneously remember multiple things and unknowingly help you with comprehension skills and logical reasoning. They help them think rationally, analysing moves and decisions and critically concluding.
I also find that playing a board helps all of us relax and destress, besides bonding as a family.
Board games will definitely help your child with increasing the attention span. It will help with anxiety and frustration and even temper tantrums. It helps kids, and I would say even elders, to learn to communicate and hold conversations and interact with each other. After all these games need to be played with people and not alone. It helps kids learn to play fair and be a good loser. There is no shortcut to winning a board game. Understanding the importance of losing and realising that it is important to cope with losing, is an essential learning for any child. But learn to play the game till the end. Leaving it midway is not going to be helpful. We as parents and care givers, need to develop that patience level.
Where we struggle every day to find a balance between digital life and real life, introducing board games into our daily routine, might just be the answer.
Make it a fun event, order your family’s favourite meal, assign a day or a time when the whole family gathers to play one or many board games and be regular about it. Make it as frequent as possible and see for yourself the change it brings.
Some of the board games I recommend:
- Monopoly (Age 6+)
- SCRABBLE (Age 8+)
- RISK (Age 10+)
- UNO (all ages)
- Pictionary (Age 6+)
- Abalone (Age 6+)
- Chess (Age 6+)
- Checkers (Age 6+)
- Catan (Age 8+)
- Qwirkle (Age 6+)
- Battleship (Age 6+)
- Jenga (Age 8+)
- Trivial Pursuit (Age 8+)
- Twister (Age 6+)
- Connect4 (Age 4+)
- Mouse Trap (Age 2+)
- Fishing (Age 2+)
- Cranium (Age 4+)
- Ludo (Age 5+)
- Snakes and Ladders (Age 4+)
- Life (Age 8+)
- Zingo (Age 6+)
Everything that I have written in my writeup are totally my thoughts and beliefs and are based on my experience as a mother. Please follow them at your own discretion. I am no way qualified to be any councillor or guide.