I mentioned last week about how we use electronic games more for a reward system than educational tools. Paul is always reading and writing for fun so the two of us play hangman and Mad Libs together. Eric is so resistant to learning at home that we have limited his homework to spelling and sight words.
“They learn me enough at school, mommy!” He’s right. Between reading help and resources, he is schooled out by the end of the day.
“Could we play sumfing dat doesn’t involve letters?”
So we play games. I think kids can learn more by playing games than practicing academics.
We try for “Family Game Night” once a week, but I try to play games with either or both boys every day. We play checkers, cards, and hide and seek (a great way for me to read a magazine — they never find me and I don’t always look for them right away).
Lately Eric and I have been playing a lot of board games.
We always loved Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders because there was no reading involved. In both games, anything can happen. Recently, Eric was dominating the Candy Land board. He was way ahead of everybody and he was rubbing it in at every turn. Finally he was up to the rainbow box. As he drew the card with the picture of the candy cane his face crumbled. I worried that he would lose his temper and toss the board across the room. But we all laughed and showed him how funny the situation was since we had all been so far behind him. And that’s what you get for being a bad sport. He smiled weakly. It was a start.
But our favorite game by far is Monopoly. Eric calls it “Mr. Monopoly” and after the first game he was hooked. His two favorite phrases became, “I’ll buy it!” and “pay up!” The first sentence Eric read out loud by himself was “go back three spaces.” He has learned to count on the dice and make change and corrects me if I make a mistake. He loves to be the banker and he knows the property values and rents for every property on the board. By the end of the game when everybody is “bank robbed” and Eric has a pile of money along with three rows of properties and every hotel.
Both boys are pretty aggressive players, but Eric is the ultimate good sport when it’s just the two of us. If I am out of money he will sometimes let it go.
“Dats okay mommy, just pay me what you got!”
Or he will hand me a couple of 500 bills. If I own Atlantic and he lands on Ventnor (two of the yellow properties in case you don’t have the board memorized) he won’t buy it so that I can.
“Mommy,” he says tenderly, “I just want you to stay in da game.”
With me, he would rather play than win. I love the time we spend together but the downside is that I can’t ever leave the game, no matter how hard I try to lose graciously. Eric and I have been known to play the same Monopoly game for over a week. He wants to play morning, noon, and night. If I leave the room long enough, he starts rolling for me and before I know it I have lost everything.
“You had to mortgage, mommy.” Oh, well.
Games have helped all of us learn to be good losers as well as gracious winners. Nobody is allowed to scream and cry when they lose. And nobody is allowed to taunt, “In your face, loser!” when they win.
It was a hard habit for me to break.
Read more from the Kindergarten Chronicles.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
it took my daughter ages before we could actually play a board game without her, at some point in the game, bumping the board, thus destroying all the players and game pieces and teeny tiny papers that accompany many board games. i remember i invested in a couple travel games because they were usually more compact with fewer pieces to send flying all over the room.
That is a great idea!
Not to mention building math skills
We have game night at our house too. Sometimes it turnes into game DAY. Some games last forever and my daughter does the same thing. I will try to let her win and she says thats ok mommy you dont have to pay me or you can spin again. Its really funny! She doesnt know she is learning so its fun for her.
I'd like to add that there are a ton of great games out there that can be played as a family, though most people don't see them because they're not at Wal-Mart or Toys R Us. Check out http://www.boardgamegeek.com and look up some of the family-friendly games that are out there. Their community has done a great job categorizing games and even rating how well they play for different ages/groups. We admittedly played more than our fair share of Candyland, but now that the young one is older, we're playing Dominion, Ticket to Ride, Forbidden Island (a cooperative game), and a bunch of others that we'd never really messed with before and can't find at the big retailers.
I like the way Tom Vasel works in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZXF92xSNKY
The idea of being a good loser and a good winner reminds me of the Berenstein Bear Book where the sister
bear has to learn not to be a bragging winner…
Thanks, Cindi
We love playing games together at our house too. Our children are older now (9 & 14) so we can get into more of the adult style games. We still love Spongebob life and any form of Monopoly though! We love having friends over for Game night too
We have family game night and we always invite the cousins. Everyone has a great time and we even go to trivia nights as a family. Trivia nights are fun and they are always for charity.
We love family game night. My daughter is 2 so we have to wait until she is good and asleep. Any sugestions?
Games for two year olds are a little harder to come by. They're really just developing so many skills at that age. I'd probably just play with them at that point. I think even Candy Land is suggested for 3 and up. Hide and Seek with them can be entertaining, especially when they don't get the concept quite right yet.
As for games after that, it really depends on what you like to do. I've mentioned http://www.boardgamegeek.com before, but it really is a great site if you're looking for new games that you might not find elsewhere. Two player adult games vary pretty heavily by taste. We like Dominion because it can work pretty well even with just two, but some of the better games are greatly enhanced by more than two players (even just one more can make a difference).
Depending on your working schedules, you may just need to look for something somewhat short and you'll probably want quiet so a game like "Roll Through the Ages" may be ruled out. If you can give us a clue on what you like, maybe we can give you some guidance.