Teacher’s Corner: Playing Boardgames is the Key to Learning for Young Children

By Jeff Au
March 2, 2006

Boardgames are great for spending some family time together. The real value from a parent’s perspective in playing boardgames is when you can find games that everyone in the family can enjoy together and yet provide good learning objectives for the younger ones.

Not our grandfathers’ boardgames

When we mention “boardgames”, games like Monopoly, Clue, Sorry, Careers and even Chess cross our mind. Yes there is the Snakes & Ladders game too. These are indeed boardgames but playing these boardgames nowadays is like peddling a trishaw instead of driving a car. A trishaw can still get you where a 1.6 Proton takes you but the experience of the journey is so much different.

Boardgames has enjoyed an “Euro Renaissance” in recent years beginning in 1995 when the game “Settlers of Catan” won the Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year award and 1st place in the Deutscher SpielePreis. These awards are to boardgames what the Academy Awards are to movies. In Europe and United States, you can hardly find any boardgamers who have not played Settlers…. Such is its popularity that it is on its way to usurp Monopoly as THE game that everyone has played.

Boardgames in Malaysia

Closer to home in Malaysia, there is no better time than now to get into boardgaming. A week long National Games Week1 running in conjunction with US and the rest of the world will be held in Nov 20-26 (http://www.boardgamecafe.net/ngw2005.html) while the first and the largest Games Convention in Asia GAMECON-12 will be held in KL on Dec 3-4.

Why should children play boardgames?

Why not? Would you rather have them locked in their room for hours or even days in front of a computer screen playing video games? Boardgames offer them a positive alternative because it’s fast, it’s fun, it’s often exciting and they get to play with momma and papa – or their friends.

Children should learn skills they can use later in their life. We call this “applied learning”.

In the US, there is a TV programme called “Cyberchase” (http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/) which aims to teach essential money skills to young children (age 8-11). Why? Because children under 13 spends upwards of US$40 billion annually and they also influence family spending up to US$600 billion. When the children’s “spending power” is so high, being able to teach them good money skills while they are still young and developing is the key to prevent them adopting bad money habits later in life.

“Games are essential for all members of the family to enjoy regularly to improve learning, thinking and communicating.”
www.drtoy.com

What can children learn by playing boardgames?

The correct choice of boardgames can bring to children the following benefits:

• Better relationship skills. Instead of growing up detached from their parents, families that plays boardgames together grow up together. They form close-knit bonds with their parents, their siblings and even friends who game with them.

• Communication skills. Playing boardgames give children the opportunity to talk to each other. In some games, you HAVE to talk to each other. Even shy children may forget their “shyness” when they are having fun!

• Positive Social skills. They learn they have to understand the “rule of a game” before playing, and to follow directions. They learn there are certain things they can do and certain things they cannot do within the context of the game.

• Sportsmanship. They learn they will win some games and lose some. They learn to give it their best shot. But when they lose they learn to lose gracefully – after all the next win is only a game away. They learn that success is never ending and failure is never final.

• Be goal oriented and result driven. Each game has a victory condition or endgame. They learn to begin the game with the end in mind. They learn to set objectives, and work hard to achieve them.

Over the next few months, I’ll select a game and write about how the game allows children to learn while having fun. We shall start with the popular Hare & Tortoise, a winner of the 1979 Spiel Des Jahres (Game of the Year) award.

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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