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Board and card games aren’t just fun for kids; they help them develop and practice crucial life skills that they can use in everyday life.
This could also encourage the kids to have collaborative play , which would increase their social skills and critical thinking skills in a fun manner.
Skills like learning about rules and how to play within them, deductive reasoning and logic, math skills, budgeting, and so many more.
When parents play with their kids, especially younger ones, they can engage and question their reasoning behind any action, move, or decision.
Questioning your kids on strategies and tactics or having them explain why they think another player made a specific move can help them practice their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, among others.
Learn how to pick the suitable games to address your kids’ specific needs to keep them challenged and engaged so they can realize the many benefits of strategic play.
Identify the Skills You Want to Establish
There are so many games at board game stores in Canada that it can feel overwhelming to choose just one – so narrow down your choices.
Identify the skills you’d like to see your children develop further to determine the right type of game for them, one that also suits their temperaments.
For example, a game like Roller Ghoster or Snakes and Ladders can be fun and teach your kids about numbers and counting and how to deal with setbacks based solely on luck.
However, suppose you know your child will become frustrated, upset and disengage after continuously landing on squares that require them to start over. In that case, you may consider another game that develops the same characteristics.
Consider Age-Suitability
The games your kids play should be age-appropriate and suitable to their abilities.
You can certainly use the manufacturer’s recommended age range as a guide, but knowing which games will be challenging enough to improve your child’s cognitive abilities without being too tricky and discouraging them from playing may require a recommendation from the staff at a board game store.
As a general rule of thumb, these are some of the skills a board game should help your child develop based on their age:
- From ages three to six, games should focus on requiring children to wait patiently for their turn and to recognize colors, shapes, letters, and numbers. A game like Rhino Hero Junior is an excellent introduction for younger kids to address those skills.
- Between the ages of six and nine, board games that introduce rules and require basic strategies, like SOS Dino and Kraken Attack, can be suitable.
- From the ages of nine to 12, giving your kids more complex games that require deductive reasoning, like Scotland Yard Junior or Detective Club, and more complex strategies like Zombie Kidz Evolution, Labyrinth, or even Carcassonne can be influential in their development.
- After the age of 13, beneficial board games combine several skills like math, logic, strategy etc. A game like Pandemic introduces probability concepts, while its cooperative structure also encourages teamwork.
In addition to the games mentioned above, there are many fun children’s versions of some of the most popular adult games reworked specifically with kids in mind.
Many of them include ‘My Very First’ in the title.
These are great choices as a starting point to introduce new skills and real-world concepts to your children that they can build on for years to come.
Be Aware of Elimination & Level of Engagement
Finally, keep in mind that when deciding on board games for game nights and bad-weather weekends, older, classic games like Monopoly and Risk definitely help children develop crucial life and social skills, but many are zero-sum: players are eliminated until there is only one left.
This can lead to eliminated players watching, waiting for a long time before a game is finished and losing interest in playing again.
Newer board and card games, however, tend to focus on player interaction, storytelling and fostering teamwork.
