There were tears and heartburns.
There were the loud whoops of war cries.
There were threats of revenge and pleas for help.
The evil guffaws of the victor echoed across the room.
What do you think was happening?
A battlefield? A courtroom? A soap of TV? No, it was the kids playing monopoly!
Board game sessions are always like this at home. Noisy, emotional and played with gusto. And its always filled with lots of drama. I love it! That’s how it’s supposed to be, right?
As a family, we’ve a weakness for board games. Especially during vacations and holidays.
I introduced my kids to word games early on (couldn’t resist passing on my love for words!)
So be it Scrabble or crosswords or puzzles or any other board game, every game was equally welcome.
And believe me, it’s been a very useful and important teaching aid.
Why Games Matter
Yes, games are often ignored as kids play but they teach you a lot. Help to develop skills like critical thinking and problem solving, and nurture the personal growth through patience and resilience.
There’s nothing like too much play if you know how to regulate the activity and monitor the games they’re playing.
The games and puzzles challenge the child and push them to go that extra distance.
Have you considered that maybe every time your child spends time playing a game or solving a puzzle, they’re actually training their minds to think?
That’s a thought worth chewing on.
How Games Train Young Minds
It may look like a lot of harmless fun on the surface. All those dies rolls and laughter and prayers. But in reality your child’s brain is doing some serious heavy lifting during the games.
Games provide an active form of learning where they constantly need to think, assess, respond and adapt in real time.
They need to think fast and plan and strategize.
In short, the games are the mental gyms challenging their minds, pushing them to become stronger, quicker and more flexible.
Here are some of the muscles the games help build –
1. Pattern recognition
Have you seen your child solve a jigsaw puzzle or Connect 4 maybe?
They learn to notice patterns, spotting which piece fits where or the trends in the game.
This is the foundational skill for both math and languages. Pattern recognition helps with predicting outcomes and making sense of complex systems.
Take for example Sudoku. Even a simple 3 x 3 grid requires the child to scan the grid for missing numbers, look for repeats, and then eliminate options, all simultaneously.
This exercise trains their brain to spot the subtle clues and think ahead.
2. Logical reasoning
If they’re playing Mastermind or Scotland Yard, children have to use deduction to eliminate choices and reach the correct answer.
They learn to appreciate even the smallest clues and understand how they lead to big conclusions.
Or games like Uno or riddles teach them to weigh options, make connections and solve problems based on logic, not guesswork.
3. Strategic planning
Some games require them to plan multiple steps ahead.
Children learn to pause, consider the consequences of their next step, and adapt based on how the game unfolds.
Like in chess. Every move matters. They must think before their next move. They must also think of few steps ahead and visualise how it impacts their strategy.
This builds patience, foresight and strategic planning, if you want the Queen.
4. Decision making
Monopoly. Decision making practice at its best for the kids. Whether to buy the property or save money, trade with another partner or build.
It’s a low stakes environment but the decisions mimic real life financial thinking.
They learn decision making, sometimes under pressure.
They learn to assess risks, manage consequences, set goals, and finally learn to become confident in their choices.
Without realising, they brush up on their life skills. The more children engage, the more these skills become second nature to them.
And because they’re enjoying themselves and it’s a low pressure setting, what they learn has a higher probability of sticking with them for longer.
Even a study in 2020 by the American Academy of Paediatrics found that children who engage in structured board games showed significantly higher levels of impulse control and delayed gratification.
When Learning Through Play Feels Better (And is Effective!)
In all my years of teaching, I’m yet to meet a child who doesn’t want to play. Even the most nerdy ones enjoy playing.
And there’s science behind this active engagement. Children learn best when they’re emotionally and mentally challenged.
I’ve often used a lot of games for teaching my students. It would make the class more interactive, entertaining and, of course, educative.
Whether it was sudoku to teach addition or crosswords for science or word searches to learn difficult words, these games ensured my students were highly invested in their learning without realising they were ‘studying’.
Yes, ask them to prepare for a test or a dictation, and I’d surely get a mixed response.
OK, let’s finish this part and then we can play a game. The response was electrifying.
Because it creates a positive energy towards learning, there’s reduced resistance to learning or studying while also boosting retention.
A simple game of charades can become a training session on communication.
I’ve got them to learn more and do more using games than I’d have managed otherwise.
It creates a deeper and more sustainable learning process.
Different Games, Different Skills
What games are we talking about? Well, I’d like to broadly categorise games into three groups –
i) Board games: Pick any, be it chess or Scrabble or monopoly or anything else, they teach the children about planning, cooperation, following rules, and patience, in the form of delayed gratification.
ii) Video games: This has to be age appropriate. Not a big fan of this category primarily because it minimises the human elements like one to one interaction and social engagement and team spirit.
But it has its own lessons to teach like improved reflexes, adaptability, decision making under pressure.
iii) Puzzles: They focus on building abstract thinking, perseverance, and trial and error.
Doesn’t matter what kind of games they like to play, remember to strike a balance.
As parents and educators, we tend to get carried away with wanting to make every experience educational that we forget to have fun and enjoy.
Not all screen time is bad. And not all puzzles need to be academic.
Just as athletes repeat their drills to build muscle memory, children use games to build cognitive agility.
Lean in and ask them about their strategy, their mistakes, their plan. Let it become a growth conversation.
Maybe, you could have a post-game review. What was the hardest part? How did you solve it? what else could you’ve done?
Reflection is part of growing up.
Influence of These Skills in Real Life
I recollect one of my colleagues telling me to stop playing games with the children in the classroom since it was a waste of time. Parents need grades, not games, she said.
I agree grades are important, but so are also other skills they’re learning. They are training to become real world problem solvers.
It’s these very same skills they’d have developed during games that would be useful to them in school, in relationships, in adulthood.
Games provide the children real world scenarios in a low risk environment. And it is for us to train them well so they’re better prepared when they step into the arena later in life.
– flexibility and thinking
– persistence after failure
– collaboration
– creative problem solving
– strategic planning
– decision making
– evaluating risks
– logical thinking
These are just some of the skills. The list can go on.
One of the girls in my class would always team up with this particular boy, even though they were poles apart – total contrast in terms of personality, attitude and everything.
I watched it happen a few times and then asked her the reason. Her prompt response stunned me.
“He’s better at math than me. So if we play together, we can win.”
Such clarity in the thought.
Those innocuous games in the class had helped her assess her strength and weakness, plan her strategy and think ahead.
What better way to teach them?
Conclusion: Let’s Play Smarter
A better way to ensure improved grades is not to spend longer hours buried in the books.
Instead grab a board game, or any other game, and let your child’s mind unwind.
The break will be welcome and the game will refresh the brain.
They would still be learning, of course, but not from the school curriculum but life.
Treat games as developmental gold. Absolute high value.
The next time your child wants to play or is getting bored, suggest a board game.
Join in. learn. Grow. Laugh. There’ll be lots to learn, even for you.
The Wordsworth Weekly
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