Board games are a fundamental tool that, in addition to providing many hours of fun for your children, they foster cognitive, motor and learning skills. Having a good closet with board games is a guarantee that, this next course, parents can become the best companions of your children and you can share unforgettable moments with them while helping them learn a lot and well. I will tell you today Ten reasons to use board games with young children.
There is table games of all kinds and there are also suitable for children under six years, because there are many options on the market designed for children who have reached the age of three. Before that age it does not make much sense to expect a child to have the necessary interest, understanding and patience, but after three or four years many will enjoy it if we choose appropriate games for them and help them in their first steps.
Board games are games.
The table games are funny. That's the main. Children naturally learn through play, because it is in this way that mammal puppies are designed to learn. In the case of human beings, in which childhood is a long and intense time destined mainly to the learning necessary for complex adult life, the game acquires an indispensable value. And, although children's play is mainly active and physical, the enjoyment of board games can be perfectly added to this field as long as the child has a good time.
Board games enrich the family relationship
The children will have a great time and work, without being aware of it, educational and emotional knowledge and skills integrated, in addition, with the family. The ties that are established between the teammates cement mutual knowledge, respect and create common memories of rewarding experiences, something very important for enrich the family relationship.
Board games teach math
Board games introduce the child to the recognition of sets, patterns, basic arithmetic, mental calculation, geometry and understanding of space, that is, mathematics. Being integrated into the game as tools for its use, the child approaches them with joy for knowledge, discovers a useful use and begins to incorporate mathematical thinking in an experiential way.
Board games teach reading
Although in board games for younger children it is not essential to read or usually have to use that skill, if we are going to find letters and words that, naturally, they will know. Their natural curiosity about a topic they are enjoying so much will make them want to know more and ask us about the words or names that appear written. In addition, when turning the child into a lover of board games, when he grows up he will want to handle more complex games in which it will be necessary to read cards and instructions.
Board games teach to win and lose
In many board games, players compete. Some children approach the experience of victory or defeat with anxiety and suffer if they fail to be the first. Others, when they want to win, astonish us with a fiercely competitive attitude and with inelegant behavior towards the defeated. This, that we can see in other types of games, can work very well with board games because, in them, sometimes they will win and sometimes they will lose, without that subtracting the game from what they have contributed most, the pleasure of playing , which is much higher than getting a prize or a higher grade.
By playing with us we can accompany them in their nervousness or frustration, educate them to understand those emotions and, in the end, to know lose with elegance and win with kindness, enjoying the processes and learning that the effort can change the result in the next game.
Board games teach to cooperate
In addition to competitive board games, there are others in which players cooperate to achieve a common goal, which teaches children the great opportunities that life offers us the ability to work in teams and help each other. But even in competitive games there are great opportunities for cooperation, because, basically, the goal is common, the game itself. The children will help assemble and pick up the game, and will see how the most experts explain to the rookies the form of play, even taking the responsibility of warning a less skilled player if they make a beginner's mistake.
Board games teach problem solving
All the board games pose a problem to solve and the game itself is the resolution of that problem. This learning is very important for both the academic and school life and for the life of a person. Assessing the situation, understanding the rules of action, managing their own resources and making decisions is precisely what we need to solve problems and board games allow them to perform this learning by trial and error.
Board games teach decision making
Once analyzed the situation and the data handled by the player arrives the time to make decisions . We must act based on what is known and assume what has been done, then understanding if the consequences of our actions have been the desired ones. But you have to dare to decide to do one thing or another and also to do it for yourself. Board games, in this way, are working on a real personal autonomy, that of being responsible for your actions and deciding to perform them with the tools you have. Taking risks and having self-confidence are life skills that board games are going to teach them.
Acceptance and understanding of the rules
A very important part in the correct development of a game is that all participants Accept and understand the rules. And in life we will discover that norms, if they are fair and accepted by all, are indispensable for human, social and economic relations. Children, with the games, understand their importance and discover that it is only possible to play having fun if they have assumed them as necessary. And they also discover that cheating, in the end, is not fun, because it distorts the game and makes friends angry.
That does not mean that playing makes us submissive, or that playing discouraging healthy rebellion against unfair rules, but that it helps to understand that certain common rules that everyone accepts make life simpler and more just. When the child has assimilated in the experiential experience of the game that these rules are important, he may then understand that some rules we propose are not arbitrary, and that his cooperation is necessary for the game of life to develop as well.
Board games work memory
Memory is one of the cognitive skills and abilities that are most worked in any board game. Children will remember the rules of the game, their previous games, the teachings they have made of their mistakes and successes, and even, in many of them, they will need to specifically exercise memory to remember positions or moves.
Many board games for younger children are based, specifically, on memory and visual agility, with an effort being made by the player who is an exercise of these skills that can then be transferred to other experiences.
As I told you, there are many reasons to introduce younger children to board games and all will reinforce their cognitive and emotional development while providing hours and hours of fun. Next week I will present some board games that I recommend for children under six years of age so you can start preparing your games closet for the course that begins. Already the rain or the cold will become allies of the game when you can not go out both in the street and in summer.
