5 Reasons Board Games Are Good for Your Children
If you are a parent, you most certainly want the best for your child! And we all know that if you want a continual growth of the motoric, logic and other mental skills of your children you have to work hard for it. Yes, this means that watching TV doesn’t do much for your child’s mental growth. In fact, it can actually delay the adoption of language skills and create problems with sleep and attention.
That’s why in those early years of development it’s important to make as much human-to-human contact. Let the kids learn from you and real-life situations. Let them think on their own, instead of consuming everything that is served on the big screens.
Make a Shift from the Online to the Real World!
Nowadays children are more stressed because they are spending more time indoors than outdoors, the lifestyle of their parents has an impact on them as well, and they have many more obligations in school than they used to have in the past. That’s the reason why you should focus on implementing techniques and games that will be educational, help with your child’s mental growth and eventually reduce screen time.
And is there a better alternative to do so than playing board games? Board games are a great opportunity for the whole family to gather, laugh, have fun, learn new skills and just unplug from the digital world and plug into the real world!
We’ve done the research and share with you the 5 most important reasons why board games are good for your child.
1. Help Your Child Learn the Value of Teamwork
There are many cooperative games such as Forbidden Desert, Mysterium, One Deck Dungeon, etc. that will gather your whole family together and help you spend some quality time, making your children learn the importance of teamwork. Cooperative games that require a partner will help your kids grasp the meaning of mutual collaboration and understanding. They won’t win if they can’t play in a group. This is an opportunity for bonding with your kids as well, especially if you are on the same team!
2. Your Kids Can Learn How to Be Patient and Disciplined
Many board games require time, effort and a lot of suspense before the end! So, this is how you can teach your kids to be patient and wait to be winners! It’s the same in real life as well – if they want to be successful they’ll need to put in effort and time. Also, every board game has certain rules that have to be respected. This is how you can teach your kids to be disciplined. Once they accept to follow the rules of the board game you follow, they might accept the rules of your home. Board games can really help you implement some “parts” of the game into some daily situations and get your kids to respect them.
3. Your Kids Will Develop Logical Reasoning and Critical Thinking
Logical reasoning and critical thinking can be learned through board games! In fact, board games for kids, such as chess and Mastermind will help them improve their math skills and make fewer errors in reasoning. Games can promote the whole process of learning, through counting in games such as number-line board games and word-creating games such as Scrabble, which enhances the process of language acquisition.
4. It Improves Their Social Skills
Board games include communication, following rules, taking turns, waiting, winning and losing. All these steps are essential in improving your child’s social skills and prepare them for real life. Unless kids learn how to cope with winning and losing from an early age, they are going to face many obstacles later in life. This is why board games will teach them the importance of social interactions in order to win, which can be used at the playground and at school.
5. Board Games Reduce Stress and Anxiety
Playing games after school can be a great option for your kids to loosen up from all the stress connected to learning, homework, and tests! Even though they can unplug from the stress and anxiety for an hour, this doesn’t mean they are losing precious time doing nothing. As we have mentioned about the cognitive and learning skills of your kids will be even stronger if you choose to entertain them by board games. Studies claim that technology makes us anxious in many ways and board games can be a great replacement for screen entertainment.
Now that you know how great an impact can board games have on the development of your child, why don’t you organize certain afternoons for fun family activities so you can play together? This is a great idea to spend some quality time as a family and help your kids develop new skills!