The Games We Play

One of the sets of tic-tac-toe at The Hub. 

 All my life I have loved playing games whether board games, card games, team games or word games. I Spy and car bingo would keep us entertained in the car while pencil and paper could entertain us for hours at home. I can remember my father teaching me noughts and crosses when I was young. (also known as tic-tac-toe or three in a row.) Over time, it helped develop my critical thinking as I identified the different tricks of the game. It is a great favourite with my children too! My sister in England made some amazing crochet sets for us and we have 2 of them at The Honeycomb Hub for anyone to use!

Learning draghts 

Games are such a fun way to spend time with family and friends and they are perfect for almost any age. They help to develop basic social skills such as turn taking as well as losing or winning graciously. (As well as how much importance to actually place on winning or losing!) Many games have a mathematical element to it such as matching shapes, identifying numbers and counting. Logical thinking, linguistic skills, problem solving and critical thinking can also be developed.

I can remember causing two of my colleagues to collapse in hilarity when I once mentioned I didn’t think I was competitive. I almost took offence at how funny they found this, though I also appreciated there was a certain irony. Earlier that week I had said I could run some papers to my classroom and back within 20 seconds. To which Big V (my very dear friend and outstanding teacher) said ‘ok, go’ and started counting. So I ran! Even slipping over at the corner of my desk and skinning my knee with a carpet burn didn’t stop me! But it did get me thinking about what it meant to be competitive. I love competing -challenging myself, working as a team and playing a game but I don’t have a love of winning. Though it is a rather tired and over used phrase, for me it is the taking part that counts and is the most enjoyable part. I rarely recall who won and by how many points the following day. I certainly can’t remember scores! But I always remember the laughing, smiles and feeling of togetherness as we play a game.

Next week’s post is going to go review some of the games we often play as a family. This week I wanted to share with you a recent session I had playing Game of Life with my children. This is a game I played often as a child and my husband and I received it as one of our most original wedding presents! It is your typical board game counting along the board from college to retirement. Each move takes you through along the journey with choices about careers, children and buying houses.

Most recently we had to play the game over 2 days as it can be quite lengthy. At bedtime on day 1, I was in last place and heavily in debt, though I was a lawyer having chosen the university route.

Big One was in second place. He had also chosen the university route, was a vet and was sensibly paying off his loan each pay day at a faster rate than his mother. He could afford being sued 100,000 by his brother!

Little one was in first place. He was the only one not to go to university, he had a lot of money and no debt. He owned a log cabin and was the only one of us with a home. He had sued both his mother and his brother (his mother having to take out a bigger loan to cover this) and his job was …. An entertainer.

The outcome was not exactly what we had expected... or perhaps hoped for my sons' future. Though in terms of finance, debt and university it is probably more real than I like to imagine. I am hoping that in our future there may be less suing of family members!

As we were playing we laughed, joked and wondered at what each turn brought us and for those interested, Little One did go on to win hands down! As we played, the boys developed turn taking, 1:1 moves when counting spaces and handling money. Little One was also improving his number recognition. The boys helped set it up and the following day they helped tidy it away making sure all the sets of money and cards were in the correct sets. All in all it was around three hours of quality time spent together and a lot of fun was had by all.

Today is Father's Day and I'm sure that this afternoon we shall spend an hour or so playing games before all snuggling up on the sofa for a Sunday afternoon film - Daddy's choice! This week I encourage you to play a game with friends or family whether it is a board game, team game outside or a word game in the car. I would love to hear about what you play. Have fun!