Family Game Nights Continue to Grow in Popularity
Your family has always enjoyed a challenge, but you often differ in the kind of tough puzzles that you enjoy. Your husband and daughters, for instance, are willing to play a new and difficult board game that requires them to spend as much as an hour or more understanding the intricacies of a group strategy that will allow them all to succeed. When it comes to your choice for tough puzzles, however, you enjoy tough puzzles of the jigsaw variety. You want to spend your time finding the right pieces to complete 2000 piece jigsaw puzzles, not understanding the rules of yet another board game.
Fortunately, when one or more of your family members need to take a break from the sometimes frustration of learning one of their new family games, they can join you in your quest to complete your latest puzzle.
Difficult Puzzles and Games Are a Great Way to Bond as a Family
In a time when too many of us are glued to our screens for more hours than we care to admit, it is nice to take a break and spend some face to face time with family members and enjoy efforts to complete tough puzzles. From traditional jigsaw puzzles to the latest board games where the goal is to survive as a colony as a group, there is an increasing market for all kinds of new challenges. Themed jigsaw puzzles that match the current holiday or board games that require plays to solve the latest world pandemic are just a couple examples of the kinds of challenges that many families enjoy. Fortunately, there are also board games and jigsaw puzzles that can encourage young children to also spend time with their siblings and their parents.
Learning the frustrations of life through a board game or jigsaw puzzle provides the practice that many young people need. In a time of instant gratification and immediate feedback, there are a growing number of children, and adults, who are not practiced at struggle. Having to take the time to use trial and error to figure out a difficult jigsaw puzzle, in fact, is just the kind of resiliency that many of today’s youth are lacking.
In addition to building their patience and increasing their grit, children who grow up in families that play games learn early in life that sometimes you win and the sometimes you lose. In a setting that has few consequences, children who play game with their friends and family learn how to be both gracious winners and losers. Depending on the kinds of games that you select for your children, of course, you can also help them master any matter of content. From state capitals to quick math skills, there are educational games that are so fun and challenging that your children might not even know that they are learning.
The latest research indicates that the brain makes the most connections among its cells before a child turns 10. This means, of course, that any time you can get your child to spend time in thought provoking games you are building the connections that they will use for the rest of their lives. Movement has been proven to get the brain going, so an active body makes for an active brain. This is why some of the parents know to make learning a hands-on affair. From games that provide incentives for thinking outside of the box when it comes to how to balance small game pieces in a challenge with other players, to games that require players to act out different scenarios, the family game options of today are varied.
You may remember long hours playing cribbage with your father or grandfather, never really wining but enjoying the metal challenge of finding cards you could combine to the magic number of 15 and 32. Will your kids have those same memories? Educators across the country would welcome your child with open arms if they are able to contribute to a group learning setting from the skills they gathered while enjoying family games and puzzle work. Instead of complaining about screen time, present your kids with a fun afternoon of games and puzzles.
