I’m not sure if it’s just us, but our family still enjoys playing board games. We find that it’s a great way to spend some quality time together as a family while teaching our four-year-old son some valuable lessons regarding how to be both a good winner and a good loser. With some of these games, we even get to incorporate a little learning, but do so in a way that’s fun and so that it doesn’t really seem like learning.
Here are four of the games we play with our son that make for some great memories and that are fun for the whole family.
Chutes and Ladders
I found Chutes and Ladders a great game for learning about and dealing with frustration as a child, and I’m hoping that it teaches my young son the same valuable lessons about how to deal with failure and success. Counting to 100, climbing the ladders, sliding down the chutes, and learning a few lessons about the mistakes and opportunities life can bring with it — and the resulting ups and downs that come with those situations — are some of the things our family finds valuable aspects to be learned from this game…plus, it’s just plain fun!
SORRY!
SORRY! is a family favorite board game for a number of reasons. First off, it’s fun. Second, it helps our child with counting as he moves his pieces around the board. Third, it helps him with the decision-making and reasoning processes as he must decide which pieces to move, when, where, and how, as well as whether to send other player’s pieces home or change spots with them at times. And lastly, it helps him with reading, as he must be able to at least understand in a general way what the cards involved in the game are telling him to do when he selects them.
SORRY! is a ton of fun for us to play, but it can be somewhat lengthy at times, and it doesn’t always take long for a four-year-old to get a little tired or bored.
Risk
Now don’t get me wrong, we certainly aren’t playing the full-on version of Risk with our four-year-old. It’s more of a toned down version in which we position our armies across the globe and roll dice when we battle to see which side will win. However, I do think this is a good way to learn the layout of the world and begin to work on continents and continent locations with our son.
Candy Land
Candy Land is more of a fun game than a great learning game; however, when our son was younger, it at least helped him with learning his colors and again, learning how to deal with winning and losing. It’s typically a good game for a quick play, doesn’t get too boring or tedious, and was really good for holding our son’s attention at age three when he was just getting into board games.
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