As promised, this blog will feature a sort of journal of how my son became an avid gamer, and hopefully in future years my daughter will begin making an appearance to these pages. Therefore it probably makes sense to go right back to the beginning, and have a look at the first game he played, and what lessons he learned.
Like most children, my son's first game was probably Snakes & Ladders (Peppa Pig Snakes & Ladders to be precise) when he was around 2-3 years old. Snakes & Ladders, whilst a fairly dull game by adult standards is possibly the perfect game to start young children with.
In a previous blog entry I discussed how Monopoly fails as a game as there are very few decisions a player needs to make. Well, Snakes & Ladders (from now on this will be abbreviated to S&L because I am THAT lazy) takes that to the extreme - there are precisely ZERO decisions to make in the game. Think about it for a minute; I'm sure everyone has played S&L before - just think about what you actually do.
- You roll the dice
- You move your playing piece that number of spaces, following the designated track.
- If you end at the top of a snake, you go all the way down to the bottom of the snake
- If you end at the bottom of a ladder, you move to the top of it.
- First player to get to the end space wins.
That's it. That's the entirety of the game. Picking which colour playing piece you want to be is the last decision you will make in this game (and in the Peppa Pig version even THAT was decided for me - I was always Daddy Pig).
"So a useless game that should be consigned to the bin?"
Well, no, not really. S&L has one redeeming feature that makes it perfect for very young children.
It's short - a game shouldn't take more than ten minutes, which is perfect when you are dealing with little human beings who generally have the attention span of a goldfish.
"Ok, then, it's a quick, simple game but can it actually teach kids anything useful?"
Absolutely, and here lies the beauty of the game. For very young children, S&L can teach some valuable skills:
- Taking turns. You see when kids are young, they are the centre of their parents world and rarely have to wait for anything. S&L is a great opportunity to teach the little ones that sometimes they just have to be patient.
- Counting. Getting the child to count spaces and move their own piece is a great way to introduce the concept of counting.
- Playing by defined rules. Young children typically play in a free form way, so board games can be a great way of teaching them that sometimes rules have to be followed.
- Dealing with losing - most young children don't like losing, and board games are a great way to teach them that it's OK to lose. The fact that S&L is a 'safe' environment where losing has no real consequences makes it a great tool for this lesson. The fact that it 100% luck based makes it even better, as the children can blame the dice, rather than feeling they aren't 'good enough'.
However, it's worth pointing out that tantrums do happen, and Benji was no exception. I'll look at potential ways to combat these 'losing tantrums' in later blogs, but for now I'll share this quick example.
I was playing a game of S&L with Benji, and his grandfather was in the room. I happened to win the game, which of course produced floods of tears in Benji.
"He's only 3, you should let him win" came the comment.
Well, of course I could have let him win, although in fairness it's quite hard to play badly in S&L, as it's a game of pure luck. So 'letting him win' would involve actual cheating - mis-counting spaces, re-rolling the dice to get a more favourable number - in short all the things that I've been trying to explain to Benji what NOT to do. So to let him win, I'd have to lead by a bad example.
But there's another downside to letting children win all the time - it's one thing Benji having a tantrum at home; but what happens when he goes to a friend's house, or loses a game at school?
Whilst you shouldn't mercilessly crush children at games, I also don't believe in letting them win all the time - otherwise, how will they learn?
What are your thoughts on this? I'll make another blog at a later date to describe what tactics I've tried with Benji, but would be interested to hear what other people think on this subject.
Like most children, my son's first game was probably Snakes & Ladders (Peppa Pig Snakes & Ladders to be precise) when he was around 2-3 years old. Snakes & Ladders, whilst a fairly dull game by adult standards is possibly the perfect game to start young children with.
In a previous blog entry I discussed how Monopoly fails as a game as there are very few decisions a player needs to make. Well, Snakes & Ladders (from now on this will be abbreviated to S&L because I am THAT lazy) takes that to the extreme - there are precisely ZERO decisions to make in the game. Think about it for a minute; I'm sure everyone has played S&L before - just think about what you actually do.
- You roll the dice
- You move your playing piece that number of spaces, following the designated track.
- If you end at the top of a snake, you go all the way down to the bottom of the snake
- If you end at the bottom of a ladder, you move to the top of it.
- First player to get to the end space wins.
That's it. That's the entirety of the game. Picking which colour playing piece you want to be is the last decision you will make in this game (and in the Peppa Pig version even THAT was decided for me - I was always Daddy Pig).
"So a useless game that should be consigned to the bin?"
Well, no, not really. S&L has one redeeming feature that makes it perfect for very young children.
It's short - a game shouldn't take more than ten minutes, which is perfect when you are dealing with little human beings who generally have the attention span of a goldfish.
"Ok, then, it's a quick, simple game but can it actually teach kids anything useful?"
Absolutely, and here lies the beauty of the game. For very young children, S&L can teach some valuable skills:
- Taking turns. You see when kids are young, they are the centre of their parents world and rarely have to wait for anything. S&L is a great opportunity to teach the little ones that sometimes they just have to be patient.
- Counting. Getting the child to count spaces and move their own piece is a great way to introduce the concept of counting.
- Playing by defined rules. Young children typically play in a free form way, so board games can be a great way of teaching them that sometimes rules have to be followed.
- Dealing with losing - most young children don't like losing, and board games are a great way to teach them that it's OK to lose. The fact that S&L is a 'safe' environment where losing has no real consequences makes it a great tool for this lesson. The fact that it 100% luck based makes it even better, as the children can blame the dice, rather than feeling they aren't 'good enough'.
However, it's worth pointing out that tantrums do happen, and Benji was no exception. I'll look at potential ways to combat these 'losing tantrums' in later blogs, but for now I'll share this quick example.
I was playing a game of S&L with Benji, and his grandfather was in the room. I happened to win the game, which of course produced floods of tears in Benji.
"He's only 3, you should let him win" came the comment.
Well, of course I could have let him win, although in fairness it's quite hard to play badly in S&L, as it's a game of pure luck. So 'letting him win' would involve actual cheating - mis-counting spaces, re-rolling the dice to get a more favourable number - in short all the things that I've been trying to explain to Benji what NOT to do. So to let him win, I'd have to lead by a bad example.
But there's another downside to letting children win all the time - it's one thing Benji having a tantrum at home; but what happens when he goes to a friend's house, or loses a game at school?
Whilst you shouldn't mercilessly crush children at games, I also don't believe in letting them win all the time - otherwise, how will they learn?
What are your thoughts on this? I'll make another blog at a later date to describe what tactics I've tried with Benji, but would be interested to hear what other people think on this subject.
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