We just bought some board games and card games to play with our kiddos. It took me a while to find the board games in the bookstore I went to, all hidden away in a corner barely touched... I was telling our 5.5 years old boy, back when mummy and daddy were little children like him, we don't get to play with iPad or go out or even doodling and drawing on tons of papers like what he can do now. I told him in our time, we are lucky to be able to play these board games and card games.
Hubby initiated the idea to get these games, he wanted to teach Benjamin how to play Chinese chess (a bit advance I feel for his age now), to learn Chinese words as well as to have fun playing games with other people (family time!)
Since I was in-charge of getting the games, I settled on a compendium of 15 board games (my primary goal is to teach him to play snakes and ladders which I feel is appropriate for his age now). I also bought the Chinese chess set and a deck of playing cards (Snap!)
We started with playing snakes and ladders, explaining to him the rules, teaching him how to roll the dice and move the pieces over the board. This will reinforce his counting skills, directions and order of number as you move your piece along according to the number you rolled. It also teaches him to move towards the goal and I was also teaching him what numbers that will cause him to be eaten by the snake or move upwards by climbing the ladder to get him excited and nervous as well hahaha...
We also played a few rounds of Snap card games. Again, explaining the rules of the game to him before we proceed. This game teach him to be alert and pay attention to the matching cards and whoever collects the most cards wins the game. This game brings back memories of my childhood as well! The countless time I smacked my cousins' or friends' hands real hard hahahaha!
I think other than a lesson for him, it is also a lesson for us parents as well. We definitely have to be more patient when playing with our kiddo, to gently remind him of the rules, to be patient and follow the rules and not bypass everything just to be the winner and that in playing games, there will be winner and loser but that is not the end of the world.
We tell him sometimes you might be ahead of everyone but you never know, suddenly you get eaten by the snake and ended up last. Sometimes you move slow and steady (like the tortoise) but ends up winning. We tell him losing is not everything. Most important is the spirit in playing, to enjoy the games with others.
We will definitely be continuing on with these games!
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