Establishing a game night is a great way to bring your family closer together. Board games also teach important social skills, such as communicating verbally, sharing, waiting, taking turns, and enjoying interaction with others. They can foster the ability to focus, and lengthen your child’s attention span by encouraging the completion of an exciting, enjoyable game. Even old-standards like Chutes and Ladders offer meta-messages and life skills: Your luck can change in an instant — for the better or for the worse. The message inherent in board games is: Never give up. Just when you feel despondent, you might hit the jackpot and ascend up high, if you stay in the game for just a few more moves.
Family Game Night doesn’t have to end with the board being flipped over.
There are a few things a family needs to continually pull off a successful family game night. “A game night is easy, you just need a couple games,” you say? Sure, but the key element is “continually”. Game night is best as a weekly tradition. You’ll come to find that your kids will look forward to it. Then, you’ll look forward to it too. So, to be truly successful with your new family tradition, you’ll need a few things:
Games.
Food.
Patience.
(My wife would also add wine to the list!) Games First, you’ll need a variety of games in your weekly arsenal. Old school games are great, from Monopoly to Sorry, with Trouble, Clue, and Connect Four in between. Selection is key, though. Believe it or not, some people don’t like Candyland! My wife thinks of Monopoly as “Monotony” (hence the wine). You have to be able to mix it up to keep game night interesting, and prevent board games from becoming “bored” games. Many of these classic games have different themes to make them new and pop for the kids. You can have Minion Trouble, Spongebob Monopoly, and so on. Card games, like Old Maid (which is always good for a giggle) and UNO are great fun. Again, some of these have been characteristically updated or technologically updated through the years. You want UNO to be able to shoot cards at you? Sure, UNO Attack does just that.
Video Game night could also be group video games, though I tend to lean towards card and board games, being a traditional guy. I also have had to jump onto Ebay to find games that have inexplicably stopped being sold, such as Disney Scene-it. I’m a movie trivia “expert”, almost Rain Man level. This statement could be considered bragging if this ability was useful to me in any other way than decimating game nights… Either way, I loved the Scene-it games. I guess the world’s move to digital left these DVD-oriented games fossilized in the 2000’s. But, if you have a DVD player, Scene-it and DVD Clue, as examples, are a lot of fun.
Non-traditional Throw in the newer kid games like Pie-in-the-Face or Pop-the-Pig (because kids love seeing their parents smacked in the face with whip cream or a pig exploding). And…there’s also that game with the pooping dog. When that one works and doesn’t just get the “poop” stuck inside the dog, my boys cackle with laughter. So, a variety helps to keep your game night going week to week. We also like to rotate who gets to pick the game each week. Swapping who picks the game each week helps ensure you’re not stuck playing Monopoly every Friday night (totally blowing the wine budget). Food Combine game night with food to make it more fun. And what goes better with games than pizza? “Pizza Friday” is also game night in our household. Granted, accidents happen, and our Monopoly board now has a giant grease stain between Chance and Community Chest… Patience Finally, patience is more than a virtue, it’s a necessity.
Kids don’t sit still. They don’t listen. Often don’t follow directions. (I’m assuming if you’re reading this, you’re a parent…so you know.)
My twins literally begin bouncing about halfway through any game. They argue who gets to go first. While sitting…they somehow manage to fall on the board! One of my sons edges closer and closer to the board each round to the point he’s actually been asked to move “off the board”. Moving our pieces around the board…we couldn’t get around the kid. I don’t think Parker Brothers intended an 8 year old as an obstacle on Sorry or any of their other games.
(Well, maybe Mouse Trap.) Need another example for the need of patience? Twister. We played Twister once. All of us were pretzeled up, and giggling. Game night success! Start scheduling a family game night for your household. The benefits are immeasurable. It may even be the thing that carries on to the next generation! Just remember, that it’s all fun and games until someone laughs so hard they pee while playing Twister.
*Also published on FamiliesofMultiples.com
Be sure to check out our other parenting advice.
Recent Posts