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Table Games for Kids: Do They Have Educational Benefits

One of the things that your child wants and needs the most is to spend exclusive time with you. Children love it when parents take pleasure in their company, listen to them and play with them. Setting aside a game night has been a favourite way of bonding with children. Table games are well-liked options during family game nights.  

An added benefit of playing table games is that it enriches the learning capabilities of a child. Board games satisfy a child’s urge and desire to learn new concepts and skills. They do not have to be outright educational or academic. By playing them, board games nurture the ability to focus and increase a child’s concentration span by encouraging them to complete a long, exciting game.   

Table games teach children the virtue of patience. Even a simple game like Ladders offer lessons, such as that your luck can change in a minute. The inherent message, in this case, is never to give up. Read on for the educational benefits of table games for kids. 


1. Math skills

Table games help enhance basic math skills such as tallying up scores and adding pips on dice. For older children, it helps with complex thoughts like keeping track of modifiers and evaluating probabilities. Not all board games require math, but most rely on basic arithmetic. Therefore, they will help your little one to practice math skills and set up their STEM careers later on. 

While playing with your child, allow them to add up their scores and yours too. Do not be impatient to complete the game or calculate their final scores. Over time, you will be happy to know that they can figure out everything on their own. Well, if they win by 30 points, you may want to double-check their math. 



2. Thinking ahead

Complex games require one to not only think about the next move but also have a long-term strategy. If you develop a plan, you will figure out your opponent’s move and be a step ahead of them. In the “Real life”, strategizing is essential as it helps children live a fulfilling life. 

Children rarely think about the next hour, leave alone the next day. You will find them playing on a school night, without putting much thought into what they are doing. As a parent, you can try talking them out of such habits, so that they can think ahead without being reminded. 

3. Taking turns

One of the first lessons when playing board games is that there are times when you should act and others when you shouldn’t. Grabbing the dice, drawing cards and moving bits around the board are things that you do only when it is your turn to play. The lesson trains your kids that there is a time for everything, which is a virtue they extend to the classroom. 

Your children will understand best that they should do things at their own time. They will learn that when it is time to read, they should not be playing, and vice versa. 

4. Achieving goals

Lacking focus when playing table games means that your chances of winning are slim. You must know when to make a move, how to recruit allies and how to identify your opponent’s next step. This lesson is highly applicable in school and life. It trains your child to develop the right mindset for achieving their goals. 

5. Teamwork

For your kids to do well in school, they should learn teamwork. Incorporate board games that require working together towards a particular objective. Understanding everybody’s strength and capitalizing on it for the good of the members will not only improve your kid’s social skills, but it will also prepare them for their work environment. 

When playing cooperative games, take note not to turn it into a solitaire game where only one person is directing everyone’s moves. While you may come out as the alpha player by your skills and experience, do not allow the trait to dominate. Instead, be less helpful to enable them to acquire new skills. 

6. Mental agility

When it comes to exercising the brain, you are never too young to start. Intense play is an effective way of prompting your mind to be active and flexible. When you start playing board games with your little ones, you may outshine them at the beginning. However, with time, they outperform you because their brains are becoming more active with time. 

7. Actions and consequences

At a tender age, you do not expect your children to know a lot about actions and their results. Education opens up opportunities, which is something that your children know very little of. Playing table games teaches kids that actions have effects. If they work hard at school, the chances are that they will perform well. 

While in a game the cause-and-effect can be tracked with ease, the real world is a bit messy. The approach to use on your children is helping them trace back results to a specific decision that they made and that led them there. You can also avoid playing games that do not show the results of an action they took because they will make it hard for them to learn this lesson. 

8. Problem-solving skills

At school, your kids face various challenges that require tactics to conquer. Board games encourage and train children to solve issues in their life and school work. They understand that every problem has a workable solution, and all one ought to do is to figure out a solution. 

Table games are crucial for your child’s social and mental development. From better math skills, improved concentration and enhanced mental agility, your little one is certain to benefit from playing these games. Needless say, these skills are beneficial to your kid’s school work. They will also make children better equipped to handle challenges in the “real world”. 

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