December 18, 2014
(This is part of a 365 project
during my 70th year. Each day I will find a gift the day brings, write about it
and illustrate it.)
“Just mention that I won,” Shirley Brewer reminded me. I
told her that today’s gift was playing board games with her.
I have many fond memories of growing up playing games with
family: canasta, Rook, Michigan poker, Monopoly, Scrabble…
Later, as we grew older, married and had families of our own, we
gathered together in the summer in Ocean City or at Christmas in my parents’ or
sisters’ homes, and we played newer games such as Uno, Pictionary and more.
At our house tonight, we played Parcheesi and Uno with
Shirley and a few days ago we played with Shawn Bramble and his sons Jude and
Jack. I was reminded of the important role family games played in my life. It
was a gentle way leading to lots of learning:
- You have to wait for your turn.
- You have to play by the rules. Be fair. You need to be a good sport.
- Strategy is important but chance also can affect the game.
- Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.
- Winning is fun but the process of playing is more fun.
- Children learn letter, number and color recognition, visual perception and reading.
- They also learn reasoning and strategy and how to predict and think ahead.
- They learn that actions have consequences.
- They practice and learn decision making and how to make choices.
- Children learn some self-regulation.
- And maybe most important, we all learn to talk and laugh together in a way that is not duplicated in today's world dominated by technology.
Traditions
and time with loved ones become a part of who we are...if we make a place for these things in our busy lives.
I did not win tonight but it doesn’t matter. I laughed a lot.
Today’s gift was a
game.
You can read my other posts on this project here:
Good one! Thanks for letting me win!!
ReplyDeleteShirley, nobody "let" you win but we were really the winners because we spent time with you and laughed with you.
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of Monopoly (my favorite game). My grandmother would play it with me for hours. I'll have to see if I can get the kids to play when Ellen's boyfriend comes to visit.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways, it is just as important as reading to your children. We played Sequence with my father until his eyesight became too bad to see the board.
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