Board Game Education Lift-off!
Diary Entry (14th February, 2015)
Life’s full of tricky snakes and ladders!
~ Morrissey
Board games are a core element in our home learning environment. Besides fun and family bonding, I have used board games to achieve specific ‘educational outcomes’. In this diary entry from February 2015, just after our daughter, Ayima, had turned 4, I sought to teach her number counting in a fun way. Enjoy…
I started implementation of the board game education stream with Ayima yesterday afternoon, while the boys were at tennis practice. We played one round of Snakes and Ladders, a special edition, ‘Pirates’, with a 4-piece jigsaw board, 4 playing pieces — yellow, green, red and blue, red cup and dice. Ayima asked why the dice was red and sought confirmation that the cup was called ‘cup’. The board is a two-sided playing set with Ludo on the flip side. We will get to that game in a few weeks.
Ayima played with the yellow piece, while I played with the green one. I let her start without the usual throw the dice to see who gets the highest number. But shortly after we start I soon pass her, because she has been ‘eaten’ and dropped by a snake. She protests straightaway and requests that we stop playing till her brothers returned for us all to play together. I managed to keep her playing, cajoling and threatening, helped immensely by being eaten by the longest snake myself and dropping behind her. This cycle continued throughout the game, the essence of Snakes and Ladders; now ahead, now behind. Her dismay and protestations continued each time I went ahead, particularly after I escaped the jaws of that baddie in the middle of the board — the longest snake. Ayima probably thought that victory was now completely of reach.
The other thing Ayima struggled with was the sequence of moving the piece across the board. She wanted to go for gold as quickly as possible so rather than zig-zagging across the board, she was moving vertically up it, and climbing ladders in the middle of her count progression.
Finally I was 2 places from the target, free of all the snakes bar the last one guarding the path to glory, while Ayima was deep down the board, battling with the crawlies. I needed a throw of 2 on the dice to win, but with most of life, what you want is not what you get! I got 6’s a few times — great help! Eventually Ayima caught up with me on the same square and a few throws later, got a 2. Victory! One chalk up for her, one step to world, eh, board game domination.
[This article was originally published, in its entirety, as a post on my personal blog.]
Update (25 Sep 2021): PlayWorx is currently on sabbatical.
At present, I am blogging exclusively at The Global Careerist.
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