by jinx

Created on: January 28, 2007   Last Updated: August 09, 2011

Forget Monopoly, Scrabble and the commonly played western games. If you look around the world there are hundreds of traditional board games that your children will love as well as inadvertantly learn about other cultures. Many of these you can even make yourselves with your children.

• Carrom

The best would have to be Carrom. Generally considered an Indian game (it is played in cafes across the country), it is also played in Sri Lanka, and for some reason, Sweden. Carrom was ripped off by the British for the game of Pool, but is a much smaller table - tournament size of 29 inches square. In addition to the board, you need 9 white, 9 black and 1 red piece that are pocketed into the corners on the board by flicking a striker against them - a bit of a cross between pool and air hockey. Kids love this and you can play with 2 or 4 people.

• Oware / Mancala

A wonderful game to teach your children maths, oware originated in Ancient Egypt (it is considered the world's oldest game still in play) but is now played all over Africa and Asia. The great thing about Oware is that you need no 'equipment' at all - we used to play with sugar cubes and egg cups. In Africa they make holes in the sand and play with shells, but you can find beautiful boards exported, or cheap versions at games shops. This is a simple counting game that involves distributing your pieces in sequence across the board in a manner that allows you land on and capture your opponents' pieces.

• Nine Men's Morris - I think it's called 'Mill' in the U.S

This one was mentioned by Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night's Dream and was originally played with stones in the mud. The aim is to manoeuvre your pieces around the board into rows of three, allowing you to capture your opponents pieces.

• Solitaire (Fox & Geese)

Invented by a prisoner in the Bastille during the French Revolution, this is a great game to keep a child quiet on his/her own and is highly addictive. The aim is to remove all your pieces from the board by jumping over a piece into a vacant spot. The 'jumped over' piece is then removed from the board. There are 32 pieces and the aim is to leave just one piece at the end of the game. This piece must be in the centre of the board at the finish.

• 3D 0s & Xs - I think you call this Tic-Tac-Toe in the US

Okay, so it's not so old, or worldly, but it is a great way to move your child on to a more difficult game whilst still keeping their confidence with familiarity. Just don't play it if you don't like being beaten by 5-year-olds!

So, that's just a very few of the wealth of games out there and most of these can be hand made, or bought hand made from co-operatives in their countries, so you can even buy them with a conscience knowing you are supporting those worse off than ourselves. Many of them now have clubs across North America and Europe enabling kids the chance to learn the game and the culture in a fun, supportive environment. Isn't that a nicer gift - and lesson - for your child than Monopoly?

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