by Maria C Collins

Created on: August 24, 2009   Last Updated: February 04, 2011

Some parents go to open evening at their child's school. When the teacher says that their little Johnny is having a trouble with his schoolwork,  their reaction is often to go to the nearest educational materials stockist and buy their whole stock of workbooks. Then they make poor Johnny study at home. All this does is make a big fuss about the problem, make the child self-conscious and it risks putting the child off education forever. It is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

There are more subtle ways to help a child learn, for himself, the skills, which will help him at school. One of these ways is to institute a family game night. Board games can help a child in so many ways. They are also an entertaining, and amusing way of spending precious family time together, and family time often also helps a child's self-confidence. The rest of the family will derive pleasure and benefit from a family games night too.

Children often have difficulty concentrating in the classroom. Teachers often recommend chess, as a way of helping a child to concentrate and help with memory skills and forward planning, children develop the ability to adapt that thinking to prevailing circumstances, The boys in a class of 7-year-olds were having difficulty with their lessons. The teacher began a lunchtime chess club, most of the boys attended. By half-term, all the lads, who attended the chess club, were improving in class, and by the end of term all the chess club members had better concentration in class, were completing set tasks efficiently, and their approach and attitude to tasks had altered for the better. Draughts, or checkers, is a good alternative to chess, for younger children

Scrabble is a great way of surreptitiously assisting a child with spelling difficulties and increasing their vocabulary and word knowledge simultaneously. Scrabble is an extremely popular game, and is available in a junior format for younger children. It is also a good, and unobtrusive, way of ensuring that the child knows how to use a dictionary properly, especially if you make a rule that all players, including adults, must know the meaning of the word they put down on the board. Scrabble is also a very enjoyable and absorbing game for children and adults alike.

There are many quiz type board games which will help to widen general knowledge. There are board games which will help with history, geography, science, mathematics, or any other school subject.

Board games do not only help with school subjects, they also help with social skills. The concept of taking turns, and waiting patiently for others to have their turn, is easily learned from board games. A child learns to be magnanimous in victory, and gracious in defeat, from a proper use of board games.

Board games can provide a pleasant way of passing time as a family, but they also help with educational difficulties without making a huge issue out of them. Board games can help to teach children social skills and they provide the opportunity for precious family time.

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