by Elena dal Friuli

Created on: July 26, 2011   Last Updated: July 27, 2011

There are few things more comforting than sitting around the table with family and friends to play a board game. It is even more special when you are the one who designed the game.

The first thing that comes to mind is to make the game fun. Adding educational elements to it produces a winning combination.

This board game “Around the World” requires

A laminated political world map
A piece of cardboard to use as backing to the world map
Colored index cards
Scissors
Pen
Craft/archive glue
Reference material 

The size of the world map will vary; however, make sure that it is big enough to accommodate enough pegs per family member. If you are able to procure a laminated map, then all you will need to do is to glue the map to the cardboard. If the map is not laminated, you will need to have it laminated before you glue it to the cardboard.

The colored index cards will represent different question categories for the older children. You will need to cut these in half so to create two play cards per note card.

The reference material can be information gathered on the computer, school books, educational videos, or even personal travel experience. Whatever your source, make sure that the data is accurate and up to date.

Select the categories you want the game to cover. For example, you may choose to include geography, science, economics, language, and math.

For each category, you want to formulate questions that are age appropriate. If you have a child in elementary school, one in middle school, and one in high school, the questions will be based on their capacity to understand and answer what is asked.

The first thing you will need to do is to number all the countries on the map or, where there are several small ones, choose a cluster of them and assign them one number. These numbers will help younger children play the game and will allow all players to move the pegs on the map.

The questions for the younger child will refer to the country by the name and number and will be simple. For example, one question you might ask is “How many countries border Switzerland, country number 5 on the map?” Another question you might ask could be, “With what letter does country number 5 begin?” Yet another question might ask for the spelling of country number 5. With these questions you would be covering math and language arts.

If the child is older, the question may ask about the name of the countries bordering Switzerland. Another question may ask in which continent and/or hemisphere you can find Switzerland. If you provide a ruler during the game, one question might ask the distance between two specific borders. With these questions, the older child would cover geography and math.

For the child in high school, the questions may be of historical, political, economical, and cultural nature. For example, you may ask what form of government Italy has, what major event happened on June 6, 1944 in Normandy, what type of economic system China has, and what country is responsible for the birth of reggae.

As the questions are answered correctly, each player will move the peg to the next country. The winner is the player who has been able to reach the last number on the map.

This game requires quite a bit of preparation as you will need to find questions that are age appropriate. However, it is a game that will grow with your children as they progress from simply counting the bordering countries to naming those countries, to calculating distances, and to naming famous events.

This game can be played by memory alone or participants can be allowed to use reference material. The choice is ultimately yours and the rules can be changed to accommodate family members.

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