Board games are great screen-free activities for your student that encourage strategic thinking, improve focus, increase attention spans, and sharpen math/reading skills.
Hi! My name is Tracy Floyd. I started Strategic Fun in 2018.
Our family loves playing board games. Its a great activity to create some focused, face-to-face time together around the table— something sadly missing in today’s distracting, always “connected” world.
When my wife (an elementary teacher) and I began to realize the impact playing tabletop board games on a regular basis was having on our our two sons’ math and reading skills, the idea for Strategic Fun was born: A program that offered board game clubs using a carefully curated list of games that we knew were well designed, challenging, and actually fun to play.
Most “educational” games aren’t really all that fun. But there is a huge selection of board games on the market today that have beautiful artwork by professional illustrators and have been designed to be balanced and fun by professional game designers. The difference is that the latter are designed first and foremost to be FUN —and any educational value is just a by-product of playing the game.
For example, Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters is a cooperative board game where players work together to escape from a haunted house with all treasures before the rooms fill with ghosts. Players have to think ahead to be at the right place to either help a teammate or grab a treasure. This game is usually pretty exciting (lots of epic dice battling against the ghosts) and has proven to be favorite among most kids. So what do they learn?
- How to communicate with each other to plan and coordinate their movements;
- How to divide the tasks that need be done among the team members (and then, in turn, take the responsibility to do your part for the team);
- How to recognize threats (“oh no, there’s too many ghosts in that room!”) and take the initiative to deal with them (“I’m closer so I’ll head over and try to defeat them!”)
When separated from the themes in the gameplay, these skills are things we adults have to use every day.
Here are a few of the things that board games can teach:
- Strategic Thinking
- Pattern Recognition
- Creative Problem Solving
- Resource Management
- Healthy Competition
- Spatial Reasoning
- Critical Thinking
- Self Confidence
- Cooperation & Collaboration
- And they’re LOTS OF FUN!
Well-designed tabletop games are a great opportunity for educational and personal enrichment. One of our goals with Strategic Fun is to introduce more people to this wonderful hobby. If you have any questions or are interested in bringing a Strategic Fun club to your school, please don’t hesitate to contact us.