At Astor International School we offer Board Games as an Extracurricular Activity (ECA), as board games offer great opportunities for students. Simple games can help children with such things like:
identifing colours and or numbers,
counting spaces,
development of hand-eye coordination and dexterity in moving cards and pieces around the board.
Here are some benefits of board games:
1. Learning to be patient by waiting your turn and following the rules are important lessons for children when playing board games.
2. Board games are an easy way to encourage healthy brain development in children. Strategy games are useful in helping children learn how to plan, organise, and make good decisions.
3. They boost children’s language skills by helping to expand children’s vocabulary and comprehension skills.
4. They teach the value of teamwork. Board games are a good way to encourage children of different ages to team up and work together, as this is something they will need to do throughout life.
5. Board games help anxiety and stress. They may help anxious children learn how to navigate friendships more easily as games are structured, they can provide an easier way to build interpersonal relationships with peers.
6. They teach children how to be a good loser. Children need to learn how to deal with the feeling of frustration and failure which they will inevitably have to deal with in life.
7. They sharpen your child's focus. Finishing a board game without interruptions will help lengthen a child's attention span.
Here are some board games Astor recommends, why not try them out over the weekend:
Bandido
Mmm!
Cluedo
Bananagrams
Outfoxed