family games

Over the years, one of the most successful and entertaining ways of teaching children critical thinking skills in the Lockman home school was, without a doubt, playing GAMES together.  We played countless board games, card games, indoor games, outdoor games, and even games that required each of us to use our entire bodies.  For several years, Fridays were designated “math game” day, and the kids happily pushed the math text aside in lieu of the more exciting frolic in imagination and strategic thinking.  Little did they realize that Mom was up to her sneaky tricks to make learning fun; they never suspected that they were actually acquiring and improving their critical thinking skills each time they tackled a new game.  Today, Meredith is at college, but she made sure to pack a couple of her favorite games (Anomia & Mexican Train), and like most young men today, Connor is still a computer game fanatic.

Teaching Children Critical Thinking Skills

When I was preparing for a recent speech club meeting, I came across an excellent gaming resource for teaching children how to think at the local library called The Reader’s Digest Treasury of Family Games.  You can’t get a new copy at amazon anymore, but you can find a used copy or maybe, like mine, your library stocks it.  I wish I’d had this 250 page book when the kids were still little! Divided into categories like “race games” and “pencil and paper games,” the Treasury is easy to navigate to find the perfect one of more than 200 of the world’s most popular pastimes.  Each game is rated according to difficulty; for example, it might say “for young children,” “ages 7 and up,” or ” for adults and older children” making it easy to locate appropriate challenges.  Many of the games can be played in a short window of time making the temptation to put down the text book in exchange for a quick critical thinking exercise attractive.

Another good way to improve critical thinking skills is to have your child create his own game.  He can come up with it from scratch or adapt an existing game.  For instance, if he’s familiar with the game Scattergories, all he’d have to do is come up with new content.  You could ask him to use content that was related to some other topic that he was studying like history.  Wouldn’t he giggle with delight if he put together a game that was full of details that stumped Mom and Dad?  He might just decide he likes creating his own games!  What are your favorite family games for teaching children critical thinking skills?

Diane (191 Posts)

Diane Lockman, Author of classical education homeschooling handbook Trivium Mastery, was born and raised in the Tennessee Valley between the Appalachian Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau. She teaches high school at home and coaches moms in how to teach in her homeschooling posts at The Classical Scholar.