Board games are a fun and exciting way to spend time together as a family. They help us to set aside technology and be in the now for a little while. While this alone is a great reason to pick up a board game or two to play with your kids, there are so so many other reasons that you might not be aware of.

The quality time you will spend playing games will offer you endless opportunities to work on both physical and intellectual skills with your children. Some of the skills we are going to talk about will require some prompting and creativity from the adults playing, but they are easy to implement.

We believe in teaching with the aid of board games so much that we worked hard to create our best board games for two year olds, three year olds, and four year olds list. The games on each of these lists went through rigorous testing by our families to make sure that they are not only educational but fun as well. After each game we made a list of some of the skills it is great for working on. If there are any areas in particular you are looking to target, these are a great reference point.

When we started breaking down the benefits for playing board games with your kids, we found it best to sort them into four categories. Mental skills, social skills, physical skills, and problem solving skills. Below we break down each category and the areas of focus targeted through board games.

1. Mental/Cognitive Development

Speech/Language Development

One of our favorite reasons to play board games with your child is for speech and language development. During play you have the opportunity to discuss and ask questions about the state of the game. For example, you could ask your child “What color did you spin?” or “Is your player in front or behind my player?” These discussions help with both their understanding of game play, and also growth in the language department.

When asking questions, try to pose them in a way that requires a response other than yes or no. Asking yes or no questions is good as well but for many kids it leads to them answering without really thinking about it. When they are asked questions that require an alternate response they need to give thought to their answers and will start using more and more words in their daily speech. As their vocabulary grows so will their excitement in being able to communicate and share stories with you!

Color Identification

Colors seem to be one of the first things that are worked on with kids. The only problem is, as with many things, kids can become bored with being asked “what color is that block?”, so it's important to keep things interesting. While playing a game you have many options, you could ask which color they are on, state what you rolled, or make predictions about which color will come up. Even just saying “you spun a red” will add to their ability to identify colors.

Another added bonus is that board games are often different shades of colors so they will learn that there is more than one shade of each color.

Shape/Image Recognition

Many games geared towards younger kids also involve shapes. Shapes can be hard to tackle since they aren't as simple as colors. The concept of shapes being different dimensions is very confusing. For this reason it is easiest to start with two dimensional shapes until they have a strong grasp on those and move on from there.

2D shapes aren't very common in everyday life so we need to find other ways to target them. Some early board games have shape work mixed in to game play making it easy to have exposure to 2D images. We also love playing with simple shape puzzles for shape identification.

As game complexity expands shapes are not targeted as much as images. Through game play kids will be able to associate pictures on tiles or boards with everyday items. This image recognition furthers their understanding of the world around them. Memory games or Zingo are a great way to work on image recognition and understanding. It is through exposure to books, puzzles, games, and toys that they are able to form these connections in their brain.

Pre Reading/Reading Skills/Sight Words/Letters

Board games are a fun way to tackle the hard skill of reading. Early board games such as Bunny Bedtime involve moving a piece from left to right. This skill helps to form the concept of moving your eyes from left to right far before they are ready to actually start reading. The small accomplishments of learning to move a piece in the correct direction is such a large step in the process of reading and writing.

If your child has already mastered these beginning skills then it will be much easier to understand the concept of starting on the left hand side of the page. As they get older games start to use more letters eventually progressing to words. It’s amazing how excited kids will be to start identifying their letters when it will help them to succeed in a game.

Games that involve a picture and a word are one of the easiest ways to start associating letters and words with an image. A great way to start this process is to focus on the beginning letter of the word and the sound that letter makes. As they become more familiar with that sound they will better be able to connect that sound to other words and begin to string letters together which leads to recognizing sight words. Site words are small words such as ‘TWO’ or “GO’ that they can recognize when helping you read. Reading the cards along with your child and focusing on little things like this will go a long way in their reading journey.

Once they start to be able to recognize letters and words, they will enjoy trying to find things they recognize when they are out and about such as driving in the car and recognizing letters on signs. The more variety of practice they have the more their skills will develop.

Math Skills/Counting

Through repetition and exposure your child's understanding will become more concrete. If they are only exposed to numbers, in the form of repeating 1-10 over and over their ability to count will not transfer to other situations as easily. If we are continuously exposing them to new ways to count and recognize numbers, they will become much more confident in their abilities and this will solidify their understanding.

Board games involve numbers in a myriad of ways. Dice can have either the black dots representing a number or an actual number labelled on them. Some spinners will also use numbers. Helping your child to identify the number on their turn and also on yours will add in the repetition factor that makes counting 1-10 over and over so great, but in a different form. As they begin to recognize the numbers their confidence in counting will soar. Another way to work on that repetition is to count how many squares away from something you are on the board, or how many of an item you have picked up. The options are endless if you get creative.

Through this process number representation will become second nature and your child will already have a grasp on the skill of addition. A few board games also involve setbacks which will require the skill of subtraction. While the subtraction involved is generally very basic, it is a very beneficial introduction to another math skill.

Imagination

When we are playing board games we are entering into a new world to explore and conquer. Board games open up a child's imagination and creativity, they allow them to really be in that orchard picking apples, or trying to get the chicks back before the mama hen gets home. Being in the moment with board games and allowing the goal of the game to be the most important thing opens up new parts of our imagination.

Sometimes kids may tie experiences of a board game into their play with toys afterwards and that's really fun to watch. While these games have an end goal, they do provide numerous ways to play and pretend.

Memory

We have all played the game memory at some point in our lives. While it seems very simple, the complexity of it is always advancing. In the beginning you can have all the cards face up and work on matching them. The next step is to have them all upside down, but leave them face up as they are flipped, making it slightly easier. The final step would be to play by the true rules of flipping them back over if they aren't a pair.

You can continuously up the difficulty by laying more cards out and thus furthering the memorization needed to find pairs. For such a simple game it is the easiest way to improve your child's memory. Board games help kids to be able to recall information by focusing on what they know and trying to put it together. Asking your child questions like “Do you remember where the dog card was?” or making comments like “We should try to remember that this is the cat card” will help them to run through those strategies in their brain and develop the ability to do so without prompting.

Place Concepts/Multiple Step Directions

Finding ways to work on place concepts such as first, last, in front, behind, near and far can be challenging. Board games offer ample opportunity to pose these questions in a very visual way. Some games have a simple straight forward path that offer an easy visual answer, while others twist and turn making it a bit harder for kids to visualize. Working on these concepts frequently during game play, and finding ways to incorporate these questions into all the games you play will expand upon their range of thinking. They will be able combine place concepts and understand being ‘behind’ one player but ‘in front’ of another.

 Board games also help with understanding multiple step directions. When starting out you will begin by helping them to take their turns one step at a time, as their knowledge grows you will be able to challenge them with multiple steps at once. Eg. “First you roll the dice, then you move your player, then you pick up a card”. They will have many opportunities to practice doing multiple steps throughout the course of a single game and will be better able to follow directions outside of game play.

This understanding will help them to complete tasks at home eg. first brush your teeth, next put on your pajamas, finally crawl into bed. It will also help with their understanding of their days and how it will progress. If you have anxious children, the ability to follow and progression will help to alleviate some of the stress of knowing what will happen next throughout their day.

2. Physical Skills

Fine Motor Skills/Hand Eye Coordination

Fine motor skills (dexterity) involve small muscle movements, used to coordinate fingers and hands with the eyes. In the early stages, you will notice your child using a fisted grasp to do things like color or hold a pencil. As they get older they will start to develop the muscles that allow them to use their thumb and forefingers,this is called the pincer grasp.

We love that board games require our kids to use their pincer grasp to pick up and move small pieces. This helps to develop the technique and coordination required to hold pencils, zip zippers, use scissors, and much more. Since picking up the small pieces is a part of the game they won't even realize they are working on a very important skill! Some board games also have spinners involved. That flicking motion is very hard to master, it requires separating the thumb side and finger side of the hand. In the beginning most children will not be able to flick the spinner, they will however be able to swipe at it or nudge it which is a great place to start! Over time when given the opportunity to practice through games, your little one can start to master the skill.

A couple more examples of how you can use board games for fine motor development is through picking up cards or rolling a die. Any action that requires the work of small muscles will help your child to master their fine motor skills.

Gross Motor Skills

Gross motor skills are skills that require large muscle movements. This can include running, jumping, sitting on a chair, crawling etc. While you wouldn’t normally associate gross motor movements with board games, some early board games do involve working on these movements and abilities.

Games such as roll and play are one of the easiest ways to provide a structured activity while also working on large muscle movements. Having a game in your collection that involves movement will burn some energy in a controlled manner. As they work on their large muscles they will become more coordinated,stable and confident in their movements.

3. Social and Emotional Development

Turn Taking/Social Skills

Most games require kids to wait for their turn to play. We believe that this is an important step in introducing board games because it allows the opportunity to discuss the options available and also to have the focus on someone else. It’s important for kids to be patient at times and this is a fun way to introduce that. One way we like to make the waiting game fun is by being excited for everyone's accomplishments during play. If you are excited it helps to to engage kids in the actions of others as well as themselves.

Some games involve everyone playing at once, while we do value taking turns, it is not a requirement of the games we play. It is nice to have a variety of games to mix things up and keep kids excited. Throughout game play and turn taking they will be working on their social skills.

Social Skills involve active listening, manners, and sportsmanship (more on sportsmanship later). During the game, there are many opportunities to ask questions and listen for answers in a more calm environment. Often kids will ask a question and not even listen for the response. Not having a bunch of other distractions will help them to focus their attention. The more exposure children have to a partner or group activity the better they will get at interacting with others in appropriate ways. Through activities such as these they learn to be patient and to share with others.

Teamwork/Cooperation

There are a lot of games out there for kids that involve a cooperative game play strategy. This means that everyone works together to reach the end goal. This all for one method is great for teaching kids to work together.

Peaceable Kingdom is a fantastic board game company that only makes cooperative games. Many of their games are not only some of our favorite cooperative board games, but they rank very highly in our favorite games in general. Discussing each move and figuring out strategy together takes the pressure off the game for kids that aren't quite comfortable playing games and is also great for those who are more experience to realize that everyone works as a team, their choice might not be what you would have chose but you can still support it. It also makes losing easier when that happens, since no one person will have lost.

The cooperative aspect of games can be hard to understand at first. Your child may still state “I won” instead of “we won”, and that's okay. They are proud of their accomplishment and overtime will see how it was achieved by everyone.

Sportsmanship

When you think sportsmanship, you often think of athletic endeavours. While playing a game of soccer or hockey definitely involves winning and losing, so do most board games. Teaching kids how to be a graceful winner or loser can be difficult. A lot of hard work goes into game play and they are either overjoyed to be on the top, or gutted that it didn't work out for them. Emotions run high in these situations and can get the better of anyone, never mind a little one that has just poured their heart and soul into the last 20 minutes of play.

Learning to gracefully accept defeat, and glory is a skill that is often learned from watching those around us. Cheering each other on throughout play will help to make everyone happy regardless of the outcome, because everyone had fun playing. If we try to compliment all players game play, and help another player if they are having trouble then our kids will see that behavior and work to do the same things.

It is important to remember that getting upset, and feeling excited are very normal emotions and they are important to have. What we are striving for is a balance and to understand that sometimes things don't go as planned. Lastly, the ability to be graceful and supportive will be skills that they can use in all areas of their lives, the world is a much kinder place when we cheer each other on.

Enjoying Interaction

The process of being involved in an activity with other people can be very stressful for some kids. They may feel uncomfortable sharing their ideas or finding others to play with. Board games are a very inviting way to get everyone involved, especially for kids. It doesn't matter what the skill levels are, there is always a game that everyone can play, such as memory or a coop game like count your chickens.

Cooperative games are especially great for easing anxiety because the pressure isn't on one player. Working through a game together can create conversation and common ground for kids to relate upon. Often times there is some down time throughout game play that gives you an opportunity to talk about other topics such as favorite TV shows or toys. Finding out that you have common ground with others breaks down some of the barriers that cause social anxiety. As they become more comfortable kids will enjoy interaction more and will want to spend more time with others.

Lengthen Attention Span

There is always so much going on in our everyday lives that it is to shut out distractions and focus on one activity. Either our phones are beside us or the tv is on, we are constantly searching for our every moment to be filled with something. This is true for kids as well.

Early play often involves more of just mess making. They won't often interact with what they find, they are constantly exploring. Slowly they start to show more interest with interacting with an activity or toy and play really starts to develop. Board games are a great way to help lengthen their attention spans. In the beginning you may only play for 5 minutes before they are ready to take off and find something new to engage them. Over time they will be able to sit and play for longer. They will be better at focusing their attention and engaging in deeper play. It takes time and practice to be able to devote attention to an activity but board games are a great way to hold their focus.

4. Problem Solving Skills

Game Play Progression

Beginner board games are extremely simple. One of their main goals is to teach the idea of moving along a board and how step by step you work towards the end goal. Some of them are as simple as moving from left to right, others follow a path that only has one option. Most of the games have one or two steps to make your turn.

As the games become more difficult, more steps and options are provided. It is important to start out with the beginner games to get the idea of game play. Otherwise games can be very daunting for kids. It's hard to remember multiple steps if you haven't built your way up to that point. Learning to follow multiple step directions through game play will correspond to life beyond the board as well.

Organization/Game setup

Having your kids help with both the set up and the clean up of games will go a long way in their organization skills. They will understand how to lay out the pieces in the most effective way (ie the board first) and will also understand how to put the pieces away in the correct locations. Setting up a game together will give them a sense of pride in their abilities and allow them to be more independent since they will be able to play with friends without your help.

It will also help them to understand time management. You could explain to your child that you need to fold the laundry before bed time so if they want to have time to play a game they can help by getting it setup so it's ready to go. If you are playing a new game they will need practice with you before they can accomplish this on their own. Organization techniques can learned during clean up can be used in other areas as well You could talk about how the pieces of the game are sorted by type in the box and ask if that gives them any ideas for how they could organize their toys.

Rules/Following the Rules

When we are teaching kids about rules in everyday life, they often see them as restrictive and not fun. This often leads to the desire to break the rules. Board games offer to pose rules in a fun way. Throughout the game you could explain that the player needs to follow the path so that they don't get lost, or that in candyland you can only move the player the number of squares that you spin or you won't be able to get into the castle at the end.

When talking about rules in a way that makes them fun and inviting to follow it helps to teach children that rules aren't in place to be frustrating but instead to be helpful. As kids become more independent in their play and play with friends without an adult overseeing, they will need to be able to properly understand and follow the rules to be successful. Getting used to the concept at a young age will greatly help with this.

Strategy/Planning Ahead

Most beginner games do not require much in terms of strategy, they are more process oriented. As the difficulty goes up, so does the strategy involved. Games like hoot owl hoot offer an early look into strategy board games. It is a game that doesn't require strategy to be successful, but it has the opportunity to use a pretty deep level of strategy when you child is ready for you to help implement it.

Playing cooperative games is helpful when trying to help your child figure out their next move in a logical manner since you are aware of all of their options and can discuss what would be the best choice. Talking things out but allowing your child to pick what they would like to do in the end (even if they don't choose the most beneficial option) will help them to understand the process and not just do what they are told.

Once games become even more difficult kids will need to learn to plan ahead as they go through each turn. These techniques can be used in everyday life when figuring out what they should get done when to make their days successful. The more exposure kids have to strategizing in a fun way, the more successful they will be at it.

Learn from Experience

Over time your child will develop a greater understanding of game play and be able to use past games to influence their choices in future games. This is a skill that they won't be using until they are moving on to more advanced games and are forced to make decisions that affect the results of the game.

Once they reach this level of play you can work with them on learning from experience by discussing gameplay and strategies of both current and past games. By bringing up strategies that worked in previous games, you can help your child to reimplement those strategies in current game play. Remember to prompt them to explore and try new strategies as well. As we have learned as adults, there are many ways to play a game. Sometimes you find a strategy that works best for you and stick to it for the most part, but branching out and trying new ways to play can really expand upon the game. Games are meant to push you to try new things and it's great to remind our kids to do this. A great way to help them to learn from experience but also to try new methods is to discuss why some things worked and others didn't

Critical Thinking Skills/Predicting Outcomes

Critical thinking skills are skills that help a child to be able to make decisions. They enable us to ask questions and decide upon the best option by evaluating what is right and what is wrong. When a child is able to find multiple ways to look at a problem, they are much more open minded to solutions and are using their critical thinking skills.

By asking your child questions about what they think, feel or like, they will start to form opinions. These opinions are important for a kid to have, because when they are able to articulate how they feel, you can then start to discuss how others feel. It is important to remind kids to not just answer questions but to ask them as well. When they ask questions they are working on their ability to look at things in different ways. Board games work on critical thinking by teaching us to be graceful winners and losers, when we are able to put ourselves in another's shoes we are able to understand why a big celebration can be harmful to someone's feelings. Being able to understand how someone else will feel allows us to start predicting what will come of our actions.

This translates into game play by predicting the effect of our movements. Asking questions that force kids to see beyond the current moment in time and understand what will happen if they make such a move will help them to form their own inner monologue while they play and be able to predict the outcomes of their choices.

Problem Solving

Once kids start to learn from experience and start to be able to predict outcomes, their problem solving skills will begin to flourish. Problem solving skills are very important for a child's day to day experience. They will help them to solve problems with friends, communicate their feelings, and understand how to make good choices.

During game play you can discuss what the goal is and what their options are during each move. Keeping the end goal in focus will make it easier to figure out how to get there. By working through the steps and figuring out what they need to do next, you child will start to discover how to reach the end on their own. This ability to break apart the problem and solve it piece by piece will help them with many everyday problems that they face as well. As they become more comfortable with the idea of solving a problem to reach and end goal, they will be able to adapt that process to different games requiring less and less help over time.

Logic and Reasoning Skills/Explaining Reasoning

Young kids have trouble viewing the world in ways other than what they directly see. They have trouble applying reasoning because they understand their perception of things but are unable to see other viewpoints. Providing your child with an array of activities will work on their ability to see other viewpoints and options.

Playing games and asking why they made the choices they did and also stating your reasoning behind your choices will teach them how to think logically. Thinking logically requires not just acting upon impulse but thinking a situation through. Explaining how they got to their choice will further their thinking. Board games place us in different situations that require logic and reasoning continuously. Over the course of one game, they will be forced to change their strategies and thinking multiple times which gives lots of practice with this process. Overtime they will be able to explain why they did and be making thoughtful choices.

5. Bonus

Beyond the Board

When we play board games we are working on tons of different skills all at once. Although you may try to focus on one or two, you will always be targeting many more. Most if not all of the skills that you are able to channel via playing board games, are skills that are usable in everyday life. Being able to use these strategies, abilities or techniques beyond the board means that you are using play to help your child develop in all areas of their lives.

When you use a wide variety of ways to teach your children, their understanding is a lot more well rounded and concrete. As they understand and can explain more their confidence in their abilities will soar.

Play/Fun

This is one of the most important things to remember during all play both through board games and other channels of play. Play is meant to be fun, it is meant to for exploring, enjoyment, and creativity. The fact that kids are so excited to play makes it one of the greatest ways to learn. When we take learning and make it more exciting by adding in a board game or a silly song, we create an interactive and fun environment that is open to laughter, questions and imagination.The more fun a child has learning, the more they want to learn.

While playing may appear to be just a way to spend time, it is really your toddlers job, they are hard at work building upon their skills. Every moment they spend playing is a moment spent learning and developing.

Bonding Time

The greatest reason we have of why you should play board games with your child is the bonding time it provides. With each game you play, you get to see first hand how their language is advancing, what their favorite parts of game play are, how their strategic abilities are changing, and so much more. It is also a great time to disconnect from technology and be present. Board games offer a chunk of time that has less distractions in which you can gain insight into their world. What they like and dislike, how they think etc.

The time that is spent interacting with a child helps them to feel loved and of importance. So often we get busy running around and don't realize that what kids really need is time to connect. When we make bonding time with our kids a priority it gives them a chance to connect and talk with us. Kids grow up quick, it's cliche but it's true. These moments of sharing laughter over games are some of the memories that both you and your child will cherish forever.

If you can't tell, we love board games. We love playing them for fun, and for the developmental workout they provide. Most of all we love the time spent together as a family, and seeing our children's love of games build. There's a feeling of excitement when they want to spend time together playing games instead of watching a movie (this definitely isn't the case all of the time). Breaking down game play to make this list was a lot of fun for us, while discussing the reasons we knew so well, we realized some skills that they work on that we hadn't been focusing on yet we're still targeting each time we played.

The list is long, the skills are important, and the fun is never ending. Let us know down below what games you love to play with your kids and if there's any skills that we didn't touch on! Finally, remember to have fun and enjoy the laughs, those memories are the sweetest.