The toy world is filled with supposedly educational games and toys that are little better than flashcards. I get bored just looking at the box or the online description. But educational games don’t have to be boring. In fact, nearly all games are educational.
Of course, there are lots of great word games—from Scrabble and Upwords to Boggle and Balderdash. Of those four, Balderdash (or Balderdash Junior) is the only real writing game of the lot. The other three amount to variations on a spelling bee. Fun, but not necessarily for building skills of characterization and plot and description. And all of them are pretty challenging games. Even Balderdash Junior is hard for kids under eight.
Word games that make a kid feel stupid aren’t a good way to teach them to love writing.
So, here are two great games that will help spark the imagination of any young writer—including pre-schoolers.
First, my kids (4 and 7) love this game. Our four-year-old can play just fine if someone reads the cards to him. They can play round after round without getting bored.
And what better way to teach writing than this game of metaphors? And as far as I’m concerned, learning to think metaphorically is one of the keys to being a good writer.
2) Guess Who?
My kids love this game too. This is pretty much their favorite game other than Twister (which just doesn’t teach writing no matter how you figure it). On the other hand, we play Twister like Mexican Wrestlers at our house–Tarantula Man vs. Elastigirl.
Anyway. Like Apples to Apples Junior, my four-year-old can play this game against his sister with just a little bit of help from an adult.
How does it teach writing? Hello! Character description. Every round, the kids zero in on some physical characteristic that differentiates the various people. They use logic to decide who has that characteristic and who doesn’t. I’d even argue that good logic skills provide the building blocks of good plot.
BONUS GAME Last Night On Earth: The Zombie Game
This one doesn’t really teach young kids to write. But my goodness, doesn’t it sound ridiculously fun? It even has little zombie figures. Santa, if you’re out there. Please get me The Zombie Game—and some nerdy friends to play it with me.
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As far as I'm concerned, Twister absolutely teaches writing…
The need for clever balance, the risk of entanglement, the vulnerability of being found upside down or backwards.
Absolutely.
We're big fans of Balderdash and Apples to Apples over here. Great ways to encourage both creativity and laughter.
The educational games that are linked to the curriculum have a double benefit. Playing these games at home can boost performance at school and can involve the whole family in some fun learning in disguise
Alistair, thanks for the comment! Your site's story dice looked like fun.
We played Apples to Apples last night. My four year old decided it was more
fun to choose intentionally wacky cards rather than try to win. Like father
like son.
We played Twister last night too. In fact, my son actually started reading
while we were playing. He could identify the R for Right and the L for Left
on the spinner. Which just supports what Alistair was saying. These kinds of
interactions at home are the key to good education much more than whether we
choose specifically educational games and toys.
Though, for the record, we have lots of specifically educational toys and
games.
I thought you might be interested in a holiday story/poem writing contest that WWAOW is sponsoring on http://www.PublishYourself.com. Grand prize winner receives $250. Top 10 stories will be included in a compilation book and each winner will receive a free copy. You can find more details on the publishyourself.com web site.
The Christmas holidays are the inspiration for stories all over the world. Submit your own Christmas, holiday or winter story or poem and be eligible to be included in our holiday story book, to be published in Jan. 2009. Once you submit your story, be sure to tell your friends and family. Winners will be decided by visitor voting on the PublishYourself.com site.
Register for a free account to upload your story and to be eligible to vote for your favorites.
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