8 life lessons you can learn from board games

Friday night may be game night in your household. You’ll probably order a pizza, dust off the ol’ dice and ready yourself for hours of board games.

But it’s also an opportunity for you to teach your children some valuable life lessons.

Jessica Lahey of The Atlantic wrote back in July that board games are “educational tools in disguise.” Young people can learn how to cultivate “executive functions” such as planning and strategizing — which are more important for gauging a child’s intelligence than IQ numbers, experts say — through board games. Other studies found board games can improve a child’s social skills and academic scores.

Children can also learn life lessons from board games. Some of the most popular board games can help them understand larger concepts in a very simple way. Here are eight games that do just that.

Monopoly: Learn to manage your money

It’s the game you never want to play, only because it pits family member against family member in a race to collect the most cash. But you can learn a lot about financial success from Monopoly.

The Wall Street Journal’s Philip E. Orbanes wrote that the game puts you through real-world financial scenarios without any of the real-world consequences. The game teaches you the right way to invest and hold onto your money.

Like in life, you can’t just collect cash and sit around. The game almost requires you to spend some and take a risk, like life.

“You can't win if you sit on cash, just as you can't hope to rapidly grow real-world assets if you settle for the rates of return that the banks offer,” Orbanes wrote. “You need to take on risk.”

The Game of Life: Success comes in many forms

The Game of Life has a simple goal: finish with the most amount of money. Along the way, players are thwarted by unexpected twists and turns. Sometimes players go through life without a college degree, or with a less-than-ideal job. But the game still pushes for players to seek success nonetheless.

Erick Barker wrote for The Week that The Game of Life says a lot about how people become successful. Users don’t always play to see who has the most money. And that’s true in life, too. There are multiple ways people value their lives. Success isn’t always about having loads of cash. It can be about having a good marriage, an excellent relationship or just feeling genuinely happy.

Scrabble: Something can come from nothing

There are no bad racks in Scrabble. No matter what letters you get, you can make a word out of it. And that’s a lesson to take away for life, too, according to Christopher Peterson, Ph.D., in an article in Psychology Today.

He wrote that life doesn’t always give you a great hand, but it’s what you do with that hand that matters. You may not always have the best letters to put on the board in Scrabble, but you can still play a word and find some success on the board.

Chutes and Ladders: Fate, chance, and luck play a role in life

Chutes and Ladders has a simple premise: roll the dice and climb ladders to the top. But the dice can work against you, sending you down the chutes back to the bottom. This could be a moment to teach your child about fate, chance and God. When the dice doesn't roll your way, it may not be your decision at all. Sometimes things are out of your control.

In fact, that’s what Americans mainly believe. The New York Times’ Tara Parker-Pope wrote that most Americans believe fate or God gets involved in life decisions. A roll of the dice is sometimes not about rolling the dice at all.

Battleship: Honesty goes a long way

Battleship asks players to guess the location of their opponent's ships. If one player gets it right, they can knock out their opponent’s fleet. However, each player must report the hits on their own ships, which are hidden from the other, correctly.

That’s why the game is a good way to talk about honesty. The Wall Street Journal’s Shirley S. Wang wrote that parents should teach their kids about honest people rather than liars if they don't want them to lie. Wang wrote that teaching children the story of Pinocchio, a liar, is less effective than teaching them about George Washington, a more honest example.

“Talking to kids about the moral importance of honesty and the moral negativity of lying has no impact on kids' tendency to tell the truth,” said Kang Lee, professor at the University of Toronto, to The Wall Street Journal.

Candyland: Sometimes you have to embrace sweets

Candyland is a simple board game for people to play — get to the end of the sugar-coated road and you win. One lesson you can teach with Candyland is that sweets and sugars aren’t always bad for you.

The Atlantic’s Beth Fontenot wrote that chocolate and other sugary treats can help your heart and overall health. Other studies suggest that chocolate lessens your likelihood of a stroke or heart disease too, Fontenot wrote.

“In addition, there was no association between eating chocolate and the risk of heart failure and no association with the incidence of diabetes,” Fontenot wrote.

She also wrote that chocolate and sugar are high in calories and fat, which can make people gain weight. But moderation will help you stay safe from those issues and find the aforementioned benefits.

Risk: You have to take risks

Risk surely asks players to take a risk. But it also makes people realize the importance of knowing how the world works. Players huddle around a huge world map and strive to win over a variety countries from their opponents through a series of strategic battles (done with the roll of a dice). Part of this, as the name of the game implies, is comitting to an action you may not fully believe will yield the best results.

Risks can help children in the real world. The Guardian’s Adrian Voce wrote that children who take risks when playing develop better socially and know how to act independently. These decisions help prepare them for the decisions they’ll have to make when they’re older, Voce wrote.

Operation: Focus can help you

We’ve all been there. We’ve got the plastic tool in our hand, and we’re slowly reaching down to grab a bone out of the Operation man’s body. Steady hands and focus win the game.

Teaching youth the importance of focus is important, especially in an age of distraction, according to Mind/Shift’s Katrina Schwartz. She explained that distractions like smartphones are coming in waves and there are few opportunities for children to escape them. Take any chance you have to teach focus.

It’s especially important for children, since the brain is one of the last parts of the body to develop. So if children grow without learning focus, they won’t be focused as an adult, either. Schwartz said when young people learn to focus, they reach levels of success that many might not know about.

“The more you can concentrate, the better you’ll do on anything, because whatever talent you have, you can’t apply it if you are distracted,” said Daniel Goleman, a psychologist, to Schwartz.

Email: hscribner@deseretdigital.com
Twitter: @herbscribner