I have decided to try a deep dive into Kingdomino because it is simple enough to easily analyze and (more importantly) my son enjoys playing it. As a skillbuilder, Kingdomino excels at spatial reasoning. The gameplay involves laying tiles to most efficiently build sections of land. The rules as written explain that players must build a 5×5Continue reading “Kingdomino in Space”
Category Archives: Gaming with Kids
The Math of Kingdomino
Kingdomino is a light-weight and highly regarded tile-laying game. The simple rules and strategy make it perfect for families with young children. Kids quickly learn that there is a tradeoff between turn order and selecting the best tiles. If you choose a high-scoring tile this turn and you will almost certainly get the last to choose next turn. ScoringContinue reading “The Math of Kingdomino”
Girls, STEM, and Board Games
The movement to get more girls into STEM is laudable and ongoing. Leaving aside any social and cultural barriers to girls in STEM fields, in Boys and Girls Learn Differently, Michael Gurian claims that male brains are gender-advantaged for spatial and abstract reasoning, and female brains are gender-advantaged for socialization and relationships. There are manyContinue reading “Girls, STEM, and Board Games”
The Hive Photo Safari
This is a great post by BGG user @dodger. They used their learners’ love of Hive as an excuse to lead a photo safari and find insects (and a spider) living in natural environments. Ideas like this are what make teaching fun. @dodger combined a game and field trip into a creative activity. There areContinue reading “The Hive Photo Safari”
War of the Numbers
In a recent BGG forum thread Defending BGG’s most hated games!, the thread creator called out the old card game War, the game we all played with our grandparents where two people draw from a 52-card deck and whoever has the highest value card wins them both. Like so many games that gamers (myself included)Continue reading “War of the Numbers”
Tic-Tac-Toe
I came across this wonderful post on BGG about tic-tac-toe’s true greatness. Posted by marc lecours (@rubberchicken), tic-tac-toe is one of the first games children can solve so they learn that games involve strategy, not luck. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3110151/article/42550066#42550066 I recommend reading the entire post. It really changed my view on how can tic-tac-toe can be usedContinue reading “Tic-Tac-Toe”
Board of Executive Function
My son’s school recently hosted a TEDx Youth event – Reflect Restart Reconnect. They invited parents to present, so I jumped at the opportunity to sing the praises of board games. I focused on brain development and age-appropriate skills our children and students can practice through board gaming. Based on the audience reaction, especially allContinue reading “Board of Executive Function”
Scaffolded Splendor
I swear by two educational strategies and try to regularly implement them in my classes: scaffolding and spaced repetition. Of course, hundreds of other strategies exist, but these are my favorites. Scaffolded instruction is a simple idea. Content in skills should be taught in a “scaffolded” manner from simple to more complex. For example, aContinue reading “Scaffolded Splendor”
Play and Direct Learning
As an early childhood educator, my mom collects all sorts of books devoted to childhood development. When I told her she was going to be a grandmother, she dug through her library to pass on a few choice titles. One book was Play With a Purpose by Dr. Dorothy Einon. It must have been aContinue reading “Play and Direct Learning”
Parallel (play) Intersections
Parallel play is a vital stage of toddler development. Emerging between two an three years, parallel play involves toddlers “playing alone, together.” When two children sit at the same table and build their own block towers, that’s parallel play. Children learn a lot from parallel play. While they aren’t directly communicating, they are stealing glancesContinue reading “Parallel (play) Intersections”
The Keasy Depot 