Family Game Night

Family Game Night

Here you will find some Q&As from Evelyn about Family Game Night, some interesting facts about the benefits of playing games and more.

How to order the FREE BROCHURE:
With help from the National Parenting Center, Hasbro developed a free brochure about Family Game Night. It describes ways parents can start a Family Game Night, and it includes tips on keeping it going and adding to the fun, tips on games, and information on the school and life skills children learn from playing games with the family

Email your name and home address to fgn@Hasbro.com
or write to
Hasbro Family Game Night
P.O. Box 5659
Pawtucket, RI 02862

"We hope Family Game Night will help parents remember how much they enjoyed playing games with the family when they were little, and that they will get the old games out of the closet and put this family tradition back into their lives on a weekly basis.

I will be passing this message on to you parents in my role as national spokesperson for Family Game Night for the rest of this year, but that won't surprise my regular readers, as I have been promoting quality family time in my columns for the past 16 years. Have fun together making memories that will last lifetimes." - Evelyn Petersen

Some FGN Info Bits

FAMILY GAMES HELP STROKE VICTIMS
New research studies state that playing family games helps fine tune the brain's ability to process information. This is true not only for young children, but for older adults who are stroke victims! Elderly stroke victims may not be able to process new information very well, but they can remember and play familiar family games. Doing so improves processing abilities that were damaged by the stroke!

ALL GAMES TEACH THE FOLLOWING LIFE SKILLS:
1. Cooperation/Teamwork - Taking turns and working with others; respecting other family members including extended family.
2. Responsibility - Playing by the rules; taking care of the materials and putting the game away so it will be ready next time.
3. Perseverence and Patience - Waiting for your turn or for that "special card" or throw of the dice; sticking it out to the end; trying again.
4. Honesty - Playing fair; being able to admit mistakes and learning from them.
5. Understanding/Accepting both winning and losing - Knowing that we can try to win, but sometimes we will lose, and being able to cope with wins or losses tactfully and graciously.
6. Making choices and accepting the consequences of the choices you make.

EDUCATIONAL SKILLS
Different Games Teach Different Types of Skills:
Yahtzee...math skills; counting, totalling and record keeping.
Scrabble...vocabulary and spelling skills
Sorry...counting, colors, strategy
Clue...memory, deductive reasoning, and record keeping
Monopoly and The Game of Life...attention span, problem solving, strategy, negotiation, compromise, money skills
Jenga...eye-hand skills, perception, observation, concentration
Payday...money management skills
(All games teach concentration and attention span!)

TIPS
Remembr that you as a family have the right to modify games to fit your needs. For example, you can simplify Monopoly if you have young children by playing for a set time limit, and/or by omitting the small bills.

Also, younger children who cannot read CAN play many games with the rest of the family, such as Clue, Monopoly and Yahtzee, if an older sibling or an adult plays with them as a partner and mentor, helping with the reading or totalling.

Take the ages on games with a grain of salt. You know your family and what each member can do. For example we played Jenga this summer with seven family members ages 83, 65, 62, 39, 31, 7, and 5 and it was great.

new! NEW PAYDAY GAME TEACHES KIDS ABOUT MONEY
This is an easy game to play that the whole family can enjoy (reminds me a little of the old game Careers, which I really liked)    Best for children 8 and up into the teens because they are beginning to have allowances, and are learning (sometimes the hard way) about saving, spending, and budgeting.

Payday teaches an awareness of these aspects of money management. It makes kids learn to plan ahead for bills, and realize that in any given month, temptations to spend more than you have WILL come up.

Just like in real life, as kids play Payday they will sometimes get some unexpected money, but money emergencies will come up more often than these pleasant surprises.

Just as in real life, things you did not expect to have to spend money on WILL come up.   So Payday teaches kids what they would need to do if they did not have enough money to pay the regular and unexpected bills.

It teaches them that if you take out a loan, you need to pay it back in regular payments with interest charges.   Interestingly, the game also teaches that you will have a REALLY tough time paying off credit card debt. (and shows that the interest on cards is way higher than the bank's interest) The rules say you must either pay it ALL off at once, including interest, or just pay the interest each month (FOREVER)   Very realistic.

This game will help kids be much more aware of how money works in the "real" world. The fact is that you work for money, and then try to make it work for you. Payday shows kids the way they need to plan for (budget) money to be spent on regular bills each month, teaches them to think hard about "deals" and temptations, and teaches them about making wise choices with "extra" money.

Just like in real life, if you get through a month or two (the cycle of play decided upon) and come out ahead, you are really a winner. I gave this game to my special needs niece this Christmas, because she has lots of trouble with money planning concepts. Playing games that practice skill areas in which she is weak really helps her. Thanks to Hasbro for this new one.

Q&A from Ev

So what is this Family Game Night in papers and on TV all about?
Family Game Night is a simple, practical way for families to put some real quality time into their busy lives. It is a cooperative effort by some people who really care about families and kids, Hasbro (incl Milton Bradley and Parker Bros) along with The National Parenting Center, TNPC@aol.com to remind families of the importance of simple things... like playing games together...that bring the family closer together. We feel that playing games together, just for a couple of hours a week, will add quality time and help children and families in many ways.

What is Evelyn Petersen's role in Family Game Night?
As an expert panelist for The National Parenting Center, and as a child development/parenting specialist and educator, I represent The National Parenting Center in this effort. TNPC, by the way, has been giving expert advice to parents for a decade and was the FIRST online parenting resource, eight years ago.

How does Family Game Night help keep families together?
What brings families closer and what gives children a sense of belonging and connectedness is the kind of quality time that happens when family members interact and talk and listen face to face...and when they laugh and enjoy each other as people. That is exactly what happens when you play games with your kids.

This sense of belonging and this kind of communication is crucial to growing children and helps prevent potential problems in the teen years. The kind of quality time that happens when families eat together and play games together seems to be diminishing, partly because people don't know how important it is, and partly because there are so many other options for family entertainment...

But most of the new options for entertainment are not done as a group...the face to face interaction and laughter and fun are missing. The sense of "belonging to a family" may be missing. A Family Game Night would be relaxing and enjoyable, would bring the family closer together, and would aslo teach children many school skills and life skills.

When should I start a Family Game Night?
Parents have a very short window of opportunity to make lifelong impact on their children, because most atitudes and beliefs in the life skills listed on this page are formed in the early years, by age 10 or 11. Fortunately, children of 5 to 12 really like playing family games, and they'll learn life and school skills without even knowing it. Playing games with your child just two hours a week will help you grow the kind of adult your child will become.

In 40 years of working with children, parents and teachers, I have not discovered a better family activity than family games. This relaxing, simple tradition strengthens the family, teaches children life and educational skills, and it's just plain FUN.

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