Nine Hundred and Forty Saturdays

by: First Grade Teachers Julie Smith and Arika White

“It's not just how much time you have with your kids, but how you spend that time that matters in the life and legacy of a family.”  Dr. Harley Rotbart

Nine hundred and forty Saturdays: Dr. Harley Rotbart, pediatric doctor and author of No Regrets Parenting, did the math. He states that between the day your child is born, and when he or she turns 18, a family has 940 Saturdays — and 260 of them, Dr. Rotbart reminds us, are gone by your child’s fifth birthday. That’s Poof~ Gone! That fact is rather alarming! 

We’ve all heard the expression ~ A family that plays together stays together. The benefits of playing board games are for both young and old alike. Children are curious little beings and adore the undivided attention of their parents. Especially when those parents free themselves from the technology traffic that seems to dominate and consume our everyday lives. Board gameplay provides interaction, conversations, and cohesiveness. Board games become a teachable moment in so many wonderful ways. Children learn to follow the rules, take turns, plan ahead, reason, estimate, problem solve, predict an outcome, identify patterns/colors /numbers and accept triumphs as well as defeats.

Games are a great way for parents to provide engaging, interactive learning experiences for their children and, most importantly, fun! Board games are perfect for building mathematical concepts and skills. They are fun and engage all the senses (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and motor). Because learning is a social process, children learn best through fun activities involving interaction with others, all the senses, and the opportunity to act out concepts using physical representations. Many commercial games offer all of these, making them ideal learning tools. A price can not be put on the quality of the time you will have spent with your children. They will have fun while learning, and they will remember those times with greater fondness than the times they spent playing computer games or watching TV programs. 

Nine hundred and forty Saturdays…So what are you doing this weekend? Challenge your family to turn off the electronics and tune in to the family. It’s pretty easy to recreate that Norman Rockwell picture of togetherness. Pop some popcorn, pull out a board game, and you’ll discover the magic it brings to all ages. 

Have fun playing games!