Hobbies And Interests
Strategic Thinking
Popular board games that develop logic and strategic thinking skills include Chess, Connect Four, Monopoly and Clue. Chess, first created in India over 1,000 years ago, is still a classic. Played by two players, each with a royal army, the aim of the game is to capture the opponent's king through a series of tactical offensive and defensive moves. Connect Four, a variation of tic-tac-toe, is a two-player game won by getting your four same-colored checkers lined up in a row before your opponent does. Monopoly, produced in 26 languages, still remains one of the most popular games in the world. Played by up to eight players buying and selling property, Monopoly is won by owning the most property at the end of the game. Clue is a classic detective game, where the player with the best reasoning and deduction skills wins by determining who committed a crime based on clues given on the cards players are dealt.
Vocabulary
Board games that build vocabulary include Boggle and Scrabble. Boggle players must create as many three-letter-minimum words possible in three minutes using the letters that turn up when 16 six-sided-letter cubes are dropped from a container. Boggle is fast and fun, and can be played for hours or in short bursts. The classic game of Scrabble, first trademarked in 1948, tests spelling and strategy skills. Each player creates, correctly spells, and strategically places on the board a word from letter tiles selected each turn. Letter tiles are assigned points, and words must use one letter in another player's word already positioned on the board. The winner uses the most tiles and scores the most points. Scrabble is available in a junior version.
Memory and Problem Solving
Some of the more popular board games that engage memory and problem-solving skills include Battleship and Concentration. Battleship pits two players' concentration and memory skills against one another. Each player secretly positions five battleships on a grid hidden from their opponent. The opposing player calls out a number and letter, such as "C4," to indicate a point on the grid where they think their opponent might have located a ship. If "C4" is a point on the opponent's battleship, it is considered a "hit" to the battleship. The winning player finds all five of the opponent's battleships first. The board game Concentration tests memory and problem-solving skills. A picture is hidden under down-turned cards on a board. Players take turns choosing numbered cards. As they find a match, for example, both 2s, 6s, or 10s, cards are removed from the board to reveal a part of the hidden puzzle. The winning player finds the most matches and solves the puzzle first.
Coordination
Board games like Operation and Twister test coordination, balance and flexibility. Operation, first produced in 1965 and updated in 2008, requires the player, acting as doctor, to attend to a patient's ailments using electronic tweezers. If the doctor touches the side of the patient, a buzzer sounds. The winning player repairs the most injuries without setting off the buzzer. To avoid activating the buzzer, players must concentrate and carefully engage fine motor skills to move slowly through tight spaces. Twister tests players' coordination, flexibility, and balance. Players spin a dial that instructs them where to position hands and feet on a color-coded mat --- for example, left hand, green square. The winning player maintains position and balance the longest.