I run a board games club at my school on Wednesdays at lunch. It's for students in grade 4-6 and is a great opportunity for students to practice social interactions in a more structured situation.
My principal, who is extremely supportive of new and novel ideas, gave us a little bit of money to buy some new games. I focused on some of the newer co-operative ones because some of us in the group are still working on being good winners or losers (myself included). We've been having a blast playing 5 Minute Dungeon, Mole Rats in Space, and Ant Colony.
Today, though, I was able to relive my childhood with some old classics. It's amazing how nostalgic a board game could feel. I hadn't played Battleship in probably 25 years and I hated it just as much today as I did then! That being said, it was a lot of fun to trash talk a grade four student who then went on to sink all of my ships. It didn't matter that I utilized a systematic way of spreading my shots across the board and this child simply picked numbers from a hat.
Next we took on another classic, Uno. Another game I hadn't played in a long, long time. This time, however, I got lucky (or maybe it was my games of Exploding Kittens and Color Addict that helped prepare me for this moment) and came away with a victory.
I don't think that video games are evil or useless or anything like that. However, this is something special about playing a board or card game with someone, face to face. You have a unique opporunity to interact with and build a relationship with someone else. I'm glad we're living in this golden age of board games and I hope more and more kids getted roped into putting down their controllers and picking up some cards.
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