Board Games – They’re More Than Just Monopoly

When we tell new friends that our family owns more than 500 board games, jaws drop in surprise. It’s a big, big number to imagine. As the fog begins to clear, very often the first question that comes out is, “Board games? Like Monopoly?”

We get that question so often, all we can do is laugh. Games are so much more than Monopoly. We do have six or seven versions of Monopoly in our collection, but that leaves 493 other games that are not Monopoly! I’m happy to be sharing some of them with you here at The Homeschool Classroom.

My husband and I have been playing board games together and amassing them since 1994, and when we first started collecting games before we were married, we already talked about their great potential for homeschooling.

To start with a classic, Monopoly does have potential to help practice some skills. All games, of course, help encourage turn-taking and good sportsmanship. Because Monopoly is a round-the-board style game, it encourages adding (the numbers on two dice) and counting (the number of spaces you can move). Buying and selling properties and making rent helps all of us practice money skills; making change is a great way for kids to practice estimation and subtraction. Most of these skills can be started at a beginner’s level in Monopoly Jr. and then reinforced in a game of original Monopoly – using whatever themed board suits your fancy.

If you’re hoping to encourage a better understanding of resource-management and a supply-and-demand economy with active trading and competition, though, a great first pick is The Settlers of Catan.

Players try to become the most powerful builder on the island of Catan by placing settlements and cities, which produce resources based on a roll of the dice. The resources are then used to build more roads and settlements, as well as armies and other improvements. There is constant trading and analyzing as the community’s pool of available resources rises and falls.

We have been huge fans of Settlers for years, and our son started playing, with encouragement and advice on strategy, when he was five. He has learned a lot about trading, especially how to notice which resources are in demand and ask a better price for those. He’s also learned how to collect resources in a specific set to build a specific item, how to tally points in a variety of forms, and how to choose his settlement locations most wisely, which includes a little knowledge of basic probability (which numbers will come up most often).

Once you’ve started enjoying The Settlers of Catan, you’ll be thrilled, as we were, to discover a host of expansions and variations, including historical scenarios, geographical variants and Catan in space. There is even a two-player card game and a dice version. In fact, I think we have more Catan boxes here than Monopoly!

If you do pick up Settlers, or already play it, let us know how you enjoy it!

In between board games, PisecoMom squeezes in a little homeschooling for her two adorable children at Mind Games.

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