In Praise of Board Games

A new article tells us: "Board games based on numbers, like Monopoly, Othello and Chutes and Ladders, make young children better at math, according to a comprehensive review of research published on the topic over the last 23 years."

Before school ended, we bought so many board games in furtherance of this idea. As Polite Piggy's President VanNessa Duckett says, "We believe in this work deeply. Ebony Butler, Rolanda Johnson, and I have been mind-mapping (since last winter!) ways to incorporate games, puzzles, and Mrs. Williams's "challenges" in rich ways this summer! Learning through play and inquiry is an important hallmark of what we provide children with each day." Labyrinth gives us the tools, insight into future work, the know-how, and the research to back it all up.

With board games and puzzles, Duckett adds "Kids enjoy the math games, critical thinking games, and logic; parallel to it all, they gain prosocial interaction, the ability to problem solve and map things out together, discussion, resilience, and joy, which is the cherry on top LOL!" Wherever we are, you will find games, puzzles, building, and connecting because of their power and purpose.

We are so grateful to have partnered with Labyrinth!