a peek inside the fishbowl

10 Oct, 2013

The games we play: checkers

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Easy ways to make kids happy|Oh! Things!

I haven’t been writing much about the games we play around here lately. Mark has been spending evenings with iPhone Scrabble and Grand Theft Auto (talk about your polar opposites!) and the girls have been absorbed with their iPods and games like Tiny Thief and Minecraft (yes really). I was reading upstairs the other night when my youngest surprised me by lugging our huge wooden chess/checkers/crokinole board and plunking it down in front of me. (It’s from Lee Valley and it’s all kinds of awesome.)

And so, we hunkered down for a game of checkers.

Classic games are good for our brains! Blog post to come.

Checkers is one of those games that’s easy enough to learn and can be played at different levels. I’m no expert. I’m about as green as my 12-year old. I haven’t played checkers very much at all. I was an only child in my family (I had no siblings around to play board games), and checkers really wasn’t something I played with friends. But I do enjoy playing checkers. I think it’s good for the brain. It’s good for MY brain because as I’m playing and focusing on the board I can actually feel myself stretching those brain muscles. I think it’s good for our kids’ brains for the same reason, if not more so.

There are huge developmental benefits to playing chess, checkers and similar board games. They aren’t like the other games we play, like Trouble or Sorry, in which it could be anyone’s game (thus maybe making it more fun for the younger ones). Checkers is not about chance, it’s about planning and sharp focus. Watching the board, analyzing and thinking about your moves two/three/or more steps ahead and your opponent’s moves is critical thinking at its finest. And as with every other game, there are lessons in patience and good sportmanship to be learned here as well, don’t you think? Checkers is a character-building game, and probably staves off age-related dementia as well.

There are so many cheap checkerboards around, there’s no excuse not to have one. I bet most people have one in their basements. You can even make your own checkerboard without too much effort. (Here’s a neat little tutorial for one made out of an old burlap bag.)

Is checkers something you play in your house? Or maybe you’re kicking it up a notch and playing chess with your kids? I’d love to hear about it!


3 Responses to "The games we play: checkers"

1 | Alison in Ottawa

October 11th, 2013 at 11:52 am

Avatar

We’ve been playing the Carcassone and Catan games. We started with the junior versions and we just tried the adult version of Settlers of Catan and it was a hit with the 11 and 8 year old. I have to figure out the adult Carcassone before playing with them.

2 | Alison in Ottawa

October 11th, 2013 at 11:53 am

Avatar

My parents just started Cribbage with them this summer too. Also a hit. We don’t have checkers but we do have backgammon somewhere…..

3 | Amy

October 13th, 2013 at 10:07 pm

Avatar

We were just talking about this tonight. The three year old has been happily playing Go Fish and Uno. Card and board games were a big part of my growing up so I’m hoping they’ll be a big part of our home.

comment form:

Archives

Me and my pet projects

Ottawa Bucket list

Subscribe via email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.


  • Gretchen Humphrey: I had a beautiful bee& birdbath filled with a solar fountain and dozens of antique marbles that were suddenly disappearing. At first I thought my
  • Jinjer: I am sobbing reading this post. And you're right, companion is not enough. Little furry treasured gifts that they are. Thanks for sharing cutie-pi
  • Karen: Dear Andrea, Mark and your daughters I am so very sad for your family xxx Piper was/is my favourite Instagram post. You shared with us so intimately
  • Christina Banuelos: Thank you for sharing Pipers life with us. Your posts of Piper brought me joy. Every time I see your post and see what kind of mischief Piper was gett
  • Carla Slocum: I am sitting here yet again crying at your loss. We have known that loss with Asta the WFT our first pup but now have the enormous gift of Stryker the
  • Janelle Brown: Dear Andrea Thank you for sharing Piper’s story with her followers. I empathise with your grief and emptiness as I lost my 14 year old Westie last
  • Natasha McReynolds-Nicholl: My god reading this is heartbreaking. December 1st was the as you describe longest day of my life, we lost out beautiful WFT hazel. Pipers final momen

The Obligatory Blurb

My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

If you'd like to contact me, please use this form. If you're so inclined, you can read more about me here. Thank you for visiting!

 


Connect with me at these places too!

Still calling it Twitter