Nurturing our children with abilities and skills that will assist them in reaching their maximum potential is a must for many parents around the world. The good news is that nowadays it is possible to give them those skills in a fun and exciting way. Even though persistence and the value of hard work is always important, strengthening our skillset to succeed in a competitive environment is, nowadays, even easier than ever before.
Educators have understood that learning environments have to be engaging, fun, accessible and enjoyable for children to have an inclusive and comprehensive learning experience. The ‘fun factor’ is so important, that gamified learning is playing a leading role in education, and its presence will only increase in the years to come.
Why couldn’t our children use TikTok or YouTube, for example, as a tool to gain more knowledge or to strengthen a specific 21st-century skill? Why can’t we use games, as parents, to work on our children’s strategic thinking?
Well, the answer is simple and direct: We can.
In this short but resourceful article, we’ll share with you four fun games that will introduce your kids to strategic thinking, strengthening this skill, and putting them face to face with real-life applications of this useful way of thinking.
Strengthening our kids’ strategic thinking through games!
According to the Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness, strategic thinking is simply an intentional and rational thought process that focuses on the analysis of critical factors and variables that will influence the long-term success of an idea, a business, a team, or an individual.
Many educators agree that together with creativity, critical thinking, leadership skills, adaptability and teamwork, strategic thinking is one of the ‘must-have’ skills for our kids to succeed in a future we don’t know much about.
Thinking strategically is something that can be practiced, and thanks to some reliable educational approaches, our kids can practice it in a number of different ways.
One of these ways is, for example, learning how to code. Programming is one of the ultimate ways for kids to put their creativity, problem-solving capabilities, and strategic thinking into practice. If learned in a well-prepared environment, it can even strengthen more future-ready abilities.
Let’s cut to the chase! Let us show you four games that will help your children develop their strategic thinking skills.
Chess
According to the Chess Power magazine, this game is a test of patience, nerves, will-power and concentration. It can enhance your kids’ ability to interact with other people and with themselves, and it tests their resilience, since it is part of a competitive environment.
By learning how to play chess, and as mentioned earlier in the article we wrote about the benefits of playing chess in children, your kids will become strategic thinkers by improving their concentration, enhancing their creativity, working hard, planning ahead, and strengthening both sides of their brain.
Chess is kind of the symbol of strategy, so if you want your kids to truly become strategic thinkers, allow them to play chess. Check out the chess courses for kids offered by Tekkie Uni!
Monopoly
To win a Monopoly game, you have to think strategically. If you don’t plan ahead and if you are not capable of seeing the big picture behind your most recent turn to play, you have no chance of winning. We encourage you to play this game with your children, and to motivate them to think outside the box before ‘buying land’ or ‘going to jail’.
Enable your kids to understand that, by building a strategy, they could not only win the next Monopoly game, but also accomplish every single goal they have in life.
Actually, it goes way beyond the board game and the strategic thinking. Monopoly can help your little pupils learn about money management, improve their problem-solving skills, and even learn about investing… On the way, they’ll improve their negotiation skills, is there anything better than this?
Catan
This is also a board game that is unplugged. Thanks to its story, background, and ‘role-playing’ structure, Catan will offer your children a great platform to put both their creativity and their problem-solving skills into practice. But to win the game, your kids will need more than that, and their strategic thinking will be fundamental.
As described by themselves, Catan players take on the roles of settlers, each attempting to build and develop holdings while trading and acquiring different resources from the board and from other players. Players gain points to win as their settlements grow.
But, how could you make your settlement grow? Well, thinking strategically about your moves can definitely help, don’t you think?
Minecraft
Minecraft is amazing. In it, your children can do thousands of things while having fun. This video game goes way beyond their characters, stages, and tasks; it offers kids around the world the chance to gain a number of skills that no other video game offers.
While playing Minecraft, and especially while doing some Minecraft Mods, your children can take their creativity, strategic thinking, and social intelligence to levels never seen before. Can you imagine how it feels to create something of your own, based on a structure you truly love? Well, that is exactly what Minecraft enables kids to do.
To think strategically, coding can help
If your kids learn how to program, they’ll be gathering and strengthening numerous skills that will be highly beneficial for their near future. Coding can help them better understand how tomorrow’s world is going to work.
Coding will help your kids not only think in a more strategic and structured way, but also will teach them how to solve problems in a faster and more effective way than their peers.
Are you ready to give them these tools? The time is now!
