Are you looking for a different way of learning, for playful forms of work that stimulate and challenge the curiosity of pupils and students?
Then you are in the right place. I am Marion, Nt2 teacher, mother, blogger and games geek. The combination of those first two ‘functions’ makes me care about education. I teach adults myself and see the different ways they learn. Adults are often quite capable of shaping their own learning process and indicating how they do and do not want to learn.
learning
For children, I think the same applies. Of course, you are not born with ready-made study skills. But children have an innate curiosity that is the basis for learning. With my son (now 13), that curiosity became less and less during the first years of primary school and great frustration took its place.
My search for how to help my son eventually led me to information about gifted children (website in Dutch). With my son, for example, this is reflected in his enormous independence. He wants to discover and experience everything himself! That this leads to mutual frustrations…. we have noticed that both at home and at school.
Children have an innate curiosity that is the basis for learning. With my son, during the first few years of primary school, that curiosity became less and less and great frustration took its place.
I started looking at my role as a parent in this. During a game of Pandemic, the penny suddenly dropped! It became the first blog on this website. Read the article here. As parents, educators and teachers, we think we know what is good and not good for our children. How they should learn, what subjects they should have, when they should be at roughly what level. By now, I think we can abandon all these old ideas. We need to look for a new way of teaching! And as far as I’m concerned, board games become a part of that. Why? I could write a lot about that! In the top right menu you can find my blogs on: learning.
choosing
I am regularly approached by teachers who have a plus class or a gifted group. Children in those groups love puzzles, brainteasers, in short: intellectual challenge! A board game (and it certainly doesn’t have to be chess) provides that. A game is fun if you are ‘smart’, but it can also make you ‘smart’. For instance, by practising thinking strategies and/or seeing others’ and repeating them yourself.
Children and young people who love games soon have a larger and more complex collection than the one in the cupboard at school. Want to keep up with your pupils a bit in that? Then look in the menu under choosing. Here you will find an overview of interesting games for your plus class, for your gifted group, but also for e.g. language and maths lessons.
If you then purchase such a game, I think it’s cool if you do so via buying (also Amazon). By doing so, you support my work for this website.
using games for educati
My son played the game Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow (blog in Dutch) back in primary school. The other day he came home from his tutoring hour in second secondary And he had played it again! Obviously a topper that game. Nice bit of suspense and you can keep a larger group entertained for a while. But then I think: there is so much more on the market now!
you can use games in different ways in the classroom and at school.
Schools are looking for ways to deploy games. Do you only do it in a mentoring hour? Or if it rains heavily during playtime? Or can you also use it as part of the lesson. I choose the latter, of course!
That is why I tell you about the different ways schools deal with board games on the page using games for education. You will also find some quick rules on this page, which will show you (and your pupils) at a glance how to set up and play the game. (This page is in Dutch) This page is still under development and will be added to all the time. And if you’re looking for arguments for using more games in education, check out the Research & Literature section.
About me
I am Marion and I love board games. Born somewhere in the seventies, as a child I mainly played monopoly and game of goose. Later, all kinds of card games were added. I can still remember rainy holidays when we played Canasta endlessly and fanatically, crammed at the table of a small caravan.
During my studies, the games went with me, but they were relegated to the background. Although, they moved outside and were for larger groups. I became a member of a children’s activities committee run by students. We organised holiday weeks for children from families that could not easily afford a holiday. Throughout my studies, I spent two weeks every holiday playing outside. Under the guise of ‘fun for the kids’, I played a lot myself.
