Thursday, December 2, 2010

LET'S PLAY A GAME!

Family Fun
Winter means colder temperatures in many parts of the country.  Do you play inside more when it gets cold outside?  Many kids and families enjoy playing board games together when the weather is frosty.  We learned more about the history of board games and discovered that a couple of favorites are having birthdays this year.  Let's play!

Ancient play
People have been using boards to play games since ancient times.  Around 5,000 years ago in Egypt, people played a game called Senet  This painting from an Egyptian tomb shows a woman playing the game.
Experts think a game called Go is even older.  It probably started in China.
Backgammon, still a popular game today, is the oldest game in which players roll the dice to find out how many moves to make.

Family game time
Here's a special holiday gift that you can give your whole family: Plan a game, get-together.  Choose a game, make popcorn, turn off the televison and turn up the fun!  Award a special treat to the winner.

Kinds of games
Which board games are your favorites?  People who study games put them into different categories. 
For example:
  • Race games include Sorry and Parcheesi.  In these games, the player tries to get all his or her game pieces to the finish.
  • Trivia games ask players to correctly answer questions to win game pieces or move ahead.
  • Roll-and-move games such as Monopoly have players move around the board according to rolls of the dice.
  • Word games such as Scrabble allow players to gain points by spelling out words with alphabet tiles.
  • Strategy or capture games such as chess and checkers are played in many different ways around the world.  Still, most games depend on some luck along with knowledge or skill.

No comments:

Post a Comment