Importance of educational games for children

We all have childhood memories of that game we liked the most. A game you wanted to play? A game that made you rush through your homework so you could get started? It was before phones and gadgets took over our lives. Then, during the pandemic, the whole world was consumed by technology and screens. Slowly but surely though, the humble board game is making a comeback.

Some would say that board games never went out of style and that the classics have always been relevant and always will be, at least the ones that combine elements of education and fun.

I remember once when I was fifteen, a friend in the United States gave me a board game, it was called Wall Street, and I was hooked. This was in 1991 and the only thing everyone in my family was talking about was Harshad Mehta and what an incredible run they were having in the stock market. I, of course, couldn’t trade in the real market and didn’t even have a bank account, but we played the game of stocks and learned the nuances of financial markets. Thanks to those afternoons spent discussing trading with my friend, we both ended up building careers around the stock market.

Educational board games have always played an integral role in my life, whether it’s understanding the dynamics of the stock market, the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, or learning to harness the power of goal setting. Educational games offer an interactive way to learn important concepts and skills, and by incorporating play into the learning process, students become more engaged and motivated. Studies have shown that educational board games can improve academic performance and increase information retention. They are also a great way to develop social and communication skills. Several schools and educational institutions maintain a healthy inventory of board games that students can play on campus and there have also been a large number of startups renting out educational games to subscribing families, clubs and institutions.

Educational board games are a great approach to education, they make learning fun, build critical thinking skills, and create a problem-solving mindset. An interesting development in the world of board games is the adoption of 3D printing techniques in component manufacturing. What this is doing is allowing students, institutions, and inventors to create smaller batches of board games and experiment with concepts before making larger runs. So a person with an innovative board game idea could even create a copy of a game and test it on the market, and this is a long way from the past where the minimum order quantity could have been in the hundreds. All this is generating a differentiation and a unique experience for the players. As for the distribution, I remember that getting quality board games was not easy. They were always gifts from relatives visiting from abroad. Today, thanks to the advent of e-commerce portals and global shipping, there is almost no title or subject that one does not have access to. This is again a very positive development in space.

In conclusion, I want to say that as homes get smaller and space is sometimes a constraint, there will and always should be a place for that educational board game at home. You never know what may awaken among the children and the future leaders of tomorrow.

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