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| My youngest... 'un... Heidi |
Children. Where would we be without them? Happy, perhaps? I'm joking, I'm joking. Kids are amazing things. Free spirits, endlessly cheerful (until they're not), unburdened by the weight of the world. If kids don't fill you with an innocent positivity and make you wish you were as carefree as the little blighters, then there is little hope. They keep you young, even when you feel about a hundred, and they make you smile, even when you feel there's nothing to smile about.
I have four young'uns of my own. Well, two of them can hardly be considered young'uns now. Grace, my eldest, is 22, a university graduate with a fondness for stuffed toys, welsh men and being cranky. You can't blame her, she lives with me, and I tend to bring that out in people. My second child, Isabelle, 20, is annoyingly independent and has a slightly short fuse. Again, probably another symptom of living with me (the short fuse, at least). She has now flown the nest and has a child of her own, little Ava. Yes I am a grandfather. My second youngest kiddie you should already know if you're a regular reader (if not, why not?), Miles, 13, is my only boy and the youngest member of our faction. He is also an active rugby player, an enthusiastic moaner and he can rival his mother when it comes to waffling on for hours about next to nothing or literally nothing at all! Heidi, my youngest is the sweetest little girl you could ever wish to meet. At 5 years old, she has the presence of a much older woman. But don't all little girls? Meaning she rules the roost with her larger than life personality and she truly has me wrapped around her little finger.
Truthfully, all my kids are gems and I'm a super proud dad. I wouldn't change them for the world. But it's Heidi I want to focus on today. And there is a reason for that. And it's the whole reason I've been waffling thus far.
You see, Heidi is at just the right age where she is learning basic maths and any encouragement in the subject outside of a school setting can only be a positive thing. That's where Yahtzee comes in. Yahtzee can be a great tool for learning and as a bonus, it's fun too. There are tons of articles online that espouse the benefits of Yahtzee as a learning tool and they do a much better job of it than I will ever do (I encourage you to take a look), so I don't want to regurgitate an article I've read and pass it off as my own. I am not teacher and I'm not even particularly good at maths, but what I can do is make you aware of the fact that Yahtzee can be used as a learning resource and a valuable one at that. I can also offer my own testimony as to how I have used it as such with my own daughter.
I could tell you all that Heidi and I sit down most nights and play Yahtzee and I am the sole reason she is brilliant at maths. This would be a bald faced lie. Truth is, in these days of tablets, phones and silly YouTube videos aimed at kids like Heidi, it's hard to get them to engage with you, and when you do manage it, it can be a bit of a chore to keep them engaged. So yes, Heidi and I have played a bit of Yahtzee, but it has often been broken up by her going back to watch Bluey or whatever, or she's decided she wants to do something else and that's when I get handed half a dozen LOL dolls and get instructed that my doll has to play the part of the school bully. But we have had a good few uninterrupted games of Yahtzee and that's when I noticed how she quickly caught on to it. She can still struggle with recognising a small and large straight and how a full house works, but with a little nudge in the right direction she can just about play with anyone. She understands that generally the more of a certain number you get you get is a good thing and she certainly knows what a Yahtzee is. So once I manage to get her attention and we sit down for a game, the educational benefits of Yahtzee become apparent, as long as I have the patience to encourage her. So what are these marvellous benefits I've been rattling on about? Well, let me tell you.
The most obvious educational benefit to Yahtzee is counting and multiplication. If your little one is still getting to grips with the basics of counting, have them roll the dice and count the pips individually. If they are slightly more advanced than that, have them add up the dice separately. Then you can gradually introduce multiplication. It can be surprising how well this works. In the few games I've played with Heidi, I began to notice that after I'd gone through a few sums (not quite got to the multiplication) she would repeat the sum to herself without any encouragement from me the next time around.
Decision making in Yahtzee is essential and it's also essential for kids to distinguish a good decision from a bad one. Weighing up one's choices is not only good practice in Yahtzee, it's also good practice in life. Heidi quickly learned that it's better to score three sixes than it is to score two threes. Where the decision isn't as clear cut, I will explain the positives and negatives of each decision in the hopes that she will recognise the best option the next time it crops up.
It can also be a benefit for you and your sprog to play a few rounds of Yahtzee as one. Meaning you are both on the same side. Playing together to achieve the highest score possible can promote teamwork and social skills, at least in my opinion. Also, weighing up options can promote compromise, and this is important because, as we all know, compromise is the key to most relationships. Something, I have to admit, I'm still trying to teach myself. My wife will vouch for that.
I know I've mentioned this before on this blog, it isn't just limited to children and it doesn't just apply to this game, but there is nothing better than getting together, spending quality time with each other and just enjoying each other's presence. Some might argue that this doesn't qualify as education, but I disagree. There is nothing more important than spending time with family. If you teach your children this, they will pass this great quality on to their own kids eventually and so on and so forth.
Finally, there is a chance that your little kiddie wink is too young to understand the right and proper game of Yahtzee. But that's fine, introduce them to Forced Yahtzee. I will be writing a post on Forced Yahtzee soon, but for now I'll offer a brief explanation. Forced Yahtzee is a variation of the game that forces you to start from the top of the scoresheet and work all the way to the bottom. For example, the first roll you must roll one's, second roll, two's and so on. There are a few extra combinations to achieve, such as one and two pair and the scoring varies slightly, but it's a lot easier to grasp for a little one and most of the decision making is made for you. So it might be a good idea to get them started with forced Yahtzee and work up to classic Yahtzee when you feel they are ready for it.
Well, that's about the only advice I can comfortably offer. Like I said, I'm not a teacher and I'm certainly no expert on nurturing a child's intellect. I just do my best, like most people. Hopefully I've made enough sense that some of what I have said can be deemed helpful, but I'll let you be the judge. But if nothing else, give your youngling a game of Yahtzee, they may surprise you. Of all the games of Yahtzee I've played with my daughter Heidi, I'm still waiting to win... depressingly, I'm not kidding.
Let me know what you think. Am I completely off the mark? If you have any input then just let me know,
I always want feedback, and I'm not scared to be proven wrong!!
Stay safe you legends. Until next time you lovely people...
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