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Show by BETH STEIN Games Play Today's kids may clamor for the latest high-tech amusement or beg tor more television time. But it you really want to get them hooked on a form of entertainment, declare it family game night and pull out the classic board games That's right. Monopoly. Parcheesi. Sorry. Life. Clue, Candyland. Scrabble, Chinese checkers, chess. Risk, Mousetrap all the games that filled our playtime play-time as children are still tun today. YX'hat's more, they foster the kind of family fam-ily togetherness many worn is lacking in today's rushed society. Playing games together always has been a tradition in Drs. Catherine and I loward Fuchs' household. From the time their two boys were small, the foursome four-some spe nt evenings engaged in favorites like Monopoly, cnbbage, charades and. later, chess and bridge. As a psychiatrist who counsels adolescents, Catherine knows the value or such family interaction touches many levels. "The- value is time together, both to just enjoy each other and to hang together." she says. "There is also the opportunity to communicate. The more time you spend together, the more opportunity there is to know what's going on in their lives and yours. It provides a time to share." Board games also teach children important skills. Starting with games like Candyland and Chutes and Ladders in pre-schxl, kids learn how to sit and focus, strategize, take turns, and be patient. As they mature and move up to games such as the perennial bestsellers Monopoly, Life, or Sorry, they learn more complex strategies, critical thinking, think-ing, negotiation, and that choices have consequences. Math skills also get exercised. In the case of Scrabble, spelling and language skills are honed. "As kids get older, board games and chess especially teach a child the more time he or she takes to think through a move, the better chance of winning. win-ning. That impulsive reactive response doesn't win," Catherine says. She adds that while video games arc two-dimensional, board games are three dimensional like the real world. For proper development, playing with three-dimensional games is vital. Board games also give parents great opportunities to model and instill values val-ues ot good sixrtsmanship. Board games result in winners and losers, and children get to see how to handle that. Letting the little ones win all the time isn't teaching a realistic life lesson, she adds. Showing them how to be gracious gra-cious losers is far more valuable. But what really counts as much as or more than the game itself or the skill involved is the r-me spent together as a family doing something fun. With schedules sending Mom, Dad. brother, and sister often running in different directions, the chance to have one another's undivided attention for a period of time is priceless. Board games foster patience and sportsmanship, and are just plain fun. Playing board games together allows parents to relive a little of their childhoods and do something that's just plain fun. As the Fuchses note, playing play-ing together always brings on laughter, and that's something all families could use more ot every day. Bet) Stein is a mother, wife, and columnist on parenting and women's issues Jot a Jail) newspaper and is a regular contributor to American Profile. Afete OBWtV" by TOM MILNER 'I got a great deal on this Hey, wait a minute! We sold this to her at our yard sale last year!" Page 10 American Profile Mm t - |