I’ve just written about spending time wisely in this post but I must admit I still have to schedule a Family Game Night. What’s a Family Game Night? you can opt to scroll down below or continue reading first

There are nagging questions at the back of my mind: “Have I spent time wisely with my family? Am I spending quality time with them? Do they enjoy the time we spend together?”

I admit, sometimes even if we are together at home, we don’t really spend time together. Ironic huh? Simply because each of us are busy doing our own stuff ( you know, the kids are playing or doing online stuff, hubby is working, while I’m doing house chores or perhaps reading about the best diet pills for women for a blog post). In short, we don’t exactly sit together for a different kind of activity that we enjoy, except when we are en-route to somewhere or are about to share a meal, or are studying for tests, or are watching together a movie/tv show.

Boggle Reinvention. Twist, shake, set and play. PhPSRP: 899.75

Last Saturday, I spent time with mommy bloggers and Daniel and Roane of Color Mix Corporation, the local distributor of Hasbro toys and games in the Philippines for a sort of round-table discussion on the importance of a (Hasbro) Family Game Night. There several points that were raised by Jingo Zara, a psychologist who discussed the positive points about having a (Hasbro) Family Game Night:

• Schedule a Family Game Night where everyone will look forward to spending with family members. This doesn’t have to be a several times a week happening but you could start with twice a month and gradually increase to a weekly Family Game Night.
• Create a Tradition. As parents, we all want to pass down a thing or two to our children to remember when they grow old. A  Hasbro Family Game Night could be one among the many family traditions we can have to bond with our children, have fun with them and get to know them better.
• Keep a Family Scoreboard. Keeping track  of everyone’s progress is a good way to challenge other family members to do better for the next round of games.
• Invite Special Guests like the kid’s favorite cousin or grandparents to join in the fun. Or you can bring your games with you at a family reunion so that other family members would be able to see how fun it is to spend time playing games.
• Laughter. Games do not just challenge everyone to be on their toes and do their best. Games are a great source of laughter. IF however, there is a family member who does not want to laugh because he/she loses in the games, then this is an opportunity to teach about losing and how one can do better to win the next round.
• Learning. Yes, a lot of learning takes place during games: numeracy skills, reasoning, common sense, . And this is the reason why in my children’s school, they play games during class to enhance their learning skills but I digress and will go back to the topic
• Family Bonding. Of course.
• Life Skills: patience, teamwork, perseverance, trying to do better, following rules, learning how to accept defeat, respect, appreciating family members’ strengths, weaknesses, and even peculiarities are just some of the things children (and adults too!)  can learn from Family Game Night.

So, when we belatedly went to the Toys ‘R Us sale last Monday night, I got these two games that were on sale:

Taboo Taster and Scattergories Taster SRP: PhP399.75 each

I couldn’t afford the big box games cause I already had a basketful of toys (and I can’t put these back since the kids are with me, LOL) but these will do for now. I’m sure my students would love to play with these too.

Let the Hasbro Family Game Night tradition begin! After the second trimester tests that is

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 at 9:41 pm and is filed under Challenge Yourself, Interesting tidbits, Just For Fun, Me, My Thoughts, Parenting, Snapshots, Teaching Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.