Teaching Life Skills
With Games

What are life skills games? What do they teach? Self-awareness, self-regulation of emotions, active listening, verbal and nonverbal communication, observing and understanding other's feelings, respect, honesty and integrity, manners, discipline, a recognition of hierarchy, wisdom, togetherness, camaraderie, cooperation, benevolence and interdependent life skills with others, the earth and animals.

Must-Have Items for Everyone- on Sale Now! Shop the Gameshark Store now - 15% off stocking stuffers and FREE product with purchases!

Whew! What a list! Seems overwhelming when you think about teaching your children all of these life skills, doesn't it? But remember that as long as we're alive on this earth, we're all still learning.

Don't 'Should' Me!

Sometimes when we contemplate all that we 'should' be teaching our children we are overcome with anxiety. Sometimes we're not even sure we, ourselves, have learned these life skills well. And then the guilt sets in.

Like those times when you're driving down the road and you cuss the driver in front of you. Or you tell a little fib to the salesman at the front door. Then we question our own ability to teach our children honesty or respect for others, courtesy and patience.

Lighten Up!

We need to lighten up - seriously! Yes, parenting is serious business, but we should not take ourselves too seriously. It's not healthy — for you or your child — to be so anxious about being the perfect parent. Fortunately, children don't need perfect parents — they are wonderfully resilient creatures.

And that's why we just need to be a bit more creative — use life skills games for teaching values. You know the old Chinese proverb, "I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand."

Life Skills Games

Teaching with life skills games is about the 'doing' part. Try it and you'll discover the real power of games. Here are some suggestions:

• Teaching Values With Games - Every day our children makes choices about what is important to them and those choices will ultimately determine the quality of their lives. So it is up to us as parents to create opportunities for children to recognize their ability to make decisions and to understand the consequences of those decisions. (Don't forget that little eyes and ears watch you - so the best teaching tool is your example.)
• Teaching Honesty and Integrity With Games - Teaching honesty and integrity to children can be difficult, given that it seems to be pervasive everywhere. It's in the news - people stealing or lying. It's in the schools - students cheating on exams and schoolwork. Friends sneaking into movies. Unfortunately, it's prevalent in the gaming world also (i.e., games cheats and more).
• Teaching Responsibility With Games - Although it may be difficult to teach small children responsibility, it's not impossible. Creating games to teach helps kids experience responsibility rather than just telling them to be responsible.
• Building Self-Esteem With Games - The world can be a cruel place, especially the way kids treat each other. Even if your child does not encounter a bully, they will encounter times when someone says something hurtful. We, as parents, must build their self-esteem by teaching them how worthwhile they are, thereby insulating them from possible emotional damage by others.
• Teaching Self Discipline - Since we are not born with the ability to control our wants, teaching children self discipline should start at a very young age. Also, count on teaching and reinforcing self discipline for as long as the child lives with you - it's ongoing, Mom.