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Gaming program for January: Board games

A collection of board games
©: Raffalo - Fotolia

In the cold, rainy season, a gaming night at the youth group makes for a great group evening, or as a recreational program (school camp, summer camps, or holiday program). There are some board games, which are ideal for a youth group. Depending on the number of participants, you will opt for one or more games.

Playing is the children’s way to realize the world they live in!

(Maxim Gorky)

Monopoly
©: Dieter Hawlan - Fotolia

Playing is important! Board games promote cooperation, communication and collaboration.

Board games foster togetherness; playing together in friendly company. Unfortunately, many children don’t know how to play together anymore. They never have learned it at home.

Chess Tournament
©: Markus Bormann - Fotolia

Many children can no longer sit quietly and play. Here are some board games that are really exciting - and in my experience, inspiring even for the non-gamer.

But not only playing together is promoted, but also how to think, develop strategies, focusing on the competitor or think ahead (i.e. planning of moves). Another aspect which I find crucial is the experience of action, reaction and communication and how to coordinate with each other.

So to sum it up, this way of playing is totally different to playing on the mobile or PC. It is much more direct, lively and communicative.

Which types of playing are considered?

Playing together
A game with many of the same game boards as a tournament
2-3 games to choose from, which can be played in turn
A gaming night

Which of the games are suitable for which group?

Monopoly, Risk, Stock Market Game, Rabbit & Hedgehog you can play with 4-6 players, maybe you can even play Ingenious. In general, games where the maximum number of participants are 5-6 people. (please note: the game names are translated from German to English. I’m not sure if these games are available in other countries)
For larger groups you have to provide more games accordingly. Either the same game or a second game as an alternative for the other half of the group.
With large groups, you could organise a chess, mill/lady tournament. It will need to provide several boards and provided a corresponding number of tokens.
Card games could be poker (as a tournament at different tables), Phase 10 (takes a long time) with about 5-6 people.
With little effort and costs, you can play games using a dice like Yahtzee, Mäxxle.
Also with little effort you can play "Battleship". All you need is a graph paper and pens
Several small games can be played on little play stations such as: 4 wins, Reversi, Dame, Mill, Mind games, Skill games such as Hot Wire

At the stations, which are located in the building of the youth group, kids/groups are playing against the youth worker, or against each other in a reversed rotation order. I think everyone can find the perfectly suitable game for his group size and age of children/adolescents. If you organize a tournament, a long gaming night, or just 2-3 hours of playing games you will decide on the situation at hand.