Cooperative Board Games for Kids
Family Pastimes Brand Promotes Teamwork and Family Values
Nov 21, 2008
Many families play board games and enjoy a healthy dose of friendly competition. Most board games require players to compete against each other. The board games produced by Family Pastimes offer a novel twist to the traditional idea of beating one’s opponents. All of the board games made by Family Pastimes are labeled as cooperative games. Instead of competing against others, players learn to cooperate as a team in order to win the game.
The Idea behind Family Pastimes and Cooperative Games
Years before founding Family Pastimes, Jim Deacove began noticing the unhealthy side of competitive games among the children in his neighborhood. While Jim worked hard to teach his children family values such as sharing, helpfulness and kindness to others, he observed that competitive games undermined and contradicted his teachings. Jim soon found himself adapting traditional, competitive yard games and board games into cooperative games that encourage players to offer help, build on others’ ideas and work towards a common goal.
Next Jim Deacove developed a few of his own board games based on the principles of cooperation, group strategy and joint problem solving. When big time game companies showed no interest in manufacturing and marketing Jim’s cooperative games, he decided to launch the game business of Family Pastimes from his home in Ontario, Canada. Currently Family Pastimes makes over ninety products, which are available to purchase through local retailers in Canada as well as through retail websites such as Fairplaygames.com.
Board Games that Teach Family Values
Jim’s family business grew out of a commitment to family values. Family Pastimes allows Jim to share new ways to teach children and adults the values of cooperation and teamwork. In his article, “Cooperative Games in a Competitive Society”, Jim writes, “Our initial impulse to play a game is social; that is, we bring out a game because we want to do something together. So how ironic it is that in most games we spend all that energy and effort trying to bankrupt someone, destroy their armies, or in other words, we try to get rid of the very people we just invited over to play with. If we can play a game that develops not defeats that social impulse, then everyone feels better for it.”
Just as a team of mountain climbers must rely on each other to make it to the summit, so must players share equipment, watch out for one another and work together in “Mountaineering”, one of Family Pastimes best selling games. The “Harvest Time” board game for kids brings in the most fan mail and requires players to cooperatively plant a garden and harvest crops before winter arrives. “Zen blocks”, another bestseller is a game described as 3-D dominoes. This hands-on block stacking game has an infinite number of solutions.
Cooperative Board Games for Kids Based on Children’s Interests
Games by Family Pastimes are based on a wide variety of children’s interests and age appropriate themes. “Break a Leg”, “DGA-TV” and “Stop the Presses” lure creative writers and media producer types. Nature game titles include “Birds of Summer”, “Let’s go Hiking” and “Caves and Claws”. History lovers might enjoy games entitled, “Explorers” or “Ploughshares”. Family Pastimes offers cooperative games for ages three and up. “One of the best features about our games is that most are fun for adults and children to play together,” says Jim.
If families want to provide more opportunities for children to learn team building and group problem solving skills, they may want to play board games made by Family Pastimes. Detailed information about individual games is available on the Family Pastimes website.
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