Board games for children 10-14 years old

Board games have somewhat lost ground in recent years due to the rapid development of digital technologies, but, contrary to pessimistic forecasts, they have not completely disappeared, and, it seems, will not disappear. Traditionally, such entertainment is most popular among adolescents and young people, so they still remain a good gift for children aged 10-14 years. Another thing is that they should be chosen based on the age characteristics of the potential owner.

Benefit

In the last decade, young parents have been the main buyers of board games, since teenagers and young people have largely moved to play in the virtual world, and board games for the smallest have a noticeable educational effect. However, it would be wrong to think that a board game cannot give anything new to a teenager - it just now needs to choose something much more difficult and interesting. At this age, various economic strategies are interesting, instilling business skills, as well as cognitive games that allow you to learn something new.

Many popular options are based on detective stories that stimulate imagination and logic.

Among other things, the benefit does not necessarily lie in obvious development, it is also in raising the mood, which is provided in the process of an interesting game with friends. The latter is especially important at the age of 10-14, because now - just the stage when the child leaves childhood and becomes a teenager. On the one hand, the child is faced with new problems and experiences that are much easier to go through if there is a lot of positive and pleasant communication in life. On the other hand, the child's consciousness is now being rebuilt, at this moment it is determined whether he will learn to fully get to know, communicate and behave in society, or remain closed and unsociable, and board games are an ideal platform to practice being the soul of the company.

Finally, the board game is another alternative to sitting in the virtual world. The negative impact of excessive hobby for digital technologies is already obvious to most people now, but children are exactly the category of the population that does not see this, and they are the ones who are most likely not to be able to fully return to their "real" life if they are once drawn into virtual worlds.

Board games with their interesting plots, an indescribable spirit of competition and a cheerful circle of friends from the same age and like-minded people can save a child from the final immersion in virtual before it's too late.

Varieties

The segment of board games suitable for children 10-14 years old is relatively small, but it is still large enough to "get lost" in it without prior preparation. When choosing a gift, it is necessary to focus on the formed interests of the child, and in order to set general directions for the search, we suggest considering the most common types of board games. We have deliberately removed from the list children's games for younger age groups, as well as classic, too obvious and not the most exciting games like chess and backgammon. Before you - only that which was invented relatively recently and that will certainly interest a younger teenager. So, you should pay attention to the following types of board games:

Psychological role-playing. The point of such games is to try on the role of a specific character and show your best side in a certain simulated difficult situation, making decisions that affect the final outcome. Most often, teenage stories, one way or another, are connected with a criminal theme, and the most striking example is the famous “Mafia", Which simulates a real city with the struggle of ordinary people against criminals. Other notable games of the same genre are “Gnome pests"And"Cluedo", As well as dozens of others.

Educational. Some games are both interesting and useful for the mind. This is where all economic strategies should be included, for example, the legendary “Monopoly", The meaning of which is to build your own business empire and eliminate competitors. In the gameplay, the basic rules of doing business are taught, and to make it more interesting, there are dozens of varieties from the same opera with different entourage - the purchased enterprises may have a clear link to one country, city or type of activity. In order not to be limited to economics, let us give another example - take at least the game “Evolution", In which the concept of Darwin's theory is clearly presented. This also includes many different quizzes.

Communicative. Such decisions are a great way not only to "kill" time, but also to get to know others better, or even just have fun. Some of them ("Alias», «Danetki" or "Activity") Are an ordinary game of guessing words, but differ significantly in the rules - you can explain both with words and only with gestures and facial expressions, and guessing ones can sometimes help themselves with clarifying questions, and often just name the options that come to mind. A great way to get the party going is to play “Bluff party", In which you need to guess whether a person is telling the truth or not.

Games for agility, attention and reaction. But this is one hundred percent option for large and noisy companies. He develops the above qualities, although, at first glance, such a game does not carry any meaning other than entertainment. The task is to complete one or another simple task faster than others, for example, to scream a code word upon the occurrence of this or that situation. Popular games of this type include "Jenga», «Wild jungle», «Uno" and so on.

Brain teaser. Games that develop logic are popular among children 10-14 years old, but they require a certain complex plot. The recognized hits in this genre are “Set"And"Carcassonne».

The most interesting games

Children 10-14 years old are already interested in games with a rather complex plot, so in many of them adults may well be their partners in the game. We have selected several games and will consider them in more detail - perhaps this is what you yourself would like to play with your child. Games were specially selected from different genres to make it interesting for everyone.

Monopoly. If you have always dreamed of becoming rich, then this game is for you. You can play it together, but it is better to increase the number of participants to at least 3-4, or more. At the start, you get a certain capital, and, by throwing a dice, you walk around the playing field, where you can buy enterprises (both abstractly, such as a transport company, and with a specific real name, depending on the modification of the game). There are also surprises - you can suddenly win extra money, get penalized and even go to jail.

By creating a monopoly in a certain area of the economy, you develop your business and dictate prices to other players, gradually ruining your opponents.

Mafia. This game is for a really big company, it is played by at least 8 people, optimally up to 16. You are in a city where a small part of the population is an organized mafia, and the majority are civilians who are tired of rampant banditry. The latter are disorganized, supposedly unfamiliar, but they declare war on the mafia, and she declares war in response. The trick of the game is that only the mafia knows each other by sight, while civilians act completely at random, trying to figure out the enemy in their ranks by discussion. In more complex versions, there are other characters endowed with special abilities. The desktop version is often criticized for the fact that, unlike the original, it is somewhat removed from the psychological discussion to identify the enemy. Usually this game is advised not to start playing earlier than 12-13 years old.

Activity. A boxed version of the famous game in which you need to show or draw a hidden word so that everyone else can guess it. Participants at the age of at least 11 years (for the younger ones, the concepts from the set may be too difficult) are divided into teams, and then one player from each team in turn draws a card with a word, which must have time to show to his comrades within a minute.

An additional difficulty of the game is that the words are divided into more and less difficult ones with different points, and the team with more points will win.

My zoo. This game for 2-4 people, at first glance, resembles "Monopoly", but only in the genre of the economic game and the appearance of the field. In fact, here the sectors of the playing field are not enterprises, and not even animals, but only opportunities - to buy an animal or food for it (and without specifying on the cage what exactly is being bought - this will be in a separate card), as well as to take care of it ... The point is to buy animals and keep your zoo in good shape. The winner will be the one who creates the best zoo.

Reviews

Most of the parents later admit that they did not expect that the gift they buy for the child would overwhelm them so much. Indeed, many board games for teenagers are complex enough to captivate adults, and most importantly, they do not need modern gadgets and amazing skills to work with them. Many commentators note that modern board games are sufficiently cognitive, in terms of the complexity of the plot they are in no way inferior to good computer models, and in terms of the colorfulness and naturalness of the props, they are sometimes so good that they simply cannot fail to attract attention. Some of the comments are devoted to the fact that thanks to the purchased game, it was possible to at least partially distract the child from the computer and interest him in live communication.

Negative opinions are very rare and they relate exclusively to the unsuccessful configuration of individual (often inexpensive) games, where individual components are poorly made and quickly become unusable.