Written by Crystal Pike
NORTH FORK – Kids ages 6 to 18 are invited to the Youth Boardgaming League at the North Fork Library, every Tuesday from 3 to 5 p.m.
This unique program was designed by the Youth Boardgaming League to offer fun and educational ways to learn critical thinking and communication skills in a safe and fun environment.
These board games are not the typical games one would think of – they are quite unique and are designed to engage as well as entertain.
Playing games teaches kids how to have and maintain a better attitude, develop motivation and social skills. Playing games also teaches them to deal with feelings, identify needs, formulate demands, listen and communicate efficiently, take responsibility, and think creatively and positively. With this in mind, the Youth Boardgaming League was created by Dr. Greg Thatcher, Associate Professor, Fresno State University.
The program utilizes a wide variety of strategy and communications-based board games. These board games are a broad class of tabletop games, mostly originating from Germany, that generally have simple rules, short to medium playing times (20 minutes to 2 hours), direct and indirect player interaction and attractive physical components.
The games emphasize strategy and communication, downplay luck and conflict, lean towards economic rather than military themes, and usually keep all the players in the game until it ends.
Through the “hidden” learning provided by these games, the program focuses on helping adolescents build life skills such as setting realistic expectations, determining ideal maneuvers in a dynamic situation, understanding the need to practice in order to improve, learning how to positively celebrate success and graciously handle defeat, and most importantly, how to have fun in a constructive and beneficial way.
So come on out to the Library and have some fun this summer while playing these unique board games!
The North Fork Library is located at 32908 Road 222 in downtown North Fork. For more information, call 559-877-2387.
