Wonderful women in my life!

Happy Mothers Day!

Today’s the day set aside in the US to celebrate the wonderful role of mothers. And what a wonderful thing to do. It gives us a reason to pause and think of all the amazing things mothers do for us.

So often we take the role of mothers for granted. Having a day to reflect on the mothers is fantastic.

Since my father died when I was just 3, my mom had a tremendous task placed on her at an early age as she set out to raise 3 kids on her own. It wasn’t easy and she worked tirelessly to provide the best she could for us. Her life revolved around us. And even though we’re each grown with families of our own, we’re still her number 1 priority. A mother’s love and concern for her children never ends. It just expands as the years go by.

Yet, while I was aware of her sacrifices for us, like most kids I don’t think I truly appreciated her efforts at the time.

But I’ve found that I can appreciate the role of mothers a little more every year. As my family has grown and I work hand-in-hand with my wife to raise our children, I feel like I’m getting a behind-the-scenes view into the role of mothers.

Now I’m getting a front row view into what mothers go through for their families. Working together to raise our family, I see and feel the emotion that goes into this ever important work.

And while celebrating Mother’s Day with the mothers in my life, I also now reflect on preparing my daughter for this important role in her future as well. As part of that, I want to share a wonderful video posted this week that depicts the best thing we fathers can do for our daughters.

Today’s the day to celebrate all the women in your life. Let them know how much you care.

Happy Mothers day to all you wonderful women in the world!

This post is from The Board Game Family. Mothers are the best! The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Mesmerized by screens.

Our Screen-Free has come to an end.

Let the rejoicing begin!

That’s right – there’s plenty of rejoicing in our house now that Screen-Free Week is over. And not just from the kids.

I’m ready to catch up on Amazing Race, BoardGameGeek, surf the web, and watch a movie. Although I’ve enjoyed a bit more sleep, some good reading time, working in the yard, and playing outside and at the park, I’ve also missed taking some down time watching a show or two.

This isn’t to say that we didn’t have a great week. But we’ll admit that going without for a week definitely had its drawbacks.

So how did it all go?

If you’re going to try going a week without screen time in your family, our first suggestion is that you give your kids adequate warning. Dropping the bomb on them the first day of the week you’re going without doesn’t go over so well. Trust us, we know.

We started the week out nice enough telling the kids about it being Screen-Free Week and how we were going to give it a try. That was quickly met with furrowed brows and moans. But after a few clarifying questions were answered, we were hesitantly ready to roll.

How Jaden felt chopping down the tree.

The weather was great for a lot of playing outside and yard work. Jaden and his friend loved chopping down and digging out a dead tree. And Caleb and friend became Green Machine expert stunt men. They also loved going to the park in the dark Friday night with flashlights. And books were in big supply. As far as board games go, we got in a few plays this week, but not a lot.

It turns out that life still moves at a busy pace regardless of screens – full of soccer practices, games, scout meetings and running errands. And with school still in session, getting the kids to bed on time doesn’t leave much time for screens anyway.

We did notice the reduction in mobile games being played that usually happen throughout the day. So in that sense, it was great. Instead of picking up an iPod, they reached for a book to pass a few minutes.

I will admit that when Friday night rolled around, it was tough fighting the urge to plug in a good movie. But a late trip to the park with flashlights helped suppress that urge.

The Outlier

But not everyone in the family took up the challenge. Trevor, our oldest, didn’t join in the experiment. Although his younger siblings got on his case about it, he forged ahead working on some songs he was composing on the computer. He wasn’t ready to make the commitment and let us know. The great thing though is that it still gave us a chance to have a discussion about the purpose behind it all. There weren’t any heated arguments or anything, but we let them each make their own decision. And he was the only outlier.

Or was he…?

Were mom and I screen free after the kids went to bed?
Nope.

It’s not to set a double standard, but it was quickly apparent that we needed screens to keep our responsibilities rolling. While we didn’t watch any TV, we did get on computers for paying bills, managing finances, coordinating scouts and primary, creating flyers, and finding hotels for an upcoming trip.

And for all of that, we’re very grateful for technology and our screens. Running a household and other responsibilities can be greatly aided by screens.

Conclusion

As you can tell from our website, we’re strong advocates for spending more quality, face-to-face time with your family and limiting screen time. But we’re also big proponents of moderation. Anything taken to the extreme can put you out of whack.

We recognize that there are a ton of fantastic opportunities to us in the world through screens. Through screens, we have opportunities to learn and expand our minds by being exposed to many enlightening things around the world. There’s also a lot of mind-numbing drivel.

Trying to stay balanced.

The answer isn’t to eliminate all screen time. Instead, the answer is to teach the appropriate use of it all and how to choose the good, better, and best use of our time.

So when it comes to screen time, it looks like we’ll just keep chipping away at it. We’ll continue teaching our kids (and learning ourselves) how to better regulate our time with screens and finding an appropriate balance.

And we wish you the best in doing likewise!

This post is from The Board Game Family. Results from our Screen-Free Week The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Unplug and unwind

It’s time to turn off the screens!

That’s right, Screen-Free Week starts on April 30. It’s a time for people everywhere to step away from the screens.

It used to be called TV-Turnoff week. But because of the immense rise in screens of all kinds in the world today, it’s aptly been changed to Screen-Free Week. If you haven’t heard of it before, here’s a the main message from the website:

Screen-Free Week is an annual celebration where children, families, schools, and communities turn off screens and turn on life. Instead of relying on screen for entertainment, participants read, daydream, explore, enjoy nature, and enjoy spending time with family and friends.

And we’ll add – “And Play Board Games!”

It’s estimated that children spend an average of 32 hours a week with screens!

And that’s just preschoolers!

It’s a lot higher than that for older children.

If we were just talking about TV screens, the number wouldn’t be so high. But with all the hand-held screens we carry around that give us instant access to entertainment, the numbers skyrocket. Sure iPads and mobile “phones” are used for many productive purposes. But they can also be a huge time waster.

It seems that if we have any “downtime” nowadays, we turn to our devices. Waiting in line – pull it out and check email. Waiting at the doctor’s office (because they love to make you wait) – pull it out to check sports scores or the news. Riding (not driving) in the car – pull it out for some games. And even our books are on a screen now.

How will the world ever have another notable philosopher like Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle when we never take time any more for pondering?

It seems hard to just do nothing. To sit and think. To enjoy a sunset.

Go hiking!

No – we have to whip out our device and take a picture of the sunset, then post it on a social site, then get distracted with updates from our friends, then check out the videos they linked to, then flick some Angry Birds, then look up to see the sunset’s gone…

So this week it’s time to put the screens away.

• Talk to a friend
• Walk next door to visit a neighbor
• Take a hike
• Play in the park
• Talk to our kids.
• Play some board games and card games
• Build something
• Paint something
• Read a book (not on a screen)
• Write a short story
• In the end – just DO something.

And don’t worry about posting it anywhere. Just enjoy it with those around you and leave it at that. They’re the ones that matter most.

Is it possible? Can we do it?

Wow. Good question. I don’t know if we really can do it either. But we’re going to give it a try.

To do it right, we know it will take some planning. Since our kids have homework assignments that now require screens – for their reports, online quizzes, and such – we’re going to need an exception for that. But we may limit it to “homework must be done by 4pm and then all screens off” or something like that.

But a bigger question is – can I do it? Can I go a week without screens?

Of course, I have a job that requires I use screens (computer screens) to perform my work. So during work hours, this won’t be possible. But once I leave the office, can I keep the screens off?

Can I fight the urge to check email on my mobile? Can I stop myself from playing another game of Dominion on my device? Can I go without kicking back with a family movie on Saturday night? Can we skip watching Amazing Race? Can I fight the urge to check BoardGameGeek each day? Can I resist writing about family board games and not posting anything on our site, Facebook, or Twitter for a week? That’s a tough challenge.

Just let go!

But I’m going to give it a try as well!

And while on one hand it sounds tough to do, it also sounds very refreshing. Almost like some shackles are being removed and we’re free from the trappings of screens everywhere.

So even though we have a few reviews filmed and almost ready to post, and a few articles running around in my head, we’re going to take a week break. We’re taking up the challenge and we’ll catch up after the week’s over (and tell you how our week turned out). Of course, then again, it may be something so nice that we end up doing it more. I guess we’ll see.

Here’s to hoping you have a great time during Screen-Free Week spending more face time with your family and friends in a lot of great pursuits!

(And if you can’t do it this week, we challenge you to pick another week to turn off the screens. For our part, we won’t be tempting you with posts to read for the week. So have some fun!)

This post is from The Board Game Family. Screen-Free Week: April 30 – May 6, 2012
Can we do it? The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

You could win this party game!

How would you like to win a new party game?

Well, the folks at Stratus Games are ready to give away a copy of their upcoming party game – Off Your Rocker!

You may recognize the name Stratus Games because we’ve reviewed a number of their family board games.

The first game they published was Gold Mine- which we reviewed in Oct 2010. It’s a fun tile laying game where you’re building out the mine and looking for gold. The cool twist is that you can also thwart the progress of the other players and challenge them for their gold as well. Gold Mine averaged a 4 out of 5 meeples with our crew.

Eruption is a family board game that Stratus Games published last year that’s also a tile laying game. But unlike Gold Mine where players are constructing something, in Eruption players send the lava flowing at their opponents villages on a path of destruction.

One of the great features of both of these games that we love is that they allow for up to 6 players. And for a family of 6, that’s terrific!

Full of crazy conditions to diagnose.

Well, now Stratus Games has developed a party game which we’re sure will work great with 6 players and many more – Off Your Rocker.

Off Your Rocker puts players in the role of patients suffering from a quirky problem and a psychiatrist who must ask general questions to try to diagnose it. If you’ve got a group of people wanting to act out and try to guess a lot of crazy conditions, then you’ll want to check out Off Your Rocker.

And while you’re at it – get in for a chance to win a copy of Off Your Rocker from Stratus Games!

But hurry – there’s only a couple days left!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post is from The Board Game Family. New Game Giveaway! The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Could this be the winner?

It’s that time of year again – time for the annual Dice Tower Awards!
Well, actually it’s time for the game nominations to be announced.

This week, The Dice Tower Network announced the nominations for the Dice Tower Gaming Awards for 2011. A committee made up of over 40 prominent board game podcasters and bloggers has come up with the lists of the best games released in the year 2011.

This year, it was decided to increase the nomination slate for Game of the Year to 10 games rather than five. They’ve also added two new categories: Best Digital Board Games – for board games translated to iOS devices or computers, and a Best Game Theme category – in which games are recognized for having unique, refreshing themes or portraying their theme well.

The winners will be announced the first week of July – after more game playing and comparisons can be made from repeated plays to judge which are really the Best of the Best.

Here’s this year’s list of nominations in the 13 categories, along with designer and English publisher.

We’ve found it interesting how these nominees compare to the Best Board Game and Best Card Game of 2011 list that we posted about just after 2011 came to a close. That preliminary list included 27 games. What’s interesting is that only 13 of those became nominees in The Dice Tower Awards 2011.

Now I better get back to playing some games – so I can be better prepared to worthily contribute along with the others around the world judging this year’s nominees and ultimate winners!

If you’re interested in seeing The Dice Tower Awards lists from years past, head to the Dice Tower website.
2010 – Best Game of the Year Winner: 7 Wonders
2009 – Best Game of the Year Winner: Smallworld
2008 – Best Game of the Year Winner: Dominion
2007 – Best Game of the Year Winner: Race for the Galaxy

This post is from The Board Game Family. Best Board Games of 2011 – Nominees announced! The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

John and Cody - with birthday decor

One of our favorite board game podcasts is about to go off the air. Next week, Game On! with Cody & John will air their final episode and I’m sad to see them go.

Not only have we enjoyed listening to Cody and John for a few years, but I’ve also met and played games with them and they’re classy guys.

I met up with Cody and John while on a business trip to Indianapolis in 2010 and had a chance to play a couple games with them. That day even turned out to be John’s birthday and he still welcomed me (a virtual stranger) into his home for some board game time.

In their latest gaming podcast episode, they shared some of their Board Game Words of Wisdom. Having discussed so much about a variety of board games, card games, dice games, miniature games, role-playing games, and more for a number of years, Cody and John are well equipped to dish out important words to live by. And since we think they’re spot on, we’d like to share their tips with you.

Board Game Words of Wisdom

1. Play What you Want

Make it fun!

This may seem very obvious since no one is really forcing you to play a board game. But what they really mean is to not get caught up in all the hype of every new board game that comes out. Don’t go just off of the word of board game reviewers, like them (or us for that matter), say. When it comes to board games, make your own decisions about fun.

From a family perspective though, you’ll find yourself playing games that you don’t particularly want to play. But that’s not what they mean. Because if my daughter really wants to play Spinning Wishes again (a game I don’t care for in the least), I’m still going to sit down with her and play it. Playing board games isn’t about the game – it’s about the experience and social interaction. So if it’s Spinning Wishes in that moment, then yes, that is what I want to play because of who I’m with.

2. Make Your Purchases Count

It's all about the choices.

We all have limited resources for things we want. Like mentioned in the first word of wisdom, it’s easy to get caught up in the hype of new games. And doing so will add a lot of games to your wish list. (Believe me, I know this first hand – my list is very long.) But don’t fall prey to just buying every board game or card game that sounds or looks cool.

From a family perspective, this is one principle we try to teach our kids – delayed gratification. You don’t have to have the latest and greatest of everything. And just because your friends have something, doesn’t mean you need it too. There’s a great sense of accomplishment and you value items a lot more when you save up and make your purchases count. The same holds true with board games.

3. Don’t be Afraid to Spread Your Gaming Horizons

This gaming word of wisdom is all about trying new things. Sure you may love a particular type or style of game. But don’t let that stop you from trying more. Life is an adventure. Broaden your horizons and open up to new game experiences. And having an informed opinion of why you don’t like a particular type of game is better than never trying it.

From a family perspective, it’s great to expose your kids to a wide range of games. As a parent, you quickly recognize that all of your children have their own personalities, interests, and abilities. Exploring new things is a great way to open their mind to new possibilities and let chart their own course.

4. Don’t be All About Gaming

Get out for some fun too!

There is more to life than just gaming. Don’t let it consume your life. And definitely don’t neglect other, more important things in life for the sake of games.

We couldn’t agree more!

This may sound funny coming from us since we’re known as The Board Game Family. But gaming is definitely not the only thing we do. We’ve written a lot about the importance of balance in life. So even though we do love spending time together playing board games, it’s only a small subset of our lives.

Through our website and board game reviews, we definitely want to encourage more families to spend quality time together around the table playing fun family board games. But we also encourage you to spend time with your children doing other things that they love. Be interested in their lives and their interests and let that guide you in your choices.

Thanks Cody and John for a great game podcast and your fabulous Board Game Words of Wisdom!

This post is from The Board Game Family. Board Game Words of Wisdom The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

As we head into this weekend, we see a lot on our calendar – birthday celebration, multiple soccer games, Easter egg hunt at grandmas, and other typical Saturday chores and such. Our kids will also be starting Spring Break this week, so we may try to fit in a board game or two.

One thing is for sure – we’re going to be spending a lot of time together as a family making memories and having fun.

However, we’re also going to be taking time for reflection. As Christians, we’re going to be observing Easter Sunday thinking about the importance that Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection has in our life.

With that in mind, we’d like to share a few powerful videos about Christ’s life that were recently published on BibleVideos.org.

He Is Risen

Jesus Is Scourged and Crucified

Jesus is Resurrected

His Sacred Name

An Apostle’s Thoughts on Christ

You can also see more at BibleVideos.org.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Easter Messages The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Can you force fun?

Have you ever forced your kids to play board games or card games?

Or does that word “force” seem too strong?
Maybe you’ve just “strongly encouraged” them to play a family board game when they weren’t interested.

Just because the word “force” can carry such a bad connotation, doesn’t mean that it’s a bad thing. After all, we also “force” our kids to brush their teeth, make their beds, and do their homework – all things that they may not be interested in. And most parents would agree with this. (We’re not talking about physical force/abuse – that’s definitely a bad thing.)

But when it comes to our entertainment choices, we second guess ourselves.

A big part of life is being exposed to new things and experiences that you may not know you’re interested in until you give it a try. The same is true with games and other family activities. So a lot of family activities may be “forced” at first.

We’ve forced our kids to do a lot of things that they aren’t interested in at the time like attending a sibling’s piano recital, soccer game, or school play. Of course, when they’re little, they typically don’t have a choice in the matter – they have to come along. But as they grow and become more independent they like to assert their independence to not participate in various activities.

As a parent it’s often tough to determine which battles are worth fighting and when we need to take a stand and push for certain experiences and family participation and interaction. If we feel it’s important, then we need to teach it. And often it requires a mandate and going against what they’d rather do.

The times that I find myself “forcing” our kids to play board games is usually when playing new games for the first time – games they aren’t familiar with yet. They don’t know what they’re getting into. And after a while of being exposed to new things, they’re much more willing to play games on other nights. And we’ll typically let them choose games that they’d like to play. That way they aren’t feeling “forced” and we can have fun spending time together.

So pulling a game off the shelf and gathering your kids around the table may at times feel like your forcing them to have fun. But chances are, if you’re willing to sit down and spend time with them, they’re going to appreciate it. And like so many other activities, repetition and practice makes it much easier and more enjoyable down the road.

And those “Force Cards” that Trevor gave me for a Christmas present are still sitting on my dresser untouched. We’ve played a bunch of games since Christmas and I still haven’t to use a Force Card on him at all.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Do you force your kids to play board games? The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together