Family fun with online games

A long time ago, pre-children I worked for a while as a Personal Assistant. Most days, I’d stay at my desk whilst on my lunch break and I’d eat and play games. My two favourite games to play were Solitaire and Mah Jong. I’d pass many a lunch break playing away – it was my guilty pleasure.

Fast forward a few years, and I taught the girls when they were little how to play Solitaire on wet, Winter afternoons and remembered how much fun it could be!

Beastie saw me playing the other week and asked me what it was. So we spent a couple of afternoons with our cards out, learning how to play. It made me think about the days I spent playing on the computer, so after a little searching, I came across a great site where we could play Solitaire online.

I’ve had great fun playing it again, and love how much the kiddos have enjoyed playing it too! I remember my Dad teaching me how to play many years ago, it’s good to be able to pass the fun along. While it’s a fun game to play, it’s also great for keeping my brain working and it benefits the kids thinking and problem-solving skills too.

I’ve also relived the ‘old days’ (as my kiddos laugh) by playing Mah Jong– I’ve stuck to playing basic Mah Jong but was amazed at the huge list of different kinds of mah jong there is! I’ve actually found it a great way to switch off – life is super hectic and my brain is pretty overloaded much of the time, but a little bit of game playing and it can forget the to-do lists for a little while and decompress.

Oren has really enjoyed playing Animal Mah Jong – it’s great for his cognitive skills, and he’s loved matching all the animals! He needs a little help to beat the timer but is good at shouting out all the animal names.

While Beastie has loved playing solitaire more than anyone, he also found a game called ‘Pirates and Treasures‘ where you have to find hidden objects in the game. It was harder than it looked to find all items – especially in the second round when you had to find the hidden numbers!

These games have proved that there is much to be benefited from playing games – screen time doesn’t have to be a negative thing! The kiddos have been so wrapped up playing and having fun, they didn’t notice that they’re developing new skills and fine-tuning others. We’ll be playing more for sure over the winter months –