Playing Games to Practice Spanish

Growing up, our family played a lot of games. I remember many holidays spent around the dining room table with a board game or card game sprawled out in the middle. When I first met my husband, I introduced him to the world of games like Skip-bo, Uno, and Spoons. It was a bit of a learning curve for him, I think, but he has come to appreciate them. It helps that he is great at embracing the friendly competition and spoiling my brothers' strategies as we play.

Since I grew up playing games it was natural for me to be drawn towards teaching our children to play games too. For a while we had a good routine going where Micah, Mardo, and I would play a game together every night after Isaiah went to bed. It was a nice way to wind down from the day and spend time connecting with one another. Plus it is the perfect way to slip some extra Spanish conversation and vocabulary into the day too. For example, we play things like Memory (Memoria) or Zingo to reinforce vocabulary. We taught Micah how to play Go Fish, and it is a great way to practice asking and answering questions. Sometimes we do a puzzle together and just talk as we fit the pieces together. The best part is that Micah has fun playing the games and doesn't even realize the positive impact it has on his Spanish language development. A win-win for us all.

¡Te toca! Your turn to share - Does your family play games?