© Beverley Paine

Whenever I wanted the children to learn something I'd think about making a game, rather than look for text or work books. Games add another dimension to learning - not just the fun factor which everyone says is important. My children enjoyed the challenge inherent in most games: for them learning what I wanted them to learn was a bi-product of playing rather than the purpose.

At first I thought the challenge was due to the competitive nature of games, but the children often subverted this and began playing cooperatively. In time I saw that games naturally set goals that the children have to devise strategies to reach those goals, and they do this with an incredible amount of inventiveness and lateral thinking. This sometimes resulted in rule changes, additions to the game, making up new games, or team playing. This was the challenge the children thrived on, and gave rise to often unexpected learning outcomes.

When I wanted my children to learn how to subtract and add large sums we made a game we called "Shopping Spree". In the game the children had $120 and a shopping list and they needed to move their character around a mall on the game board and shop wisely, budgeting carefully. We used real coins, because they were cheaper than plastic money, and made our own paper money. We also made a fractions game called "Gobble Guts Pizza Game", a volcano game, a trivial pursuit game about Indonesia, and a few maths card games.

Making the game taught as much as playing the game, especially in maths and society and environment. Making and testing rules was probably the hardest aspect of getting a game right. The children always helped me make the games - a truly integrated across-curriculum learning activity - and this led them to confidently build elaborate games in their teenage years. Influenced by playing computer games Roger and Thomas built a LEGO Castle game. This took over two years and had a complex scoring system, similar to Dungeons and Dragon type games. It would take hours to play and was a favourite for a long time. The skills needed to invent, make and play this game were complex and again, covered several areas of the curriculum.

Our favourite proprietory games included Solar Quest, Squatter, Mastermind, Scattergories, Cluedo, Yahtzee and Star Wars Monopoly. Chess, card, marble and dice games, as well as darts were also firm favourites.