HEDBANZ: More than a Game
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The tagline for this kid’s game is “The QUICK question game of “What am I?”" This line sums it up well. My wife bought the game for the kids a few months ago and as we played it the first time I realized this kid’s game is great for helping your kids mature in their communication skills. That realization made me fall in love with it. As a parent it is important that we teach our kids how to carry on conversations.
As you play this game you have the ability to have fun and reinforce some important skills in communication:
1. Be curious. In this game they are trying to come up with questions to figure out what is on their forehead. Use this to teach your kids that being curious about the person your are talking to helps carry on conversation. The more they play this game the more natural it becomes to be curious and ask questions.
2. When talking to someone use their name. As we started playing this game it quickly became confusing because the kids just talked without using the person’s name they were talking to. With five of us it got crazy. We quickly instituted that they had to use the name of the person they were addressing at the beginning of the question. From then on it was a lot less confusing and they learn another important lesson when talking with someone.
3. Look the person in the eye when you ask them questions. It is important for your kids to grow in confidence and look people in the eye when they are talking with them. As you play this game encourage your kids to look each other in the eye. Over time this will be a habit that will serve them well as they grow older.
I really enjoy playing games with the kids however many times the games don’t teach them much. This is okay not every kid’s game has to be a learning experience. Hedbanz is a lot of fun for the kids and it is also a great tool to teach you kids some great lessons about communication. There are other lessons to take from this game as well but I simply wanted to highlight these three.
The game is recommended for ages 7 and up. Our five year old played and she did okay. One tip though for younger kids is to go through and pick out easier cards for them to use. You may even pick out cards that fall in the same general category to help them out.
Your Turn: What kid’s game do you like and what does it teach your kids?
About Wade Harris
I am a dad of four who has been married to the love of his life for 13 years. My heart is to be the best dad and husband that I can be. I also love to help others so I blog at realwade.com and also get the pleasure of doing fundraising for a university.
