OUR FOCUS

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In this new program designed for homeschooled children (ages 8+), we use modern board games to teach our participants about how the world works, what rules govern it, and how we (both as individuals and as different societies) interact with those rules. The social narratives that guide how we live are often invisible, and at Game Masters Table, we strive to shine a light on those invisible rules, and to discuss how we can use our new knowledge of the world to make it a better place for everyone to live.

 

Through playing and then deconstructing several different types of board games, kids in our program get to see how different board games vary based on small changes to the rules and how those changes can allow for very different play experiences and interactions, and sometimes even change the meaning of the game and what message it’s trying to convey - board games can often be used as analogies for complex ideas.

 

SKILL DEVELOPMENT

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By examining how and why different board games vary, participants gain the interest and confidence to play around with rules and see what happens when they make their own changes, and upon deciding that they want to play with different structures within existing games, they are often inspired to design their own games from scratch, which we facilitate through our program.

 

We also develop strong language, writing, and communication skills through game design. When writing rules for a game, the language used needs to be extremely clear, concise, and explicit, because the rules as written need to be able to be interpreted exactly the same way by anyone who reads them.

 

There are few stronger examples of how economies work than modern board games as well, as most board games are just small economic engines. Players usually have the same number of actions and start with the same number of resources, and throughout the game, are looking to leverage what they have and the time they have available to them to make efficient, profitable, and sustainable economic machines. Games like these are a great introduction to open markets, to cooperation, risk-reward analysis, and resource management.

 

OUR GOALS

Our homeschooling program aims to develop critical thinking skills, communication, language, and creative mathematical thinking, while stimulating imagination, creativity, and enthusiasm for learning how the world works.