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Photograph by Thomas Brock and his trusty iPhone

This is the third in my series of holiday gift guides. The first was on electronics and the second on books. This one covers board games.

I’ll admit that board games really aren’t my favorite things. But Mini and AM enjoy them, so, I suffer through. I prefer to get games with some educational value these days.

Apples to Apples is a game based on comparisons. Each player gets a set of cards and has to choose and justify the best comparisons. I want to get this game, or it’s “junior” variant, to help Mini develop good reasoning and analytical skills.

In a Pickle is another game of comparison. In this game, each player gets cards and has to make judgments on the relationships of each item. I’m hoping this game will help Mini understand how different objects relate with each other.

Scrabble Apple is Scrabble in an apple bag. Mini enjoys Scrabble and I like that the game helps her develop a strong vocabulary. The small bag makes storing the game pieces easy and there’s no giant board with which to deal.

Lastly, there’s Monopoly. There’s a half-million different versions of Monopoly these days, everything from sports teams versions to movie versions to some sort of electronic version that doesn’t have paper money (Seems evil, but that’s just me…). The Monopoly Championship edition is the version for us. It’s the same as all the other Monopoly versions, but comes with a family championship trophy. Monopoly teaches strategy and basic money management. The trophy adds a little competition and gives Mini something she can take home…If she wins, that is…

Games are a great way to spend time with your family. There’s a minimum investment and the return is hours of fun and a little education.

Do your Tweens enjoy board games? Do you plan on getting any for Christmas? What are your favorites? Ask questions, share your ideas and ask questions in the comments.

The New York Times published quite the interesting article this week relating to Disney’s Baby Einstein brand of electronic media (VHS, DVD, CD) which were marketed as tools to make your children smarter by plopping them in front of a television or stereo playing them.

It turns out that the efficacy of these videos is still unproven (even though the line has been available for over ten years!) and some (most notably the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, less so myself) have said using them really isn’t a great idea and Disney is now offering refunds.

I’ve never been a fan of sitting Mini in front of a movie or video, though I confess to having done it, though it was more for a “five-minutes-to-do-something” break than a “get smart quick” scheme.

Now that Mini is in 4th grade, it’s important to me to not let her get sucked into the vortex of television and online programming that’s less than educational. She reads (Greg Heffley’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid and R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps series’ are current favorites) and listens to audiobooks (J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series) quite a bit. We play games, though I will say boardgames aren’t my favorite things.

We go places, too. And not just the park or the mall…We go to aquariums (Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, SC and the local N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores), we visit museums (there’s a lovely history of Onslow County at the Onslow County Museum in Richlands) and, though Mini doesn’t know it, we’ll be making a trip to the N.C. Zoo at Asheboro soon. The hope is that these interactive and engaging activities will help Mini develop a curious mind and interest in the world around her.

The only way to get your kids smart(er) is to actively engage them in activities. Reading and writing, playing games and having honest-to-goodness-conversations will do more than any 30-minute DVD of pretty colors and soothing music, I can promise you. It’s activities and interaction that will make children smart.

What activities do you use to help your child develop thinking skills? How do you feel about the Baby Einstein products? Share your questions, ideas and experiences in the comments.