Mara Kaplan Quotations

I don't think it's appropriate -- except when they're very, very young -- for parents to let their kids win. If you're looking at Trivial Pursuit, maybe that means giving the parents harder questions than the children. You're still playing the game, and everyone is participating at their best level.

Playing in the dining room, at the kitchen table, or on the family room floor creates a whole different family dynamic than other activities. Conversations can start to happen -- you may learn things about your child academically or socially that you didn't know. That's a much better atmosphere than, 'Tell me about your day,' when you're doing something you and your child enjoy.

When we play it, my husband and I get less facial features on the 'Hangman' than do my daughter. So she gets lots more chances to guess than we do. Those games not only keep them engaged, they create a sense of conversation, and also really work on spatial awareness and vocabulary.

Children can learn to play as a team -- and they learn you don't always win. That's something, this day and age, that we don't teach our children very well. We set up school environments and other sports environments so that our children always succeed. But in the real world, they don't always succeed. Gaming is a good way to teach that.