Education & Board Games: Catan
We started homeschooling our daughter in September 2015, and it’s going really well so far. One of the coolest parts about homeschooling is that you can use a variety of methods…and games in your teaching. While reading The History of the World, my wife came across how people would settle a land, set up villages, trade with other villages, build roads and gather resources. This sounded an awful lot like Settlers of Catan, now called Catan.
So, we decided to teach Jocelyn how to play this popular settling game and connect our play experience to what she was learning in school. For those of you who haven’t played Catan, you are trying to be the first player to reach 10 victory points through settling villages, upgrading your villages to cities, building the longest road and/or having the largest army. When you build a village you gain the chance to produce more resources, and you need to build roads between your villages and cities.
If you are looking for a game to help teach any of the following concepts, you should grab a copy of this game:
The Basics of Settling an Area
As mentioned above, in Catan you are striving to settle the land by building villages and cities, connecting these structures, trading with other villages and protecting your villages from bandits by assembling a group of soldiers. These concepts can help your child grasp how people used to settle an area and the different processes you need to consider.
Resource Management and Allocation
Throughout the game you are going to be gathering resources like brick, ore, sheep, wood and wheat. You use these resources to build your structures, roads and gain development cards. Knowing what to buy, when to buy it, and when to trade is a great exercise in managing resources and allocating resources.
Introducing Strategy
This is a great introduction to strategy, forward thinking and planning ahead. As you gain resources, settle the land and score points you need to plan ahead to know how to increase your productivity and build your resource-generating engine.
I’m sure there are other great educational concepts in this game. Feel free to share them in the comments below. Stay tuned for more education in board game articles. Until then, grab a game and keep reclaiming relationships around the table.
