Learning Sportsmanship Through Educational Games

 

This is the face of a 4 year-old boy who loves playing games and learning all things. It's also the face of a boy who is competitive and doesn't quite know how to have good sportsmanship while playing a game. This is typical for child though, and he really is almost there. Sweet B didn't have as fiery of a personality and therefore I didn't really have to work on this with her when she was four. But now that she's almost seven and her little almost five year-old brother has got a competitive streak...I'm realizing that I need to get to teaching these kids how to win and lose!

This Mother Goose Time game was called "Bug Family." It focused on the "ug" word family. Strong B is starting to read (eek!) which is so exciting and Tiny B is already a reader (double eek!) so this game was definitely playable for them and fun.

 

They took their respective turns and the game started out very sweet.

 

As Strong B started winking there was a lot of gloating on his part. 

 

Even Jack the Standard Poodle got in on the action and showed his competitive side. 

 

Oh boy...When the arm goes up to spin the spinner you know that some sibling rivalry is going down!

 

And here is where the pictures abruptly end. Strong B was winning. Tiny B was whining. Lots of whining.  There were tears from both. And because I've chosen to never put any pictures up that might embarrass them in the future, you'll have to take my word for it. Strong B decided that he was done playing the game, and that was where I put my coaches hat on (don't all mamas wear different hats?) and gave them a lesson on having good sportsmanship. We talked for a long time. We talked about how their daddy was a big sportsman and how much he respects players who play with integrity. We acted out different scenarios and defined "respect" and "kindness." 

I am confident that we will be having this conversation multiple times over the next thirteen years but I am also confident that they learned a lot from our conversation and it impacted their mind and future behaviors. They are both such kind and well-behaved children (oh boy, I lucked out on that one!) and I feel that this won't be a very hard skill for them to master.

*I  receive Mother Goose Time curriculum in exchange for my honest sharing of experiences, resulting from our personal use. All opinions/thoughts are my own and are in no way influenced by others.