Teaching leadership skills to toddlers may seem impossible. Consider, though, that good leaders control their emotions, seek to understand the feelings of others, work well with others, and are respectful. Isn’t this the goal we have as parents for our little ones? This is the foundation of leadership. You are developing these traits through daily life and family games. Family is the first “society” God has given us to learn how to interact with others and develop leadership skills.

There are numerous ways to develop leadership skills in preschoolers. For example, play Simon Says. Did you know that Simon Says helps kids learn to pay close attention and follow instructions, while giving them a taste of leadership when it is their turn to be Simon? This is a great game for all ages since even adults can join in the fun. When is the last time you remember hopping backwards on one leg while closing your left eye? Your physical abilities may just be challenged!

Musical Chairs is a great activity for larger families or group settings. This classic children’s game teaches kids to resolve arguments peacefully, deal with disappointment, and practice patience.

Set chairs in a circle, one fewer than the number of children in the game, and then play music as kids walk around the circle. Every time the music stops, children must try to sit on a chair. Children left standing are out for the rest of this game. Remove a chair and begin again until only one child is left.

There are also some fun board games that help develop leadership skills. Ant Colony, from Cobble Hill, builds teamwork and cooperation as children work to avoid hidden rocks, angry beetles, and pesky anteaters to achieve the ultimate goal of completing their tunnel! Along with teamwork, children also practice communication skills and simple strategy skills.

Teach children the value of working together toward a common goal with Family Pasttimes Harvest Time game. The premise is simple. Plant gardens and harvest them before winter comes. Each roll of the dice determines your action—harvest, hinder the advance of winter, or hasten the arrival of winter. Working together, players can defeat the winter frost and harvest the gardens.

Teaching leadership skills to toddlers may seem impossible. Consider, though, that good leaders control their emotions, seek to understand the feelings of others, work well with others, and are respectful. Isn’t this the goal we have as parents for our little ones? This is the foundation of leadership. You are developing these traits through daily life and family games. Family is the first “society” God has given us to learn how to interact with others and develop leadership skills.

There are numerous ways to develop leadership skills in preschoolers. For example, play Simon Says. Did you know that Simon Says helps kids learn to pay close attention and follow instructions, while giving them a taste of leadership when it is their turn to be Simon? This is a great game for all ages since even adults can join in the fun. When is the last time you remember hopping backwards on one leg while closing your left eye? Your physical abilities may just be challenged!

Musical Chairs is a great activity for larger families or group settings. This classic children’s game teaches kids to resolve arguments peacefully, deal with disappointment, and practice patience.

Set chairs in a circle, one fewer than the number of children in the game, and then play music as kids walk around the circle. Every time the music stops, children must try to sit on a chair. Children left standing are out for the rest of this game. Remove a chair and begin again until only one child is left.

There are also some fun board games that help develop leadership skills. Ant Colony, from Cobble Hill, builds teamwork and cooperation as children work to avoid hidden rocks, angry beetles, and pesky anteaters to achieve the ultimate goal of completing their tunnel! Along with teamwork, children also practice communication skills and simple strategy skills.

Teach children the value of working together toward a common goal with Family Pasttimes Harvest Time game. The premise is simple. Plant gardens and harvest them before winter comes. Each roll of the dice determines your action—harvest, hinder the advance of winter, or hasten the arrival of winter. Working together, players can defeat the winter frost and harvest the gardens.

Instill a love of reading in your children. Introduce them to great leaders through age-appropriate biographies or Dave and Neta Jackson’s Hero Tales published by Bethany House. Take time to enjoy quality audio books as well. For example, the Exciting Events series from Your Story Hour! I love the quote from President Harry Truman, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” Building a strong reader is foundational to leadership and builds momentum for learning other leadership skills.

The elementary years will also be when you focus on developing communication skills. From identifying and understanding their emotions to clearly explaining their interests and passions, learning to communicate comes easy to some children but not all. You may need to slow down and allow a child a little extra time to share what is on their heart, but someday you will look back and be thankful you took a little extra time with them. Ask them questions, give them choices, and ask their input in simple family decisions. Accept their input and add value to their ideas…you are building a strong leader!

Upper elementary is the perfect time to introduce children to Charades. While a seemingly simple and goofy game, Charades offers children numerous opportunities to develop non-verbal communication skills. Additionally, children learn to think outside the box and be creative when presented with a challenge. Great leaders are often called upon to think outside the box, often without the benefit of foresight or time to weigh the pros and cons. Are you seeing how Charades can develop these skills? I don’t know about you, for me, one of the hardest things about Charades is coming up with a subject or topic! Thankfully, Outset Media comes to the rescue with the Family Charades Card Game or the Family Charades in a Box Game Set. The card game includes a deck of sixty cards, a scorepad, a timer, and an instruction booklet. Cards feature three possible charades of varying difficulty. To play, the players divide up into teams and try to get their teammates to guess the phrase on the card within an agreed-upon time. The harder the charade, the more points you get! For charade novices, standard charade signals (such as the type of charade, how to indicate a color, or how to let your team know they are close) are included in the instructions. Family Charades features characters, phrases, actions and objects that should be familiar to most ages (ex., Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, sorting the laundry, skunk). The Charades In-a-Box set includes six decks of cards for all different age groups for years of family charade play!

Instill a love of reading in your children. Introduce them to great leaders through age-appropriate biographies or Dave and Neta Jackson’s Hero Tales published by Bethany House. Take time to enjoy quality audio books as well. For example, the Exciting Events series from Your Story Hour! I love the quote from President Harry Truman, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” Building a strong reader is foundational to leadership and builds momentum for learning other leadership skills.

The elementary years will also be when you focus on developing communication skills. From identifying and understanding their emotions to clearly explaining their interests and passions, learning to communicate comes easy to some children but not all. You may need to slow down and allow a child a little extra time to share what is on their heart, but someday you will look back and be thankful you took a little extra time with them. Ask them questions, give them choices, and ask their input in simple family decisions. Accept their input and add value to their ideas…you are building a strong leader!

Upper elementary is the perfect time to introduce children to Charades. While a seemingly simple and goofy game, Charades offers children numerous opportunities to develop non-verbal communication skills. Additionally, children learn to think outside the box and be creative when presented with a challenge. Great leaders are often called upon to think outside the box, often without the benefit of foresight or time to weigh the pros and cons. Are you seeing how Charades can develop these skills? I don’t know about you, for me, one of the hardest things about Charades is coming up with a subject or topic! Thankfully, Outset Media comes to the rescue with the Family Charades Card Game or the Family Charades in a Box Game Set. The card game includes a deck of sixty cards, a scorepad, a timer, and an instruction booklet. Cards feature three possible charades of varying difficulty. To play, the players divide up into teams and try to get their teammates to guess the phrase on the card within an agreed-upon time. The harder the charade, the more points you get! For charade novices, standard charade signals (such as the type of charade, how to indicate a color, or how to let your team know they are close) are included in the instructions. Family Charades features characters, phrases, actions and objects that should be familiar to most ages (ex., Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, sorting the laundry, skunk). The Charades In-a-Box set includes six decks of cards for all different age groups for years of family charade play!

There are so many things we can do to help our older kids develop leadership skills. As you have read through this month’s magazine, I am sure you identified some great things to begin including as you parent and mentor your older ones.

As the mom of a child who loved to argue (ahem, debate), Deanne had to find opportunities to channel this desire productively. While organized speech and debate was a huge success in the high school years, her daughter would have loved the opportunity to start earlier! Junior Learning’s 50 Debating Activities Card set provides a perfect learning tool for organizing thoughts and developing critical thinking and communication skills. This set of debate cards teaches students how to think quickly and respond effectively to several different scenarios. Each activity will list the objective, resources needed, and procedure. For example, there might be a debate on “Should we buy organic food?” or “Are video games bad for children?” One card might work on listening and rebuttal skills while another sharpens public speaking skills. There is even a card on identifying main ideas and evaluating debates. While most are designed for classroom use, the targeted age range is 7 to 13 years, making the cards very adaptable for families!

Prioritizing game time with our older children can sometimes be a real challenge if the house is filled with little ones. Nap time and bedtime may often be the only times for chores or relaxation! Let me encourage you to set aside at least one night each week to spend time with your upper middle schoolers and teens. This is a great time to develop a strong bond with your older children (something crucial to the teen and early adult years as they discover who they are) and, it is also a ton of fun!

My husband and I loved game nights with our older children. Games required more challenge and critical thinking and didn’t involve tears when a turn didn’t go their way. While games abound, there are some great ones that will help develop leadership traits.

Escape rooms are quite popular now, but with the current limitations on public places due to the pandemic, consider bringing the fun home through Think Fun’s Escape the Room and Thames and Kosmos’ Exit Games. Critical thinking, leadership, cooperation, and communication skills are necessary to find your freedom before the time is up!

Set in an old manor in the year 1869, Escape the Room’s Mystery at the Stargazers Manor introduces your group to numerous mysterious happenings that beg to be investigated. But how will you escape when you end up locked inside a room in the old manor? Your team has ninety minutes to find and plan your escape!

Exit The Game has various options for game play, from Pharaoh’s Tomb and Secret Castles to Stormy Flights and Sunken Treasures! The choices are as unique as your teens’ interests. Being trapped in a mysterious room with your friends and family…knowing that anything around you could be a clue to a convoluted riddle…the pressure of the clock counting down…and driving back home with hours of discussion of what you could have done differently.

If you enjoy the type of logic involved in escape rooms, you’ll probably like these games, which are also a fraction of the cost! Having done a real escape room, I can tell you that the puzzles in these games are just as complicated as the real thing, and as a bonus, they don’t require an app or batteries. All you need are a few pencils, paper pads, a timer, and a pair of scissors. In the game box, you will find riddle cards, answer cards, help cards, a booklet, a decoder disk, and some “strange objects,” which you’ll use in puzzles later in the game. Like a typical escape room, your first move is to look around the “room” to find clues and riddle cards. The puzzles involved are an interesting mix of logic, leaps of logic, and activities. Word scrambles, dot-to-dots, magic eye pictures, word riddles, scraps of letters and numbers, chemical tables, etc., are just some of the various “pieces” of the head-scratching brain teasers you may encounter. When you think you have figured a riddle out, you can check your answer by entering it into the decoder disk; it will tell you if you were right, wrong, or maybe correct and move you along in the game. If you get stuck, you can always consult the help cards for clues. Solve all the riddles to earn your freedom!

Civitas the Card Game from Bright Ideas Press has so many fabulous benefits, plus it is just plain FUN! At the heart of the game is leadership through different types of governance. Your mission: Rule over the other players to overtake the nation and empty your hand of cards. As a leader, you have choices. Will you lead with an iron fist, or will there be a majority vote? Do you lead wisely and justly, with liberty for all, or are some “more equal” than others? Options abound as you discover various forms of government: democracy, monarchy, theocracy, communism, republic, and plutocracy. Be alert, because even as you lead the nations, you are not protected from the surprise military coup or total anarchy. This fast-paced game twists and turns through a wide range of scenarios as players strategize how best to lay down all their cards first. The game includes 228 playing cards and twelve leadership cards as well as blank “do it yourself” cards to create personal scenarios. This game was a huge hit with my older children as they strategized to control the direction of the game and rule the round.

Finally, we want to mention the opportunity to develop leadership skills through building activities. What type of leader traits can you learn from building with plastic building blocks? Creativity is one that we often consider; however, there are many others. For example, setting goals and being flexible to achieve them is an important leadership trait. Start with a destination,or goal, in mind.

Write out the steps to reach it—the instructions. However, remember that instructions may only be so helpful. You may need to make changes along the way or find an alternative way to reach your goal. The process of achieving the goal (finishing your plastic model) is where the fun happens. Think about it. When you finish the plastic brick model, what do you do? Display it or separate the pieces and start again? The fun and growth happen through the process! Slow down, evaluate the goal (finished model) and make changes along the way to make it your own.

Most of us are familiar with plastic brick building kits from one wildly successful company, however, have you ever heard of Cobi? Cobi creates quality brick building kits that are historical in nature. Here are just a few of our favorites: Noah’s Ark and the Nativity; the RMS Titanic (available in 600 or a challenging 2840 pieces!); the WW 2 Battleship USS Iowa/USS Missouri 2 in 1 set and the Vietnam era Air Calvary HUEY helicopter. These make wonderful ways to develop leadership skills and add a hands-on perspective to your history lessons.

We hope our thoughts have been a blessing to your family. We would love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out to us at consultants@rainbowresource.com.

Love and Blessings,

Donna and Deanne