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Talking About Cooperative Games: Is It Worth Anything?

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Playing together rather than against each other, as we do in cooperative games, fosters a shift from personal concern with getting ahead toward collaboration for the common good and happiness for all. Playing together is a powerful way to experience, and therefore know, that win-win solutions are possible and enjoyable. This much has been stated many times.

But it occurred to me today that just pondering the possibility of cooperative play helps us make the big shift. Just thinking and talking about the idea lets us imagine working together enjoyably, and provides hope that we will learn new ways of relating to one another—ways that will help us address the big problems we face as a global community. Wouldn’t you agree that this is true? You’re halfway to the experience of cooperative play just by imagining it. I’m not saying the idea of cooperative play is as transformative as the real experience of playing a cooperative game. But I am saying that the idea and discussion are also potent and inspiring.

For instance, there are plenty of adults who love the idea of cooperative games but do not see ways to incorporate them into their lives. Some of us don’t have lots of other people around to play with. And some folks are of a serious mind and don’t really like games. For all these folks, the very idea of cooperative games is still of value. The simple theory is a joy to think about and is as pleasing to the intellect as a neat mathematical proof: People learn through play and direct experience…so if we are in an era where people need to learn to cooperate, by all means, let’s bring on the cooperative games! It’s good to know that this tool for cultural and personal change is out there, finding channels of expression, bringing joy, and transforming the world one play-date, party, workshop, or classroom at a time!

So even if you haven’t yet played a cooperative game, and even if you don’t have the opportunity to do so soon, let’s keep talking about the win-win way: cooperative play! Tell a friend!

 A board game with owls and trees on it.

Cooperative Games Used in Diverse Ways: from Software Development to Yoga to Juvenile Justice Programs

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What I learned while presenting at the Greenlife Eco festA board game with owls and trees on it.: Diverse groups are getting interested in cooperative games : ) I spoke with a software engineer who is using cooperative games to help engineers collaborate more effectively; a yoga teacher who uses them to help people do yoga together in a fun and enriched way; a first grade teacher who uses cooperative games to help kids get along; and a counselor who works with incarcerated youth (the idea being that cooperative games help kids who are in trouble form trusting relationships). Cooperative play–powerful, peaceful, and productive! How can you add a little cooperative play to your life?

Announcing the Cooperative Games Bullying Prevention Program

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Ta da! Over two years in the making, it’s here.

The Cooperative Games Bullying Prevention Program
Cooperative Games for a Warm School Climate
PreK-Grade 2

A board game with owls and trees on it.

Cooperative games are great fun! But there is a serious side to them to—used in the right way, they can prevent aggression. This is a huge discovery for kids, families, schools, and society at large. This finding on cooperative games and aggression in kids is explained and put to practical use in our bullying prevention program.

The Cooperative Bullying Prevention Program consists of the teaching manual, which provides directions for over 50 active cooperative games, teaching tips, a discussion of relevant research, and many suggestions for making your classroom a haven for caring, cooperative play. Also included in the program are four board games your young students will love to play over and over again.

Of course it makes sense that cooperative play builds healthy relationships and nurtures a positive school climate…but is there any research on this? Yes, there is proof that the exact games used in the Cooperative Games Bullying Prevention Program actually reduce aggression and build pro-social skills. This program was tested in a University of Nevada study and shown to work. Here is what the author of the University of Nevada Study says about our program:

The Cooperative Games Bullying Prevention Program is a great piece of work and significant contribution to bullying prevention. Through the use of practical, easy to implement, and class-friendly games, Suzanne Lyons promotes a new mindset regarding the substantial impact of cooperatively structured play activities. This work reaches into and beyond bullying prevention with techniques that transform classrooms into social milieus reinforcing values of sharing, kindness and peace. The methods and activities in this book encourage positive social skills development and they help children build confidence in their own ability to relate to and work with one another. I wholeheartedly support and appreciate Ms. Lyons’ work. It bridges empirical research on cooperative games and aggression reduction with the school system. As such, it is rightly an integral part of bullying prevention.

We will be posting lots more about using cooperative games to prevent bullying. Stay tuned!

Cooperative Games with Blocks

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Do you remember playing with blocks as a wee one?

A board game with owls and trees on it.
Blocks for Cooperative Play

I remember many peaceful hours spent playing with them. I loved blocks because they facilitate imaginary play and physical play too. It’s fun to practice eye hand coordination, explore spatial relations, and use small motor skills at the same time you build crazy castles, tall towers and all manner of imaginary things. I’m sure blocks must help kids develop mechanical skills too. Blocks are fun for mixed-age play since older children and adults love them just as much as very young children do. Blocks are a noncompetitive toy. Children can play individually with blocks or cooperatively by building structures together. The simplest cooperative game  with blocks I know of is a construction game. It goes like this…it’s a classic and always SO FUN! Just build the highest vertical tower you can, taking turns. Eventually the tower will crash! But it’s fun building it together, encouraging one another and offering helpful suggestions as in all cooperative games. Now here is the serious part. Gwen Dewar PhD at ParentingScience.com reports a study on using cooperative play with blocks to help autistic kids. Playing together cooperatively with blocks helped the autistic kids make more social language improvements than being directly coached in the social use of language. See http://www.parentingscience.com/toy-blocks.html . Are you psyched about blocks and looking for a good set? I sell blocks at CooperativeGames.com since they are such a great and versatile noncompetitive toy. Click here to shop  https://cooperativegames.com/ I chose the Green Toys brand since Green Toys products are all made from recycled milk jugs in the USA. They are safe for kids and good for the environment, sturdy, and easy for little hands to manipulate. In honor of this blog on #cooperative games with blocks, and in honor of the holidays, Green Toys blocks are now the Deal of the Day at CooperativeGames.com at a whopping 40% off the regular price! Please share with parents and teachers, especially those who work with autistic kids. Thanks and Enjoy! From Suzanne Lyons at CooperativeGames.com.

Cooperative Games Teach Cooperation. But What’s So Great About Cooperation?

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Hi Conscious Cooperators! Suzanne Lyons here, doing my bit to help usher in a new era of peace and sustainable common sense in these troubled times. CooperativeGames.com is my contribution, however humble, to the CHANGE that is coming and needs to come. I am a science educator by training, and a science textbook author. Pearson publishes my textbook, Conceptual Integrated Science, which is sold around the world. Yay but not enough. Education, I now see, is more urgent than cognitive expansion. We are the problem and we are the solution as far as the Earth and our own destiny on it goes. A board game with owls and trees on it.What the world needs now is love sweet love. But if we can’t quite get there, what we need AT LEAST is the ability to work together toward the common good. That’s called enlightened self-interest and it’s essentially cooperation. As President Eisenhower once said: “Though force can protect in an emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration, and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.†Let’s break it down. Why is cooperation so vital in life? What are its specific benefits? And why should we be learning how to cooperate through play with cooperative games?

Cooperation is essential because it helps solve problems. As we say, “two heads are better than oneâ€. Cooperation brings the skills and talents of multiple stake holders to bear on any given situation. Cooperation makes it more efficient to get work done too. Many jobs are so big that they can only be accomplished through group effort. As we say, “many hands make light workâ€.

Cooperation is essential because it promotes healthy relationships. When we cooperate, we share, and as we know “sharing is caringâ€.â€Â  Cooperating and sharing elicit emotions of appreciation, gratitude, and trust as we help one another. These positive emotions underlie social bonding and healthy relationships.

Cooperation is also important because it’s the foundation of equity. Cooperation, in the sense we are talking about here, involves decision-making based on mutual respect and participation. It’s different than obedience. It’s motivated by the desire to listen to one another, to be fair and get along. Cooperation is the means by which equitable social arrangements can be forged and maintained.

If cooperation is of great value, and if cooperative games can teach cooperation through the powerful medium of play, then surely cooperative games are a beneficial teaching tool for our times. Hmmm…competition reinforces the us-versus-them mindset yet cooperation brings about peace. Maybe it’s time to rethink the commonplace idea that competition is natural and necessary. Maybe it’s time to give cooperation-and cooperative play-a chance.