Playing is very important for children’s growth. Besides studying, children need to play. They should plan how to spend their free time and holidays usefully. Games are important for the physical, mental and social growth of children.
Children also learn discipline through games. Games improve their thinking, planning and decision making skills.
Traditional Games
In olden days, children played games like kho-kho, kabaddi, gulli-danda, kanchey and pithu. They also played hide-and-seek.
In pithu, seven flat pieces of stones are placed one over other. One team breaks the pile with a ball and then tries to reassemble it.
The other team throws the ball and tries to hit any player of the first team. If any player of the first team is hit, they lose. Before being hit, if they reassemble the pile and say ‘pithu’, they win.
Even today, some of the traditional games are played with great enthusiasm.
Types of Games
There are two types of games. They are indoor games and outdoor games.
Indoor Games
The games which are played inside a house are called indoor games. Puzzles, snakes and ladders, carrom, chess, arranging postal stamps and coins are all indoor activities.
Chess is an indoor game played by two players. Each player has an army of 16 chessmen which includes a king and a queen. It is played on a chessboard.
Snakes and ladders is another exciting game played by two or more players. The target is to reach 100 on a board which has numbers between 1 to 100. The board has many snakes and ladders.
Players throw the dice and move forward according to the count. A player, on reaching a ladder base climbs up as a reward and on reaching a snake’s mouth, comes down till the tail as a punishment.
Outdoor Games
Games which are played out in an open ground are called outdoor games. Some outdoor games are running, jumping, hide and seek, thief and police, basketball, football, volleyball, badminton, tennis, cricket, hockey, etc. Outdoor games give hard exercise to the body and make it strong.
One of the most popular games in India is cricket. There are two teams having eleven players each. One team does bowling and fielding and the other team does batting. The bowler throws the ball and the batsman hits it. The batsmen run between the wickets to score runs. If the ball crosses the boundary the team scores four or six runs. The team that scores more runs wins.
Football is also a very popular game in India. It is played on a rectangular field by two teams of eleven players each. The players of one team try to kick the ball into the opponent’s goal. The goalkeeper guards the goal.
