Games Before Computers: Luck and Skill

1. What your child learns and why

A game has two different things in it: luck (a die, sticks — we cannot choose) and choice (we decide which move to make). Your child hears a short story of three very old games — senet from Egypt (about 4,600 years old), chess (about 1,500) and mancala — and plays two small games. In one only the die decides, in the other only choice decides, and there is a secret to discover. This teaches looking at a game as “how does it work”, not only “who wins”.

2. Three questions for dinner

• “Show me a game with a die and a game without one. What does the die decide?”
• “What is the secret of ‘The Little Heap’? How did you find it?”
• “When you lose a game — was it luck or a choice? And in your day today — what did you decide?”

3. 10 minutes together, no screen — “The Little Heap” and “The Sticks”

1. Put 15 objects in a heap. Take turns: take 1, 2 or 3. Whoever takes the last one wins. Play 3 times.
2. Ask: “When did it get easy?” Do not give the secret away — hint: “Watch when 4 are left.”
3. Colour one side of 4 strips, throw them and count the coloured sides. Throw 10 times. Ask: “Can you guess beforehand?”

4. What success looks like

• Your child says, for a game, what luck decides and what choice decides.
• Discovers (now or after a few tries) why 4 is an important number in “The Little Heap”.

5. Common difficulties

• “I lost because the die is bad” → “What did you decide in this game, and what did the die decide?”
• Does not see the secret → let them play more; you may hint “4, 8, 12”. The discovery matters more than the answer.

Say: “You tried again after losing — that is how we learn.” Avoid: “It's not fair to win by playing cleverly.”

6. Safety

Small objects (buttons, beans) stay away from small children — they can swallow them. Play at a table. The lesson works offline and saves nothing; your child enters no personal data.

7. Where to go next

Next lesson: DB-IG-02 “The First Computer Games (1950s–1960s)” · Ask a grandparent: “What games did you play as a child — with dice, or without?”

You don't need to know the answer. Say: “Let's find out together.”