We all love hanging around the pool table – especially when paired with a pint or good company. The game of pool is usually seen as an adult game, but what happens when you get the family together?
Well, there are physical and mental benefits – and we are here today to share them with you.
Your pool table shouldn’t be hidden away. By opening them up to your little ones, you can find a whole new passion for the game.
Let us know in the comments below if you’ve noticed any benefit of playing pool as a family!
Build a Bond With Your Kid:
If you’re looking for a way to connect with your kiddos, playing games is a really good place to start.
Having activities that you and your kids enjoy doing together can open up a world of possibilities; when you’re playing and when you step away from the table!
Creativity, leadership skills, memory, motor skills, cognitive flexibility, and emotional regulation can all be developed through playing together. By simply having a chat, sharing stories and spending time together, you are actively building these skills!
Another bonus: when you play pool or billiards with your kid, you can use this time to heal issues, disagreements, and any hurt. Because, kids are human too, and we all need space to chat things through sometimes.
This means, if there was a bad experience at school or something tough going on at home, you can use the time and space to communicate while still keeping busy and playing a really fun game.
When you’re around the pool table you are in a safe space!
If you are a step-parent, partner or parent of an adopted child – having a pool table can help you ease into building a relationship in a way that is anything but forced.
Mental Health Benefits Of Playing Pool:
In a survey conducted by Anglia Ruskin University they questioned casual snooker players, 257 people out of 492 said they felt their mental health had benefited from playing the game.
Playing games, feeling challenged in a healthy way and being together with people you love is good for your mental health. We all know that these things make life more enjoyable!
Focusing on positive mental health has no age limit, and starting to have a conversation about it earlier on can shape your little one’s futures.
Improve Cognitive Abilities:
“Cognitive skills” is just a fancy way to describe skills that are “brain-based”.
This includes:
– The ability to learn new things
– Being able to change the way you think about things
– And, arguably the most important) being able to reason
There are many different ways to develop these skills. Playing snooker happens to be one of them!
Children of all ages can improve their hand-eye coordination while playing billiards and work on their problem-solving skills every time they have to think long and hard about how they will make one of those tougher shots.
And, if you haven’t guessed it yet, this practice is good for us adults, too.
Planning shots takes a basic understanding of geometry and trigonometry. Even if your kids don’t realise it yet – they’re developing some amazing mathematical abilities.
That’s right, watching the balls bounce off the edges of the table is fun – but it’s also educational.
Let’s face the truth – we all can benefit from working on our concentration skills too. Focusing on that billiards ball can help us all build our focus and overall attention span.
All of these things are good for your brain.
Encourage Academic Success:
I think we can all agree, it feels pretty good to succeed. When children start developing pride in their activities at home it can translate into their academic success.
We love this message from School Guide:
“Any skill requires a period of incompetence in order to get competent. In short: to get good at something you have to start out being bad.
What’s more, encouraging your child to increase their failure rate (‘If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again…’) is the best way to increase their learning and develop their success in any field.”
This lesson can be taught while stood around your family pool table – easily!
Family Dinner & Games In One:
So, having time with family is good for your mental health, but it can also help with your abilities in the classroom.
The University of Illinois conducted a study to show why we should be spending more time eating meals as a family. This study included 120 students, boys and girls, who fell into the ages 7 to 11.
Those who did well on standard achievement tests were the ones who had family meals most nights. With a rollover pool table, you can easily have family mealtime and family game night all wrapped up into one. That’s a win-win!
What To Do Now:
If you’re ready to get a pool table for you and your family, you have found yourself in the right place. Here at Designer Billiards, we can help you design or find the perfect table that fits your space and your needs.
Please, contact us for more information.