Email the Author
You can use this page to email John Kaufeld, M.A. about The Best of The Dad Game.
About the Book
As a parent, you want a solid relationship with your kids, right? Build a bond that’s strong and flexible, that connects and carries you through the tweens, teens, and into adulthood?
Yup, me too. And this book can help you get there.
As a young parent of two delightful kids, I had no clue what I was doing. I screwed up a lot in my attempts to connect, especially when the kids entered their tween and teen years. Spending time together suddenly got harder. I can’t count the number of times that “let’s sit down and talk” ended with everybody angry and someone near tears (often me).
That's where games came into the picture. When my kids and I played board games together, we (almost) never fought. Instead, we breezily talked and joked with each other. The only tears happened when we couldn’t stop laughing together. Shocking, right?
Something amazing was happening, and it all started with with a struggling dad, a couple of frustrated kids, and some extraordinary board games.
After spending several years digging into academic research on family communication, family lesiure, shared activities (like playing board games), I launched The Dad Game, a newspaper column to share what I learned and give families hands-on advice in making this stuff work.
This book contains the best of my columns so far. It covers the basics (like why this stuff works and what the research says) along with game recommendations and reviews, inspirational ideas to help you build better connections, and plenty of other helpful info.
I'll keep adding to the book as time goes on. I'm about to pass 50 published columns and still going strong, so I'll have plenty of material to draw from into the future.
Here's to connecting with your kids and building the kind of memories that will keep you warm for years to come. Let's play The Dad Game!!
About the Author
John Kaufeld makes complex things easy and helps parents -- especially dads -- learn to connect with their kids through board games. He's a best-selling author, speaker, trainer, consultant, board gamer, dad, and all-around geek. And he loves every minute of it.
He started writing as a high school stringer for The Republic (Columbus, IN). At about the same time, he expanded into radio as a weekend DJ for WWWY Radio (also in Columbus, IN). In college, he scrambled for stories as the weekend news anchor for WLBC Radio (Muncie, IN) and the afternoon news editor for WBST Radio (the Ball State University PBS station).
Back in 1993, John wrote in the popular "...For Dummies" line of computer books, eventually churning out 25 books about America Online, Microsoft Access, computer games, tabletop games, and more. He continues writing today. (He was even part of the team that whote the Game Design Merit Badge Book for the Boy Scouts!) His 33 books sold more than 2.9 million copies in 15 languages around the world, earning him the "best-selling author" badge.
Over the years, he worked in information systems, system development, corporate training, customer experience, communications, and marketing for organizations including a multinational biotech company, a national trade association, a regional bank, and a high-end manufacturing company. He is currently the chief communications officer for Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW).
Along the way, John wandered into the social game industry. As a kid, he and his father played many rounds of Hasbro's "Monopoly" (consistently using the wrong rules), and actually finished the game two or three times.Then he discovered German board games (also known as "Eurogames"), and his gaming world -- and parenting style -- changed forever. He owned two game stores in the past (and dearly misses the world of retail -- really, don't ask or he'll go on forever).
These days, you can often find John's work in The Dad Game parenting column for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. He's often found in the board game areas at Gen Con and other game conventions. He indulges in "Puerto Rico," "7 Wonders," "Settlers of Catan," and just about any train game that wanders past (especially Empire Builder). If you see him, definitely say hi. After all, he never bites. (Well, at least not since the therapy.)