Educational games for kids help create family memories as well as help your children develop important skills.
The dice clanked on the table as they fell out of my son’s hands.
As he counted up the fours, my mind drifted and suddenly I was my son’s age again, gazing at my grandmother as she tallied our scores, the scent of spaghetti sauce simmering on her stove.
Yahtzee!
My son’s yelp jolted me out of my reverie.
As I marked the scorecard for his Yahtzee, I wondered if 30 years from now, he’d have fond memories of the games we play together.
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Board games are a great way to spend time together as a family. In our house, many times we pull out games to pass the afternoon. Some weeks no one can eat at the kitchen table because a marathon Monopoly game can’t be moved. And we’ve also been known a time or two to have a massive Risk takeover happening on Saturday night.
With so many games to choose from, how to you know which ones are worth your time and money? Personally, I tend to pick educational games for my family so that they learn as they play.
Educational games are far from boring though! My kids don’t think of games as school time. All they see is fun.
Educational Games by Subject
The games listed here are a great alternative when you want a change from your usual lessons or need to reinforce skills. They are also just plain fun to play anytime with the added bonus of being educational!
Math Games
So many games help develop math skills. Pretty much any game with dice or money will work on those necessary skills. Here are some of my family’s favorites.
Yahtzee: Kids still love the old classic, Yahtzee. Not only does this game give practice in addition, but it’s also a great game for teaching strategy.
Farkle: Farkle is another dice game your kids will love. This is another game that is great for skills practice. It also involves some risk, so it’s another great strategy game.
Uno: Uno is a perfect game for families. Most ages can play this game, especially if you adapt it for younger players. For instance, if all players are younger, you can remove the special cards like Draw 4. Or if only some are younger, then you could have them just skip those cards if they draw them or pair them with an older player.
Shut the Box: If you’re looking for a game your kids can play on their own, this one is perfect. I like that kids can use addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to be able to put their numbers down.
Monopoly: Like Yahtzee above, Monopoly is a wonderful classic your kids will love. Monopoly gives kids a chance to work on money skills.
Language Games
Along with math, there are many educational games that also help develop language skills. Some of these games are good for spelling, while others help with vocabulary.
Scrabble: Scrabble is a great game for kids of various ages, making it a perfect game for siblings to play. Younger kids can either team up with an older child, or just put down words they know. Older kids can be challenged to come up with words that are more complex. In our house, we don’t even keep score. We just enjoy coming up with the words.
Boggle: Boggle is great not only for helping kids develop language skills, but also for teaching them how to work quickly to beat the timer and/or their opponent.
Guess Who: You may not think of this game as developing language skills at first glance. However, kids need to be able to come up with descriptive words to figure out the opponent’s person. There’s also some strategy involved to try to choose descriptions that cover a wide range of people in order to eliminate choices quickly.
Scattergories: This game is better suited for older elementary and up. It’s a great game for developing vocabulary and critical thinking skills, as the point is to choose words that your opponents don’t.
Bananagrams: If your kids love Scrabble, they’ll love this game too. It’s a great game to practice spelling. Bananagrams is also perfect for traveling. For preschoolers, you can have them practice finding certain letters in a group of several different ones.
Apples to Apples: Apples to Apples is a great game that the whole family can play. The game also helps kids practice language skills as they find a card in their hand that compares best with the card being played.
Science Games
Science is a very broad topic, so there are quite a variety of games to choose from for this subject. I chose a few games from a couple of topics that kids enjoy.
Operation: Operation is another great classic game that kids love. Even my preschooler gets a kick out of playing this game. It’s also a great way to work on fine motor skills. You can find quite a few variations of this game with your favorite characters as well.
Mastermind: This game helps develop STEM skills like deduction and logic. Kids can take turns creating the code and trying to figure it out.
Professor Noggins Card Games: These games are good for various ages because they have easy and hard levels. There are trivia, true or false, and multiple choice questions. You can find sets on several different science topics like human body, earth science, outer space and nature topics.
Guess in 10: These games are a great when you don’t have much time. Like the Professor Noggins cards, there are sets for several different topics. Players can ask up to ten questions to try to figure out the animal.
History and Geography Games
Like science, many different games can be found covering different history topics. There are games on different historical time periods, national parks, and geographical areas.
Risk: We got this game for our kids for Christmas, and it’s quickly become a family favorite! This game uses a lot of strategy and also teaches geography.
Professor Noggins Card Games: These cards cover history topics as well as the science topics above. The topics covered include geography, different time periods, U.S. presidents, explorers and others.
Oregon Trail Board Game: This is a great game to play as a family. My teenagers especially enjoy it. It’s similar to the computer game you may remember playing as a kid. In this game, you travel from Independence, MO to Willamette Valley with the use of trail tiles, picking up supplies and hunting for food along the way. All while trying to keep your family alive and healthy.
Trekking the National Parks: Trivia: My oldest son loves geography and the national parks. This trivia game about the national parks is fun for all players. One person reads the card. Everyone then writes down what they think is the answer, with the closest person winning.
National Parks Monopoly: This is another game that is often played at our house. My middle boys usually have this game sprawled out on our kitchen table for days at a time.
Art Games
If your kids love art, they’ll love the following games. They can practice drawing and be able to appreciate works of art.
Pictionary: Kids of all ages love drawing, so pictionary makes the perfect game for them to play. This version includes erasable markers and boards, so there’s less mess.
Brain Box Art: This is another game from Brain Box, specifically for art. Kids will be able to study artists’ works to answer the questions on the back of the cards.
Critical Thinking and Strategy Games
Some games that help develop critical thinking skills are mentioned above because they also develop other subject skills. But there are other great educational games that don’t really fit the above categories that I wanted to share.
Blokus: Blokus very quickly became one of my favorite games when we first got it. It’s much easier to play with 3 or 4 players than 2. I love that younger kids can play it too because you don’t need to know how to read to play.
Sequence: Sequence is another fun strategy game. My boys love playing this game with my husband. Lately he’s been teaming up with our preschooler to help him learn numbers and the order they are in.
Disney’s Eye Found It: I recently picked this card game up and it hasn’t ever been put away, that’s how often we play it! I love the skills of focus and memory that it helps my children develop. My preschooler asks to play this game almost daily. Children each get several cards of Disney scenes, which they use to search for given items.
Trivial Pursuit: Trivial Pursuit is a fun adult game, but with the family edition your whole family can play! This version includes separate cards for the adults and the kids.
Battleship: If you have children around second grade and older, they may enjoy this game of strategy. It’s a two-player game where the players try to be the first to figure out where the other player’s ships are located on the grid.
Rush Hour: Rush Hour is a single-player game. The player chooses a card and sets up the cars like shown on it, then they try to move them around so the red car can drive out. I actually find myself trying to figure out the challenging cards myself from time to time.
Games that Develop Motor Skills
We have a few games, along with several above, that help develop motor skills. I wanted to share a few of our favorites.
Jenga: My boys got Jenga as a Christmas gift this past year. They love seeing who can go longest without knocking the tower over. And, of course, they also love watching all of the blocks fall once someone does knock it down.
Simon: Simon is another game that I remember playing and now my kids love. It’s a great game for concentration and being able to follow directions quickly.
Quick Cups: My kids love playing speed games, and this one doesn’t disappoint! There are cards with pictures of the five colors arranged differently, and each player tries to be the first to stack their cups in the same order.
Perfection: This is yet another game that I enjoyed in my childhood. My kids love seeing who can be the quickest to put the shapes into their correct places. This has become one of my preschooler’s favorite games, so young children can play this game even though it says ages 7 and up.
Educational Games for Preschoolers
Preschoolers are not limited to games like the ones below. As I mentioned before, my preschooler also enjoys playing many of the above-mentioned games. However, the games below specifically work on skills that preschoolers are developing. Plus they are easier and can be less frustrating than playing games meant for older children.
Candyland: Candyland is a perfect first game to play with your preschooler. It teaches taking turns, following directions, and colors. My preschooler loves playing this game!
Hi Ho! Cherry-O: This is a great game to practice counting, adding, and subtracting skills. The newer version in this link has 4 different colors of fruit instead of just cherries.
Chutes and Ladders: Chutes and Ladders is another fun game to work on counting skills. Preschoolers love spinning the spinner too.
Continue the family fun with this unique twist on family movie night!
Games are a great family activity for a family game night. Many games are educational as well as fun and can be an alternative to a regular homeschool lesson. Educational games for kids are the perfect activity to occupy children when schools are closed and they are stuck at home. So grab a game and maybe 30 years from now, your child will be shaken out of their reverie by a yelp of “Yahtzee” from their own child.