During my workshops about creative homeschooling and living math, I often talk about incorporating games into the school schedule. If your family has an established game night, you probably already know how educational many board and card games really are. Math, language, history, science, logic and so much more can be practiced without your kiddos ever catching on that real learning is taking place!
Games for Homeschooling
We take games seriously in our homeschool and use them at least a few times a week! To get fidgety minds focused, we might play a brain training game like Blink. To review US geography, we might play 10 Days in the USA. Or, to quiz recollection of animal groups, we might play a quick game of QuickPix Animals.
Using games is way more fun than flashcards or worksheets! And, as a bonus, most games require at least the skills of strategy and/or speed, too.
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Games Make Great Gifts
We buy games for Christmas and birthdays for our own children – so often that they look forward to the next game we will add to our collection. We also tend to buy games for friends when invited to birthday parties. Giving games allows our gifts to be put to good use for years to come – and games pull families together. We consider it a good bang for our buck.
Our Favorite Educational Games
The question that always follows is, “Which games are your top picks for each subject?” So,I’m posting some of my favorite games for homeschooling for various academic subjects.
You’ll definitely want to make it all the way to the end of the post where I’ve linked other gameschooling posts I’ve written, too!
Bible and Character Building Games
We love to play these on family games nights. Several of them are great when company is over, too.
Logic and Critical Thinking Games
The games in this set are great for waking brains up in the morning before jumping into book work. They are also appropriate to use as part of living math or logic lessons.
Math Games
These games can even be used as math lessons occasionally. They work well for practicing a large variety of math skills.
Language Arts Games
Spelling, vocabulary and sentence structure are reinforced using the games in this set.
Science Games
Science games can help teach everything from classification and body systems to electrical circuitry and food chains.
History Games
After learning about wonderful events in history, the games in this group are perfect for review.
Geography Games
My children have learned U.S. and world geography mostly through the use of these games. Of course we complete maps and read literature as part of our studies, but the memorization of states, countries and locations has grown almost solely via games.
Gameschooling Matters
I’m always finding new games to use in our homeschool, so I keep writing new posts about gameschooling. As I write new posts, you’ll find them right here!
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Rhonda H says
November 18, 2014 at 9:26 amWE LOVE GAMES!!! Would love to win the giveaway. It is one of the (few) we don’t have yet! LOL Thanks for the chance.
Kortney Garrison says
November 18, 2014 at 9:43 amWe are just beginning to play games together. In fact I wrote it down as one of my goals for the rest of the calendar year: play more games! Thanks for this list.
Lindsay says
November 18, 2014 at 11:53 amBlokus is our favorite
pbandjmom says
November 18, 2014 at 12:59 pmUNO!
Ann says
November 18, 2014 at 3:23 pmDominos are a favorite here!
Stephanie S says
November 18, 2014 at 4:18 pmThank you for the great ideas for now and later! I pinned this to look to in the future since most of these are still for children older than ours (6 and 8).
Lindsay @ BytesofMemory says
November 18, 2014 at 4:39 pmI think my favorite educational game is either sum swamp or chess 🙂
Alicia @ Investing Love says
November 18, 2014 at 4:50 pmSUCH a great list, Cindy!!!
Sharon says
November 18, 2014 at 5:12 pmLove this list! We love Set. There were quite a few on your list that I am not familiar with and want to check out. Thanks for posting this.
Jessica B. says
November 18, 2014 at 7:40 pmWe like mancala and blokus.
astablebeginning says
November 18, 2014 at 10:07 pmI love this list of games! My goal for the rest of the year is to play more games with my older girls. My 5 year old and I like to play Zingo!
Rebekah F says
November 18, 2014 at 10:10 pmMy kids like UNO.
MelissaB says
November 18, 2014 at 11:09 pmLOVE LOVE LOVE all the 10 Days games!
Rhoda says
November 19, 2014 at 2:30 amQwirkle is one game that even my not game liking daughter will sit down and play as a family. Blokus is a lot of fun too.
Joscelyne H says
November 19, 2014 at 8:06 amSettlers of Catan.
Virginia Lee says
November 19, 2014 at 10:20 amHow to pick just one favorite?! Qwirkle, Scattergories, Animalogic, Rush Hour, Blink…
Timmi says
November 19, 2014 at 11:17 amWe are just starting to build our game cupboard. Right now we are playing Monopoly Jr which is great for my 5 and 8 year old to play together without adults to be present. Checkers is another good one.
Cristy S. says
November 19, 2014 at 3:00 pmHands down, Apples to Apples and Monopoly! We get our whole family involved …
Misty B says
November 19, 2014 at 6:32 pmWhat a fun list of games!! Some of these I hadn’t heard of before.
Sabrina Jackson says
November 20, 2014 at 6:00 amThese are FANTASTIC! We love games in our house and I’ll have to pick some of these up!
Mary Happymommy (@mami2jcn) says
November 21, 2014 at 10:01 pmWe plan Uno almost every night!
Gretta says
November 22, 2014 at 12:55 amOur family loves Settlers of Catan and Monopoly Deal!
Loni M. says
November 22, 2014 at 6:39 pmWe love games & picking a favorite is hard, but Settlers of Catan is always a hit.
Kristine says
November 23, 2014 at 2:27 pmI love these games! My daughter just wrote ‘games” down on a Christmas list. Right now, we’re at the age where we play uno and connect 4 a lot. I’d like to expand.
Meryl says
November 23, 2014 at 3:52 pmI have and love most of the games listed above. Difficult to pick a favorite. The Brain Box ones are great to use with a class. And Rush Hour is great for kids who need a challenge to work on by themselves. I use the 10 Days ones in my Geography Class. And our family likes playing Bananagrams on vacations.
Crystal Pullen says
November 23, 2014 at 4:03 pmWe love Speed, checkers and Dinopoly. My daughter is turning a standard monopoly game into a dragon version as well
Lysa says
November 23, 2014 at 4:24 pmSome of Our favorite games are, Rummikub, Domnioes, Apples to Apples….
Kelly D says
November 23, 2014 at 8:30 pmScrabble is my favorite.
Michelle R. says
November 23, 2014 at 10:34 pmI grew up playing a lot of games for our schooling… so now I am starting the same tradition with my kids! Right now they are really into a plain ol’ deck of cards : )
Mary says
November 23, 2014 at 10:49 pmUNO and Monopoly are our favorites. I couldn’t name just one.
Wendy says
January 13, 2015 at 9:45 amWe play Can’t Stop – an old game, but really great for learning addition. And truly fun.
Karen says
December 22, 2015 at 5:31 pmMy husband is a board game designer. Our family loves games almost as much as we love books. Lots of favorites on this list!
Here are a few more strategy Euro-type games our kids enjoy: Carcassonne, The Little Prince, Forbidden Island.
My husband is actually teaching a game design class for our homeschool co-op and our daughter has made and sold her own game, which a game company will be releasing (hopefully soon!). There are so many great ways to learn with games, whether making them or playing them. 🙂
Cindy says
December 22, 2015 at 7:34 pmKaren, how exciting about a game company picking up your daughter’s game!! Carcassonne is a new favorite of ours. We just love it! I’ll have to give The Little Prince and Forbidden Island a try. Thanks for the suggestions!
Jessica C. says
July 14, 2017 at 7:58 amI know this is a few years old, but I just came across this list — thank you! We have and enjoy some you’ve listed, and haven’t heard of others but I’ll keep an eye out at thrift stores! I love the out-of-print 1975 Klondike board game by Gamma Two Games (haven’t played in a long time, but from what I remember it’s well worth seeking out a used copy, which I plan to do), and 1984’s Play on Words — that one is definitely a great travel game since there’s only the little pencils that can be lost! I’ve never played Settlers of Catan but recently bought a used copy of Settlers of Canaan. We haven’t played it yet but I’ve also bought a used copy of the Camp board game. I love the idea of it being a true family game, for kids age 4 on up to adults. Wildcraft! An Herbal Adventure Game sounds like another good one for ages 4+. Tenzi is a fun dice game that can be played in different ways. We also like Rory’s Story Cubes, and Imagidice, and I am intrigued by the Once Upon a Time storytelling card game I’ve recently found out about. I think Spot It! Alphabet, Numbers & Shapes, Words, and Jr. will be great for younger kids. Pictionary was a favorite growing up, but I haven’t played it in years.
Cindy says
July 14, 2017 at 3:10 pmOoh, I haven’t heard of a few of those, Jessica! Looking forward to checking them out. I noticed the other day that our library has board games now – and a lot of those were new to me. I <3 games!