Does your child struggle with certain learning concepts? Is homeschooling a struggle sometimes or maybe they just need extra practice after school?
I know for me the answer is yes to both! But you know what I realised! Most kids love to play games and will pick up many things quickly if doing it through play!
Slowly over the last few years I’ve collected a few educational learning games which we really enjoy and help teach different subjects. Below I will list some of the games we have at home by subject and what they teach.
There are so many more games out there for pretty much every topic, seriously like just about everything there is a game!
So, let’s make learning more fun and less like pulling out teeth. This is a great way to bond with your child, while also teaching them at the same time.
Make it a fun tradition whether it’s board game Friday’s and you take a game for each subject and call that a day of learning. Or maybe it’s a once a weeknight thing where you pick one board game each and have a great time learning and enjoying a treat together.
Either way games are a great way to learn and make some fun memories as well! Let’s get started with the list!
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Educational Math Games
I thought I’d start of with math as this is an area most people including kids seem to dread! But there are some fun ways to incorporate math that can be fun. Here are a few my kids have enjoyed.
This is an awesome game for the younger ones learning to add, subtract as well as teaching odd and even numbers. It’s a cute board and the game board pieces are hardy as well.
The idea is to roll the 3 dice, do the problem and move that many spaces. When you land on the odd or even space on your next term you must roll that number in order to move.
If you land on a number spot you roll the plus or minus dice and either move forward or backward. The endless loop is the tricky part you must land directly on the exit in order to get out to the finish or you keep going around and around.
We all have a lot of fun with this one. Highly recommend my son 5 loves it and even my daughter 8 still really enjoys this game too.
This game is suitable and fun for ages 4 and up I’d say. You can take out the simpler cards and use it for younger one and give the harder cards to the older kids.
There are 4 dice boards with 6 slots for the coloured dice. The idea of the game is whoever collects 10 cards first wins. You win a card by completing the task on the card with your dice.
Some of these can definitely be tricky. This game is great for learning number recognition, even and odds, adding and subtracting and learning more and less than.
It’s a fast-paced game but we have adjusted it so that my son has the easier cards he goes for, and I play the harder cards with my daughter. If your kids like dice and a challenge, you will love this game!
Simple small game you can literally take anywhere with you. It comes in a little pouch and has these large, cute dice and a 12-sided dice.
You roll the large dice and then roll the 5 large, coloured dice. You want to try and get the number showing on the 12-sided dice using as many large dice as possible.
The number of large dice you use is how many spaces you get to move. You can do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to get the answer. It’s a pretty quick game which my daughter and I enjoy playing.
There is also a harder game in this series using dice as well.
I really like this game because it is cooperative game. There are 3 different sets in this series. Math Rush 1 is addition and subtraction, Math Rush 2 is multiplication and exponents, and Math Rush 3 is fractions, decimals and percentages.
Everyone picks up a certain number of cards according to the number of people playing. Three goals are placed down, and the timer starts. Everyone is trying to fill the 3 goals so as a group you can collect more points.
You can keep picking up cards, so you have the same number of cards in your hands. Each goal has a number stating how many cards need to be next to it to complete that set.
If the arrow points up the answers to the cards need to increase the farther along they go and vice versa for if the arrow points down. Some cards have extra things written on them like odds or evens only which means the answers have to be odd or even to be placed next to it.
I love how you can take some cards out if they are too hard and build up to the harder cards.
This is a great set to own to learn and master different math concepts.
This one isn’t really a game unless you want to time how fast you can complete the wraps but both my kids really love it. They love doing them over and over again and asking me to check if it’s right.
You simply look at the number on the right multiply or divide by the middle number shown and wrap around the correct answer on the left. You keep doing this until you get to the end.
It’s a very simple concept but works really well and sticking those numbers in the brain without it seeming annoying or tedious. I really do recommend if your child is having troubles learning their times tables!
Language Arts Games
I highly recommend this game! The concept is the same as uno you are trying to get rid of your cards one card at a time. Whoever gets rid of all their cards first wins.
In order to get rid of a card it has to have a matching letter or letter pair to the last card put down. If you don’t have one in your hand you pick up a card. There are also skip cards, reverse cards and draw cards.
It comes with 3 different level cards in the deck. When you play a card, you sound out the card you just played.
This has been awesome for learning individual sounds as well as group sounds like ch, ou, ai, oo and more. Honestly can’t say enough good things about this game. If you want to make learning to read fun give this game a go, you won’t regret it!
My daughter loves this game because of the weird sentences you come up with. There are 4 boards and to win the round you need to fill your board with a teacher, a matching rhyme for the teacher’s name, action, adjective and noun.
It’s a great way of practising grammar. Once someone wins everyone reads what they have in their boards and then we add up the amounts.
There are 3 rounds in the game and the cards have different point values so there is a bit of math in here as well. It’s a fun game and encourages reading so I call it a win.
This is a timed game it did come with a timer, but we misplaced it! Everyone writes down as many words as they can find. The letters must touch each other in order to spell the word.
At the end you cross out the words that are the same as someone else’s. Whoever has the most individual words wins that round. Or you can just keep adding points and do 5 rounds.
Whoever has the most points at the end of the rounds wins. It’s a good game for practising spelling and really makes you think. A fun and quick paced game which I really like. It’s also pretty small so you can take it anywhere with you!
You can play this game with up to 8 people but for 4 people or less you each take 21 letter tiles faced down in the middle. When a player says split, everyone turns their tiles over and makes their own intersecting word grid.
When you placed the last letter on your grid you say peel, and everyone has to pick up another tile including the person who said peel. You can dump a letter but then you need to take 3 from the pile.
The game ends when the middle pile of tiles is reduced to less than the number of people playing. Whoever uses all their tiles first yells bananas, and they win.
Everyone checks they have spelt their words properly first before they officially win. If the player misspelled a word, you say rotten banana and they lose the game.
It’s a good game, helps with spelling and increasing vocabulary. It really makes you think and is fun to play.
Educational Science Games
There are so many fun science games from periodic table games, anatomy, biology and more! We have simpler games at the moment but if you have older kids, you can definitely find some fun harder science games they will love!
This is an awesome game to learn about habitats, discussing carnivores, herbivores, omnivores and classification of animals. You place all the cards down so you can see the images and then you roll the 3 dice and try to figure out which animal it is.
You can turn over the card to see if the images match the dice. If you get it right, you get to keep the card. Whoever gets 5 cards first wins.
This is pretty fun, and we discuss a lot of different topics while playing this game. I really enjoy it as a beginner science game.
This game comes in a wide variety of different topics like monkeys, ocean life, dogs, cats and yes Australia most dangerous animals. It has a beautiful big poster board as well and a little booklet with information about each of the animals.
As we pick a card from the bag I read the quick description about that animal from the booklet. Whoever gets 5 in a row first wins the game. It’s a beautiful game board with lovely sturdy pieces. Definelty want to add more to our collection of this game.
We own both the match a track and match the bird pair games. These are great memory games!
The match a track one you have to match the animal to its footprint. While some may seem easy, I promise you some are pretty difficult!
The kids memorised them pretty quickly but luckily it comes with a sheet showing the animals and there corresponding footprints.
The bird one you have to match the female and male bird. It comes with a little booklet as well telling you a little about the birds.
It’s really cool to see the difference between male and female birds of many different species. Some look pretty much the same but some are pretty different as well.
It’s another really awesome memory game we really enjoy while learning about birds.
Geography Games
There are many varieties to this game. We have the simpler American one but there are harder ones which go through different continents.
It’s a great way to learn about different states and countries depending on the Ticket To Ride that you buy. It’s actually a very fun game and I look forward to grabbing a harder version based in a different country.
You get to see where major landmarks are on the map and learn about different places. The idea is to collect 2 coloured cards or play cards on your turn. Everyone starts with two destination cards where you want your trains to connect too.
The aim is to finish connecting the trains so you can collect that card and mark it as done. Whoever collects 5 cards first wins. It’s a simple concept but very enjoyable and open for lots of discussion.
This is a beautifully illustrated card game. It goes for 3 rounds and you are trying to see all the destinations, pick up some souvenirs, spot Australian animals and do different activities.
Every player starts of with a number of cards in their hands. Each turn you pick one card in your hand to keep and pass the rest of the cards to the player on the left each time picking one card as you do so until there are no cards left.
Then you have to mark off the cards you have on your map. There is a bit more to it but it’s really fun and actually involves a bit of math as well.
A beautiful game to have if you want to learn about Australia, see some well known land marks and do a bit of math at the same time!
Educational Single Player Logic Games
I love logic games! These are great for kids to play when they are bored or stuck inside. We use single player games to help kids quit screens and keep them occupied.
They can play them by themselves and help to improve problem solving skills. There are heaps of logic games, but these are some of the ones we have and enjoy!
This game is seriously fun! I even love to play it as it comes with 40 cards and has 3 different levels.
There is a junior version and then an even harder version as well! It’s an easy game for the kids to set up literally just copy the image and then you need to try and move the cars so the ice cream van can go straight through and out of the exit spot.
If you get really stuck it has the answer for you at the back of the cards. Love this game and it’s great for a wide range in ages!
This is another single player logic game. It comes with cards and 3 different difficulty levels. The picture shows you how to set up the frogs on the lily pads.
The aim of the game is to jump over the frogs so that there remains only one at the end. You can only jump over one frog at a time. So no trying to hop over 2 frogs in a row.
This is a really fun game and the harder levels can get even adults stumped! But I have found my younger ones to be able to figure out the beginner levels. Like the rush hour game if you get stumped the answer key is on the back of each card!
MAGNETIC PUZZLE LOGIC GAME CLICK HERE
All the smart games are pretty awesome if I say so myself. These magnetic puzzle ones in particular are great if you are travelling in the car or going away on a trip.
They have several difficulty levels, and you need to solve the problems written in the book. It has an answer key as well. There are many varieties to this game we happen to have the mouse one but the ocean one looks really nice too.
I love logic games as it makes you think and learn how to problem solve. These days we need more problem-solving people. These games are awesome for working that muscle in the brain, while also being entertaining and fun.
Conclusion
There are heaps of amazing educational games out there. It won’t take you long to find something fun that will help your child learn a particular topic. I hope you found this post inspiring!
Please let me know in the comments if you already have an awesome educational game, you already play and what’s it’s called? I love expanding our games! Have an awesome day!