Fun and Secretly Educational Games for You and Your Quarantined Kids
Ok, we’re on what, week 8, 37? of stay home orders here in LA and we’re ALLLLLL feeling it. Homeschooling is HARD, yo. Having your kids at home ALL THE DAMN TIME is not the “break” we all would have assumed it would be before this all happened. We’re all feeling a lot of big feelings. We’re bored, we’re frustrated, we’re scared, we’re sad, we’re just SO MANY THINGS ALL THE TIME right now, and it looks like that’s going to continue to be our reality for at least a while longer.
HOWEVER, I don’t think this is a good time to let those big feelings turn into a spiral of despair. Not that that’s ever a good thing to do but this is an ESPECIALLY BAD time to do that.
Like I mentioned in my last post here, it is 100000000% ok if you’re just surviving right now.
And I wholly empathize if your aspirations of what homeschooling might be have been crushed under the weight of a thousand iPads and bags of cheetoes. But that doesn’t mean that you’ve lost or that education can’t happen at home.
No, we just might need to be a little sneaky about it.
Did you know that games are a really great way to trick your kids into learning??? This wasn’t something I’d ever really thought of until last year when I found out that our homeschool charter allows us to buy… basically any board and card games with our educational funds.
And… it makes sense. Across the board (pun intended) games are great opportunities for kids to practice some of the most important foundational life skills (taking turns, reading instructions, following rules, conflict resolution, winning and losing with grace), but can often be REALLY helpful in a more traditionally academic sense, building skills in language, math, critical thinking, and problem solving.
Also, they’re a nice wholesome distraction from the entire world falling apart.
For those of you who I haven’t formally introduced myself to yet, I’m Victoria, and I homeschool my two kids (2nd grade and preschool). Even before this global crisis we used games kind of a lot as part of our regular “school activities”, and here are a few of our favorites, along with my VERY HOMESCHOOLED analysis of what makes them so educational.
This is a great introduction to playing games for the littlest of kids. Even if they’re not ready for the “real” rules of trying to find pairs by memory with the cards face down, finding matches and talking about the animals (colors, sounds, habitats, etc.) is a great learning opportunity.
This one is a fun three-dimensional puzzle where you use mirrors to try to bend a (totally safe) laser beam around obstacles to reach a target. Is it adorable? Yes. Is it totally a science lesson and/or introduction to engineering? Also yes.
If you’re looking for a game that is not only collaborative (either everyone wins or everyone looses), beautifully illustrated (I mean LOOK AT IT), and a thorough primer of medicinal plants (yes you read that correctly), Wildcraft is EXACTLY what you’re looking for. And if playing this game has sparked an interest in learning MORE about herbal remedies, there’s a companion book series (that tbh, we have not read)
Ok first of all this game is ADORABLE, but also it is a super fun way to practice quick-addition facts without the… battle of practicing quick addition facts. Pros: gameplay is fast paced and easy to learn. Cons: you are GOING to want to bake and there’s still a flour shortage.
This is another one that is cute but secretly about math. Actually it’s a really great intro to pre-algebra concepts because EACH TYPE OF SUSHI HAS ITS OWN MATH RULE TO DETERMINE IT’S POINT VALUE. Honestly my only complaint with this one is that it’s a little repetitive to play with only two players, but I HIGHLY recommend it if you’ve got a bigger crew at home!
Did your kid randomly ask to learn about playing chess when you never actually learned to play yourself? The printed board and cards to explain how the pieces move that come with No Stress Chess work so well my four year old had a pretty good grasp of how chess works after only playing a couple of times.
If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Dungeons and Dragons sounds like fun but is also about 150000% too much commitment right now”, you now know it exists in a super quick and simple card game format! (also for those not in the know, D&D is basically just… math with wizards)
I know when you think “Settlers of Catan” you are not also thinking “a simple strategy game thats totally great for kids” but hear me out: this version has a quick setup, basically no reading involved, and also only takes ~ 30 minutes to play. Honestly this one is a household favorite.
Here’s another great one for the littles! No I’m not crazy! “Level one” of Scrabble Jr. has words already printed on the board and is an AMAZING exercise in letter recognition, matching, and putting letters together into words (it also has “regular” scrabble on the back)
I mean what’s a list of board games without a kid’s version of this classic friendship ruiner??? Do I need to explain that this is how we all learn about math and the evils of capitalism?
I saved the best for last because TRULY, this game is a GEM. At it’s core it’s a simple “deductive reasoning process of elimination” mystery game, but the artwork is impeccable! The gameplay is full of surprises! THE DETECTIVES ARE CHICKENS!
All of these games are availably on Amazon (full disclosure those are affiliate links, and I do earn a commission if you purchase through them, but if you can find them through an independent seller I know they would appreciate the money a lot more than Bezos would!), and, though I can’t speak for all homeschool charters, ours at least has let us order all of them with our educational funds.
And um… if you have any other games that you like that… aren’t the ones I listed, PLEASE share them in the comments? Because… we all need all the help we can get.
- Victoria AKA Homeschool Mom
