Gameschooling

Gameschooling.
Have you heard of it?

It's a high priority for our family. Games aren’t just “extras” in our homeschool. They give my children a safe place to try (and sometimes fail), try again, and ultimately learn in a low-pressure, fun environment.

When we play games together as a family, we learn together, build relationships, and make memories, too. 

The best games cover a multitude of different skills, so it’s a bit challenging to neatly place games into any one category.

Even so, here’s my attempt to offer gameschooling suggestions for different subjects.

Skyjo, Mancala, Zeus on the Loose, Blokus, Money Bags, Prime Climb, Sum Swamp, Clumsy Thief, Racko, Yahtzee, Math Fluxx, Sequence, Payday, Battleship, Rummikub, Five Crowns, Snap it Up, Qwirkle, Cahoots, Sleeping Queens, Shut the Box, Tangram (Tangoes), Set, Phase 10

I highly suggest setting up boards in Pinterest. Dice and card games are plentiful there.

Also note that Rightstart Math has a game set with lots of decks of cards that is excellent to supplement any curriculum.  

Quiddler, Dix-It, Scattergories, Story Cubes, Head Banz, Bananagrams, Tall Tales, Blurt, Taboo, Guesstures, Pickles to Penguins, Codenames

Code, Into the Forest, Hit the Habitat Trail, Chomp, Guess in 10 (different topics)

Flag Frenzy, 10 Days in…[Africa, USA], Scrambles States of America, Made for Trade, Timeline (very fun), Professor Noggins games, Civitas, Dominion, Explore the States, Election Night, Constitution Quest, Santorini (has a Greece theme, but covers logic), Guess in 10 (different topics), Biblios, Ticket to Ride, Freedom (The Underground Railroad)

Rat-a-Tat Cat, Distraction, Stare, Pengoloo, Simon

We clipped the sound wire inside the Simon game to make it a visual memory challenge.

Slamwich, Spot-It (Flag Frenzy is the flag version of Spot-It), Tennzi, Dutch Blitz, Taco Goat Cheese Pizza, Collide-O, Spoons, Flipslide (similar to Simon but with increased use of logic)

Outfoxed, Dinosaur Tea Party, Mastermind, Penguins on Ice (lots just like this but with different themes), Right Turn/Left Turn, Dr. Set, Dr. Eureko, Pandemic, Forbidden Dessert, Iota, Gravity Maze, Laser Maze, Cat Crimes, Guess Who, Zategy, Make-n-Break, Swish, Smart Cookies, Zangle, Brain Flip, Dragonwood, Leaps and Ledges, Fluxx games (lots of themes), Qbitz

Here are a few more gameschooling suggestions:

Great Brands of Games:
Gamewright, Thinkfun, Smartgames (These are excellent player puzzles that are great to offer little ones when in restaurants and doctor offices.)

Excellent Therapy Games: 
Multi Matrix The Brain Game (for memory development, pattern recognition, sustained attention, peripheral vision, motor control, “whole brain” learning, visual tracking, sequential planning, perceptual learning, vestibular development).  This product has lots of different games.  You are directed towards a website that shows the games in different progressive levels demonstrating the games.  

There are several places to look for gameschooling ideas.

1.  Gameschoolers online 

2.  Board game enthusiasts (some reveal their yearly/topical top ten lists at the beginning of each new calendar year on YouTube) 

3.  Pinterest (name boards precisely to get the best pin suggestions, i.e., card games for logic, games for visual discrimination, etc.)

4.  Amazon suggestions 

5.  Homeschool catalogs and conferences 

6.  Therapists (for our family, those are occupational, speech and vision therapists)

7.  Gameschooling (Teaching with Games) Facebook Group

Quite simply, I keep my eyes and ears open.  I keep a list of game ideas running in my planner. 

Also, if your area has seasonal game stores at Christmas time, I have found them to be a great source for clearance-priced games after the holidays.