Playing board games is a great way to combine some extra learning and education with a lot of fun! You can have a lighthearted family games night, spend some really quality time together and support your children’s learning too. Here’s our guide to the top 5 educational board games for children and we were inspired by this parenting website! 

1. Sequence for Kids
Sequence for Kids is a fun board game that seamlessly combines matching and strategy, making it an exceptional choice for both board game enthusiasts and those seeking educational games for kids. Players aim to create sequences of animals on the game board by placing their chips on corresponding cards. This game promotes logical thinking, memory skills, and pattern recognition. With its cute animal illustrations and simple rules, it’s an excellent choice for young children.

2. Blokus by Mattel

This game will get the whole family racking their brains, boosting their brain activity and developing their logic and critical thinking abilities! You’ll have to play strategically to win this game, by laying out your pieces on the board game and ensuring that they touch blocks of the same colour, whilst blocking your opponents. Blokus is aimed at kids 7+, but Blokus Junior is good for 5 to 13 year olds. 

3. Scrabble (or Scrabble Jr.)

If you’re looking for a game that will support and boost your child’s ability in language arts and spelling, Scrabble is an excellent hit. If your children are younger, go for the Junior version which is recommended for kids age 5 to 8 year olds, who are just getting the hang of reading and spelling more simple words. Playing Scrabble can extend your vocabulary, improve your spelling, test your strategic thinking, and there’s even a bit of math involved in adding up your points! 

4. Monopoly

Monopoly is a classic board game, good for hours of fun – but it will also get your children practicing their maths skills, handling and counting out the money and budgeting to buy properties. They might even begin to pick up a basic understanding of finance and economics, by learning how and where to invest, when to take a risk, and when to play it safe. 

5. Learning Resources Sum Swamp

This game is amazing if your child is learning how to add and subtract – it’ll give them loads of practice in an amusing way. It’s best for children age 5+ and 2-4 players. You take turns rolling the 2 dice and the operation die and then working out the result of the sum, to see how many spaces to move. The winners gets across the swamp first, coming across dangers and quirky animals along the way. 

6. Outfoxed!

Outfoxed! is an innovative cooperation game, where 2-4 players have to work together to collect clues and discover the culprit of the pot pie theft. This game gets you thinking strategically, and it’s refreshing that the players join forces and work together. It’s a fantastic way to build teamwork and communication skills. Your child will feel a real sense of achievement when they unpick the mystery! 

So there you have some brilliant board game suggestions which are both fun and educational. Next time you have some free time, why not grab one of these games and spend some great bonding time together with your child? The bonus is that they won’t even realize that they’re learning and we parents know that playing games is important!

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