“Mom, I’m boooooooored! What can I do?” If you’re a mom, I’m sure you’ve NEVER heard that statement. Games are one way to help keep your boredom at arm’s length from your kids this summer. So join us today as we talk about 5 educational and FUN games to teach preparedness skills this summer.
Our family loves to play games together, but we’re a weird family. We don’t tend to play ‘regular’ games like Monopoly, Life, Sorry, Connect 4, and other usual games. We have games like Tsuro, Pandemic, Pit, Ticket to Ride, and others.
But it’s summer, and I like to try to sneak in some educational games since, in general, my kids don’t do school in the summer. Since they are playing games though, they don’t see it as learning even if they are…… Uhuh, I’m sneaky that way.
Make sure you check out our other articles in our kids and summer series here and here.
***There are links in this post. Some of the links may be affiliate links. My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. All of these are the items that I have bought for my own family. If you click on a link, your price will remain the same. If you make a purchase, we may make a small commission that aids in the cost of the running of this website.***
My Top 5 Educational Games to Play in Summer
1.) WildCraft
Wildcraft is a unique game. First off, it’s a cooperative game. This means that everyone wins together or no one wins. I LOVE this in a game for kids, This not going to tend to be so competitive – fewer fights! Yea!
With this game, you have two main types of cards: plant cards and ailment cards. You see a picture of what the plant looks like on the plant card. On the ailment cards, you have to match up one of the plants you have that treats the ailment. You do this as you travel along a path up a mountain with your friends, and you have to get home before dark.
While this game is geared toward younger children ages 4-8, it’s a great game for anyone who wants to play because you can learn so much about which plants will help in which situations!
2.) Mad Dash
Mad Dash is a two-player competitive game for ages 7+.
The deck of 50 cards is shuffled and dealt out between the two players. Once someone says go, the players have to try to use their cards to “run” from one of the coasts as far as they can across the country. If you make it coast to coast, you get extra points. The states that are played must be touching each other. So for example, if a player has New Jersey on the east coast, they have to connect it to New York, Pennsylvania, or Delaware. If they have PA, they have to play either Ohio, Maryland, or West Virginia.
It’s a fun way to learn your US geography.
3.) Professor Noggins Wonders of the Science
Here’s a fun way to learn about landmarks. It’s a competitive game for 2-8 players ages 9 and up. With older children or adults playing with kids, you just use the harder questions. Your goal is to have more cards in your hand than anyone else once all the 30 cards are won. You win a card by answering one of the 6 questions on the card correctly.
4.) Dominoes
Talk about a way to get your kids to learn to add! We started playing this with our twins (now 16 years old) back when they were 6 and 7 and learning their addition facts. In case you aren’t familiar with Dominoes, you have tiles with a number of dots on each end. Your goal is to match one end of one of your Dominoes to an exposed end already played in the game. If all the outside pieces add up to a number that is a multiple of 5, then you get points.
You are constantly adding and re-adding to make sure that you have your numbers correct. It’s a fun way to practice math.
5.) Bananagrams
I mean, we’ve already listed a preparedness game, a geography game, a science game, a math game, we need to round out the list with a language game! What educational game list would be complete without a word-building game – like Bananagrams?
Bananagrams is a grid-free word-building game for up to 8 players ages 7+. If you’re unfamiliar with this game, you have letter tiles and you attempt to spell words by incorporating at least one letter that’s already on your playing surface. Players race to use up all their tiles first.
What About You?
Do you play games with your kids? Can you sneak educational games in without them realizing that you’re encouraging them to learn? I’d love to hear about how your family plays games, if you own or have played any of the above games, or if you have other educational games about which I may not be aware. Leave a comment below.
Remember, knowledge isn’t knowing something, it’s living it!
There are links in this post. Some of the links may be affiliate links. Some of the links may not be. My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. These are the items that I have bought for my own family. You can feel free to use my affiliate links, of which I will get a small amount in compensation, or you can choose to search out your products on your own.
