4 of 11

Write now Article Tools

As a Home Schooling family with several different age groups we have a lot of different challenges in choosing things that all of the children can learn from. One of our favorites are board games. Once the children are old enough to understand the game, they can all play. Its great to be able to incorporate different age groups into the game and see the children having fun at the same time.

Here is a partial list and the classes/subjects that these particular games encompass. Now who says school is boring?

Monopoly: Develop those Math skills and social skills. Have your student be the banker and real estate agent. A great way to spend an afternoon and work on those math skills.

Life: Again Math skills and social skills. Being a banker can sometimes be a challenge. The more players the better as your student will be kept very busy giving pay checks and bonus money form the various cards they draw.

Cribbage: Your child will hone great addition skills trying to continually add his or her cards up to 15. Plus counting the entire hand at the end of each round and the crib on alternate rounds. Great for quick addition tricks.

Yahtzee: More addition skills. As you roll the dice and attempt to gain all of the possible points its fun to watch kids go from counting the dots on the dice to taking a quick look at them and quickly adding them in their heads.

Scrabble: For the younger set you might specify all three and four letter spelling words. Spelling skills are honed in this game. To make it even more interesting we sometimes will only play words along a certain theme such as foods or something out of doors.

Upwards: Again Spelling skills as well as making words from other words as you get to build upon words in this game.

Boggle: Yet another Spelling skills game.

Clue: This is a bit more abstract but it works great at deductive reasoning or logic which is always a great skill to have.

Clever Endeavor: Again deductive reasoning or logic. Figure out the clues and enter the winners circle.

Cranium: Depending on what version you are playing you can hone some science skills here by quizzing on such questions. Pick and choose the sets of questions you have and you can really work on some great skills. You can sort through the questions ahead of time and have all of the science separated out or the history etc. Then choose your subject for that days game.

Trivial Pursuit: Again, depending on the version you are playing you can hone some science skills or choose another great subject such as history or social sciences. Great to keep parents minds sharp too.

Pictionary: My younger children love this, though at times this may be a bit abstract, but we use this one for art and figuring out clues. Hours of fun for your budding artist. Also great for fine motor skills.

UnGame: For social skills. Talk about yourself and learn.

Risk: A great strategy game. The more players the more fun.

Chess: Another great strategy game for a quieter afternoon. Learn the rules together if you haven't played before.

There are a great variety of games available at: educationallearninggames.com. You can choose from government, history, sciences, logic, math, geography, grammar and more.

School doesn't have to be dull and boring. By incorporating board games into a home based curriculum you can broaden your child's horizons and encourage them to enjoy learning. The biggest bonus to this strategy for learning is that you as a parent get to spend a lot of great time with your children.

Learn more about this author, Linda L Kinyon.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Strategies for homeschooling children of different ages?
We want to hear your view. Write now!