We enjoy games just as much as the next family. We have many childhood favorites – Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, Monopoly, Clue, etc that are “just for fun”. We also have some games that are part of a curriculum and file folder games for various topics – the obvious educational ones. My favorites though are the ones that seem like they are in the “just for fun” category but sneak learning in, too.
These are the ones we played today – a rainy Monday. They covered math, art appreciation, history and language arts.
StoryPlay is from playPLAY. The older girls like to choose word tiles and create stories both individually and collaboratively. They also use the tiles to make drawings. We reviewed this and two others from playPLAY a few weeks ago.
There are 8 artists and four cards for each artist featuring one of their works of art. The cards can be used for a go-fish style game or a matching game (like memory). The book has pages devoted to each artist telling about their life, history from that time and larger pictures of the same works of art. My littler ones like to find the card that matches the page in the book. Great for all ages!
We reviewed some medieval history with two games from the Classical Historian. The one shown above is a go-fish style. The deck of 50 cards has two cards with instructions for 4 types of games and 4 cards in each of 12 categories. Some of the categories are architecture, technology, warfare and religion. Each card has a picture and 3 hints. This set ties in well with our history spine from last year (Mystery of History 2) and even a bit into this year (MOH3).
The Classical Historian produces another style game as well. These are much like the memory game I played as a child. The big difference is that the pictures to be matched are historical. They are made of sturdy, thick card stock. The shape is easy for littler hands, too. There are 64 tile like cards featuring pictures as well a simple name or phrase. When my younger ones want to play, I only use a few pairs. The older girls like to have them all out. We have these games for American history, too. We are getting a sneak peek into what’s coming up when we play those.
For math, we played some of the games from our set of Giggle Facts by Giggle Learn. When the older girls played with their brother (1st grader) they had to multiply instead of add or divide instead of subtract (however and whenever it fit best with the game). These have been fun games without drill to learn addition/subtraction facts. I wish she would come out with a set for multiplication. 😀
Even when the weather is agreeable, we enjoy playing games over book work. I am thrilled to have a collection of great games that allow us to have fun (even if we are learning something stealthily). When Daddy comes home and asks what we did for school and the children answer “Nothing, we played games all day”, I call that success. Other Schoolhouse Review Crew members are also sharing about games. Be sure to check out their posts as well!
