Family Game Night
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We play a lot of kid games around here. My husband and I love games and we are passing that love onto our children. Nearly every day my daughter is pulling a game out of the cabinet for ‘family time’. Here is a list of games that we love and they get bonus points if there is an educational element to it.
Having a family game night weekly or at least once a month is a great way to connect with one another. Put it on the calendar and make it an event that the whole family looks forward to. You can do a fun dinner like make your own pizzas or keep it simple and just have it delivered. Make it easy and use paper plates to keep clean up to a minimum. Tonight is all about the fun and it should fun for everyone, including mom.
7 Ways to teach your kids to play games in a healthy way
- Be a good example. This may be expected or it may not be, but our kids pick up so much from watching us. Good attitudes, bad attitudes, cheating, taunting– most of that is learned at home during family game night.
- Play by the rules. It may be easy to let your kid make things up as they go but it causes challenges when playing with other kids. Follow the rules even if you have to help the little ones along. They’ll catch on faster than you think.
- Explain strategy as you go. Think through your moves out loud so that they can learn from you. It is also important to let them learn from their mistakes.
- Teach them to be a good winner and a good loser. I don’t ‘let’ my kid win ever and make sure that they have a good attitude at the end of the game. This doesn’t mean that I’m always competitive and cut throat but I don’t make things easy for them either.
- Put the game away if attitudes come out. We talk through the emotions and explain that you may not win every time. We keep things light and happy. But when a child gets angry or starts throwing things, its time to take a break for the day.
- Always put the game away correctly when you are finished. Keep your game pieces organized and put the box where you found it. Doing this together after family activities will bleed into all areas of their life.
- Include everyone. Make sure everyone is having fun. Switch up the games to include everyone’s favorites. It’s an important lesson to learn to have fun and enjoy time together even if it’s not your favorite game.
Playing games with your kids has so many benefits. You can read more about the learning benefits here.
Memory Match | Money Around | Elefun | Zingo! | Lucky Ducks | Cootie
We started playing games with my daughter around 2 or 3. Your kids will surprise you with how fast they catch on. Games are a great way to introduce shapes and patterns, counting and matching in a fun way. Games also teach kids to take turns and follow the rules.
These games are favorites in our house. Hi Ho Cherry-O teaches counting. Monopoly Junior works with adding as well and this version was two levels that your kids can grow into. Guess Who? and Hedbanz both help with deduction skills. Princess Match is a fun game and comes in many other themes that the boys will love as well.
I love this version of the matching game as it teaches the upper and lower case of each letter. You can go over letter sounds as you play and help make connections with the corresponding picture. You can start this game with young children and have the squares spread out on the table and help your child find matches.
This Sight Word Swat! is one that I am going to add to our collection and add it into our homeschool day. Family Bingo is great for younger kids all the way up to reading age. You start with animals and food and then move onto number recognition and sight words.
Guess in 10 is a super fun kids and has 10 specific questions to go over. My daughter always surprises me with her creative clues. This is also a great game to take on trips to kill time on planes or while you’re waiting for your food to come at a restaurant.
We love to play SmartyPants while dinner is cooking or while we’re waiting at appointments. It’s a great one to keep in your bag. It also comes in sever other levels.
Puzzles are great for people of all ages. And if you don’t teach your kids to separate the edges first, we need to talk. Puzzles teach fine motor skills, problems solving and logic, improved memory and attention span, self esteem, team work and so much more.
I know that was quite the list but I hope it was helpful. Let me know if you have a game that we should check out.
Games can get expensive so I suggest to get a new one every Christmas. They are always on sale and its a great way to build your collection. I often buy several to take advantage of the sale and save them for later in the year or to give as gifts. I have also had great luck at thrift stores or Facebook Marketplace. Often parents are trying to clean out game cabinets after their kids have out grown them and you can get them for great prices.
If you are wanting to conserve space I suggest these mesh bags. You can take all the pieces out of the box and use the instructions as labels for each mesh bag. Then just add them all to a bin. Keeps everything neat and you can just get rid of the old boxes that tend to fall apart over time.
I’m sure I will be updating this list over time but for now add a couple of these to your amazon cart and plan a family game night. Have fun with your kids and make some memories. If you are looking for games for older kids and teens, check out the lists on this post.