Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Favorite educational games?

We met with SNAP Coordinators and School Admin last night to discuss the game plan for DS for next year. They recommended a couple of games - Equate and Sequence, iirc.

What are your favorite educational games?

We have Equate but haven't played it much. I should get it back out this summer and see how it goes. I should preface this with my DS8 is MG and not accelerated in math like many here. My DS5 is probably about 2nd grade level in math. One game we like is Chutes and Ladders. We play with 2 dice. You can add or subtract them, use square roots etc including negative numbers if you want to go backwards. We play w/ 12-sided dice.

Those dice came with another game from ThinkFun (Target Number) I think. You roll 2 regular dice to get your target number - for ex: 21. You then roll the 2 12-sided dice and you can add, sub, multi, div, squares, and square roots to get as close as you can to the target number. That's great for restaurant if the kids aren't too wild with dice.

Other favs are chess, Railroad Rush Hr Jr, RISK and Pattern blocks.

Another game we alike are the Brain Quest board games (not the cards). I can never win b/c the kids get extra points for playing above grade level. They can decide on grade level depending on the subject (math, science, lang arts). I of course have to play the 6th grade levels only w/ no extra points so I never win lol.

I think Continuo is a great game for practically any age (great for spatial thinkers and travel-compact). I never was much of a Scrabble fan until recently--our family had a lot of fun playing together and for younger kids you can either play on teams or use more letters (9 instead of 7). Card games are always fun too. If you have a bigger group, we enjoy Apples to Apples. One fast game I like is SmartMouth. If you have different ages playing together, we change the rules that the younger ones just have to find a 3 or 4 letter word minimum, while the older ones have to have 5 letter word minimum.

We always had a great time playing Boggle when I was a kid. Our whole extended family would play at the holidays--sometimes so many people were crowded around the table that it was hard to see the letters. We haven't yet broken it out with our kids, but this reminds me that we should!

We play the "Last-Letter Game," which is great for car trips and for long waits in line. The first person picks a word that starts with A, say "alligator." The next person has to pick a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word, so in this case, and "R": "rigamarole." Repeats are not allowed, so silent e's and y's get tough after a while. DS7 loved this game last year!

The game Sorry! is good for young kids with a number obsession, as is Hi-Ho Cherry-O.

Battleship teaches coordinates in a fun way, assuming you don't mind the war aspect of the game. I used to love Risk, and there's some geography, probability, and strategy going on there. Monopoly was one of my favorites, too, and with the money and the strategy, I think that's loosely educational, at least for a young child.

(I'm stretching the limits of the term "educational games, I'm sure. But these are/were the popular games in our household, and I think the "game" part of the term shouldn't be underestimated.)

I just bought rush hour after DS4 tried out the online version. That looks like fun.

The cabin had Battleship, so i taught DS4 to play. It was fun until I discovered that he was moving his ships to a different location if I got a little too close! (Having a boy, I don't think we can avoid war stuff -- he was outside twirling a stick the other day, and I said, "cool! is that your baton you're spinning?" He said, "it's a blade!" silly me.)

Most of our problems with games right now is that DS4 will play by the rules for about 10 minutes, then he'll start creating his own rules. Any suggestions for games that a 4.5-year-old might like to keep playing?

This might sound really bad, but DS has always loved fast paced card games like canasta, UNO, Gin or Rummy,and what we called preschool poker. (5 card draw style without any betting) He likes pretty much any card games that work with patterns and probability. He has played those from about 3 on. Connect 4 was also a favorite. Dominoes can be fun also.

Since holding onto the cards was sometimes a problem, we gave him a box to set on it's side in from of him so He could see his cards but we couldn't.


Some of these are good for letting the child change the rules each hand. We sometimes play that the dealer sets the rules... It makes for some innovative options lol.

Casino is a good card game.

Speaking of, I'm not sure how educational or politically correct, but both girls like to play: poker, poker dice, craps and roulette.
Especially DD8.
It was an education experience for my GD family when they realized that at 7 she beat them at poker almost every time they all played.
Weirdly, she also seems to win way more frequently than anyone else when we play roulette. Isn't that more of a game of chance?

Beware of electrocution there, 'Neato! Posting to the forum from the pool is not recommended.

As for the roulette, perhaps DD8 can detect slight variations in the angle of the wheel. GT kids are supposted to be more sensitive, right?

LOL! Sorry, but it sounds like luck to me!

I know, it is supposed to be luck! But it's so weird! I think I will have to chart her roulette playing success, maybe I am imagining it!

p.s. I'm not at the pool anymore!

Thank goodness! I was worried!

We enjoy Big Brain Academy (the board game), Qwirkle (a Mensa selection), Rat a Tat Cat (a card game that is also a Mensa selection), Uno, Ruckus (also a card game), Monopoly, Battleship, Rush Hour, SET, Guess Who, Guess Where, Clue....I could go on and on!! I'm not sure if everyone would think these are education but I think some of them are really good because they use deductive reasoning skills.

Another fun game is Blink. It's a very fast-paced card game with pattern recognition. SET fans may like it.

Oooooh Cathy. Sounds fun, I'll have to check it out. Thanks!!!

Not very educational, at least not academically, but do your kids play Dungeons and Dragons (Role play type games) ?

With the fantasy that DD has and her making up complicated stories I am thinking of getting her the simplified version.

Do you have any experience with this type of games?

So many ideas for DS5 birthday. We like Blokus, Snap Circuits, Sequence (especially after DYS gathering ).

Have you seen Muggins! games? Make sure you check their demo

http://www.mugginsmath.com/store.asp

I just bought Jelly Beans and Knock Out! as ons of DS4 birthday gift. Jelly Beans would be too easy but it's perfect for DS4. Knock Out! played at the high levels is a good game for DS5 (4th grade math). Both of the games have multiple levels of play.

I ordered two more Muggins! games for DS5 birthdays later this summer but obviously haven't tried them.

Isa, I love D&D. We played it a lot back in college.

Are you guys playing the Sequence for kids or the adult version?

We used to play the children version, now we play the adult version.

I forgot about Pente and Chess. We play those a lot.

An aside: DS 6 went to chess camp earlier this summer (USA Chess) and absolutely Loved it. He would come home and want to play chess the rest of the day (after 3 hrs of playing at camp--I thought he'd be burned out on it). He learned about famous players, famous moves, alternative games (suicide chess).

My son plays a lot of RPG games like Final Fantasy and MMORPG games like World of Warcraft and Runescape, and he likes to make up stories in his head, but so far he hasn't put any of them in writing and if he would just do that I might consider them somewhat educational. I do think these games excite his imagination, and I always thought it was kind of strange that he doesn't choose to read much fiction when this looks to me like interactive fiction. Although he does like some historical fiction and he really likes Japanese manga, he often prefers to read history and science and technology and magazines like National Geographic.

My son also likes simulation games and I think these are more educational than RPG games. He just bought Sims 2 and is saving his money to buy the Sims 2 Open for Business which is recommended for teenagers and lets players learn the challenges of entrepreneurship, from hiring and firing to devising an effective marketing strategy. He also liked playing Capitalism II and several of the Tycoon games. I think these games can be very educational. I think my son learned a lot from them in a fun way since they are interactive.

My son used to play chess on a video game. I don't play chess so he doesn't have anyone else to play with. He does have one friend who likes to play chess, but when he comes to visit there are too many other choices and they usually end up playing some RPG game because they think it is a little more fun than chess.

Does anyone play Go anymore? I remember liking it, but I don't have a Go set right now. Maybe the kids would enjoy it.

Speaking of chess, I just found a good deal on a lego chess board on ebay (just the board - someone probably is splitting sets and selling off parts). I thought it would be fun to make our own lego chess players (cheaper too!). Then I'll start teaching DS4 chess. I'm sure he'll surpass my ability quite soon. (I get impatient having to think ahead too far - i'm all for instant gratification!)

I've been checking out many of the games people are mentioning. This forum is turning out to be rather costly... but thanks for all the great ideas!