One of the things I get asked the most is, "Can you recommend a game with educational value?" This question involves a complicated answer. You see, I firmly believe that ALL games have educational value. Even the simplest game involves turn taking, which can be of value to younger kids. And most games involve end game scoring, which can be great math practice! So I try not to sound sarcastic when I answer the, "can you recommend a game with educational value" question with the answer: ALL OF THEM! But I get it. Sometimes folks are looking for a specific educational skill or benefit from a game. And it can be difficult to find a game that's both educational AND fun. (Although I have reviewed some straight forward educational games that are, in fact, lots of FUN!)
So today I'd like to introduce you to some games that can be both fun AND educational! Some of them are more obviously educational than others. Some sneak in some really fantastic logic, strategy, critical thinking, problem solving, etc. into the game! So, without further ado,
1.) Andor: The Family Fantasy Game -
*Player Count: 2-4 , *Age: 7+, *Time: 30-60 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) It inspires creativity/creative writing! - Andor: The Family Fantasy Game is a kid-friendly introduction to roll player games. Roll Player games are absolutely FANTASTIC for inspiring creativity and jumping off into creative writing lessons! For younger kids, just get them talking about what's happening in the game. Have them describe the monsters, the heroes, the terrain, etc. For older kids, have them writie their own roll player adventure after playing the game!
B.) Its cooperative! - When my kids were little, the only cooperative games I knew about were baby-ish, utterly boring games. But the cooperative genre is SO AMAZING! In Andor: The Family Fantasy Game, you're working TOGETHER to solve the problem! This is a great way to get your kids to work on team work, cooperation, listening, communication with others, etc!
What I like: This game is so visually appealing, and the fantasy theme is so fantastic, that your kids are gonna beg to play!
2.) Animix -
*Player Count: 2-6, *Age: 8+, *Time: 10 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Thinking ahead! - Thinking ahead is a great educational skill! A prime example of a game that uses this skill would be chess. You have to think ahead and try to figure out how your move will affect the other player. Can they use your previous move to trap you? Can you use your move to eventually take one of the pawns? Animix employs this same skill. You have to think ahead to try and determine how your choices will affect your end game scoring. You can also think ahead to take a card that will hamper your opponents' scoring possibilities!
B.) The scoring! - Each different animal scores in a different way. This gives the game some great math practice, not only at the end when you're adding scores, but all the way through - as you try to determine which cards are the most advantageous.
Note: The cards in this game are really lovely! And I love that the game is so compact and doesn't take long to play. This makes it perfect for travel!
3.) Cloaked Cats -
*Player Count: 2-4, *Age: 6+, *Time: 20 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Its a great deductive reasoning game! - In Cloaked Cats, each player is dealt 3 "feature" cards and 3 "cat" cards. On your turn, you play a cat card from your hand. Each player checks the 3 feature cards they were dealt and if the cat card has a feature that corresponds with a feature on one of your cards, you must place a mask token onto that cat card. After this, the player who played the cat card can choose to guess one of the hidden features in another players hand. If you guess correctly, you get one of that player's mask tokens. If you guess incorrectly, you must give that player one of your mask tokens. This continues until all 3 feature cards from a single player have been revealed. Then the person with the most mask tokens wins! This really works your deductive reasoning skills.
B.) Critical Thinking! - You have to think critically in this game. Not just in trying to deduce what features each other player has, but also in which cards you play. Because you also have to place a mask on a cat card that you laid down if you have one of those features, you have to think carefully about which card to reveal, as you may just reveal more about your own feature cards than you want to!
Note: The theme in this game makes it a really cute, fun deduction game. The cats are so adorable! And I love that the game is simple enough for young children to play (and language independent), yet fun enough for adults to play as well!
4.) Unearth -
*Player Count: 2-4, *Age: 8+, *Time: 30-60 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Advantage-taking - In this game you roll a die and then place it on a ruin. Die rolls will determine who gets to claim each ruin. But you also have access to Delver cards. These can be played before you roll the die to give you an advantage. This is actually a great skill to practice. You have to remember to use these cards in order to help yourself. You also have to use them wisely.
B.) Decision-making - making decisions on which ruin to excavate, which die to roll, and which Delver card to use are very important to this game. Weighing risk and reward is also important.
Note: The components in this game are beautiful! I love the colorful dice and gorgeous card illustrations really take this game to a higher level.
5.) Risky Deals -
*Player Count: 2-6, *Age: 16+, *Time: 30-90 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Its a High School game! - This game has the highest age limit of any of the games in this list. 16+. This is great! While the other games work for younger kids, this one is definitely meant for the older crowd. And sometimes games like that can be difficult to find.
B.) Its a fun way to learn about stocks! - This game is all about stocks and investments. In the game, each player is given an initial amount of money. They can use that money to invest in 3 types of stocks or 4 companies. Choosing how you invest will either bring you great wealth - or not. That's all up to a roll of the dice, which, honestly isn't that different from real investing! Haha!
Note: This game is a great way to learn first hand about investment and risk vs. reward.
6.) Through the City -
*Player Count: 2-4, *Age: 6+, *Time: 20-30 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) The basic math - This game is great for young kids! On your turn you roll 2 six-sided dice and add the numbers. That total is the total number of spaces the players must move. This is a very simple game, but its wonderful practice for a young child learning to add up to 12!
B.) The scoring! - The game also contains some great math in scoring! Each round of the game takes about 5 minutes. At the end of the round, the winner gets 10 points, second place gets 6 points, and 3rd place gets 4 points. A tournament can be as many rounds as you decide before the game starts. At the end of the chosen number of rounds, add up your scores for each round and the person with the highest score wins.
Note: This is a very basic game. Its basically rolling dice and moving, with some shoots and ladders mechanic thrown in. But the theme is super cute. And the math practice is great for little ones!
7.) Coatl -
*Player Count: 1-4, *Age: 10+, *Time: 30-60 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) The pattern building! - This game is so beautiful and the pattern building mechanic is really fun. But its also educational! You have to build you Coatls in specific patterns in order to score points. This pattern recognition an building is a great exercise for the mind!
B.) The decision making! - During your turn, you have options of what to do. You can take Coatl pieces, take a card, or start building your Coatl. These options make for great practice working those decision making muscles.
Note: The theme/design of the game is beautiful. Its also a great way to jump into studying ancient history involving the Aztec culture.
8.) Overboss -
*Player Count: 1-5, *Age: 8+, *Time: 20-30 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Pattern Making - In Overboss, you're picking tiles and placing them on your grid. At the end of the game, different types of tiles score in different ways - based on what's around them, etc. So following these placement suggestions will help you score.
B.) Varied Scoring - As I mentioned, each tile (terrain) type scores differently. This means that there's lots of great addition practice in the scoring of this game!
Note: I really love the monster theme in these game! Its great fun, without being super scary or gross - which makes it great as a family game! And the box insert to store the components is really great!
9.) Rhino Hero -
3-D games are great for spatial reasoning. Checking out your skyscraper and figuring out the best place to place your newest card is a great brain workout!
*Player Count: 2-5, *Age: 5+, *Time: 5-15 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Dexterity - Rhino Hero is a great, little dexterity game! You use the cards to build a skyscraper - similar to a house of cards. Its great hand-eye coordination practice.
B.) Spatial reasoning - You have to visualize the skyscraper you're building and judge the best way to place your card without knocking the entire thing over.
Note: This is a great filler game! Its perfect for classroom time when the kids just need some time up to move around and get those ants out of their pants! And since its a quick game with very little set-up, it can be pulled out quickly, played, and put away without causing a disruption!
10.) Ubongo: Fun-Size Edition -
*Player Count: 1-4, *Age: 7+, *Time: 15 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Puzzles! - Everyone knows that puzzles are great for the brain. Your brain gets a great workout by figuring out how the pieces fit together.
B.) Problem Solving! - Another great aspect of a game like Ubongo is the problem solving. If you place a tile in the wrong place, it will mess up the whole thing. So then you have to figure out which one you got wrong and try to fix it. Problem solving games are wonderfully educational!
Note: If you like Tetris games, Tangram puzzles, or polyominoes, this game may be right up your alley! Also, one thing I love is that this game (at least the Fun-Size Edition that we own) does NOT come with a sand timer. Sand timers can be distracting for some kids - who continually watch the timer instead of focus on the puzzle. In Ubongo: Fun-Size Edition, the first person who solves their puzzle shouts "Ubongo!" and then counts down from 20 to 0 - giving all other players 20 seconds to finish their puzzles.
11.) Thrive -
*Player Count: 2, *Age: 8+, *Time: 25 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Decision Making - you not only choose where to move your pieces, but you choose where to place the pegs in your pieces. The pegs determine where each piece can move. So there's some great, chess-like strategy involved in this game! Only, instead of each piece always moving in the same way (as in chess), the movement of each piece evolves as you add more pegs!
B.) Thinking ahead. Just like in chess, you really need to think ahead in this game to avoid having your pieces captured. Thinking ahead is a great skill to practice!
Note: I love the components in this game! The "board" is made of fabric - which is so cool! It really gives this game a wonderful, high quality feel! And it also makes it super portable!
12.) Scarabya -
*Player Count: 1-4, *Age: 8+, *Time: 15-20 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Puzzle solving! - This game involves placing tiles in the most advantageous way in order to win the scarabs and earn points. This is very much a solitaire-type game that you get to play with others. That makes it great brain practice and still tons of fun!
B.) Planning ahead - you have to plan your moves, use spatial reasoning, problem solve when things don't go your way. All of these things give this game quite a boost as an educational game!
Note: Although this game is quite the puzzler, even young players can play, as the tile laying aspect is fairly simple! That means that kids of many different ages can enjoy this game together!
13.) Block Ness -
*Player Count: 2-4, *Age: 8+, *Time: 15 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Thinking ahead - In Block Ness, you need to think ahead and try to anticipate how your move will affect you and your opponents. You make make it easier for your opponent to win, or you may make it more difficult for you to win on s subsequent turn by placing your piece in the wrong place.
B.) Problem Solving - As much as you plan ahead, your opponents may ruin your plans by placing a piece that blocks you from your desired move. So problem solving is a big part of this game! You have to be able to see multiple options and change course if things don't go your way.
Note: My kids - from the youngest to the oldest - really enjoy this game and its 3-D game pieces. I love that pieces can go over or under other pieces. It really gives the game a fun feel and also makes you use spatial reasoning skills in order to figure out your next move!
14.) Niya -
*Player Count: 2, *Age: 8+, *Time: 10 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Observational skills! - In Niya, you have to pay close attention to the Garden Tile elements because you're going to have to choose a tile with a shared element to replace with your token.
B.) Thinking ahead! - Along with being observant of the garden elements in order to place a tile, you need to also pay attention to how your move will affect your opponent in this 2-player game. A player wins by getting 4 tokens in a row or 4 tokens in a square. So you must think ahead to make sure that your tile placement doesn't give your opponent victory.
Note: I really love the compact tin that this game comes in. Its not only beautifully designed and perfect for travel, but the inside has a wonderful insert that keeps the tiles and tokens perfectly in place!
15.) Dicium -
*Player Count: 1-4, *Age: 12+, *Time: 30-60 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Following instructions - I know. I know. This is a skill in EVERY SINGLE GAME. But in Dicium, there's an interesting component to this. Each game follows a basic format: 2-2-2 (roll the dice up to 2 times, take 2 actions, store 2 dice for later rounds). But each game implements that format in a different way. So you need to be able to follow those instructions, but be able to flexibly implement them differently depending on which game you're playing.
B.) Discussing different cultures. While the cultures are integral to the gameplay, each game has a different theme. The racing game seems to be set in the desert, Civilization is set in ancient Greece, Shogun is set in Japan, and Dungeon is set in a fantasy realm. These different themes allow for some great jumping off points. Read some books about Ancient Greeks, Greek warfare, Japan, the history of Shoguns, Ancient Egypt, the Middle East, etc. Watch videos. Learn about those cultures and play the games as a great add-on to a history or geography lesson. Or use the Dungeon game as a jumping off point for studying fairy tales, or creative writing! Play the game and then use the experience to write story about dungeons and monsters!
Note: Dicium actually includes FOUR GAMES! - A competitive racing game, a cooperative adventure game, a competitive conquest game, and an asymmetrical confrontation game! This means there's a whole lot of educational possibilities stuffed into this box!
16.) A Gentle Rain -
*Player Count: 1+, *Age: 8+, *Time: 15 minutes
Educational Benefits:
A.) Symbol Recognition/Matching - This is a great educational exercise for younger kids. Matching the sides of the flowers to make one full flower.
B.) Decision Making - You have to choose the best place to lay your tile in order to match the flowers, so this game involves some good decision making skills for younger kids.
Note: This game is supremely relaxing and gentle. Its the perfect game for 1 or 2 players. And since it doesn't take a long time, its a great option to let one child (or 2) play while you work on something with another child. Its also a great, relaxing game to play before bed! It reminds me a lot of the game Trellis, but in a much smaller, travel-friendly box! Makes this game ideal for a trip!
I received these games, free of charge from the publishers, in exchange for my honest review.
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