Games that Teach

Do you have a homeschooler who loves to have fun and learn at the same time? You’re in luck! With an array of entertaining and educational games for your homeschool, you can find something for every learning level and interest.

From the classics like Scrabble and Monopoly to the latest apps and online learning tools, these games provide an engaging and rewarding experience for you and your young learners. In this article, we’ll show you how games can provide an interactive way to teach important life skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration. You’ll also learn about the best games for homeschoolers and how you can use them to build a fun learning environment in your home. So, get ready to have some fun and unleash your kid’s potential with games that teach and bring fun into your homeschool!

By Felice Gerwitz

My children tease me by saying “You can take a teacher out of the classroom, but you can’t take the teacher out of my Mom!” And they are correct…I find “education” everywhere. A simple trip to the supermarket can have us looking for foods that have a space theme… “Milky Way” bars, “Star” shaped cereal, “Crater” cheese (Swiss), and other silly as well as practical ways to refresh their memory of a topic we study. You can use grocery store trips in any number of ways.

Fun Ways to Incorporate Games That Teach

Another fun (or not so fun), depending on your perspective, is to hand your child a calculator and have them tally your groceries and see how close they come to the check-out price. Difficult to do if you are using coupons or there are discounts, such as buy one get one free. You can allow for some margin of error, and no matter what the outcome, praise is always important.

Mapping a grocery store is always fun as well. Tell the children ahead of time you are going to ask them to draw a map of the grocery store when you get home. You can have them bring paper and a pencil if you desire. Make sure they note the order of the isles and have them jot down categories instead of specifics. Teaching the children to use order, larger to smaller, and categorize are all good skills. I know it will take longer to get through the store. This might be good exercise for a time when you have light shopping.

Treat and Rewards

Don’t forget the treats. I can’t tell you how far we’ve made a bag of candy M&M’s go! You can use them for counting; you can use them for rewards; you can use them to sort, etc. They are by far a favorite of the Gerwitz household, with or without the academic incentives!

Games that Teach On the Go

Riding in the car? How about naming every noun you see? Or, you can ask little ones to count all of the blue cars or all of the trucks you see on the road. Live out in the country? No problem; after teaching the children about specific types of trees, you can ask them to find these trees on your journey. Or use birds, animals, fence posts, whatever you find that there are a lot of.

How about taking turns naming store names and signs in alphabetical order? We call it the ABC game. My all-time is finding the state license plates. Here in Florida, the winter months bring the flurry of winter visitors from up North with license plates from all over. And surprisingly, many of our visitors drive. Would you believe we have seen license plates from Alaska? So we keep a photocopy of a map outline of all 50 states, and the children place marks on the states viewed and tally them once a month.

Quick Games Do Teach

These games do not take long to prepare and can transform a day of the same old thing into a fun time for all. I am compiling a book of fun activities our family play; if you have some you’d like to share, email me anytime! I’ve got to run. My kids want to play “big-step-little-step.”

Felice Gerwitz is a wife and mother and the owner of Media Angels Publishing and the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Visit her online at http://www.MediaAngels.com