Board Game Fun

Homeschool has taken a bit of a backseat the last few weeks as I head into the last stretch of pregnancy. I still want to inject a bit of fun with an educational focus so we have been spending quite some time playing old fashioned board games.

One of the best ones for young children starting to play (3+) is Candy Land. It's been around for 50 years and there's no dice and no reading required. This game teaches counting, colours and how to take turns. Probably a down side is the focus on sweets - after all it's about who can get to King Kandy and his Candy Castle first!

Zingo is a great game for learning number recognition. Yes it's based on the regular Bingo game but is a lot of fun. Katie always asks to play this and will often place tiles on my card if she sees a match.

As a family we all play Junior Monopoly and is a firm favourite. The board is a fun fair and ticket booths are purchased for the different rides. This great game introduces the concept of money and responsibility.

We also play simple card games like Go Fish and Old Maid.

One thing games will force you to do is to remind your little ones that winning isn't everything but having fun and learning is. Funny how hard that seems to sink in!

Other games we will be introducing soon are My First Scrabble, UNO and Boggle Junior.