20+ of the Best Educational Board Games for Kids
Are you looking for the best educational board games for kids to use for your next family game night? Most board games teach many valuable life skills. This list of educational board games for kids will teach how to take turns, how to lose graciously (we are all working on that in this family!), how to win graciously, patience, and so much more. Most teachers look for fun ways to teach skills. Some of these games I’ve used in my own classroom as a center or even for indoor recess. Switch up your next family game night to include some of these best educational board games!
Are you tired of sitting in front of a screen? School, work, time with friends, are all now on a screen during this stay at home time. So, let’s take a break from those screens and play some games as a family! Classic games, math games, and of course, reading games are included to help make learning fun as a family.
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Reading Board Games for Kids
Jabuka
Jabuka combines two of my absolute favorite things: coffee beans and words! While it is similar to Bananagrams, there are significant differences. This is not for a Beginning Reader Ben. Not sure what type of reader you have? Take the quiz here!
This is not a beginner’s word game since some of the letters can be multiple letters (an “m” can be an “e” or “w” as well). You can also “steal” words by adding prefixes and suffixes. It is very fun and engaging as you shout out all of the different words you can make!
Quiddler
While more of a card game than a board game, Quiddler is a very fun game to play! This is a great game for all readers! You start with 3 cards, which is perfect for those Beginning Reader Bens. After each round played, you add a card to make longer words according to the official directions.
If you have a Beginning Reader Ben or a Transitional Reader Taylor, you could keep it simple and not go to the final round with all 10 cards. This is a great way to make some sight words and other CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) word practice!
Scrabble
This is one of my personal favorites! Scrabble gets a gold star in educational board games for kids! If Scrabble is too difficult for your kids, you can always grab Scrabble Jr. This has words already on the board and players lay the letters down two at a time. My first and second graders are borderline too old for this version, although sometimes they like to play it because it’s “easy.” They aren’t great at using the trickier letters for the adult Scrabble game, but it is good for sight word practice! Scrabble Jr. is great for older preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders who are learning their letters. It’s great to match the letters on the board!
Silly Sentences
This game is great and introduces kids to the different parts of speech. The color-coded pieces help them learn how to construct a sentence using the different parts of speech. There will be a lot of laughter over these silly sentences!
Since you can choose the length of the sentences, this game is for any type of reader! Beginning Reader Bens can start with short sentences. Create longer and even sillier sentences with those Transitional Reader Taylors and Fluent Reader Freddies! Not sure what type of reader you have? Take the quiz here for book suggestions and tips for each type of reader!
Blurt
This game is perfect for building vocabulary! It’s won a lot of awards and even includes easier words for younger kids. Shout out the word that matches the definition on the card first and you’ll race around the gameboard! One perk to this game is it can be played in 10-20 minutes depending on the numbers you roll. If you need a quick educational board game for kids, try out Blurt!
Boggle
Shake up the letters, flip the timer, and spend 90 seconds searching for words. You score points by jotting down words that your opponent doesn’t find. To make it easier for beginning readers (and what we do in our house!), give points to every word that they find. This is another great game to help find sight words or those simple CVC words.
Bananagrams
Dump out your letter tiles, and start building words! The idea is to be fast and use all of your tiles. When a player uses every tile, they yell, “Peel!” and you pull another tile into your word grid.
You can also use these letter tiles to build sight words or practice spelling! For all of your Beginning Reader Bens, they also make a Big Letter Version. The tiles are bigger for those little hands to manipulate! Not sure what type of reader you have? Take the quiz here!
Sequence Letters
There are a lot of different Sequence games that we enjoy playing as a family! This one uses letter cards and players have to match the letter card with the beginning sound of the picture on the game board. This is great for letter recognition, phonemic awareness, and then this game combines those two skills into phonics!
Please note, if you have a very Beginning Reader Ben, this game may be too difficult. You can partner up or wait a bit longer to play. Once you play this game a few times, your child will most likely remember the picture that matches the letter. To up the challenge for those Transitional Reader Taylors, you can always ask for another word that starts with the same letter before they can put down a chip. Get five chips in a row to win this game!
Not sure what type of reader you have? Click to take the quiz here for book lists and strategies perfect for YOUR reader!
Zingo
This game is AMAZING sight word practice and my boys do not even realize they are practicing their sight words as we play! I learned it was a Toy of the Year Finalist as I wrote this post, and I can see why. It’s both educational and fun! This game is perfect for both Beginning Reader Bens and Transitional Reader Taylors.
Zingo! Word Builder
If you can’t tell, we LOVE Zingo! in this house! This game is perfect for Beginning Reader Bens to practice those CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant words) phonics skills. They have so much FUN they do not even realize they are practicing important phonics skills!
Classic Board Games for Kids (And Adults!)
Yahtzee
Roll your dice and decide if you’re trying for a Yahtzee or sticking with a full house! With your 3 rolls, you could almost consider this game a Math game with all of the adding your kids may need to do to figure out their score! When my middle was six, we started playing this game, so I’m not sure Ages 8+ are correct.
Scattegories
Another classic family game that you can even play with family and friends over Zoom! Pick a category, roll the dice, and see what words you can come up with starting with that letter. You will be amazed at how creative your kids can be in coming up with words that fit these categories! This is a great game for Transitional Reader Taylors or Fluent Reader Freddies. Not sure what type of reader you have? Take the quiz here!
Monopoly
There are so many different versions of Monopoly, so pick your child’s favorite! If your child is 5 or younger, I recommend Monopoly Jr. This could also have gone in the Math category since there is a LOT of math involved for the banker (so you may want to choose this position wisely or have a “helper”)! My boys are obsessed with this Lion King version.
Rummikub
This is a new game to our family, but it’s already well-loved! This is another game that could have gone in the Math category with the number matching, runs in one specific color, and all of the strategy involved! Don’t get stuck with a joker since you end up with -30 and the person who went out gets all of those points. Again, another great way to practice math in a classic board game for kids AND adults.
Logic Games for Kids
Kanoodle
This is another new-to-us game that has completely taken over our house. I may order another one since my two boys fight over who gets to do the next puzzle! There are 2-D and 3-D puzzles that vary from easy to extremely difficult! There are 200 different challenges and this is a great game to build those problem-solving and spatial reasoning skills. When we are allowed to travel again, this would make a great game for a car trip. The small carrying case and instructions make it a great travel game!
Invasion of the Cow Snatchers
This is a great logic and problem-solving educational game for kids! The puzzles start off easy as you try to control a UFO to maneuver through different farm obstacles to beam up the cows. The simple puzzles get kids use to the “rules” and how many chips can cross different colored fences. This game does get tricky quickly, but that’s what makes it great to practice those problem-solving skills!
The Genius Square
This is another great educational logic game for kids. Every game is different since you roll the dice to determine where all of the pegs go on the square board. Mathematically, your kids are practicing graphing skills simply by rolling the dice and setting up the game! Then, they are using visual-spatial skills and logic to figure out how the pieces fit on the board. You can play alone or race against each other to finish the puzzle. This has occupied my boys for hours at a time! They love it!
Math Board Games for Kids
Rack-o
I still play this game as an adult, but it’s also a great way to practice number sense with your kids! If you play with two players, you need a run of three (so 16, 17, 18, or any three numbers in a row). You can make this game easier or harder by taking away some of the cards or keeping them all in. It’s a good teachable moment to show that if you have the number 58 in the second to last slot, there are only two possibilities to fill that last slot with either 59 or 60. This was a hard concept for my first grader, but with practice through playing this game together, he’s learned a lot about numbers!
Mobi
I actually sent a picture of us playing this game to my son’s teacher, and she purchased Mobi for her classroom! This is like the game Bananagrams but for math facts! You can only use addition and subtraction for younger kids and then work up to multiplication and division. The rules are simple and the idea is simply to practice those facts in a fun way!
Mexican Train
If you’re following me over on Instagram, you know this game has been a family favorite of ours for years from my Stories! My two-year-old requests we play “Meh-key-train” often so she can play with the colorful trains! There are a LOT of different ways to play this, so make your own house rules together!
On your first turn, you want to use as many dominoes as possible to make a long train by matching the numbers. Someone can start a “Mexitrain” where everyone can play and add one domino on each turn. Doubles let you play two tiles at a time, and the whole point is to get rid of all of your tiles and end up with the lowest score. You can literally spend hours playing this game starting with double twelves and ending with double zeroes!
Sum Swamp
This is an addition and subtraction game but it also reviews even and odd numbers as well! This was one of my go-to educational board games for kids in my classroom, and now it’s a family favorite! Roll three dice to add or subtract your way around the swamp. You can try to take the Crocodile Shortcut but don’t get stuck on the Endless Loop for too long before you make it out of the swamp! This is a fun game to play instead of doing an online math game or fact worksheet.
Set
This game has won over 35 awards! I remember playing this game when I was younger. You can play this game by yourself or race with family members to get as many sets as possible! This reinforces properties of shapes, paying attention to details, and just encourages a different way of thinking while having FUN! You can also play one puzzle a day digitally by clicking here.
Tri-Fact-A
There is also a multiplication and division version of this game. This is a great way to practice those math facts and see the relationship between them on the triangular game board. Be the first to lay out all of your cards and yell out “Tri-Fact-A!” to win the game.
Which of these educational board games for kids will you play next?
Have you played any of these games with your family? What are your favorites? Would you add any games to this list?! Let us know in the comments! Don’t forget to take the quiz to find out what type of reader you have here!
