One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is the ability to play all the games. Seriously. There are SO MANY educational games out there. Not only are games fun and engaging, but can offer a plethora of lessons… from letter recognition, colors, shapes, spelling, addition, subtraction, geography, history, science, money… not to mention cooperation, turn taking, patience, fairness, and how to be a good sport. As we get further into our homeschool journey, I will share the games we purchase and love per subject, but since we are just starting out, I thought we’d start with some simple games for preschoolers/pre-k/kindergarteners.
My daughter has loved playing games when its homeschool time. Some days we will work on handwriting/book work and follow-up with a few games or sometimes we nix the books entirely and grab a stack. It’s all education and it has been a joy to be a part of it.
If you have littles in the same age-range, maybe some of these would be great for the holidays. Whenever family asks for ideas for my kids, I always send along games and art supplies… two things we can never have enough of!
Okay! Here are our favorites lately.
Count Your Chickens – A cooperative game that is simple for little ones to follow and enforces counting, taking turns, and visual recognition.
Super Why ABC Letter Game – My daughter loves Super Why and it has helped her with letter recognition and sounds. This game will grow with her! Some of the cards are hard (the Wyatt deck) so we play a modified version but it is great for letter recognition, rhyming, and phonics.
Candyland – A classic that deserves a spot in every home! Kids love this game because it is so visually appealing and I know when I was a kid, I loved the fantasy aspect. It is the perfect game for kids learning their colors and how to take turns/be patient.
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel – This is probably Willow’s favorite game of the bunch. She loves using the squirrel contraption to pick up the acorns! It is the perfect game to reinforce color recognition, matching, strategy, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills.
Boggle Junior – This is a gentle way for me to introduce spelling/reading in pre-k. We are holding off on formal curriculum until next year (when she is closer to 5) but this game is fun to match letters/words with the picture. There are two levels so it can grow with emerging readers.
Chutes and Ladders – A great game for kids who have not learned how to read yet. Gentle and fun practice for counting and number recognition up to 100.
Hi Ho Cherry-O – Another color/counting game classic. This reminds me of the Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel. If you want one or the other, my kiddo prefers the squirrel! But I scored this at the thrift store for $1.99 so… why not!
Zingo! – Like bingo but with words. It is great for pre-reading skills and matching!
Cheese Dip – I found this at the thrift store and it is so simple and awesome for pre-readers. It helps with learning 3 and 4-letter words.
Bananagrams – We do not play the game by the rules just yet but we just mess around with the letter tiles. I have worked on things such as rhyming by switching out the first letter and reading to her. (Example: C-A-T spells cat. H-A-T… HAT! P-A-T… PAT!) This is such a fun game in general for all ages so it is going to grow with us.
Dominos – Such a simple things but we not only set them up and knock them down, but also count and do some basic addition using the dots. I found this awesome sheet to supplement!
Jenga – Hand-eye coordination, strategic thinking, fine motor skills, patience, precision, structural awareness/engineering… seriously. This game brings it all and it is one of the most fun and iconic games out there. We love it!
War – Grab a good ‘ol fashioned deck of cards and play war! This is great to teach “more than/less than” and counting. It’s such a great introductory card game.
Bingo – I have printed and laminated SO MANY seasonal bingo sheets. Seriously… Google whatever kind of bingo you want and I guarantee you will find free printables. We love playing this with our homeschool pod. It is great for social skills and also to further their knowledge on whatever theme you go with.
Sum Swamp – A gentle, fun, and engaging way to introduce addition and subtraction. Early math doesn’t have to be boring!
