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Board games are the perfect way for families to spend some quality time together. Not only are they incredibly fun to play, but they can also be incredible learning tools.
As a parent I have been able to spend hours upon hours spending quality time with my son while unbeknownst to him, teaching him mathematical, vocabulary and problem-solving skills.
And the best part? It doesn’t even feel like learning!
I have recently spent time reflecting on how board games played a key role in my development as a young child and through my teenage and adult years. I have recently researched and wrote a whole article on the benefits of board games and just how good they are for you.
In this article I am going to be looking at the 18 best educational board games for kids and adults to play together. I think its best if I break them down into the skills the games teach so that it is easy to create a rotation and keeps things fresh and interesting.
The 18 Best Educational Board Games for Kids and Adults
Reading, Phonics and Vocabulary
Geography
Mathematics and Money Management
Strategy & Problem Solving
Reading, Phonics and Vocabulary
The following board games are brilliant when it comes to teaching your children how to read, pronunciation of words and how to string grammatically correct sentences together.
Bananagrams
Players: 1 – 8
Duration: 15mins
Ages: 6+
Bananagrams is my absolute top pick for educational board games. It is a game you can play with children as low as 6 years old and is still fun to play as an adult.
Recently when travelling me and my wife played endless games of Bananagrams on the plane (granted we are children stuck in adult bodies!).
The game is fast enough that young children are able to remain focused and the perfect tool for teaching children how to spell.
The game is essentially 144 plastic letter tiles, each player gets a handful of letters and tries to make the biggest ‘crossword’ (essentially scrabble without the board).
When playing with my young son – I just let him play by himself and help him when he gets stuck. I have noticed a huge improvement in his spelling and vocabulary just by playing this game a few nights a week and he has heaps of fun spelling!
Scrabble Slam
Players: 2 – 4
Duration: 15mins
Ages: 8+
The card game version of the classic Scrabble. This game is another super fun game to play – this game is all about being able to spell words out fast and increasing the vocabulary of four-letter words.
In the game each player is dealt a hand of cards. The cards are double sided and both sides have one large letter.
The game starts with the players spelling a four-letter word in the middle of the table.
Players then replace one letter at a time as fast as they can to create a new four-letter word. The winner is the first player to run out of cards.
While speed is the name of the game for teens and adults – you might want to take it easy when playing with the little ones until they get the hang of it. From experience it doesn’t take long and soon they will be going slow for you!
Tall Tales
Players: 2 – 99
Duration: 30mins
Ages: 7+
Tall Tales is a story telling game. This is a great game to not only increase your Childs reading and vocabulary but also stimulates their imagination and creative thinking.
The game is a deck of cards and items with a story element to them. Players put their hand into a bag and draw out a random game piece and a card and tell the best story that comes to their head.
The game is non-competitive and allows children to use creativity to create their own stories.
We like to play the game by one person starting the story, the next player continuing it using one of the pieces/cards and so on.
It’s a really fun game to play with children, because their imaginations are so incredibly wild and random.
Me and my wife have been rolling on the floor laughing at some of the insane stuff that my son comes up with – seemingly out of nowhere!
The game also has a lot of other rules and ways to play including over 50 detailed game pieces.
Sequence Letters
Players: 2 – 4
Duration: 15mins – 30mins
Ages: 4+
This game is a children’s take of the board game ‘sequence’. The game is made specifically to teach young kids how to learn their letters and letter sounds.
To win the game players need to match pictures of objects on the board with cards that have the same beginning letter as the object.
For example, if a player has the letter ‘A’ on one of their cards – they are able to place it on a picture of an Apple.
The aim of the game is to be the first player to get five objects covered in a row.
Boggle Jr.
Players: 1 – 2
Duration: 10mins
Ages: 3+
Boggle Jr. was the first spelling board game I played with my son. It is a simple, really fast game that involves learning to spell 3-letter words.
In the game you provide 8 cubes (dice) with letters on them and put a card in the game tray. The child then has to use the letters on the dice to spell the object on the card (car, dog, cat etc).
Once they have mastered the 3 letter words – there are also 4 letter word cards.
Apples to Apples Junior
Players: 4 – 10
Duration: 30mins
Ages: 9+
This game is slightly suited towards older children – however if your child is a strong reader then you should be fine.
The game starts with two decks of cards (green and red).
The green deck contains describing words such as bold, kind and angry.
The red deck contains people, events, places and things.
Each round players choose the best red card from their hand to compliment the green card word.
The ‘judge’ (player who draws the green card for the round) then chooses the best combination and awards that player the green card as a point.
The player at the end of the game with the most green cards wins.
This game is perfect for teaching children adjectives and how to incorporate them in their writing.
Mathematics and Money Management
Teaching maths to children and teenagers can be an almost impossible task. The problem is if the problems are hard, it’s easy to lose focus and get bored.
Board games are a great way to teach maths to children in a way that is fun, but also applies a real world and competitive aspect to the numbers.
Monopoly
Players: 2 – 8
Duration: 60mins – 180mins
Ages: 8+
I don’t think Monopoly needs any introduction. One of the most famous board games ever, and a staple at family board game nights.
The game focuses on the management of money as players roll dice and move around a board to buy real estate while being introduced to real life concepts such as rent and…… TAX.
The game – while it can be frustrating at times, is a brilliant way to teach children about money and introduce them to concepts such as tax, buying assets and strategy.
Sum Swamp
Players: 2 – 4
Duration: 20mins
Ages: 5+
This game turns simple addition and subtraction into a full-on adventure for children.
The game takes place on a board (sum swamp) with multiple paths, hazards and loops players need to work through in order to ‘escape’.
The way players move forward is to roll 3 six-sided dice. Two of the dice have numbers (1-6) and one has an addition or subtraction symbol (+ or -).
The player arranges the dice in the order [big number] [Function] [small or equal number]. They then need to solve the equation – if they are right, they get to move the number of spaces that is the answer to the equation.
Example: I roll a 6, a 4 and a ‘-‘. I must arrange it as follows 6 – 4 = 2. If I answer correctly, I can move 2 spaces.
This game is amazingly fun to teach children their basic addition and subtraction skills.
Head Full of Numbers
Players: 2
Duration: 10mins
Ages: 7+
Head full of numbers is another dice game. The game has a cup (shaped like a head) where players put six dice and roll them onto the table.
The six dice are then placed into a tray with the numbers rolled facing up for all to see.
A timer is started and the players need to write as many equations as possible using the numbers.
For example, the numbers rolled out of the head are 7, 2, 2, 3 ,6 and 4. Some possible equations are below:
4 + 2 = 6
2 + 4 = 6
2 = 2
6 – 4 = 2
6 > 4
The player with the most CORRECT equations wins!
Moneybags
Players: 2 – 4
Duration: 20mins
Ages: 7+
Money bags is an educational board game that teaches children how to add and exchange money. Money skills are some of the most valuable mathematical skills to teach.
The game comes with 100 plastic coins, bills, markers and dice. These all represent proper USA currency.
Players work their way through the board to the finish line by, collecting, counting and exchanging money between the other players.
Geography
Geography for me was probably one of my worst classes at school. I struggled to learn flags, capital cities or even where certain countries are on the globe!
If it wasn’t for board games like the ones below below – I’d probably still be just as much in the dark today as I was back then.
Ticket to Ride
Players: 2 – 5
Duration: 30mins – 60mins
Ages: 8+
Ticket to ride is an incredibly simple game to learn and will help you learn the North American geography in no time.
The game is extremely popular and to many is a must have game during family game nights.
The idea of the game is to collect various train cards that can then be used to claim railway routes around North America.
The longer the routes you have the more points you earn. There are multiple other objectives that also earn you points like the longest railway, destination tickets and goal cards.
This board game is really fun to play and has the added benefit of teaching your children all about the states and cities in the USA!
There are also versions of the game that have Countries from all over the world!
Flag Frenzy
Players: 2 – 6
Duration: 10mins
Ages: 6+
Flag Frenzy is an educational board game all about learning the flags of the world.
The game is a fast-paced card game whereby players race to match flags from 57 countries around the world.
Each card in the game has 8 flags on it and every set of two cards has at least one flag in common.
The idea is to locate that flag and play your card – then move onto the next one.
The first player to deplete their hand of cards wins!
Where in the World
Players: 2 – 6
Duration: 45mins
Ages: 8+
This is a great board game to play with your children to develop their geographical knowledge and world awareness.
The game starts with players becoming familiar with the names of different countries and the regions in the world these countries are located.
The game progresses into learning about the natural resources of each country, the languages, religions and more.
There are six different sets of rules depending on the players knowledge – ranging from very easy to incredibly complex (even by adult standards)!
Strategy and Problem Solving
Probably one of the greatest life skills I learned while playing board games is the ability to think strategically and problem solve.
These skills are incredibly important to learn as they are used in most aspects of one’s life – from social conflicts to one’s career.
Chess
Players: 2
Duration: 60mins
Ages: 6+
Like Monopoly – I don’t think I need to introduce the game of Chess. It is the most popular board game in the world and has been around since 1475.
The game is focused on an 8×8 board whereby alternating light and dark pieces are moved strategically with the objective to take out the opponents king piece (check mate).
The game is played by millions of people worldwide and while it is easy to learn how the different pieces move, it is incredibly hard to master.
The game focuses purely on strategy and being able to think several moves ahead.
Strategic thinking is a skill that needs practice – and Chess is the perfect tool to do this.
Note: Playing Chess with your children is fun. Losing to them while actually trying… is defeating!
Catan
Players: 2
Duration: 60mins
Ages: 6+
If you have read one of my articles before, then you know how much I love the game of Catan.
Catan is a masterpiece of a game. It is the game that got me into modern table top games and showed me just how fun these board games can be.
It is also an amazing educational board game.
The game focuses around an Island called Catan. Players need to build settlements and cities on this island in hexagonal tile pieces.
Each tile produces a different resource – wood, grain, brick, sheep or stone. These resources are the key to the game and teaches the skill of resource management.
During the game players are able to trade these resources among each other – teaching the skills of negotiation and bargaining.
The goal of the game is to reach 10 victory points. There are a multitude of ways to do this (143 different ways in fact).
There are also multiple expansions for Catan which change certain elements of the game and how the mechanics work – making the game incredibly deep and able to be played over and over again.
Risk
Players: 2 – 6
Duration: 120mins
Ages: 10+
Risk is another classic board game. It is suited for older children as the game is a soft ‘war game’, where the goal is world conquest.
Players take turns in the game which consist of:
- Gaining reinforcements (based on territories held);
- Attacking other players (combat is determined by dice roll);
- Moving armies to adjacent territories.
In order to win the players, need to think strategically, not only about their territories, but how to position their armies and also focus on what the opponent players are doing.
Rush Hour
Players: 1
Duration: 10mins
Ages: 8+
Rush hour is a great solo play board game that will develop your Childs logical thinking ability.
Admittedly the game is also really fun to play as an adult.
The game is simple in the fact that it consists of a play board that is 6×6. The player chooses a ‘challenge card’ from the deck and organises the cars as shown on the car.
The objective of the game is to get the red car – off the board. The only way to do this is to move the other cars (which can only be moved in straight lines).
The puzzles start really simple and become more and more complex.
Wise Alec Family Trivia
Players: 2 – 6
Duration: 15mins – 60mins (You decide!)
Ages: 8+
Wise Alec Family Trivia is a brilliantly crafted family board game that adds a fun twist to a quiz style board game.
The rules are set in a way that there are a number of different ways to level the playing field if you have a family of different ages or abilities and they have incorporated a brilliant ‘Wise Alec’ card system that adds a bit of sillyness into the game.
Players move around the board and have the opportunity to earn points by answering a selection of questions, brain teasers or tongue twisters.
The game was created with the overarching goal to promote a health and active lifestyle, good manners and to reinforce learning in a fun way while leaving players egos intact.
Wise Alec was also awarded Dr. Toys 100 Best Childrens products.
Final Thoughts
Playing board games with your children as a family is not only fun, but also educational! The above games are what I believe to be the best educational board games for kids and adults.
I have personally used the above games to help teach my son and a lot of these still end up getting a decent amount of table time when it comes to our family gaming nights!
