Does anyone sell these ? I have made file folder games for my little one. There's not much for my older ones. Wondering where you could buy something like that ?
I do not know about games that are sold as being educational, but we use Monopoly, Yahtzee, Scrabble and games like that some. My son is in 3rd this year. Not sure what games we could use as he gets older though - good question!
Dominoes are good for quick addition (get the double 9s, double 12s. or double 15s set). You can also use them to "manufacture" math facts to solve (such as draw one and compute with the two numbers in whatever fashion you choose, or draw two and compute the four numbers in some way). Yahtzee and Kismet (a similar game) are great for math. So is keeping track of points in lots of different games. Monopoly is great, but for younger kids or shorter games, Monopoly Jr. is fun too. Regular playing cards can also be used to manufacture math problems. Let the face cards equal 11, 12, and 13 if you like. You can play "War" (we call it Battle), such that the first one to add, subtract, or multiply (decide which ahead of time) the values gets the cards, regardless whether their card is higher or not. But if the child is wrong, you get the cards, if it's just the two of you. Boggle is a really good game for shorter words. Scrabble is of course good for longer/more obscure words. I really want to try that new electronic version with five pieces that scores your words for you. Upwords is a good variation of it too. I haven't seen one of these in years! http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3458561 It's a trivia game with 3 levels of difficulty so all ages can play together, called Go to the Head of the Class.
I keep my eyes open at yardsales and thrift stores.. I have gotten Gramopoly (a grammar game), 'Smath (a math game), Presto Change-O (money), Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego (geography) and I think a few more that way. We also have one called Diploma Dogs a more kid based trival pursuit-ish game. I also use things like Rack-O, Monopoly, Life, Yatzee, Boggle (and boggle JR which I LOVE), Scrabble, and what ever else is floating around there..lol. Get the RainbowResources gift cataloge.. I drool over the games in there, also I think there is a website that has boat loads of educational games.
If you want real games that cultivate critical thinking, plus all the math and communication, you can't beat Mayfair games: http://mayfairgames.com/ (specifically their Settler's of Catan series) or Rio Grande games: http://www.riograndegames.com/ (we are fans of Carcaconne) Another one that REALLY emphasizes learning skills (sets, words, etc) are Out of the Box games: http://www.otb-games.com/ (we own SEVERAL of these, and they are relatively inexpensive) All of these games are MUCH more exciting than scrabble or Carmen San Diego, IMHO!
