Games that are Good for Your Brain

[shinyhappypeople]

My kids can smell an educational game a mile away, and usually reject it out of hand.  So, can we brainstorm a list of regular games (board games, active games, pencil and paper games... ANYTHING) that are good for our brains, improve logic, creativity, language skills, understanding of the world around us, etc., but are still - first and foremost - GAMES.

 

For example, my younger DD plays a hangman game on Always Ice Cream because it's fun, but it indirectly supports (enhances? builds?) spelling and logic skills.  

 

Why I'm going here:  10 yo DD will finish TT 3 around Thanksgiving and we can't afford the new level until January so I thought we could take a Christmas break from traditional math and just play a ton of games.  Real games.  Games you play because they're fun and challenging.  Not games you play because they're "good for you."   However, if they're games that sneak in logic, strategy, and other foundational brain skills, so much the better :)

 

So, any great ideas for me?

[Farrar]

How sneaky does it have to be?  I mean, I actually enjoy playing Bananagrams or Scrabble, you know?

 

How about Scribblenauts for spelling?

 

I would just focus on getting good games.  Something like Ticket to Ride or Carcassone has lots of good educational elements to it because they're just good games.

[mom2bee]

Chess is a great strategy game that is tons of F.U.N.

[Eagle]

Blokus, Qwirkle, Swish, Set

[AmandaVT]

Yahtzee, Quirkle, Clue, Chess, Settlers of Catan, Sudoku.

[Belacqua]

I'll second SET. Be warned, though: kids tend to kick adults' behinds at that game. I think I may have won exactly one hand of SET in all the years I've played it (pattern recognition, apparently, is not my best event).

[Julie Smith]

Chess is a great strategy game that is tons of F.U.N.

 

Chess is great. :)

[Tsuga]

Scrabble, Quiddler (another word-making game but not really "educational"... just nerdy), Gobblet, Pentago, poker. :)

[Pen]

chess, backgammon, Quiddler, Mastermind, Monopoly or its derivatives including Element-O, Go (if you can figure it out), 9 Men's Morris

[happypamama]

Labyrinth. And Ticket to Ride.

[OneStepAtATime]

Dominoes, Tri-ominoes, Trivial Pursuit (tons of different versions), chess, Story Cubes, Pentago, Skip-Bo, Yahtzee, MIneCraft (neighbor's 10th grader used Minecraft for a project in Geometry class and got an A), lots and lots of card games....

[duckens]

Loverboy read an article in ?Science? magazine 5-6 years ago.  (It was one of the prominent science journals). 

 

The question was, "How do we teach math to low-income households, in a non-complicated way?"

 

The answer: GAMES.

 

Examples given:

Chutes and Ladders teaches counting order to 100.

Monopoly teaches doubling (when you get a monopoly), and counting money.

[Kareni]

SET,  Quarto, and Iota are great games.

 

We love Bananagrams.  And, hey, it's also available in other languages:

 

Italian Bananagrams

 

French Bananagrams

 

German Bananagrams

 

Spanish Bananagrams

 

Hebrew BANANAGRAMS®

 

Norwegian BANANAGRAMS®

 

Sadly, no Latin version!

 

Equate (Here is a link to the Junior Tile Set.)

 

Math Dash

 

Stratego

 

Regards,

Kareni

[shinyhappypeople]

I like these suggestions.  Thank you :)

 

A surprise hit this week was Cranium.  There are only 3 of us home during the day, so each girl is her own team and I'm the "floater" and play both sides. I love how it makes them think.  Totally creative!

[chaya]

right now my boys (12 and 10) are into chess, stratego, othello, backgammon, parcheesi and monopoly.

 

on my list for the next game buying binge are clue and yahtzee. maybe scrabble too. and boggle.

[bearcubmama]

I love everything from SmartGames. Great for logic! http://www.smartgames.eu/en/smartgames

 

ThinkFun also designs a lot of puzzle and logic games. http://www.thinkfun.com/shop

[Lori D.]

Well, all of these games were well-loved here, without anyone ever thinking they were "educational":

 

MATH

Shut the Box (adding, with strategy) -- I think it's flipping of the numbers that made this one such a hit

Yatzhee (adding / multiples)

Fill or Bust (adding)

Mille Bourne

Monopoly (money) -- regular, but then esp. Star Wars edition -- and then, making our own Chance and Community Chest cards!

Go For Broke (money)

Life (money)

Careers (money)

 

SPELLING/VOCABULARY

Boggle

Qwiddler

 

LOGIC / STRATEGY

Mastermind

Secret Door

Amazing Labrynth

Scan (old Parker Brothers game)

Set

221 B. Baker (like an expanded version of Clue)

Mancala

Battleship

 

GEOGRAPHY

Risk

Ticket to Ride

[Luckymama]

Adding dd13's favorite game, Qbitz http://www.amazon.com/MindWare-44002W-Q-bitz/dp/B0031P91LK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383653411&sr=8-1&keywords=Qbitz

[wunderlong88]

Two great strategy games that will make you think and your kids will love them:

Hive (kind of like chess but more fun and with bugs)

Mr. Jack Pocket

[ladydusk]

My kids really love the 10 Days in [Continent] games.  Logic, Countries, Geography in a fun package. 

[mommymonster]

Checkers, cribbage, war (addition or subtraction), sudoku, Settlers of Catan, Battleship. We like the Math Sequence game, but my oldest is 8, and it might be less challenging for you DS10.

 

If you have an iPhone or iPad (maybe other devices, not sure), Lego has this awesome game called Life of George. You nee a building set (physical) and a free app. You build a little Lego thing, scan it into the app, and then it "rates" your accuracy and how quickly you do it. It has been great for my son's fine motor skills, observational skills, and planning skills. 

[Guest liketolearn]

Metaform is a great game for kids to develop logic and problem solving skills. It is a single player game i.e. a series of puzzles of increasing difficulty, from age 4 - adult. I love math and problem solving, and find the hardest problems pretty hard to solve. It appeals more to kids who like spatial thinking.