Top Ten Tuesday - Games

Last night for Family Night I got to choose the activity. I went to the game closet and quickly picked one that I knew we could all play together. I picked the game of Uno. We had a great time playing the game. Even Henry had his cards out in front of him and he would put the cards on the stack when it was his turn. Ian did great matching both colors and numbers. As all good home schoolers do, we saw a learning opportunity. So as we played we taught the children how to say each of the colors in Spanish and German. After playing a few rounds we saw that it was time to start the bedtime routine so put the cards away. Ian broke down in tears. He said "I didn't get to win, I want to win". We tried to distract him and move him along to pjs and such but there was no distracting him. He was inconsolable. He didn't care that others won but he just wanted his turn to win. So in the end we broke out Candy Land and made sure Ian made it to King Kandy first. Then we could all go to bed.
We Love to play games in this house. You can learn so much from playing games. So for today's top 10 list I thought I would mention 10 that own and play often. There are many more that we would love to own and hope to play one day. But these are what we play for now.

1. Uno - A great easy game for the family to play. Kids can match colors and numbers pretty early.

2. Sum Swamp - My kids love this one for some reason. Sophie can do the math but Ian can't yet. They love that the markers are a frog, snake, turtle and snail. This is great one for adding and subtracting practice.

3. Sequence for Kids - This is one I picked up when it was on deep discount awhile back. Sophie has been so excited about animals that I thought it would be a good one for her. The kids can play this without me but forget that the goal is to get 4 in a row. So I have to remind them or hope that it just happens.

4. Candy Land - We play this one a lot because it is one the kids can play without too much help from me. They can see the colors and move their markers along the path with no help on my part. Also the game doesn't usually take too long.

5. Checkers - Can't beat the old standards. We have played Checkers a few times recently and Sophie and Ian are starting to learn the rules. Mostly they just like to say "King Me". There isn't much strategy going on yet but it will come with time I am sure.


6. Pattern Blocks and Tangrams - Not officially a game but we consider it a game. We have the books Patternables and Tangramables to give us some great problems to try to solve. Sophie often takes the pattern blocks and starts to make her own pictures too.

7. Pretty Pretty Princess - I know there isn't a whole lot of educational value with this one but it is good for learning to take turns. And the boys love this one because they get to wear a crown, ear rings, etc. Ian seem to request this one a lot when it is his turn to pick a game.

8. K-9 CapersThis game is a memory game but with a twist. You have to collect cards in numerical order. My kids love to play this one because you get to roll the dice which is always fun but also the silly dog pictures make them laugh. I look at these gamewright games all the time and know of a few more that we will be adding to our collection around Christmas time.

9. MancalaThis is one we are working on at the moment. I am teaching the rules to Sophie. She hasn't quite grasped it yet but she will shortly I am sure. Can't beat these classic games.

10. Boogle Jr. - I am actually a little disappointed in this one. I think that the regular Boogle game is much better than this Jr. one. Sophie plays this every now and again but it isn't that much fun since you play it alone pretty much. She does like the challenge of spelling the words but looses interest quickly if I am not right there to watch her do it.

There are a number of games in the game closet that are there gathering dust waiting for the kids to be ready for them. I look forward to playing Settlers of Cattan and Upwords in a few years when the kids can play with lots of small pieces without losing a bunch. My husband can't wait to play Monopoly and Risk.

There are a few in the closet that we could probably pull out and give a try. The game of Life is kinda fun. We also have a number of card games like Skip-bo and Rook that are also fun.... we need to play more games I can see.