As the kids are going back to school and your house becomes silent, it's time to think about what to do when they come back home this afternoon. My suggestion, being a game store blog is, of course, games! Why, what did you think I was going to say? Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches? Though those would be good too, to eat while you play a game.

There are quite a few games that are perfect for post school day activity. Ones that are quick, easy, and reinforce what they might be learning that day. I'll break them down into categoris for you.

Math

There are several math games out there: Equate (A Scrabble with math game), Educational Insights Math Shark, and traditional games like Rack-o. But my favorite and, I think , the most fun math game is Numbers League, a game about superheros and math. A series of villians are laid out of various values and a player has to capture the villians using heroes that add up to the value of the villain. An expansion adds in multiplying by negative numbers and simple decimals.

Geography

There are a lot of games that deal with Geography. Atlas Adventures, Scrambled States of America, and even Risk; but my favorite line of geography games are the 10 Days series. Kind of like Rack-O with stats of countries, each game starts with 10 random cards from the region of the game on a rack in front of you. By switching out cards in the draw pile or the 3 discard piles, the winner is the first person to get 10 cards that actually go in a sequence of states and countries that are bordering.

Science

Not a lot in this catagory right now, but the Totally Gross Game of Science and Geosafari's Talking Microscope fill that niche rather well.

History

Oh, boy. Hit the motherload there. We have everything from trivia games like Romans and Egyptians to more strategic games like A Brief History of the World and Through the Ages. GAMES magazine's Family Game of the Year last year was Roll Through the Ages, which is basically Yahtzee meets Civilization. Roll the dice, get resources and people, build cities and develop technologies. One of my favorites.

Reading and Spelling

Lots in this area as well. Scrabble, Bananagrams, A to Z junior and Word on the Street Junior are all great choices, but for te older kids, You've Been Sentenced is my choice. It is to sentences what Scrabble is to words. Each player gets 10 cards with 5 words each to choose from. Then the player tries to make the best sentence they can from those cards. The fun comes in the fact the not only does the sentence have to be grammatically correct, it also has to make sense. There's nothing more hilarious than watching someone trying to desperately justify their sentance about dancing pigs and a guy named Howard. :)

Of course, there are plenty of games that are quick and easy and not neccessarily educational, but that's a blog for another time.

For now, this is Drew, signing off.

What better way to learn than with a fun game.  Having a degree in early childhood development I believe a hands on fun way of learning is one the best ways to teach.  There are so many games out there that parents can play with kids and teachers can have in their classroom that would help to reinforce learning and also help with fun education.  All kinds of games; from Cariboo, to United States Bingo can be of use.

Cariboo is a great game for preschoolers.  It's a great way to start them off learning shapes, colors, numbers, and letters while giving them chance to achieve the goal of finding the magical balls that will unlock the secret treasure.   I have sat down with my nephews and played this game many times and each time we played they both got better at it!

Another example is Pickles to Penguins.  In Pickles to Penguins players are trying to be the first to get rid of all their cards first by finding ways they relate to each other.  They can be related by: use, types of food, same color, or even that they start with the same letter! Pickles to Penguins is a great game to help teach children how things can be associated with each other.

I could keep going on and on with so many other games that teach everything from math, English, manners, to states and capitals.  Also games are great way to help kids with social skills and sharing.  Almost every game can used as teaching tool and teach a child something.  What's your favorite game to use for teaching?