Family Board Games that Double as Preschool Educational Manipulatives

Homeschooling might seem like an expensive endeavor. But it doesn’t have to be. 

So many things that you already have at home can be used as educational tools for your children!

One of my favorite places to look for preschool supplies and manipulatives is our game closet…

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Board Games that Double as Educational Supplies…

 

Rummikub is a great game to with grade school kids, in involves sequencing and patterns. But while my kids are still in preschool, we like to use the numerical tiles for all sorts of math related fun! The numbers go 1-13 and there are four colors as well. Number recognition, counting, addition and more can be practiced with these fun tiles!

Bananagrams is one of my favorite games. It’s basically a fast paced Scrabble that doesn’t make me feel like an idiot for only using short words. I love using the squares in our preschool learning! All the letters are upper case and there are plenty of repeats. We practice letter recognition, spelling and more!

Jenga is a classic dexterity game. But they’re also easy to find and the thrifty store and personalize for your educational needs. Write on the wooden blocks with a permanent marker, things that you’re working on like sight words, vocab words or whatever. If you’re child is capable of playing the regular game, have them spell or define each word after they pull out that block. Or if they’re not quite ready for that fine motor challenge, have them do the same thing while BUILDING the tower.

Qwirkle seems like a simple game, but the longer you play it, the more strategies you’ll come up with! We love using it for pattern play with our preschoolers. Instead of letters or numbers, each wooden tile has a colored shape. For younger kids, I have them copy the pattern I make. For older kids, they have to continue the pattern that I’ve begun. The possibilities are endless!

Dominoes another great math manipulative. It certainly assists with counting as the numbers are not written out. It’s a great way to get kids matching, or adding/subtracting!

Dice may seem boring, but there are about a million ways to play with them. Kids find them especially intriguing. Role two dice and add or subtract them. Roll six dice and put them in order of least to most. Some die even have more than six sides so the number combinations can get pretty advanced!

 

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to educational supplies you can find in your home. Let me know what you use to help your kids learn at home, in the comments below!!!