Ok, so you've bought or made your Tiny Polka Dot cards from yesterday's newsletter, and you're ready to play a game. Let's do it!
Below you will find a game recommendation for every grade level. But don't feel constrained by my recommendation - try out any game that sounds fun! And you can find a ton of other ideas at the Tiny Polka Dot site.
As I mentioned yesterday, this week is Math for Love week here at Games for Young Minds
Yesterday, I shared Prime Climb, one of my favorite board games for older elementary kids (and teenagers and adults, too!). Today, I'm going to share a different game that is ideally suited for early childhood and young elementary kid:
Tiny Polka Dot.
I've heard from a bunch of you, and one consistent theme is that parents want games that help kids practice multiplying, addition/subtraction, and fractions.
Message received! I'm working on the other two categories, but I'm ready to go with three fantastic recommendations for multiplication games.
One thing to note: I firmly believe that a game is most fun when it doesn't feel like math class. I don't want to play a game that feels like a worksheet, and neither do your kids. So if I recommend a game, it's because I firmly believe is a great activity that just happens to use math as a gateway to the fun. And these three recommendations, particularly the last one, totally fit that bill.
A couple of months ago, I shared my Holiday Gift Guide for 2019. The guide included some mainstays from the Haines household in 2019, as well as a couple of games we had barely played but seemed promising.
Well, it turns out I was definitely right in one case. My son has become totally obsessed with one card game in particular:
It's called Sushi Go!
A few weeks ago I got a recommendation for a game from a Twitter buddy of mine named Paul. So I googled around for a bit...
Spatial reasoning? Check
Multiple strategies that can lead to victory? Check
Easy enough to teach my almost-5-year-old daughter? Check
A game board made from interlocking hexagons that change every time you play? Check.
This game and I were meant to be. It's called Battle Sheep.
This week's game is a recommendation from one of my colleagues at UAB. He's a real-deal mathematician, so when he sent me the link and told me that "some of the puzzles are quite challenging" I got a little scared.
But as it turns out, this puzzle game is extremely approachable! My almost-5-year-old daughter can solve some of the first puzzles, while my son is stuck at around the midpoint of the puzzles. Personally, I'm about 3/4 of the way through, and man... my coworker wasn't kidding.
So no matter how old your kids are, they'll definitely find puzzles in this game that are right in the sweet spot of challenging, but not impossible, to solve. And the game is magnetic, which makes it a perfect diversion for any holiday-related car or plane rides.
The game is called Brain Cheeser.
Did you know that my local library has a board game collection where they let you check out board games for free?
NEITHER DID I!
How is that possible? Well, it turns out the Hoover Library is just about the coolest place ever. I asked the woman who runs the board game collection, and apparently there are only a couple of libraries in the entire state of Alabama that loan games. I'm just lucky enough to live 15 minutes away from one.
I took my son there a few weeks ago, and I noticed a game that I hadn't seen since I was his age. We immediately grabbed it and had a fantastic time playing.
The game is called Labyrinth.
For the third year running, I'd love to share some of the best games I've played over the past year. Just like previous years, I've broken the suggestions down by age range. In each age group, I've highlighted a game from a prior newsletter, as well as a game that I haven't gotten the chance to write up yet.By the way, many of the links in this email are affiliate links, which means that you help support the newsletter when you purchase the games (the price to you is the exact same). And if you don't find your perfect game, you can always check out my recommendations from 2018 and 2017!
Read MoreTwo years ago, I sent out my first newsletter from Games for Young Minds.
At the time, I had a double-digit subscriber list, a list of ten games I wanted to recommend, and a vague sense that parents needed advice for how to help their kids engage with math at home.
Since then, I've recommended over 100 games, developed or adapted a few of my own, and even started a video channel to share some of my all-time favorite games. I've also learned a whole lot about games, math, and parenting along the way.
Today I'd love to share four big things I've learned since starting Games for Young Minds.
My son's birthday was earlier this month, and as a result I (er, I mean, he) got a ton of great new games!
One of them in particular caught my son's eye with its bright colors and simple gameplay. I've already thought up a couple of variations that I'll share below!
The game is called Dr. Eureka.
Some of my favorite classroom activities are the Four Fours or the 2019 Game. I love the way they allow kids to be mathematically creative while also practicing important skills such as writing expressions and equations.
Well, someone took that principle and made a great little game with it. The game is called Head Full of Numbers.
