I’ve loved to play board games ever since I was a little girl, and now I am working hard to raise three little gameschoolers.
Today, I am sharing some of our family’s favorite books for gameschoolers. These are books and resources for children who love to play board games.
When you play a board game with your kids, you are teaching them to lose and win with grace. If you have an overly competitive child, games can be an opportunity to teach good sportsmanship and how to handle the frustration of losing. Games help children learn that it is okay to lose! If you have a child who balks at any form of competition, games can help to teach perseverance and resiliency. These are important life skills that will serve your child well down the road.
The Best Books for Little Gameschoolers
It can be tricky to teach children to play board games. I have one child who is ultra-competitive, who always wants to be first, and who hates to lose. And then I have another child who detests any form of competition and prefers to play cooperative games. When we sit down to play games together, it’s not perfect. My kids fight and brag and cry and toss pieces, too. I always try to view our play as practice for the real world. These are the books that have helped teach sportsmanship… and those resources that have kept my little gameschoolers happy and engaged!
The best books for children who love to play board games
Winter is the perfect season for playing board games and getting lost in a good book … or twelve. Today, I’m sharing some of our family’s favorite books for kids who love board games. These books are filled with inspiration and educational ideas to keep your little gameschoolers happy.
Here are some fun nonfiction books for little gamers
Children’s sportsmanship books that teach kids how to win and lose with grace
I want to raise children who love to play, but I also want them to learn to win and lose with grace. I want them to know that there is more to play than winning, that it is okay to lose, and that it is important to be a team player. Here are some of the books that have helped me have important conversations with my children about sportsmanship.
Do your kids have trouble winning and losing board games with grace?
You are not alone. I have a kiddo who struggles with perfectionism. If you can relate, here are two posts that might help:
Love games?
Be sure to check out these related posts, and don’t forget that I have a free 31-Day #GameschoolChallenge happening now!
- How to Choose the Perfect Game
- Building Your Game Closet on a Budget
- Game Closet Organization
- Finding Time to Play
- 10 Tips for a Successful Family Game Night
- Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling with Games
- How to Grow Gamers Using Amazing Gateway Games
- Gameschooling: Learning Through Play
- 100 Games and Picture Books for Play-Based Learning
- Gameschool Resources
Take the learning to the next level with these ideas:
- Make your own board game
- Board Game Templates
- Turn a favorite book into a board game
- Turn a favorite movie into a board game
Now, it’s your turn. Tell me: Do your children love board games? What is your family’s favorite game? Do your little gameschoolers struggle with sportsmanship and winning and losing with grace? What helps? Share here!
Cait has created several courses for homeschool parents. Cait co-hosts The Homeschool Sisters Podcast and is co-founder of Kindred Collective. Cait is also founder of the Family Book Club at My Little Poppies, a fantastic community of book-loving parents and the Gameschool Community at My Little Poppies, a vibrant community of gameschoolers.
Cait is a contributing writer for Simple Homeschool. Her work has also appeared on The Huffington Post, The Mighty, Scary Mommy, GeekMom, and many others. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
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Melissa
I love the word “gameschool” and the idea of your challenge! We do tons of learning through playing games. And we have a saying whenever someone gets upset. The entire family pipes up, “we win and lose with grace and dignity” 😉
Some current favorites are the math and logic games Prime Climb, Little Polka Dots (this was a kickstarter we just got), Romuku, Swish, mancala, and Rush Hour.
Other favorites include Spy Alley, Clue, Battleship, Pass the Pigs, Headbandz, chess, The Scrambled United States, and Spot it, Scrabble, Apples to Apples, bananagrams, and Consensus. My oldest two (11 and 9) are into Magic: The Gathering, but I don’t even pretend to understand how to play.
Our game cabinet is bursting with games. Can you tell?!
I love your saying!
Lauren Menn
Currently we are enjoying Ticket to Ride First Journey with our 4 year old
My kids’ rawest favorite game is Sum Swamp!
Ummm….*newest! Lol! Sorry - wiggly baby on my lap! ?
Ha!!
We like connect four.
Though we have many we love better the biggest hits in our house are Uno & Left Right Center, so our four year old can participate. 🙂 Otherwise Skipbo, Trivial Pursuit, Ticket To Ride, & Scrabble. We just bought Timeline!
Our family loves to look for Hidden Pictures together - we are also big fans of old fashioned card games like Old Maid and Go Fish. Memory is also a big hit 🙂
We have always like the board game Trouble.
Lauren
Thanks for this! My 8 year old wants nothing to do with traditional curriculums so we’ve been doing board games daily! His favorite is Smallworld a fantasy game 🙂
Jena Siegrist
We Love Playing BLokus!
Becky
We’re still experimenting with games. My youngest isn’t a huge fan of games yet. But we’ve been enjoying Ticket to Ride!
Well, my kids LOVE Monopoly Junior, but I’d rather play something that has them learning something, of course. We are all learning to love jigsaw puzzles. It’s not a game, but it’s good for fine motor and no one loses. Ha!
Laura
Our favorite game over here is Sequence!
Michelle
My oldest (almost 7) just got Sleeping Queens (I think as a recommendation from you!) and she and our 5-year old are LOVING it. Beyond that, we really like Go Fish (we have one with pictures, not numbers) that everyone can play, the 2-year old included. Daddy and I like Ticket to Ride, Catan, and Carcasonne, but the kids are too little for those so far! I’m really looking forward to adding to our game collection, it just takes some time!
As far as sportsmanship goes, the thing that helps the most for my kids is to make sure they’re not too tired! And also to not play games that take a long time. Because if we play shorter games then we can play more and everyone has a chance to win more often. When we play something that takes longer and only have time to play once then the loser might be sad. Other than those two things, just coaching in how we should be happy for other people for their successes and teaching them how to do that! I have heard of making the winner clean up the game so as to humble them a bit and give the losers space to mope, though! Maybe when my kids are older!
Melanie
Right now it would be UNO!
Entering give away for What Was It Like, Mr. Emperor and Plenty of Love to Go Around. Favorite game to play together…Quirkle.
Jennifer
My four year old and I really enjoy playing Harvest Time. It’s a cooperative game.
Marcia
My 6.5 y.o. son loves Ticket to Ride and Outfoxed. Last week it was Sleeping. Queens and Scrambled States. We are game schoolers and readers, too! Thank you for the encouragement!
Melodie S.
Right now we’re loving Hit the Habitat trail!
Love that one!
My oldest can not stand to lose, and gets very upset when he does. I share some instances where I have lost games, and how it made me feel to do so. It seems to help. We love chess, Cootie, and Peppa Pig’s Surprise Slides. We are trying to branch out with out games now.
I love that you share personal stories. That helps here, too!
Charis
We love games and have tons, but the kids love to try new ones! Glad I came across all your ideas! A couple current favorites are IZZI, Quirkle, and Phase 10.
Kristin
My five-year-old loves Ticket to Ride Europe and Survive.
We have several “favorites” This weekend it was Dragonwood and Racko.
WE LOVE PLAYING apples to apples at our house.
Our favorites right now are a tie between Race To The Treasure and Outfoxed. Of all the games they got for Christmas those are the most played!
We have too many games to have a favorite! Some that we always come back to- Five Crowns, cribbage, Ticket to Ride.
Right now we don’t have 1 favorite game. At Christmas we added a bunch of new games and right now we love them all. Disney’s Tsum Tsum bubble fever, Eye-found it travel game, and we just got Tenzi. I’m still amazed that my daughter is enjoying Math Dice Jr. Woohoo!
Wendy
Our favorite one right now is Dr Eureka and Jenga as they our newest ones!
My 3 kiddos have become interested in Scene it! Disney edition and Twister.
Rachel R
Right now we are loving No Stress Chess.
Tina
Some of our favorite games are Connect Four, Old Maid, Go Fish, Chutes and Ladder, Trouble. I have to say you enspired me to get our games out and play more. What a hugh difference this has made in our family, we are laughing and talking and connecting. Thanks for the inspiration.
kelley m.
We are currently learning Chess together and we also enjoy Wildcraft.
We really like Quirkle, Sequence, and Old Maid for our littles.
Sue
Our favorite game changes a lot. Our current favorites are Sleeping Queens and Mancala.
lili
our current favorite game is Splendor
Ashley Jenkins
Our current favorite family games are Catan Junior, Apples to Apples, and Ticket to Ride First Journey!
Rebecca
Right now my kids are all about sequence. We also play memory match a lot and they kick my husband’s and my butts!
Valerie
Right now we are loving quixx
Ashley
Our favorite game to play as a family currently is dominoes!
Kate Johnston Tucker
Lately, our family has been on a major (classic) Scattergories kick! My 9 & 11 year olds have been requesting a few rounds almost daily. For my girls, using a timer on many games can be a challenge. More often than not, we play long-form and ignore any stressful ticking minutes. Occasionally, this helps 😉
We have so many board games we love. Currently, the kids are playing Santorini. It’s a fairly quick game and is helping them to learn how to lose/win graciously.
Hayley
My kiddo loves Robot Turtles which helps kids learn coding. 🙂