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We’ve spent a lot of time at home this year, and we’ve spent a lot of time playing games — gameschooling, primarily, but some just for fun. Here, in no particular order, are some of our favorite games of 2020:

Money Bags – this game is brilliant for money, especially coin counting, but also some other 1st grade-ish math skills. My easily frustrated, less confident child made huge progress in everything from two digit numbers, coin recognition, change making, skip counting, and even hundreds through this game.

Skyjo – The concept is simple, but it’s fun and easy to play, and it teaches basic addition, subtraction, and some strategy and probability.

Dominion – this game has been my 10yo’s favorite for a couple years now, and this year his 7yo sisters have learned to play too — and play to win. There’s a good amount of reading, of counting turns, coins, points, and strategy. We particularly enjoy the Prosperity expansion.

Quixx Deluxe – this dice rolling game is great for two digit addition, probabilities, thinking about numbers on a number line, and more.

Scrambled States of America – I love this game. It’s so easy to adjust to different levels, has a quick playing time, and is actually fun to play.

Rummikub – My husband’s favorite game as a child, the number combinations, sets, and series are great for working with numbers in a dynamic way.

Dixit – This wordless game is great for vocabulary and language development. It encourages storytelling, use of adjectives, and is genuinely fun to play. We actually play cooperatively, without points, because then it takes the stress out of the game.

Sleeping Queens – No gameschooling list for early elementary would be complete with out this one. It’s been a favorite for a few years, and now my girls are making more and more complex equations as we try to get rid of our number cards!

Boggle – as much as I hate the rattling on this game, it’s a fun spelling game that gets everyone writing. To equal the playing field, I allow my 10yo to “preset” the board, and then my 7yos get to earn for two letter words as their advantage.

Monopoly – This game can go on forever, and it really drives me nuts sometimes, but we’ve been playing U-Build edition that works with the millions and hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is good practice for my 10yo with those bigger place values.

Valence Plus – We LOVED this game a few years ago, and recently pulled it out again and started replaying. I like the way it models the interactions between elements and groups them into families.

Happy Gaming! What’s been your favorite this year?