Educational Games For Older Kids

The thing that makes educational toys or games effective is that they hold a child’s interest long enough for the toy to promote new learning. Educational games can vary from traditional blocks and puzzles to wooden houses, and they also include the technological gadgets that encourage children to read, write, and learn language.

Toys may have evolved and improved throughout the centuries; but regardless of whether you choose traditional toys or one that needs plugging into the grid for your children,as long as it's something that they can learn from, does it really matter?.

The time-proven Reader Rabbit software offers a fun and systematic approach to learning. It has playback technology with 40 storybooks, perfect for kids who are already in pre-K, because by this stage they already have some background with the alphabet. It provides games that don't bore children, and it's so entertaining that they won't even notice that they're learning.

The Reader Rabbit software also has a recording feature that allows parents to track their child's progress, and it further allows the user to choose what level to begin or play. The controls are easy enough for a 4-year-old, making it a wonderful tool to help them learn to use the computer. All in all,  it's a fun way for your children to learn to read.

Money at first is an unknown concept for children, but if you introduce the ideas of counting and money early on, they soon realize its value.

This game combines coins with a colorful board game. It involves earning money while the players proceed on the cartoon path. Turning the spinner determines how much money you get from the bank. This is a great way to teach addition by means of combining coins to make up a certain value of money.

The Qwirkle board game is played like Scrabble but instead of letters, it uses shapes on the tiles. Toddlers will appreciate the shapes and colors, even though the rest of the game may be too complex for them - unless they're teamed up with someone older. Children from age 6 to 10 will be able to compete well with adults.

This game is a great diversion, at about 30 to 45 minutes per round. Players don't have to spend a long time thinking up strategies, as there are no special boxes for special scores.

If you are looking for a family game that is enjoyable for both young kids and adults, this one's worth considering.

Lego Building Sets have always delivered popular educational games. All children enjoy playing with Lego, and love nothing more than having their own sets to play with, though most kids tend to want many different sets, rather than one or two.

Lego, as a toy, is great fun, but as an educational tool it encourages creative games, spatial thinking, and advance planning. Using nothing but Lego blocks and their imagination they can create houses, ships, communities and a whole lot more. This Lego 405-piece set includes a building plate, windows, wheels, doors, and mini figures. It has instructions for building five houses, with 25 photos for inspiration. It also includes the container box for easy storage.

The more advanced Lego building sets are not appropriate for children under 3 years old because of all the small parts but finding the right set for a toddler (Duplo bricks) is certainly time well spent, and it's also reassuring to know that Duplo and Lego are compatible with each other.