What is Gameschooling | Everything You Need To Know

Although we are fairly structured in our homeschool, we still enjoy playing educational board games as part of our home education. But what is gameschooling?

It is just a more fun way to learn that also encourages free thinking and less pressure, gameschooling is the best!

In this post, I am going to share with you everything you could possibly need to know about gameschooling.

What the best games for kids are, whether it is right for your homeschooling style, plus the many benefits of gameschooling.

**This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate and a participant in other affiliate programs, I earn a commission on qualifying purchases.**

Table of Contents

What is gameschooling?

Gameschooling is simply learning through play.

This can be through board games for kids (our favorite) or online games. Any game whether it is educational or not can be used for gameschooling, as they all have benefits.

You can either choose the game based on the subject, see at the bottom of the post our favorites, or just play organically. Every educational board game has some benefits whether it is obvious or not.

How to start game schooling?

All you need is a deck of cards and the desire to play with your children.

It really is as simple as that.

We love board games, but we know they can be expensive. So we always ask for a board game as gifts. Over the years, we have accumulated hundreds. But you can always borrow them from your local library if they offer that.

What are the benefits of gameschooling?

There are so many benefits to playing while learning, I could go on endlessly about all the reasons this should be part of your homeschool curriculum. But I will list the top 20 benefits of game schooling if you are not convinced:

helps with communication skills
critical thinking skills
strategic thinking
helps with focussing on tasks
regulating emotions
helps with listening skills
great for following instructions
patience
helps with taking turns
understanding different points of view
helps with empathy
self-monitoring
connection with family
reduces stress
prioritizing and planning (especially with strategy games)
paying attention
working memory
flexible thinking
assertiveness
increases brain function

I could go on. But I think you can see the benefits!

These gameschooling benefits are not just for kindergartners and elementary aged kids either. We continue to play board games now my son is in middle school, and I know we will continue to play them in high school.

We tend to play them now when my son needs a brain break, which is at least once a week.

Over the years we have accumulated hundreds of board games, in pretty much every subject imaginable. Carry on reading to see our favorites by subject.

Games for homeschooling by subject

As we love gameschooling we like to incorporate it into our homeschool as much as we can.

These are the best board games for kids by subject, for kids of all ages.

Gameschooling online

Online games are great for kindergartners and elementary-aged children. We have not yet found any good gameschooling online games for middle schoolers and above.

If you have please let me know in the comments.

Night Zookeeper (you will get 50% off if you follow this link!) is an excellent writing and spelling game for elementary aged kids. Especially for kids who need a little more help with writing. Check out our Night Zookeeper review for more information.

Adventure Academy is a fantastic educational online game perfect for elementary aged kids. It covers math, science, and language arts, and my son loved it. Check out our Adventure Academy review for more information.

ABCMouse is probably the best first online game the kids should have. Perfect for preschoolers and kindergartners, they will learn to read and count. Check out our ABCMouse review for more information.

Free printable games for gameschooling

You don’t need to spend a small fortune on buying board games though, gameschooling can be done for free.

We have put together some of our favorite free printable games that you can start with:

Last Updated on 8 October 2024 by Clare Brown