Favorite educational games?

[Nitenites]

I'm just looking for some fun games to add to our collection. I've found Sun Swamp Addition and Subtraction Game and Scrambled States of America (there's a card game.) What others do you have that your children have enjoyed? 

[dubatatamama]

We love What's GNU?  http://www.amazon.com/Think-Fun-7760-ThinkFun-Whats/dp/B00073JTQQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293843759&sr=8-1  and we just got Sum Swamp (that you mentioned earlier) for Christmas and LOVE it!!!

[Niamh]

Rummikub has become a recent favorite. We also just got Qwirkle and it's a lot of fun. Mastermind is fun. Countdown and any version of Monopoly are good math games.

[AAK]

Shut the box

Blokus

Memory -- expanded to where we make cards to fit our purposes

[rzberrymom]

It depends tremendously on the age, but my kiddo loves No Thanks (math), Qwirkle (sets, strategy), Carcassonne (spatial reasoning), Coloretto (math), Skippity (another great one by the Qwirkle lady), gin rummy, chess. Boardgamegeek.com is a GREAT resource, and there are all kinds of threads on the best games for each age group.

[Momsteader]

Rack-O is a favorite here of kids and adults. And for Christmas we got 'Travel-Mania' which is a geography game and we've been playing the heck ouf that one!

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by Niamh 

Rummikub has become a recent favorite. We also just got Qwirkle and it's a lot of fun. Mastermind is fun. Countdown and any version of Monopoly are good math games.

I went to amazon to look up countdown and found many games with that name. Which one do you like?
 

BTW, I bought Sum Swamp. My 5 year old loves it.

[caefi]

My kids' current favorite is Apples to Apples. We also enjoy Boggle and Scrabble.  The younger kids like alphabet Bingo, esp when I use Scrabble or Boggle to help. They also like this game we found that is go fish with dice. The dice have different colors and you roll each turn, so your "hand" is always different.  The preschooler loves the Eric Carle games (found at Target) and Good Night Moon, too!

[SparklingGemini]

Originally Posted by caefi 

My kids' current favorite is Apples to Apples. We also enjoy Boggle and Scrabble.  The younger kids like alphabet Bingo, esp when I use Scrabble or Boggle to help. They also like this game we found that is go fish with dice. The dice have different colors and you roll each turn, so your "hand" is always different.  The preschooler loves the Eric Carle games (found at Target) and Good Night Moon, too!

We LOVE Apples to Apples!

Scrabble is my favorite game but NO ONE in my family will play with me.

Bananagrams and Quiddler are other fun words games.

[umsami]

My family used to love "Take Off."  It's a geography game where you have a fleet of planes which you fly around the world from capital to capital.  Learned all of my capitals that way (although back when I had it, it had the USSR which made things easier LOL).  Totally impressed my international finance prof who gave us a surprise world map quiz. ;)

I honestly think all board games serve educational purpose--even if it's "just" teaching how to be a good winner/loser.  It doesn't have to be a "math" or "spelling" oriented game. (Although we do play a lot of math games with our Right Start math kit.)  My kids are 7, 5, 3, and 4 months... so we play lots of Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Horton Hears a Who Dr. Seuss Game, Uno, Sorry, Trouble, Connect 4, Mousetrap, etc.   I want to buy Clue Jr., Boggle Jr.,  and Monopoly Jr. too. 

Oh, back when I was a Christian, we used to love Bibleopoly too. LOL

[dbsam]

We had 'game night' tonight and played Sum Swamp for the first time - purchase based upon the OP's review...thank you!  It's fun, but I wish it came with a second set of dice with higher numbers to make it a little more challenging.  I am going to go the the teacher supply store and look for additional dice.

We also played Money Bags for the first time.  It is a good game for my daughter because she has difficulty putting together coins to make certain totals.  I am going to replace the plastic coins with real money to make it a little easier.

Someone gave us an old Guess Who game a couple of years ago and my children love it.  I think it helps with logical thinking...and it is fun.  I've considered purchasing it for a gift but I've read reviews saying the newer versions are not as fun, do not have as many options for play (faces, appliances, animals, etc), and are not made as well.  If you can find an older version it is worth the purchase.  It was a nice game to play before they were reading; they could play it without an adult's assistance.