Top 10 Educational Games to Play as a Family with Kids Aged 6 to 12
Why Play-Based Learning Matters—Especially at Home
It's 6 PM. The dinner’s in the oven, your child is slumped at the kitchen table groaning over a math worksheet, and you’re trying to calculate whether you have the patience left to help them find the area of a triangle. That’s when it hits you: maybe learning doesn’t always have to feel like this. What if, instead of another homework battle, tonight could be fun—and still include real learning?
Between school stress, attention challenges, and different learning styles, many parents of children aged 6 to 12 struggle to find the right balance between help and harmony. But what if we shifted the setting? What if learning didn’t only happen at the table—but on the living room floor, in the backyard, or in the middle of a rousing after-dinner board game?
Here are ten of the best educational games that your family can enjoy together—each designed to nurture curiosity, build skills, and most importantly, bring some joy back into your routine.
1. The Word Hunt Adventure
This quick and active game is perfect for early readers and vocabulary-builders. Write down a list of words from your child’s current reading or spelling list, hide them around the house, and turn it into a scavenger hunt. For every word they find, they have to use it in a sentence (the sillier, the better). You can even set different levels for older siblings.
Want to encourage your child to recap what they’ve been learning without watching them tune out? Consider creating a word list together by snapping a photo of a recent lesson or worksheet and transforming it into a custom quiz using an app like Skuli, which can even turn lessons into fun questions tailored to your child’s pace and needs.
2. Build-a-Town Strategy
Using LEGO bricks, recycled materials, or even a drawing, work together to build a fictional town. Assign roles: your child is the architect, another parent or sibling is the mayor, and someone else becomes the town planner. Along the way, sneak in measurements, basic geometry, and storytelling elements. This is open-ended, collaborative, and deeply creative.
3. Trivia Dinner Nights
Instead of screen time after dinner, try hosting a family trivia session. You can take turns asking questions about science, history, or strange facts—bonus points for questions that relate to your child’s school topics that week. Make it funny, make it fast, and include everyone. You’d be surprised at how kids open up in a pressure-free, game-show-style setting.
4. Math Dice Challenge
All you need are some dice (you can even borrow them from another board game). Roll two to three at a time and create equations your child must solve. For example: roll a 4, 5, and 2—how many ways can you make 20 using these numbers? This combines logic, multiplication, and creativity. Make it a race or a cooperative mission depending on your child’s temperament.
5. Story Cubes, Reimagined
Storytelling is one of the easiest and richest ways to build language skills. Use story cubes or make your own: symbols, characters, or random household objects drawn on paper scraps. Take turns picking three at a time and weaving them into wacky tales. Tip: If your child has a hard time focusing during reading homework, you can also transform written lessons into audio adventures so they can hear the material as part of a creative narrative—sometimes they remember more when they’re the hero of the story!
6. Kitchen Chemistry
Baking cookies? That’s math and science right there. Mix some baking soda and vinegar, and it’s a hands-on chemistry lesson. Build circuits with fruit and metal? You’ve just entered STEM. Kids adore being 'real-world scientists'—use measuring, timing, and observation tools to turn your kitchen into a mini lab once a week.
7. Memory Match with a Twist
Create a custom memory-matching game using index cards or photos. Instead of matching identical pictures, pair a question with its answer (e.g., “3 x 4” and “12”), vocabulary words with their definitions, or French terms with their English counterparts. This is a wonderful approach especially if your child needs support with memory retention.
8. Nature-Based Learning Quests
Go on a family walk and issue learning challenges en route: count how many different leaf types you can find, identify shapes or patterns in nature, or sketch what you see. This is a breath of fresh air—literally—and breaks away from the desk-focused stress many kids associate with 'learning.'
9. Historical Role-Play Nights
Let your child pick a historical figure and 'be' that person for dinner. Everyone gets 10 minutes to ask them questions about their life. Researching, preparing, and performing all build powerful connections to educational content without it ever feeling like a textbook exercise.
10. Board Games with Educational Twists
Games like Scrabble, Rush Hour, Ticket to Ride, or Math Bingo offer naturally embedded learning. Modify the rules if needed to suit your child’s current level. If your child resists traditional learning, structured games with gentle educational targets might be just the motivational shift they need.
What Really Matters: Connection Over Perfection
When a child struggles in school—whether it's a tricky subject, a learning difference, or emotional stress—it’s easy to feel helpless. But the truth is, what they need most isn't perfect explanations or constant correction. They need a consistent message: “You’re not alone, and learning can still be fun.”
If your child zones out with textbooks but lights up during playtime, follow that light. You can always circle back to the schoolwork—but on your own terms. Even during boring car rides, they can listen to lessons read like stories, with their own name included, thanks to tools like Skuli’s personalized audio adventures. That’s not cheating. That’s learning—reimagined.
No family finds one single method that works every day. But when we shift the focus from pressure to play, our kids begin to show us how they love to learn. And that, more than any worksheet, is where the real growth begins.