Are you looking looking for board games that are fun and educational for your kids? These geography games are outstanding to help kids learn about different countries, practice their map skills, and have fun with their family and friends.
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Scrambled States
Loosely based on the book (there’s also a puzzle) by the same name, Scrambled States is described as a “whimsical, mad-dashing geography game” for kids and families to play together. It is simple (the player who gets the most state cards wins), and looking at their map and while playing and completing the challenge cards, kids begin to understand the states’ relationships to each other, distances, their size and shape, whether they are on a coast, touch Mexico or Canada, etc. Recommended for age 8+, but younger kids can play if they have help reading the state names (or can recognize the shapes of the states!).
Ticket to Ride Europe, Asia, India, USA, Nordic Countries, or UK edition.
I grew up playing Rail Baron with my family, and so when I found this, I instantly liked it! With 240 train cars playing on a game board map, 2-5 players travel across the map building railway lines of different colors. This is wonderful family board game because it is easy to learn and you can play it over and over. You can buy these expansion kits to play with your trains/pieces from Ticket to Ride- Europe: Ticket to Ride- Asia, Ticket to Ride- India, and Ticket to Ride Heart of Africa! Ages 8+.
10 Days in Africa
This game come highly recommended by several friends, a homeschooling family, readers of KidWorldCitizen.org, and adoptive parents hoping to teach their kids about geography! The name kept popping up and now I am looking to buy one for my kids. The simple idea is to find the fastest route to travel across the region by making connections using various transportation methods. One of the reasons this game comes so highly recommended is that it is a simple concept with no little pieces, that is so fun, adults really enjoy it with the kids. Also available: 10 Days in the USA, 10 Days in Asia, 10 Days in Europe, 10 Days in the Americas. Recommended for ages 8+, but my friends say they pair the younger kids with an older partner.
Name that Country Game
This game was recommended to me by a 4th grade teacher, who likes to use geography games during recess on rain days. This board game has a world map and spinner built in, with cards that teach locations, capital cities, landmarks, and important facts about countries around the world. Players need to locate the country on the world map before moving on, and extra points can be earned from identifying their “pen-pals'” countries (from separate postcards). Ages 6+.
eeBoo USA Bingo
Finally a geography game for the really little ones! They’ll learn about the United States: their locations, their capitals, and their industries. While playing a Bingo game with a geographical twist, the game cards group the states into regions to teach kids the relative locations. We do lots of long car trips around the US, and finally the kids are at an age to remember and recognize the states’ names- this reinforces the US geography in a fun way! Ages 4+.
**I did not receive any compensation or free items from this review, all opinions are my own!:)
I’m sure I’ve missed some great ones: what are your favorite geography games? Please leave them in the comments and I can update the list!
These all look great! I also saw puzzles that teach geography. The series is GeoPuzzle, and they have puzzles for USA, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
I know:)- I need to do another post on puzzles! So many fun resources once you start digging….
Great games – I’m pinning this! Will be great to refer to each year as I collect our homeschooling materials. So glad there is one that even the littlest ones can enjoy!
Ditto!!! I have a couple on my list for Christmas…..
We love “Children of the World” from Barefoot Books. You pair up a boy and a girl from different countries learning their names and how to say”hello” in their respective language.!
I use other books from Barefoot for story time and we take imaginary trips on whatever transportation we decide on that day ( some times it’s a magic carpet) We talk about what we do or see there and depending on the age you can have the kids make up a travel journal
Oh, I am so glad you mentioned this game- I have not played that before! Is it like memory? How nice to do some language introduction as well! I love Barefoot Books!!