igao视频网_igao激情视频_igao视频天堂 https://igao视频网/ igao视频网在线观看 igao视频网ing Materials for Parents and Teachers Mon, 18 May 2026 15:09:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://igao视频网/wp-content/uploads/favicon_really_big-150x150.jpg https://igao视频网/ 32 32 https://igao视频网/family-game-challenge/ https://igao视频网/family-game-challenge/#respond Mon, 18 May 2026 15:07:24 +0000 https://igao视频网/?p=26532

Waaay back when my kids were little, we used to love doing the Gameschool Challenge put on by the homeschool blogger and podcasater, Cait Curley. Since her life has moved in a different direction since then, we have missed out on doing this daily challenge each year. My kids are older and pulled in different...

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Waaay back when my kids were little, we used to love doing the Gameschool Challenge put on by the homeschool blogger and podcasater, Cait Curley. Since her life has moved in a different direction since then, we have missed out on doing this daily challenge each year. My kids are older and pulled in different directions as well, like community college classes, sports, and lots of time with friends, so games do not happen anywhere near as often as they did back in those simpler elementary times. This past March, we decided to try to bring back this family tradition and had an absolute blast. I’m hoping to do it again this summer.

Family Game Challenge

The very first thing I did was jump onto Canva and create a printable sheet that we could use to log our progress. I scrolled WAY BACK through my instagram posts until I found the bingo card that Cait posted back in the day. I used most of her ideas and then my kids and I brainstormed a few substitutions.

Our family chose to complete this challenge by starting at the first square and progressing to the right and down like you igao为爱寻找激情 a book, but you could also choose boxes randomly. We did miss probably 3 or four days and made them up on days that we were less busy. At this stage of life, we have to be flexible and take wins where we can get them.

You can see below what we came up with and download it for free to use with your own family at the bottom of this post. We used the version on top that has a light blue background, but since that might be more ink than some families want to use, I also made an alternate with a white background that is a little more printer friendly.

Family Game Challenge 2 versions

For the most part, we used board games for this challenge as our family owns quite a large number of games. (It’s almost embarrassing.) However, we did not ONLY use board games. We played charades for the parlour game and 20 questions for the car game. For the movement game, we played something my kids call werewolf, which is basically a reverse tag game where all the players search for the tagger then yell “werewolf!” and run back to safe when they find them. I wish I’d written down all games we played, but it’s taken me a couple months to get this post up, so it’s a bit of a blur.

Did the games always end happily? Absolutely not. We have 6 people in our family so feelings quite often get hurt. However, this happens far less often than when my kids were young. Another advantage to doing this game challenge with older kids is that this is the first time we’ve ever done this where everyone in our family is solid at igao为爱寻找激情ing. That really opens up what we are able to play. I plan to fill this out more in the future, but feel free to check out my Amazon storefront if you are looking for game recommendations!

Our favorites do change somewhat frequently, but here are some of our favorites that have stood the test of time, in no particular order:

One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Dixit
Not Parent Approved
Skyjo
Forbidden Island

Recommended Age Range: All ages
Time Required: ~10-30 minutes per day (or longer, totally up to you!)
Difficulty: Medium (it does take some planning)
Cost: Free printable

*** Download your free printable here: Family Game Challenge ***

Family Game Challenge Square

I hope your family enjoys this challenge and that it brings you all a little closer together!

Related Links

Homemade Fum for Kids
Tabletop Gaming for Kids
igao视频网ing Activities for Kids

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https://igao视频网/how-to-throw-a-winter-olympics-party/ https://igao视频网/how-to-throw-a-winter-olympics-party/#respond Sun, 22 Feb 2026 05:26:27 +0000 https://igao视频网/?p=26480 Tomorrow is closing ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics. If I were on top of life, I would have posted this BEFORE the opening ceremonies, or at the very least maybe the evening of the opening ceremonies after we threw our party so that this would benefit more people. Alas, I did not. However, the...

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Tomorrow is closing ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics. If I were on top of life, I would have posted this BEFORE the opening ceremonies, or at the very least maybe the evening of the opening ceremonies after we threw our party so that this would benefit more people. Alas, I did not. However, the thing about the Olympics is that they happen every 4 years and the thing about TIME is that it goes by faster than any of us would like. I’m going to go ahead and share our delightful experience throwing a Winter Olympics party in 2026, hoping that it will be helpful to someone in 2030 and beyond. Many of these ideas could even be re-used for the 2028 summer Olympics and I do intend to make a big deal out of that one as well (though don’t expect a timely recounting).

Winter Olympics Party Pin

When my kids were young, we held themed parties with friends more regularly. (For example, see this Gold Rush party or this Soap Sculpture activity that was part of a Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler book club. (In a bizarre coincidence, my family came home from skiing/snowboarding just this morning to find our dog had eaten half a bar of Ivory soap, which happens to the be last remaining bar from the set purchased for this activity all those years ago. I don’t even know where she found it.) What with pandemics and busy lives and growing kids, the number of themed parties we’ve thrown has diminished considerably over the years. Then, suddenly, a few weeks ago, I realized that these Winter Olympics would be the last of my oldest’s childhood. He’s currently 16. The next summer ones will be his senior year of high school. I couldn’t let an opportunity like this pass us by. My kids and I got to work.

Winter Olympics Menu

The easiest place to start was with a menu. My teenage daughter knows how to use Pinterest and we all have a pretty good imaginations. This is what we came up with.

We got the idea to use ice cream cones as Olympic torches off of Pinterest, though the ones my daughter found were filled with fruit. I’m sure orange sherbert combined with Cheetoes has been done by someone somewhere as it seemed the obvious filling choice to my ice cream and chip obsessed crew. I think it really was what made our party the most memorable as half of our guests were fully on board and the other half were completely disgusted.

Olympic Torches Sherbert Cheetos
Olympic Torches Sherbert Cheetos Cone

The next big centerpiece was the fruit, which was a lovely and appreciated contribution from a friend.

Olympic Fruit Platter

My daughter found on Pinterest others who called their bottled water melted snow and we loved it.

Melted Snow Water Bottles

My 13 year old daughter made these Olympic cupcakes and my 9 year old sun helped with the sorting of mini M&Ms into colored bowls to make it easier for her.

Olympic Cupcakes

I really wanted the kids to have some actual nutrition and not fill up on dessert, so I made some peanut butter balls that I regularly make and covered them in powder sugar. The recipe is 2 cups oats, 1 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup chocolate chips and a generous drizzle of maple syrup (maybe 1/4 cup, but I don’t measure).

Peanut Butter Snowball Ingredients

I had initially thought I would make snowball cookies, but I think these peanut butter snowballs turned out better. They definitely all disappeared.

Peanut Butter Snowballs

My daughter, who loves caprese salad, found some mozzarella snowmen on Pinterest and we improvised. These did not seem as popular with the kids, but were a nice adult-ish touch.

Mozzarella Snowmen

At the grocery store, my kids had the idea of calling yellow oreos, gold medal oreos, and we knew we wanted pretzels, so we got straight ones and called them ski pole pretzels.

Gold Medal Oreos and Ski Pole Pretzels

Since we were messing with semantics to eat what we wanted, we also got popcorn and called them snowflakes.

Popcorn Snowflakes

Winter Olympics Decorations

Our primary decorations were banners that we made using folded over pieces of paper that have flags on one side and the country name on the other.

Olympic Flags Banner Kitchen

If you’d like to use these, you can download this Flags of the World printable file I created here. I may add more countries to it the next time when we do the Summer Olympics, but this time, we used 24 countries and strung them across our kitchen and in our living room window. Here is a pictures of our soap-eating dog waiting for guests to arrive.

Olympics Flags Banner

The only other decoration we made was a banner to welcome our guests. I tried to get my kids to help me on this, but all they really did was offer suggestions for what to put. It turns out as they get older, they get more self conscious about their artistic creations.

Winter Olympics Banner

Winter Olympics Activities

The primary activity was that we had the Opening Ceremonies playing during the entire party and watched a few key moments, namely the first 15 minutes, the beginning of the Parade of Nations, when the United States entered, and the passing of the torch and lighting of the cauldron near the end. The fact that opening ceremonies occured during a time when kids normally come over to my house anyway for a weekly chess club was a big factor spurring this party. However, I don’t think watching opening ceremonies is crucial. In the future, if the opening ceremonies are not at a convenient date and time, highlights could be watched or skipped entirely.

Watching Opening Ceremonies

The part of an Olympics party that I don’t think you can do without is a little competition. At our party, we had the following “Olympic games.”

  1. Trivia (I’ll provide some suggested questions below)
  2. Foot race (out in the street, maybe 50 meters)
  3. Standing broad jump (be sure you have some sidewalk chalk)
  4. Cornhole (everyone got 3 beanbag throws. A different parent ran it, but I know they got 1 point for every beanbag that stayed on the board. I think 3 points were for touching the hole and 5 were for making it through, but I could have this off a bit. I don’t think it matters as long as the scoring is clearly laid out ahead of time.)
  5. Jump rope (just the maximum number of jumps before messing up)
  6. Rock Paper Scissors (my 16 year old organized a full single elimination bracket with each individual competition being best 2 out of 3).

I believe those were all the competitions that actually happened, though we had a few other ideas that we would have done if time allowed. The one that I was most hoping would happen was a talent show where a set of judges would get to write a score on one of the 5 mini white boards that I own. The kids were excited to do this, but it just felt overly ambitious to try to squeeze in near the end of the party and by that time, a giant, spontaneous game of tag had broken out.

The whole party lasted 3 hours, but the first 30 minutes were eating snacks and watching opening ceremonies and the last 30 minutes were mostly just tag and hanging out. The 2 hours in the middle that it took to do the competitions with short breaks in between felt more than sufficient. We had about 20 kids total between the ages of 3 and 16.

To honor the winners, I actually used my Cricut to print and cut circle stickers for the gold, silver, and bronze medals. I also used my Cricut to partially cut cardboard circles out of an Amazon box, but my daughter helped with a lot of that final cutting since the Cricut couldn’t go all the way through. She also affixed the stickers to the cardboard circles. To give credit where credit is due, my boys played a big part in cutting and attaching the ribbon to the medals.

In the end, I made 15 each of gold, silver, and bronze medals and then an extra 9 gold medals so that anyone who didn’t win could have a gold to take home as a souvenir. Some competitions, like the running, jumping, cornhole, and jump roping, had 3 age divisions so we needed 9 medals total for each of those competitions. The trivia and the rock-paper-scissors tournament had everyone competing in the same group, so there were only 3 each for each of those. All in all, we made 45 medals and used 42, plus we had the extra golds which came in handy, particularly for the youngest participants who sometimes had mishaps, like shoes falling off in the middle of races.

Here is the Canva Olympic Medal for Party file I created, in case you would like to modify it for your own purposes. I don’t normally share Canva files, so if you try this and have any issues, just reach out! You will obviously have to change the word on top since you probably don’t live in my city and will likely need to change the year as well since I’m so delinquent in getting this post out.

Olympics Trivia

In case it is helpful, here are the questions I asked for my Olympics Trivia competition. I’ll put the answers, though not all of these will be accurate next time.

  1. In what country did the Ancient Olympics originate? (Greece)
  2. In what country are the Olympics currently being held? (Italy)
  3. How often are the Winter Olympics held? (every 4 years)
  4. What did the first Olympians wear during the Ancient Olympic games? (nothing, they were nude)
  5. What color is associated with third place? (bronze)
  6. What do the 5 Olympic rings represent? (regions of the world – Europe, Asia, Africa, Americas, Australia)
  7. Where will the Summer Olympics be held in 2028? (Los Angeles. A good number knew this since we live near LA are are excited.)

I passed out small pieces of papers and pencils. We did the quiz as a group, then we collected pencils and went over the answers as a group.

Since we had a tie for who knew the most, as I suspected we would, I came up with a few tie breaker questions.

  1. In what city in Greece was the first modern Olympics held in 1896? (Athens)
  2. What continent has particpated in, but never hosted the Olympic games? (Africa)
  3. In Ancient Greece, winners did not get gold, silver, and bronze medals? What did they get instead? (laurel wreaths)
  4. What country has hosted the Olympics the most times? (United States)
  5. The motto of the Olympics is, in latin, “citius, altius, fortius.” What does this mean in English? (faster, higher, stronger)

We did not need to use them all, but it was helpful to have a few options just in case.

After Party

Don’t forget to actually WATCH some of the Olympics after your party. The best way to do this I’ve found is to download the Olympics app on your phone. I was able to tell it which athletes and sports we were most interested in and I would get notifications on my phone that helped us watch a few medaling events live.

Olympics App

One other thing we decided to do was have a movie night, just as a family, to celebrate our Olympics-themed day. Personally, we chose to watch Cool Runnings, but The Cutting Edge and Miracle might also be good choices depending on what your family enjoys and has aligao为爱寻找激情y seen.

And that’s a pretty thorough overview of our successful Winter Olympics party! If you decide to use some or all of these ideas, I hope you have a blast!

How to Throw a Winter Olympics Party

Related Links

History Activities for Kids
Social Science Activities for Kids
Robotics Activities for Kids

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https://igao视频网/animal-adventures-rpg-starter-set/ https://igao视频网/animal-adventures-rpg-starter-set/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:15:00 +0000 https://igao视频网/?p=26471 I have been trying to get my kids into Dungeons and Dragons for about 5 years (since my oldest was 10 or 11). The problem is that I grew up knowing next to nothing about D&D and all my attempts at igao视频网ing how to play left me ridiculously overwhelmed. At the time, I bought a...

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I have been trying to get my kids into Dungeons and Dragons for about 5 years (since my oldest was 10 or 11). The problem is that I grew up knowing next to nothing about D&D and all my attempts at igao视频网ing how to play left me ridiculously overwhelmed. At the time, I bought a D&D Starter Set (The Lost Mines of Phandelver) and we had a good time with it, but I really spent 60% of the campaign feeling really lost. If I had known about this Animal Adventures starter set way back when I was trying to igao视频网, I think things would have gone a lot more smoothly. The character sheets are far less intimidating, the rules are stated a little more clearly, and there are a lot fewer of the overwhelming details that leave newbie game masters (hi, it’s me 👋🏽) feeling incompetent.

Animal Adventures by Steamforged Games

Animal Adventures: RPG Starter Set Details

Product: Animal Adventures
Company: Steamforged Games
Website: https://steamforged.com/collections/animal-adventures
Recommended Age Range: Box says 14 and up. This seems a little ridiculous to me. I think that any child that can igao为爱寻找激情 has a decent shot of being able to solve some of these puzzles with adult help. We’ve done several of the puzzles, and I don’t believe there is any “adult” content that would prevent a child from participating. All of my kids, including my 9 year old, had a lot of fun with this.
Price Range: ~$30
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Review

Overall, I am really glad that we purchased this box set, as the instruction manual is of a reasonable length, the story line is fairly simple, the character sheets are cute and easy to understand, and my family had a lot of fun. I also really enjoyed that it came with a map and actual miniature figures that we could move around. I will say that my family did eventually give up on moving so many spaces per turn as is outlined in the instructions. I have enough experience attempting to be a game master for D&D that I now have confidence to just throw out the parts that are holding you up and move forward with what’s fun.

One issue I had when I first opened the box is that it comes with 7 character minatures and character sheets, but of those 4 were girls and 3 were boys. Since I have 2 younger boys who I didn’t think would want to play girl characters, the very first thing I did when I opened the box was laminate the character sheets, then use a sharpie to cover up the name and gender. I told each person in my family to pick a character and then give their character a name and gender. It might have been unnecessary, but this worked well for us.

My only other complaint with this game is that it that it can only be played once. Once you have worked your way through the campaign, it probably wouldn’t be very fun to do the same storyline again, at least with the same people. I feel like I’ve aligao为爱寻找激情y missed the window with my teenagers, but I’m hoping that my younger two kids (9 and 11 years) will use what we did as inspiration to write their own campaigns. That has always been my goal…to plant the seeds in their heads to get them writing for fun.

I didn’t realize this until just now, but the company that makes this starter set has actually written other adventures. I just ordered this Gullet Cove sourcebook which sounds like it has “3 additional adventures.” It does also say it introduces new animal characters and monsters/villains, and I see that the company website sells additional minifigs, but I’m cheap, so I’ll see what I can make work using the ideas in the book without buying anything additional. I assume the book will not have a convenient map the way the starter set does.

Anyway, despite that diversion into other products produced by the same company, I can say with confidence that this Animal Adventures: RPG Starter Set comes with everything you will need for your first adventure. If you are aligao为爱寻找激情y a fan of D&D and familiar with campaigns and the rules of D&D, this will probably not be extremely interesting to you, but if you are D&D curious and want to encourage imaginative play in your kids, this is a great place to start!

Click here for more Board Games Reviews for kids of all ages.

Link to Board Games Page

Best Gifts for Kids

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https://igao视频网/sneaky-sabotage/ https://igao视频网/sneaky-sabotage/#respond Mon, 05 Jan 2026 02:08:11 +0000 https://igao视频网/?p=26468 This game combines many of my favorite elements. It works well with large groups. It encourages puzzle solving and critical thinking. It’s cooperative (for the most part), which generally involves a lower probability that someone will storm out in the middle of the game. It’s a little silly and involves role playing both of which...

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This game combines many of my favorite elements. It works well with large groups. It encourages puzzle solving and critical thinking. It’s cooperative (for the most part), which generally involves a lower probability that someone will storm out in the middle of the game. It’s a little silly and involves role playing both of which all members of my family, really enjoy. It’s average play time is probably about 30 minutes, but it can be played for less time or a lot longer and still be fun. While it does have limited re-usability, I think it is well worth the price and will provide many hours of quality family time.

Sneaky Sabotage Details

Product: Sneaky Sabotage
Company: Finders Seekers
Website: https://sneakysabotage.com
Recommended Age Range: Box says 14 and up. What is it with these games? My 9 year old LOVED this.
Price Range: ~$30
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Review

My family LOVES Finders Seekers. (You can igao为爱寻找激情 my full review here.) I think it is such a great way to get kids exercising their brains and having fun at the the same time. When I started receiving promotional emails about their new game, Sneaky Sabotage, I ordered it right away even though 3 of my kids were not even in the recommended age range. I didn’t know exactly what we were getting, but I figured if it was too old, we would just save it until they were old enough. It turns out, it’s a lot of fun now.

This game is sort of a cross between the puzzles within the Finders Seekers boxes and the game One Night Ultimate Werewolf (which is another one of our family’s favorites — my review is here). In this game, the round starts with each player secretly choosing a character card. Most players will simply be “agents” who are trying to solve the puzzle and determine the secret code word. However, one person will be a “saboteur,” who is surreptitiously working AGAINST the team, trying to thwart their attempts at uncovering the secret word. An “insider” has some extra information that will help the team solve the puzzle, but they don’t want to give away their identity.

Just like in One Night Ultimate Werewolf, this game comes with audio that you need to play on a device. Unlike One Night Ultimate Werewolf, the game doesn’t have an app, simply a webpage that has different videos for you to select depending on the length of the puzzle. You can check those videos out here. At the beginning of each round, everone closes their eyes. The saboteur and the insider each open their eyes, one at a time, and igao为爱寻找激情 the clue on the back of the puzzle. Then, everyone opens their eyes and tries to solve the puzzle for the duration of the time. Could you play without the device? Yes, but it would be good to play with the videos first, so that the person leading the game knows what to say.

The puzzles themselves are of a decent difficulty level. They range from fairly easy to very difficult, but most of them are in a happy spot in the middle that require just enough out-of-the-box thinking to feel satisfying. The hints we’ve found to mostly be comically unhelpful, like “there is a hidden word,” but then some of the other ones are also maybe a little too helpful. It does not detract from the amount of fun we get from playing, but it does make it really hard to identify the insider, since the information they have is often either not very helpful or obvious.

We’ve had a lot of fun playing this game. My kids really enjoy the role playing aspect and are always hoping to be a sabateur. I really enjoy the puzzle solving and am always hoping to be an agent. The one time I was the saboteur, I saw the answer fairly quickly and then just had to subtly waste time for a few minutes. My daughter is the most obvious of sabateur’s asking us to look at skin irritations and using other obvious distraction techniques. While you might not expect it, somehow this game involves a lot of laughing, which is really my main goal when playing with my kids.

The only downside to this game is that there are a limited number of puzzles (only 24 that come in the box), so our specific family will only be able to work through each of those puzzles once, then we may pass it on to someone else. Each game has 4 rounds and so uses 4 puzzles by default, meaning we can play this game 6 times before we use up all the puzzles. Personally, I am hoping that the company comes out with inexpensive “expansion packs,” but even if not, I still feel like this game is well worth the value.

As someone who regularly buys Finder Seekers and other one-time boxed games like Hunt a Killer, I am no stranger to paying for an experience. It’s cheaper than taking my family of 6 to the movies! Just know that the replayability is limited. However, unlike the Finders Seekers boxes, the items within this game are not “used up” or damaged in any way, so you should have no problem passing it on to a new family when you are done.

Click here for more Board Games Reviews for kids of all ages.

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https://igao视频网/mysterium/ https://igao视频网/mysterium/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2025 03:44:10 +0000 https://igao视频网/?p=26458

My goal for the next year is going to be to play more games with my kids. I feel like we used to play games ALL THE TIME and now that my oldest is in high school our variety of games has decreased dramatically. I actually bought Mysterium for my kids a couple years ago,...

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My goal for the next year is going to be to play more games with my kids. I feel like we used to play games ALL THE TIME and now that my oldest is in high school our variety of games has decreased dramatically. I actually bought Mysterium for my kids a couple years ago, but at the time, I looked at the directions, was overwhelmed and gave up. Now that my youngest is 9 and better able to play more complicated games, I decided to give it another shot as a fun post-trick-or-treating Halloween activity. I’m glad I put in the effort to igao视频网, because we had SO much fun. We’ve played a few times since then and I feel pretty confident this is one I will be keeping to play with my children even when they are adults.

Mysterium by Asmodee

Mysterium Details

Product: Mysterium
Company: Asmodee
Website: https://store.asmodee.com/products/mysterium
Recommended Age Range: Box says 10 and up. I think younger kids can play too since there isn’t any igao为爱寻找激情ing in the gameplay, but the directions are a bit complicated.
Price Range: ~$45
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Review

I’m going to start by saying that if you are easily overwhelmed by game directions and you haven’t played Dixit, play Dixit first. This game reminds us of Dixit which is one of our favorites, but Dixit is MUCH easier to igao视频网 how to play. If I hadn’t tried this game once before and given up, I probably wouldn’t have put in the 30 minutes or so it took to igao视频网 how to play this game. I was determined though. I watched a couple YouTube videos (I found this one them most helpful) and then it still took me like 15 to 20 minutes to set up the game the first time by looking at the directions.

The main premise is that there is a murder and one player is the ghost of the murder victim. The ghost has to send “visions” to the other players to help them figure out who the murderer is. The vision igao视频网 are a lot like the Dixit igao视频网 in that they are beautiful and totally random. The “ghost” has to make a connection between a random card and what they are trying to get you to notice and you have to just guess when connection they are making. For example, when I was the ghost, I was trying to direct my fifteen year old to a man who had half white hair and half black hair, so I was giving him vision after vision of black and white igao视频网. He however, kept noticing different things about the subject of the igao视频网 and picked every character before the person I was directing him to.

Not only is this game really fun, but I feel like it is so good for kid’s creativity and flexible thinking skills. In a world where most video games and activities that kids participate in are very structured and cut and dry, it is so refreshing to be able to have fun in a way that encourages your brain to think divergently and make random associations. Now that we know how to play, I can definitely see this as one we will be playing for many years to come.

Click here for more Board Games Reviews for kids of all ages.

Link to Board Games Page

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igao视频网ing Activities for Kid

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https://igao视频网/ungifted/ https://igao视频网/ungifted/#comments Sun, 02 Nov 2025 02:21:35 +0000 https://igao视频网/?p=26453 Now that my older kids are teenagers, I feel like a lot of what we listen to is aimed at young adults to make sure we are capturing everyone’s attention. Ungifted is solidly a wholesome elementary/middle school book and yet everyone is my family loved it. I know I have a winner when I look...

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Now that my older kids are teenagers, I feel like a lot of what we listen to is aimed at young adults to make sure we are capturing everyone’s attention. Ungifted is solidly a wholesome elementary/middle school book and yet everyone is my family loved it. I know I have a winner when I look in the rear view mirror and see my 9 year old and 15 year old laughing at the same time. This is our first book by Gordon Korman and I know we will be checking out more.

Ungifted by Gordon Korman

Ungifted Details

Title: Ungifted
Author: Gordon Korman
Publication Year: 2012
Website: https://gordonkorman.com/the-books/novels/ungifted
Age Group: Late Elementary, Middle School
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Everyone loves a main character who is not too perfect and Donovan Curtis is a lovable character who probably couldn’t be farther from perfect if he tried. The story begins with humorous hijinks that result in the destruction of the school gym and progresses to him hiding out in the least likely of all places, a school for gifted kids. The books is fast paced and keeps kids engaged with short chapters and multiple perspectives. We listened to the audiobook and while usually my kids don’t love when there are multiple narrators for a single book, they didn’t mind at all with this one.

While we just listened to it as a family, I think this would make a great book for a kids’ book discussion or book club as there are a lot of thought-provoking questions that arise from this book about moral dilemmas, what it means to be “gifted,” and the disadvantages of labels. It really is a very heartwarming book even that somehow manages to not be sentimental. My teens are incredibly averse to anything that comes across as sappy or unrealisitic by their standards, but they enjoyed this book just as much as my elementary kiddos.

Honestly, when I chose this book, I thought it was a standalone book, but I’m happy to discover there’s currently a sequel and a third one in the works. We’re all attached to these characters, so I’m excited to get to igao视频网 a little more of their stories.

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https://igao视频网/rack-o/ https://igao视频网/rack-o/#respond Mon, 29 Sep 2025 15:45:00 +0000 https://igao视频网/?p=26240 Eventually, I would like to compile a list of the best math games for kids. This game from the 1950’s would make the cut. Is it the most fun game that I’m going to pull out in my seventies when it’s just my husband and I home alone on a Friday night? Probably not, but...

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Eventually, I would like to compile a list of the best math games for kids. This game from the 1950’s would make the cut. Is it the most fun game that I’m going to pull out in my seventies when it’s just my husband and I home alone on a Friday night? Probably not, but you know what? Maybe. It’s not the most exciting game, but it’s satisfying. There is some strategy in there, but also a healthy dose of luck. It’s simple to igao视频网 and easy to play. This one is a winner in my book, particularly if you have a child who you are tryign to get more comfortable with double digit numbers.

Rack-O Game by Winning Moves Games

Rack-O Details

Product: Rack-O
Company: Winning Moves Games (originally Milton Bradley)
Website: https://winning-moves.com/product/Rack-O.asp
Recommended Age Range: Box says 7 and up, but younger kids can play as well. They just might need someone to help them score at the end.
Price Range: ~$12
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Review

My biggest complaint about this game is that since I have four kids, I can’t play too. I really prefer games that allow up to 6 players, since that’s the size of my family, but we can’t always get what we want. Actually, if I really wanted to, I could buy a second box and then just double up and I think that would work great. The game is cheap enough, that it wouldn’t even be that expensive. I don’t think I will, mainly just because my game closet is aligao为爱寻找激情y overflowing, but it’s nice to know that would work in case my kids ever developed a Rack-O obsession.

The premise is simple. You start with 10 igao视频网 in your rack in a random order. The igao视频网 have numbers between 1 and 60. Players take turns drawing igao视频网 and replacing igao视频网 in their rack until ALL of the igao视频网 are in order from smallest to largest. Then they yell Rack-O and are declared the winner. It literally takes about 2 minutes to igao视频网 and only about 15 minutes to play. Sometimes even just a few minutes if someone gets really lucky!

I think this is a great math game for kids who are igao视频网ing to understand double digit numbers. Even if they were just working on their teens, you could remove all the numbers higher than 19 and tell the child you are only going to play with the first 5 slots instead of using all 10. This will allow children to understand concepts of greater than and less than in a fun, low pressure, motivating way. As they get better at this skill, you could gradually increase the number of igao视频网 and slots used until they can play the full game.

I also love that this game encourages critical thinking skills. There is an end goal of having your numbers in order from lowest to highest. The strategy for making this more likely to be possible probably won’t be obvious to all kids. As a tip, you can tell kids to try to make the card numbers closely match the numbers on the rack itself, because this will leave the igao视频网 fairly evenly spaced and prevent them from backing themselves into a corner. However, as they play more and get better, their intuition for good decisions will improve.

Click here for more Board Games Reviews for kids of all ages.

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https://igao视频网/scythe/ https://igao视频网/scythe/#comments Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:01:00 +0000 https://igao视频网/?p=26307 It’s been a while since we’ve found a book series that ALL of my kids enjoyed as much as this one. We started this series when they were 8 to 14, but now everyone is a year older. To be honest, the premise of this series is a little gruesome, but as my sensitive child...

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It’s been a while since we’ve found a book series that ALL of my kids enjoyed as much as this one. We started this series when they were 8 to 14, but now everyone is a year older. To be honest, the premise of this series is a little gruesome, but as my sensitive child says, “it is NOT creepy.” If your kids liked the Hunger Games, this would make a really good follow-up!

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Scythe Details

Title: Scythe
Author: Neal Shusterman
Publication Year: 2016
Website: https://www.storyman.com/arc-of-a-scythe-series/scythe
Age Group: Middle School, High School
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

I am always happy when I find a book series that my kids are excited to listen to. When we get in the car and the first thing they say is, “Can you turn on the story?” I know we’ve found a winner. Honestly, it’s been a while since we foud one like this that everyone was excited about. We’d actually re-listened to a couple Harry Potter books for the third time before I decided to try this. It was an instant success. This story takes place a few hundred years in the future, when technology has advanced to the point that people can survive “splatting” off buildings and an artificial intelligence known as the Thunderhead has taken over caring for humanity.

The one aspect of life that the Thunderhead has NOT taken over is death. Instead there is a group of chosen individuals known as scythes whose job it is to “glean” people in order to prevent the problems of overpopulation. Generally speaking, scythes are honorable and respected. The first book is all about 2 teenagers, a boy and a girl, who become apprentices to see if they have what it takes to be promoted to the scythdom. There is a romance aspect, but it’s not graphic. The concept is gruesome and some of the scenes are bloody, but the level of detail provided is not really disturbing, even to my child who does not like anything having to do with death. Even he says it’s weird that he likes these books, but he really does.

We have finished the first three books and are currently on the last book, though it is really more of a collection of short stories, which we are still enjoying thoroughly. Honestly, I can’t believe I didn’t know about this series until now. It is on the Time 100 Best YA Books of All Time, though I think the way I heard of it was through Mary Hanna Wilson’s book club on Outschool. These books are so well written, with interesting charcters and a lot of surprise twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. If you enjoy dystopian futuristic novels, then I think this one will definitely be a winner for you too. If you feel a sense of foreboding doom regarding that rapid development of AI and are prone to anxiety, you may want to sit out this book that was ahead of its time.

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  2. Personal Family Favorites: Middle School

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https://igao视频网/finders-seekers-a-review/ https://igao视频网/finders-seekers-a-review/#comments Mon, 01 Sep 2025 14:41:00 +0000 https://igao视频网/?p=26301 Our family is a big fan of escape rooms. In-person escape rooms, ThinkFun versions, Mail Order Mysteries, Hunt a Killer boxes…we like them all. I love that they are predominantly screen free ways to enjoy time together, they promote critical thinking skills, and they are just good, clean fun. These Finders Seekers boxes have a...

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Our family is a big fan of escape rooms. In-person escape rooms, ThinkFun versions, Mail Order Mysteries, Hunt a Killer boxes…we like them all. I love that they are predominantly screen free ways to enjoy time together, they promote critical thinking skills, and they are just good, clean fun. These Finders Seekers boxes have a lot to offer. (This is not sponsored in any way. I paid for these with my own money during one of their frequent sales.) So far we’ve done 3 of them, and I’ve aligao为爱寻找激情y paid for a couple more that we haven’t done yet. This might just be the best entry level escape room style game that we’ve found.

Finders Seekers Mystery Game

Finders Seekers Mystery Game Subscription Details

Product: Finders Seekers Mysetery Game Subscription
Company: Finders Seekers
Website: https://findersseekers.com/
Recommended Age Range: 10 and up
Price Range: ~$30 per month

Review

I am so impressed by the Finders Seekers games. They are definitely worth $30 in my opinion. We have done 3 boxes so far (random ones, not ones shipped consecutively), and I don’t think we’ve had a duplicate puzzle type. They don’t have a formula that they are following, such that these games get old. The people that are creating them must be so creative, because each of the three games was distinctly different. The first one we did had like a murder board where you had to eliminate suspects by gathering Guess Who style clues. The second one was solving a giant crossword puzzle using a journal and momentos that turned in to it’s own suprising clue. (I won’t give it away.) The last one we did used a Paris train map to gather clues that allowed you to complete a paint-by-number. Even the individual puzzles within the games don’t seem to repeat. I’m assuming they must at some point, but we haven’t gotten there yet!

All together, this game takes our family about 2 to 3 hours. There are typically about 10 to 12 individual puzzles that need to be solved, though unlike other escape rooms, such as the ones by ThinkFun, they do not need to be solved sequentially. Multiple people can be working on separate puzzles at the same time. While our 9 and 11 year old do not often solve puzzles on their own, they are frequently able to contribute in some way and our 11 year old has cracked a few.

The individual puzzles themselves are frequently based on creative concepts like menus, postigao视频网, photographs, even a fortune cookie. Some of the games require the use of a device in some way, either to igao为爱寻找激情 a webpage or use a QR code, but for the most part, the screen aspect is small if present. All the boxes provide hints if you get stuck. Our family really tries hard not to use them, but we do still usually do at least one or two hints per box. Often they are things that I think, “yeah, I literally never would have thought of that,” but the hints have been sufficient for us to get the answer with just a little help. Tip: don’t forget to use EVERYTHING in your box. At first I thought they were sending us some novelty items like an apron, then realized they were actually clues too.

In terms of price, Finders Seekers boxes definitely beat in-person escape rooms and the Mail Order Mystery boxes. In-person escape rooms are arguably more fun, but they are typically shorter and cost a LOT more. We do them at most once a year due to price. Mail Order Mystery boxes are also nearly 3 times as expensive and not as great at promoting critical thinking as there is actually very little puzzle-solving. They may be a better choice for kids who are under the age of 8, but Finders Seekers actually makes a junior version of their boxes as well for kids under 10. Since all but one of our family members has aged out of this group, we haven’t tried the junior version, but if they are similarly designed, they are probably really great as well.

My 15 year old enjoys Finders Seekers as much as the rest of us, but has said that he still slightly prefers Hunt a Killer boxes. They are similarly priced and include similar material. Those take a bit longer, but then again, I don’t think we’ve ever used a Hunt a Killer hint, so maybe that’s why. Honestly though, I think the material is actually slightly better in Finders Seekers and they promise that their kits are always family-friendly (no murder or violence), which definitely can’t be said of Hunt-a-Killer. One disadvantage of Finders Seekers is that the kits can’t be reused. The clues are definitely meant to be destroyed as part of solving the puzzle (which honestly makes it a little more fun, in my opinion). When we’ve done Hunt a Killer and Think Fun escape room boxes, I’ve repackaged them when we’re done to pass on to other people. Not a deal breaker, but something to know.

One other slight disadvantage compared to Hunt a Killer is that Hunt a Killer feels more realistic. You are looking through evidence that really could be clues in order to put everything together. Finders Seekers is more like an in-person escape room in that you are solving a bunch of random puzzles to move closer to achieving your goal. They do a good job building each box around a theme, but you have to suspend disbelief to interpret any of these clues as “evidence.” No criminal is going to leave a trail like this for you to follow. This matters very little to me, as we have so much fun playing the game and solving their puzzles, but it’s just something else to be aware of.

One advantage of Finders Seekers, particularly if you have kids and even more so if you’re homeschooling, is that there is some igao视频网在线观看 value. It’s not a ton, but each box is tied to a place. So far we have done Prague, San Francisco, and Paris and we have igao视频网ed a little about landmarks and the culture in each location by doing these boxes. It’s sort of like watching the Amazing Race (which our family also does and calls igao视频网在线观看). What you igao视频网 of the place and culture is superficial, but in my mind, it is still valuable, because connections are being built in kids brains that they will be able to draw on in the future.

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https://igao视频网/imaginative-photosynthesis-lesson/ https://igao视频网/imaginative-photosynthesis-lesson/#respond Mon, 18 Aug 2025 14:52:00 +0000 https://igao视频网/?p=26369

Six months ago, as part of my induction process to clear my teacher credential, I had to have a mentor teacher observe me giving a lesson and provide feedback. From Science is WEIRD’s free Egan education workshops, which I’m a little obsessed with, I knew that I wanted to do a lesson that was a...

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Six months ago, as part of my induction process to clear my teacher credential, I had to have a mentor teacher observe me giving a lesson and provide feedback. From Science is WEIRD’s free Egan education workshops, which I’m a little obsessed with, I knew that I wanted to do a lesson that was a little different from a traditional lesson. Kieran Egan was an igao视频网在线观看 philosopher who spearheaded a form of education which he called Imaginative Education. Some argue this makes it sounds unserious, but in my mind, it just makes it sound fun. Would you like to do a boring lesson on photosynthesis? “Why, no, thank you. I think I’ll pass.” How about an imaginative lesson? “I’m listening…”

Imaginative Photosynthesis Lesson

Honestly, I’m not sure if I did my Eganized lesson “correctly.” I’m trying to igao视频网 more about his model in my freetime, but I’m no expert in this. What I do know is that I used my imagination, I asked the kids to use theirs, and we all had a good time. The tools that I tried to use from Egan’s framework were storytelling, role-playing, emotional engagement, extremes, humor (because honestly, it was a little ridiculous), vivid imagery, riddles, the binary of life/death, and the heroic quality of saving the world from a super-villain. The kids that I gave my lesson to were a homeschool group between the ages of about 6 and 14. I did go through it a little fast and the lesson lasted about 20-ish minutes.

Initially, I was having trouble figuring out how to Eganize the lesson. The first step in creating a lesson using Egan’s framework is to figure out what’s wonderful about it. That part didn’t seem too hard, because photosynthesis is literally the reason why life on Earth exists. Without it, there wouldn’t be plants and the food chain would collapse fairly rapidly. We oxygen-dependent creatures eventually wouldn’t be able to breathe. But what do you do with that? I was stuck. Then, Brandon from Science is WEIRD suggested that I be a super villain with a photosynthesis off button. At 5’2″, I’m not physically very threatening and I smile constantly, so I didn’t think anyone would buy it, but that gave me the idea to pretend like we were trying together to defeat a supervillain with a photosynthesis off button.

I played around with AI and got it to make me a Photosynthesis Off button that turned out surprisingly well. I gathered clue images using both a royalty free website and AI when I couldn’t find what I wanted. I got the idea to make an official looking letter asking us to solve the case that I could pass around. The morning of the lesson, I had the idea to put everything in a manila envelope labeled TOP SECRET. Even my teenager got pretty into it. As we were driving to the lesson, he changed my ring tone to something that sounded very Mission-Impossible-ish and we worked out a code phrase for him to call me at a specific moment at the beginning of the lesson to get the ball rolling.

Overall, I think it went really well. There were around 15 to 20 kids and even the older ones were clearly amused. The feedback I received from my induction mentor was that all the kids seemed very engaged and nearly all of them actually spoke or contributed in some way. It probably helps that these were all homeschool kids that I know to some degree, so they were more or less willing to go along with my nonsense, but I think it’s fair to say we all had a good time and nearly everyone hopefully igao视频网ed something.

Recommended Age Range: Elementary, Middle School
Time Required: 20 to 30 minutes, plus extra if you want to start a leaf collection
Difficulty: easy, but requires an adult to lead the child or group of children
Cost: Free printable

Materials

  • paper or device with screen
  • manila envelope (optional)
  • cup of water (optional)
  • leaf (optional)
  • flashlight (optional)

Free Printable

Photosynthesis Lesson – Complete Packet with Instructions

Photosynthesis Lesson – Just the Printables

Instructions

  1. PART 1: SET THE SCENE – Print the printables packet or load it up on a tablet or other device if you are using technology to share the clues. If you are printing it out, consider putting all the paper in a manila envelope and writing TOP SECRET on the outside. As you are getting your lesson started and talking to the kids casually, pretend to receive communication from a secret agency. You can either have someone in the audience call your phone and pretend to answer it, or have someone deliver your Top Secret envelope to you, or pretend to receive an important transmission on your device. See the instructions packet for an actual script you can use to introduce the evil Dr. Shrubslayer and the Photosynthesis Off button.

    Top Secret Package

    Photosynthesis Off Button
  2. PART 2: PHOTOSYNTHESIS – The next step is to get kids to understand a bit about the chemical reaction that IS photosynthesis. What are the inputs? What are the outputs? Try to think of this as a dialogue. See what the kids aligao为爱寻找激情y know. Ask them to think about what plants need to grow. If they need help, you can show them the clues. Even if they don’t need help, you can still show them the clues to make more of a visual impact. Photosynthesis needs sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide (what we humans breathe out).

    Light Water Carbon Dioxide

    The outputs are oxygen (that’s an oxygen tank on the scuba diver) and glucose (a type of sugar).

    Oxygen Sugar

    If you would like to help kids remember this reaction, ask for 3 volunteers, one to be water, one to be light, and one to be carbon dioxide. One child will hold a cup of water and you can stick a leaf in it. Next have another kid shine a flashlight on the leaf, and have the third kid blow on it. Ask everyone to imagine the oxygen coming out of the plant and take deep breathes to breathe it in. Ask them to also imagine it growing very slowly as it uses up the sugar to get bigger.
  3. PART 3: IMPACTS OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS – Now that they know what photosynthesis is, the students have to decide if they want to help capture Dr. Shrubslayer and stop him from using his Photosynthesis Off machine. (We’re busy people. We can’t stop EVERY super villain that comes to town.) In order to decide whether we want to go to the trouble of helping, we need to know why photosynthesis is important. Again, have a conversation and see what the kids aligao为爱寻找激情y know. Ask them to think about the inputs and outputs of photosynthesis that we just discovered and what could happen if that reaction was not taking place. Show the visual clues as needed to either prompt an answer or highlight an answer given. The answer are that if there was no photosynthesis, we would all be hungry (talk about how even carnivores rely on plants), the land would be barren, and we would all struggle to breathe.

    Consequences of No Photosynthesis
  4. PART 4: CHLOROPHYLL – Hopefully at the end of the last section, the kids will decide YES, it’s important that we thwart the evil plan to end photosynthesis. Now introduce the next part of the role-playing game. Say that a secret code word is required to break into his facility and destroy his device. Thankfully, we have a riddle to help us figure out what the code word is. Again, refer to the Instruction Packet for a suggested script. Present this riddle:

    Chlorophyll Poem

    Use the riddle as a starting point for discussion. Have the kids decipher what the riddle means, line by line. What sort of word are we looking for? Once they figure out that it is a chemical that makes plants green in summer, but goes away in fall, see if anyone knows the word. Whether they do or don’t, show them the visual clues to help them remember the word: a pool for CHLOR, a donut for O, and candy filling for FILL. Chlor-O-Fill –> Chlorophyll

    Chlor-O-Fill Clue

    Once they figure out the secret word, pretend to call it in and act like they have saved the world. They have kept the planet green and alive instead of barren and dead!

    Before and After Saving the World
  5. PART 5: LEAF COLLECTION (optional) – Since the group I did the lesson for was an outdoor nature group (Wild + Free), I wanted to give them something hands-on to do that involved nature. I brought little sheets of paper and crayons and challenged the kids to make leaf rubbings of as many different types of leaves as possible. The younger kids tried it, but at this point the preteens and teens mostly wandered away to socialize, which was fine too.

I hope you have fun igao视频网ing a bit about photosynthsis in this unconventional way! If you try it out, let me know how it goes!

Imaginative Photosynthesis Lesson

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