Are you looking for a way to make memorizing those states and capitals more fun? Or how about something to challenge the geography whiz in your family?
Geography games are a terrific way to reinforce learning. After all, kids love games, don’t they?
I’ve found some first-class games over the years to play with my kids. They’ve helped my kids to become familiar with locations of the states. They’ve acquainted them with some landmarks. They’ve introduced them to some interesting trivia. All-in-all, we’ve gotten our money’s worth in educational value.
Here’s a play-by-play of the games we’ve enjoyed over the years.
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Fun Geography Games for Kids!
U.S. Geography
Snapshots Across America
If you want your child to become familiar with various attractions in the U.S. including the Smithsonian Institute, Harpers Ferry, and Albuquerque’s International Balloon Festival, then you might want to consider Snapshots Across America. Players travel across a map of the states by car, train, boat, or plane to the sites of tourist attractions that they have drawn. Players can slow each other down by playing cards with inclement weather and closed airports.
One of the things I liked about this game is that each attraction card includes a brief description. That helps the children to learn about these fascinating places.
I also liked how it familiarizes children with the location of the states.
The one downside to the game was that the instructions were a bit confusing. But, we were still able to figure it out.
Details:
For 2-6 players
Ages 8 and up
Mood: Quiet
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Magnetic State to State Game
With Magnetic State to State, you get both a game and a magnetic puzzle of the United States. That’s because the board is the puzzle. So if you don’t have time to play the game, your child can play with the board as a puzzle. State magnets include the name of the state, capital, and landmarks. Very nice.
The game is very easy to play. Players begin on a starting state and race to be the first to reach the ending state.
Reading isn’t required so young children can enjoy the game with older children.
This was one of our favorite geography games when my children were young. My kids loved how the game played. I liked how it helped them to learn the location of the states and the state capitals.
The only flaw we found with this game was that it took a little extra time to set up, but it was worth it.
Details:
For 2-4 players
Ages 4 and up
Mood: Quiet
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego
If you would like a fun trivia game about the U.S., you might want to get Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego. Players race to find a matching set of a Warrant, Loot, and Crook. They must answer trivia questions and travel across the U.S. to uncover them. Once a complete set is found, players must work together to catch Carmen by placing capital city tokens on states. This game is a good test of knowledge of the U.S.
What my kids liked best about this game was that it was a different mystery every time. That made it a different game every time.
And of course, it’s always fun to try to catch Carmen Sandiego.
The only challenging part of this game is the trivia questions. They stumped me sometimes, but fortunately multiple choice answers make it a little easier.
Details:
For 2-6 players
Ages 8 and up
Mood: Quiet
Level of Difficulty: Moderately difficult
Scrambled States of America
If you haven’t shared the book The Scrambled States of America with your kids, you’ve really got to add that to your list of things to do this school year. It’s a hilarious book.
The game based on the book doesn’t disappoint. It has the same funny characters as the book.
Here’s how the Scrambled States game play goes. Players each have a set of state cards in front of them. These cards include the shape, name, capital, and nickname for the state. A pile of Find-It cards are placed in the middle. One of these is turned up and players race to see if they have a state card that matched the description. These descriptions include crazy things like “has a person’s name in the capital” or “state name with 4 syllables”.
This game has been a favorite in our house for years. It’s both comical and exciting. It also makes you use your noggin.
The only drawback to this game is that it doesn’t focus as much on geography as some of the other games do. But we still found it beneficial for getting to know where states are.
Details:
2-4 players
Ages 8 and up
Mood: Lively
Difficulty: Easy
The Scrambled States 2
This game is just as fast and fun as the regular Scrambled States of America game. Since it is a card game, it’s very portable.
In the Scrambled States 2 Card Game players try to be the first to collect 10 state cards. They do this by slapping cards that have a certain feature that matches the center card. Features include state color, population, region, and land mass.
We loved the action of this game. Racing to slap your cards is definitely a good way to get the blood flowing.
I was impressed by the simple graphics they use to represent population (pictographs) and land mass (pie graphs). Perfect way to blend math and geography.
If you have a child that doesn’t like speedy games, then you might not want to get this one.
Details:
2-5 players
Ages 6 and up
Mood: Lively
Difficulty: Easy
World Geography
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego
Like the USA version, this is a trivia game with a twist. A landmark has been stolen and players must find the mystery thief. Each player can choose to move either his detective or his V.I.L.E. henchman around the world map on his turn. A trivia question must be answered correctly in order to move. The questions test a players knowledge in world geography and history.
Like the other game, the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego Game is different every time because the thief’s identity is a mystery. My kids loved that.
We also got a chuckle out of some of the names of the thieves like Minnie Series and Bill Ding. Gotta love puns.
The trivia questions are pretty difficult in this game. Some relate to news events of the 80’s and 90’s. This is definitely for more mature kids. Multiple choice is an option, though.
Details:
2-6 players
Ages 10 and up
Mood: Quiet
Difficulty: Challenging
Quick Pix Geography
Just like all of the other Quick Pix games, this one is fast. Players try to match one of their region cards to a country card before anyone else.
You really need to know your world geography in order to play Quick Pix Geography well, but that’s a good thing.
We love the Quick Pix games. They are the perfect game to play when you want to take a quick break from school work.
This game is only beneficial for kids and adults who have a fairly good working knowledge of countries. It’s definitely not for young children or persons who are geography-illiterate.
Details:
2-6 players
Ages 7 and up
Mood: Lively
Difficulty: Somewhat difficult
Don’t want to wait? I have geography games here that you can download instantly.
Many blessings,
