Best Educational Games To Play While Babysitting

By Jessi Stickel on January 2, 2016

During school breaks, many college students try to make a little extra spending money in their free time. Some college students look to babysitting for this.

It’s not too hard to find kids to babysit when school is out for the holidays, as family, friends and neighbors are usually in need of a babysitter around those times of the year.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk

If you have not babysat too many times, it is sometimes difficult to think of activities to do with the children you are babysitting. It is a must to keep them occupied; however, you should also try to keep the activities fun and educational.

Here are the best educational games to play while babysitting that will keep the children (and even you) entertained.

The Classics

1. Memory (3+)

http://www.hasbro.com

Memory is a great and easy-to-learn game for the younger children you may babysit. If you are not familiar with the game, the players have a deck of cards with pictures on them facing down; they get to pick up a card to see what picture it is and they have to memorize the cards they looked at in order to match a pair.

This game tests and improves memorization skills, and is also a lot of fun for the younger ones.

2. Scrabble (8+)

http://scrabble.hasbro.com

This classic game is great to teach and practice children’s spelling. This board game is meant for kids 8 years and older, so if you are babysitting older children, this is a great game and it can last for hours, keeping them entertained.

Scrabble can be played by up to four people or even just two, making it the perfect game to play while babysitting several or just one child.

3. Monopoly (8+)

http://www.hasbro.com

Monopoly is also a great classic board game to play with children while babysitting. This game teaches children about money and how to add and subtract.

Monopoly is also a game that is made for older children; however, Hasbro has a Junior Monopoly for the younger children.

Fun & Different

1. Guesstures (8+)

http://www.hasbro.com

Guesstures is fun and more of an active game than a board game, and is meant for children 8 years and older. This game has different categories of words and actions to act out, letting the other players guess what was on the card the player choose.

This can teach children to think outside of the box and get them comfortable being in front of people. It is also great to play when you are babysitting kids who have a lot of energy because Guesstures can allow them to get their energy out and have fun without destroying the house.

2. Heads Up (8+)

http://www.target.com/

Heads Up is a newer game, that is also known as Ellen DeGeneres’ party game. This game can be bought in a store and played with head bands and cards, or can be bought ($0.99) in the app store and played with a smart phone or tablet.

Heads Up gives you multiple categories of words and people that other players have to describe to one player in order for them to guess what word is above their head. This teaches children to describe different things in a quick pace.

This will probably be college students’ favorite game to play with the children they babysit because it really is a lot of fun and will have you laughing on the floor.

3. Pop for Sight Words Game (5+)

http://www.amazon.com

This popcorn shaped game is great for the younger children because it teaches them how to put words into a sentence and to be creative with sentence structure as well.

Players will grab pieces of popcorn out of the box and have to create a sentence with the words they collect. The perfect game before a movie night!

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format