We are almost a month into homeschooling/distance learning/remote learning etc. How are you holding up? It’s amazing how when life forces us to rise up… more often than not, we can and we do!! I’m sure many of you are juggling school aged kids with toddlers and infants. My poor older kids have learned to work in the midst of noise and distractions. On Instagram this week, we showed how to make homemade play dough. The recipe is posted there. It’s meant for the littles, but the big kids like to mess around with it from time to time too. A good stress reliever! Even better, we put essential oils in it. Some aromatherapy while we play! 🙂

I’m not naturally good at purging. With a large family with kids of different ages, I can easily justify holding on to things. But I’m slowly learning that I have more joy and freedom when I have less to manage. So… here we go, some of our go-to favorites that have carried us through the years!

Board Games: We have a good collection of board games, but these are the ones that we keep reaching for. Ticket to Ride and Settlers require a bit more time and are geared towards the older kids, but they are family favorites for sure. I had many late nights playing Settlers before having kids. Monopoly Jr., Allowance, Sorry and Clue are great because the rules are easy and the games are fairly short. Clue is great for the analytical thinking! Our kids love it when we make time for games. Not always easy, but so worth it!

All Ages Games: With an age gap of almost 13 years between our 6 kiddos, you can imagine it is challenging to find games we can all be a part of. But these ones seem to work! Chances are, if you’ve been at our house, we have played one of these games together. Bingo has almost become a tradition during the holidays. We make silly grab bags for prizes and everyone has a great time!

Cards and Educational Toys: Here are some great options for the littles when the bigs need some more of my time. We’ve had Magnatiles since my oldest was small. They are a bit of an investment, but they are still being loved and used 10 years later! Snap Circuits come with an instruction book. So easy to follow and so satisfying to make a successful circuit! Top Trumps is one of our newest finds. They have cards on all interests. We were just playing a Minecraft one tonight. They are inexpensive, portable and easy to play.

I hope you were reminded of some old favorites and maybe inspired to add 1 or 2 more into your collection! Of course, I couldn’t include everything. Legos, blocks, cars, and dinosaur figures are also favorites at the moment. Whatever it is, use and love what you have. If there are things not serving you in this season. Let it go and allow it to bless someone else. (Trust me… I’m preaching that to myself too.) 🙂

I’d love to hear about your favorites too! Always looking to add some tried and true games to our collection!