Great Games to Teach your Children History

History is a tricky subject to teach your kids, especially if their interest is in their phones and little else. There are great video games with rich historical and cultural themes you can turn to, but it’s important for young minds to learn how fun and educational real life can be as opposed to the virtual worlds on their devices.

Here is a range of suggestions to help plan an evening or a whole day of activities that will open their minds to how different life used to be. Playing together as a family will make these experiences even more rewarding for you as much as your children.

Roll the dice

For a more immersive game than Risk or Trivial Pursuit, there are plenty of immersive historical board games that would be great for tweens or older kids. Turn them into traditional family activities and they’ll learn strategy, maths, and even architectural and classic history without even realizing it.

Versailles has players build the palace and gardens of Louis XIV, while 1960: The Making of a President allows you to take the role of an iconic presidential candidate and fight your way to the White House. If these games don’t appeal to your kids, there’s also Civilization where you can build cities and, well, civilisations, while battling other regions/mum for board game dominance.

Pick a card

Classic card games are steeped in history, and such games have existed through the ages in a variety of forms. Now you may want to avoid recreating most medieval examples as they mainly involved wagering loved ones, wives and taking the head of the losing opponent as a trophy, but other card-based entertainment would make for great family time.

Have some laughs while learning the card tricks and stories of ancient Egyptian and Italian magicians or play a few rounds of Find the Lady. Even better, get yourselves and your kids invested in the mystical history of Psychic and Tarot card reading and explore the beauty and possible meanings of their images. Tarot readings as a profession and hobby are rooted way back in 14th century Europe, soaked in the supernatural and cultural significance. What kid doesn’t enjoy a little mystery?

A piece of party history

It’s always fascinating to discover what our ancestors did for fun at gatherings before charades and karaoke. Bubble the Justice, for example, was an 18th-century game where players would try to roll a ball into nine holes drilled into a wooden board.

The Cock-A-Roosty of the early 1800s had one player stand in front of the rest and try to prevent each opponent from crossing the other side, reminiscent of the classic playground game, Bulldog. Easy, right? Except they all hopped on one leg.

Then you have more intricate games, like King Arthur, played in the 16th and 17th centuries. It involved the ‘King’, dressed in robes and a wig made of old rope, having a bucket of water poured on his head by each of the other players. If he made them laugh, however, they became King Arthur.

All that’s needed to ensure your kids are learning a little something whilst having fun is a bit of research and a fun-loving attitude. With this in mind, you and your children can get stuck into an unforgettable, enriching experience.