One day I visited a family with exceptionally smart children. Their shelves were full of educational and developmental games. After seeing kids playing a couple of games, collaborating, and interacting, I decided to make them a part of our homeschooling routine. Below you will find our favorites. Many of these resources are manipulatives that would prepare your child for IQ, NNAT, and other gifted testing that require spatial reasoning, visual processing, creative thinking, and non-verbal reasoning.
This post contains Amazon affiliate links, but all the choices are the resources we enjoyed a lot and hope you will, too. Using these links will not cost you any extra.
Magna Tiles – Metropolis Set (110 pieces)
Polygon Expansion Set
Rectangle Expansion Set
For ages 3-99. This is undoubtfully the # 1 resource on our list, we actually own several sets, and years after we bought them we still play with them almost daily. If you are just starting out, we recommend the biggest and most inclusive set first and the two expansion sets above that allow children to work with multiple shapes.
Wooden Geoboard
For age 3+. The set includes 7×7 board with 35 pattern cards and rubber bands. In addition to patterns provided, the set can be used to learn all geometrical shapes, make letters, patterns, and develop fine motor skills.
Melissa and Doug Cube Puzzle – Farm
For ages 3-6. These puzzles are harder then they seem. Melissa and Doug make several versions including pets and vehicles,
SmartGames Three Little Piggies
1 player 3-6 years old. This is a puzzle-style game with increasing level of complexity for a total of 48 challenges. It helps develop spatial insight, planning and problem-solving skills. There are multiple versions of the game including Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White and others. Combine them with the corresponding fairy tale read-aloud for more learning.
SmatGames Castle Logix
1 player 3-6 years old. 48 challenges to work on cognitive flexibility, spatial reasoning, logic, and problem solving skills.
Qbitz Junior (4 cubes)
1-4 players, 3+ years old. In this game players get a pattern card and try to duplicate it by arranging 4 cubes on their wooden holders/boards. The game teaches pattern recognition and spatial reasoning. We started with this simpler version and eventually moved on the Classic version below
Qbitz (16 cubes)
2-4 players ages 8 and up. This game encourages kids to practice symmetry, visual dexterity, quick thinking, spatial reasoning, and memory.
Mental Blox Critical Thinking Game
For age 5+, this logic game includes 20 blocks, 20 activity cards, and guide.
Tangoes Jr
For age 4+. This game includes 100+ challenges where kids create the images shown on the challenge cards with different geometric shapes. It develops shape recognition and creativity skills.
miniLuk Brain Challenger Complete Set
Ranked for ages 5+ but we started working with this set around 4. It is a great set with 14 booklets that improve concentration, problem solving, and visual processing.
Qwirkle
2-4 players ages 6 and up. In this game you build lines by matching tiles based on either color or shape, and score points for doing so. Besides visual processing this game stimulates forward thinking and strategic planning.
Blokus
Wonderful 1-rule family strategy game, less than a minute to learn the rules and my kiddo beat me in the first round, but not the second.