Gameschooling for Emotional Health
Emotional Health should be a #1 priority in families, especially as we all navigate the “new normal”. Gameschooling for emotional health provides a chance for you and your child to growth and development.
Our children need our guidance. They depend on us to teach them social skills, cooperation, coping techniques, and self-care. They depend on us to guide them through big decisions, and how to react to others.
Gameschooling for emotional health is a way to both bond with your child, but help them develop socially & emotionally. These types of games can be difficult to find, so I took some of the work out of it for you.
The lists below are great choices for gameschooling for emotional health.
Game schooling for Emotional Awareness
In Mind Your Beeswax players work together to collect enough parts of the beehive to make a whole hive. Hive pieces feature thought-provoking questions and tasks.
Type of game: cooperative, card, storytelling
Ages: 8+
Players: 3-6
Play time:
Skills: Social skills, cooperation, listening skills, teamwork, language arts, creative thinking
Self-esteem is something so many people struggle with, and it starts in childhood. In 1 Like Me 123, players draw three cards and hilarity ensues. Using tried 7 true child psychotherapy methods and human-first languages, this is worth a look.
Type of Game: cooperative card
Ages: 7-15
Players: 2-4
Play time: You decide
Skills: Emotional health, self-esteem, creative writingT
Explore your child’s anger and emotional reactions with this remarkable game. As players move through the game board they will encounter monsters with big feelings and coping techniques such as deep breathing and striking a yoga pose.
Type of Game: dexterity, roll & move
Ages: 5-8
Players: 1+
Play time: 10-30 minutes
Topics: Big feelings, anger, coping skills
These 54 sentence cards encourages children to explore their feelings by completing the sentence.
Type of Game: card, see & say
Age: 5-12
Players: You decide
Play time: You decide
Skills: Emotional health, feelings, creative writing
This game features gorgeously-illustrated picture cards. Throughout play children explore their feelings and the feelings of others while also introducing social diversity.
Type of game: card, see & say
Age: 3+
Players: You decide
Time: You decide
Skills: Empathy, emotions, observation, language arts, social diversity
Imagine if Uno and CBT got together and had a baby. That baby would be named You Know.
(*by the way, the game isn’t affiliated with Uno)
Type of Game: card, push-your-luck
Ages: 7+
Players: 2+
Time: 10-20 minutes
Skills: Self-esteem, communication, language arts, social skills, empathy, kindness
This game asks children questions to improve their emotional awareness, self-esteem, and coping skills.
Type of Game: card, see & say
Age: 6-14
Players: 2-4
Time: You decide
Skills: Emotional awareness, self-esteem, coping skills, creative thinking
“280 scenarios to help kids explore and talk about feelings! 260 regulation strategies to help kids manage their feelings in socially appropriate ways! 24 movement cards to keep kids engage!”
Type of Game: roll & move, dexterity
Age: 4+ (reading skills required)
Players: 2-4
Time: 20-30 minutes
Skills: Emotional awareness, self-regulation, social skills, body movement
Another game that explores emotions is No Waries. Based on the card game War, this card game finds players fighting for the highest number by using an emotions vocabulary word in a sentence.
Type of Game: Card War
Age: 5+
Players: 2+
Time: 30-60 minutes
Skills: Vocabulary, language arts, creative thinking, emotional regulation
Gameschooling for Coping Skills
“Everyone needs a game plan” is the motto of the game. Stay safe, learn to make good chices, how to deal with scary feelings, and more.
Type of Game: roll & move
Age: 4-10
Players: 2-8
Time: 20 minutes
Skills: Coping skills, decision making, large motor function, physical education, language arts
Stress is something every single one of us lives with to a degree, and sometimes the stress becomes too much. Help your child learn how to navigate both developmental and situational stress.
Type of Game: roll & move
Age: 6-12
Players: 2-4
Time: Unspecified
Skills: Coping skills, language arts
“Children will learn to deal with feelings, adjust attitudes, discover choices, accept imperfections, and more. Real-life situations are challenging and fun.”
Type of Game: roll & move, dexterity
Ages: 7-10
Players: 2-4
Time: 20-30 minutes
Skills: Emotional health, coping skills, learning how to play a game.
Leading players to reflect on their lives and values, The Mindfulness Game is a group game about dreams, wishes, and self-development.
Type of Game: Card, see & say
Ages: 8+
Players: 3-15
Time: 30-60 minutes
Skills: Goal setting, self-esteem, trauma recovery, compassion, self-care
Just for Teens & Tweens
There is so much good in this game that I don’t have room to list everything. In a nutshell, Better Me presents real-world scenarios that encourage empathy, kindness, patience…you get the idea.
Type of Game: roll & move
Age: 12+
Players: 2-8
Time: Unspecified
Skills: Communication, team building, social skills
“Abundant Harvest Board Game for Teens & Adults supports open discussion on real-world issuues to help teens and adults communicate more effectively.”
Type of Game: roll & move
Age: 13+
Players: 2-8
Time: 30 minutes
Skills: Communicaton, critical thinking, reasoning, emotions, language arts
Transitions: High School to College
Part of the Transitions series (see them all here), this edition helps teens navigate the scary transition from kid to adult, high school to college.
Type of Game: card
Age: 17+
Players: 2+
Time: You decide
Skills: Language arts, critical thinking, self-expression, thought development, empathy, problem solving
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Meg Grooms (she/her) is a decades-long secular homeschooler, mother of many, writer, Florida ex-pat, and all-around swell gal. Meg & her partner have raised their kids all over the USA, finally settling on Southern California. For now, anyhow.
Meg blogs about Gameschooling, Educational Gaming, and the Gaming Community at Homeschool Gameschool. Meg is available for speaking engagements, workshops, and gameschooling classes. If you’re interested in scheduling a workshop, review, ad space, or just saying hi –> Click here. Happy Gameschooling!
