238 – No Reading? No Problem! – The Family Gamers Podcast
Reading is great! But this week we want to talk about board games that don’t require reading (or only numbers). You might be surprised at just how many options there are.
Fact: 238 is a cool looking number in other bases: 11101110 in binary, EE in hexadecimal.
The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. To schedule a time to talk to First Move about ways to take control of your finances head over to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers to set up an initial 15 minute call.
What We’ve Been Playing
Pebble Rock Delivery Service (Skybound Games) – only once so far! Want to pull the whole family together to play again.
Snail Sprint! (HABA) – has been a huge hit with all. Roll two dice; pick one to choose which snail to move and the other for where to move to. The trail goes up and around the metal tin!
ION: A Compound Building Game (Genius Games) – experiment with pyramid-style drafting for 2 players.
Periodic: A Game of the Elements (also Genius Games) – great for getting more familiar with the periodic table. No actinides or lanthanides, though.
Atheneum: Mystic Library (Renegade) – a family game with a lot of decision making.
Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 – a loss and a win.
Fleet: The Dice Game (Eagle-Gryphon Games) – again. Andrew used the “get all the coins” strategy this time and he won!
SNAP Review – Bluffaneer Dice Game
Nick and Izzy review this dice rolling and bluffing game. It has the coolest dice! Watch the video or read the transcript on our SNAP review page.
Welcome new community members
Welcome to Troy Williams and David Cooper. Have you checked out the community yet?
No Reading? No Problem! Games that don’t require reading.
Since our youngest was reading a chapter book today, we are probably done with the “pre-readers” chapter of our lives. What are the reasons to play a game that doesn’t require reading?
Why choose a non-reading game?
- For pre-readers or those struggling with reading – lets them participate fully.
- Let your brain focus on the game rather than task-switching to read. Anything that isn’t a sight word uses the temporo-parietal cortex and inferior frontal cortex for phonological processing – sounding out words in our heads.
- There’s no language barrier. Perfect for a multi-lingual setting.
- Accommodate grandparents or others with visual processing issues, whether nearsightedness or more complex. Text is usually the smallest visual element in a game, and game night is not always well lit.
- This type of game usually has simpler rules and can be explained more easily. Note that simpler doesn’t mean easy!
Our top 5:
Follow the links for more information on any of these games.
- Drop It
- Kingdomino – lots of arithmetic, but only numbers to be put in order!
- Draftosaurus
- Potion Explosion – The tactile experience is wonderful. But this will require some memory for the different kinds of potions (what do they all do?)
- Shobu
A few more that we love that didn’t quite make the cut:
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