The physical exercise and emotional stretching that children enjoy in unorganized play is more varied and less time-bound than is found in organized sports. Playtime—especially unstructured, imaginative, exploratory play—is increasingly recognized as an essential component of wholesome child development.” 

― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

Blustery cold days, stuck in the house, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the holidays…sound like your household? Why not whip up a batch of spicy hot cocoa and break out the herbal games for the kids to play? It’s a great time to snuggle, enjoy everyone’s company and distract kids from the countdown.

There are some great herbal games to be found, here are our favorite fun herbal games for kids! 

Herbal Games

Herbal_Bingo

Herbal Bingo
This is a free template I made up a few years ago to share with all my herbal loving friends. You can download it directly from our website, print it off onto card stock, cut out the pieces and grab a handful of pennies.

Wildcraft_Game

Wildcraft!
This game is a hit wherever we take it! Kids and adults alike love to play this cooperative board game. It has a delightful storyline, encourages self sufficiency and teaches about herbs. The game cards can be used separately as flash cards as well. And right now, you can grab it from Amazon for a great price with free shipping for Amazon Prime members.

SQSampleCards

Shanleya’s Quest Card Game
I feel that botany is an important part of learning about herbs. Learning plant families can help kids learn to identify plants in the wild as well as learn to identify what unknown plants can be used for. There is also a great little book that goes along with the card set to teach plant families as well.

Garden Games
While not specifically herbal related, these great games teach kids about the importance of growing plants.

BG_Cover Set up

Gathering A Garden Board Game
This game contains no plastic pieces, has beautiful colors and sweet illustrations. The characters move around the board and try to collect one item from each of the five categories for their garden. 

the-garden-game

The Garden Game
I could gaze at this beautiful game board all day. It’s very attractive to children too. The object of the game is to plant the largest garden and save the most seeds but during the game, players plant seeds, take care of the plants, have harvest festivals, nourish the earth and help one another during natural disasters.

  living-landscape

Photo by Living Earth Games

Living Landscapes
This is a cooperative card game from Living Earth Games that teaches about permaculture gardening, teaching children how every part of the landscape is connected to its surroundings. I love the idea of teaching children permaculture techniques as it is a more natural way of gardening and teaches companion planting. This is a basic card deck as well that can be used for playing card games. 

Photo by Living Earth Games

Photo by Living Earth Games

Gaia’s Garden
Also from Living Earth Games, this is another cooperative game to teach how plants and insects work together to create a balance in the garden.

  Photo by Living Earth Games

Photo by Living Earth Games

One Seed
The newest from Living Earth Games, this cooperative game teaches plant life cycles! All the players help to grow a healthy plant out of seed into a plant , through the 7 growing steps and again into new seed.

Physical Games
Got a great romper room area and more than a couple kids who want to work off some energy? Try one of our herbally adapted interactive games!

What games do your kids like to play? Have you adapted any regular games to help teach about herbs? Leave us a comment, we’d love to hear about it and would love to share it on our games page.