Family Life,  Homeschool,  Products We Love

Learn How to Play Election Night

/
*This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive compensation if you choose to purchase through the links I provide (at no extra cost to you.)
Share with Friends and Family

What if I told you there was a game that not only covered addition, subtraction, probability, geography, and civics, BUT your kids will also think it’s fun? Would you think that sounds too good to be true? Well that’s what I thought at first too.

We were first introduced to the game Election Night by Semper Smart Games at a homeschool convention. I love spending a few hours taking a leisurely walk through the vendor hall at the homeschool convention trying to find the best products for our homeschool.

One of the things that I’m always on the hunt for is new games to add to our growing collection. But not just any games. I have a set of criteria that I look for when I’m searching for new games. First of all, my kids must find them fun and enjoyable. I don’t want to force my kids to play something that they’re not going to enjoy. Second, there has to be something that they’re going to get out of the game. I like for my kids to be productive with their time, so it has to be time well spent. A game or activity earns bonus points in my book if my kids don’t even realize they’re learning while they play.

Enter Election Night by Semper Smart Games. There are so many different learning aspects to this game, and I love it.

Election Night is a two player game that could also be played in two teams if you have more than two people. The object of the game is to try and win 270 electoral college votes in order to become President of the United States. There are 2 dry erase markers included, one red and one blue, that you will use to tally your votes.

There are two versions of this game, and the game board has two sides. You can play on the addition side and practice your addition facts, or you can play on the multiplication side and practice your multiplication facts.

There are 6 different dice. Two of them have a mean of 11, and have numbers 3-8 on it twice. Two of them have a mean of 13 and have numbers 4-9 on it twice. The other two dice do not have the number 5 on them, but have the other numbers 3-9 on there twice. On the addition side you will roll 4 dice – the two mean 11 and the two mean 13.

To win electoral college votes, you roll four dice and add them up in any combination of two that you want. For example, if you roll 4, 5, 7 and 8, then you could choose any of these combinations:
4 + 5 = 9 and 7 + 8 = 15
OR
4 + 7 = 11 and 5 + 8 = 13
OR
4 + 8 = 12 and 5 + 7 = 12

So far we’ve got some addition practice going on, which is good. Now let’s see what else we might be learning as we play.

The sums correspond to the larger numbers along the left and right hand sides of the board. So if I decided to go with 9 and 15, then I could select one state that’s next to the number 9 and one state that’s next to the number 15.

When looking at my options for number 9 I can see that Michigan would give me 16 electoral college votes, all the way down to Hawaii which would give me 4. In order to decide which one I want to choose I need to locate them on the map. Hmm…that sounds like geography to me.

Let’s look at Hawaii first. There’s just a single circle located on Hawaii, meaning that I can immediately win Hawaii by coloring in the circle and collect 4 electoral college votes. But I’m trying to get to 270…so maybe that’s not the best move.

Connecticut also has a single circle, so I could immediately collect 7 votes. That’s sounding better. With Kentucky I could collect 8.

Now when I look at Missouri I notice there’s a triangle instead of a circle. So in order to win the state of Missouri I would need to color in 2 pieces of the triangle. I could color one in on this turn, and if I roll a 9 on the next turn I could color in the second piece before my opponent would have a chance to color in two pieces. What are the odds that I would roll a 9 on my next turn? Hmm…that sounds like probability. I told you Election Night by Semper Smart Games is full of learning opportunities.

Michigan also has a triangle, but would give me 16 votes. I decide to go ahead and take Kentucky for 8 votes on this turn. I color in the circle on Kentucky and also color in my 8 votes at the bottom of the board.

I also color in the star next to Kentucky which indicates that it’s already been won.

For my second number, 15, I see that Pennsylvania has a pentagon. I need to color in 3 out of the 5 to win Pennsylvania. Since it’s worth 20 votes I go ahead and color in one piece of the pentagon and my turn is over.

The next person will play and you alternate turns until someone wins 270 votes in order to become President. The multiplication game is the same except you multiply your numbers instead of add them.

One of the great things about Election Night is that the addition and multiplication facts that your child is practicing are the ones that aren’t as common. They’re not your basic 2 + 2, but instead your 9 + 6 and 8 + 7. Same with the multiplication facts.

Election Night by Semper Smart Games also comes with a few variations which is nice. There are some extra cards that you can play with that give you the option of re-rolling dice on your turn, changing one of the dice to a certain number that’s indicated on the card, and a wild card where you can choose what number you want one of the dice to be.

Another variation is to add 2 dice together and then subtract one. So if you rolled 9, 8, 7 and 4, you could add 9 + 8 = 17, then subtract 4 which equals 13. So your two numbers would be 13 and 7.

Election Night by Semper Smart Games is available for purchase on Amazon, and since it’s an election year, I think this would be a great time to add it to your game collection. Teach your kids about the electoral college and the election process, while they are also learning about geography and practicing their addition and multiplication facts.

What other learning games do you love? We are always looking for new games to add to our collection.

If you’re more of a video person, Silas and I also made a video showing you how to play.

PIN for later

Tweet
Share
Pin79
Share
WhatsApp
Email
79 Shares

You May Also Like

A Look at Our Hometown – La Grange, Kentucky

December 22, 2019

9 Outdoor Toys That Your Kids Will Be Begging to Play With

July 2, 2020

Why You Should be Buying Gift Cards at Kroger

March 18, 2020

52 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *