Our Favorite New Homeschool Board Game for History

In my homeschool, I am always looking for ways to make learning fun for my kids. One of my favorite strategies is gameschooling, which means using educational games to teach my kids. My whole family loves a great game, and that’s why I was so excited to discover Trekking Through History, which is a brand new game from Underdog Games. Here’s why this is our favorite new homeschool board game for history, and how we are using it to make learning about historical events fun for our entire family.

I received compensation and a copy of Trekking Through History in exchange for my honest review, but all the opinions in this post are my own. This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn a small commission for purchases made through those links.

Trekking Through History Board Game

Trekking Through History is a brand new strategy game from Underdog Games. In this game, kids use their critical thinking skills as they travel through time, participating in some of the most amazing moments in history. They collect cards that allow them to experience important events and meet famous people. Different cards allow kids to collect rewards, score points, and win the game.

Trekking Through History is perfect for 2-4 players.

Underdog Games

Trekking Through History is the newest board game from Underdog Games. This company makes some of the best educational board games, and you might know them from other titles.

Trekking the National Parks is a fun introduction to the National Parks of the United States.

In Trekking the World, kids explore geography and social studies as they travel to different landmarks and cities around the globe.

Coconuts is a perfect game for younger kids. Featuring cups to stack and monkeys, this game is a lot of fun.

Teaching History with Trekking Through History

In my family, we love to use a great board game or card game in our homeschool. I have found that this is a great way to help my kids discover interesting facts while having a lot of fun at the same time. Gameschooling is also a great way to teach:

Strategic Thinking and Problem Solving: Using games is a great way to help older kids understand how to think strategically. Games like Trekking Through History provide lots of opportunities to help kids practice their critical thinking skills in a fun context.

Interpersonal Skills: I also use history board games to help my kids practice social skills like cooperation and teamwork. Playing a game can also be a fun way to teach my kids important lessons about winning and losing graciously, and these are critical learning experiences for my kids to have.

Family Bonds: I know that family activities like playing games together are one of the best ways to build family relationships too. Whether we are playing a cooperative game or competing with a board game, my kids always look forward to family game night. We are always creating memories when we are playing our favorite games.

Read more about Trekking Through History here.

Our Favorite Features of Trekking Through History

I am so glad that my family discovered Trekking Through History. This is one of our new favorite homeschool board games for history. Here are some reasons why this is one of the best board games for teaching history in your home school.

Makes History Fun

One of my favorite things about Trekking Through History is that this game includes so many fun facts about important moments in history. The game includes a deck of 108 cards that highlights the most important people, events, and achievements in human history, from ancient history through the present.

I love that each card has a short description of the event on the back. At first, my family was more focused on the strategy of the game, but I soon realized that we would be adding a “house rule” to the game. Whenever anyone picks up a new card, they turn the card over and read the description on the back out loud to their fellow players. This is an excellent way to include more history lessons in our game time. These descriptions are a great addition to the game.

Great for Teaching Dates

For a long time, my kids have been struggling to understand the idea of a timeline. The idea that BC dates are counted backward, with bigger numbers happening first, can be challenging for younger children. This game has been a big help for my kids in understanding these concepts.

While playing Trekking Through History, players work to build a Trek, which is a series of cards organized by date. The goal is to build a Trek that includes as many different event cards as possible, and this requires math skills as kids need to compare and order dates.

These are important cognitive skills that kids need to have in order to be able to understand historical events in the context of a timeline, and Trekking Through History is the best way to teach this concept that I have found.

High Quality

One of the first things I noticed about Trekking Through History as soon as we opened the box was the quality of this game. I am always looking for games that will stand up to a lot of gameplay over a long period of time, and that won’t be damaged by younger players. Trekking Through History definitely fits the bill.

The game cards are thick and include beautiful and colorful illustrations of the most important events and historical figures throughout time.

The game is played on a large playmat that needs to be spread out on the table. I was expecting to receive a thin piece of cardboard similar to most educational board games, but this game comes with a beautiful cloth playmat with a thick rubber backing, similar to a mousepad. This was great because the playmat stayed flat instantly and did not slide around the table while we were playing.

As a homeschool family, we will play classic board games over and over for many years. I think this game will hold up to that amount of playtime without damage.

Simple Rules

When we first opened the box to play Trekking Through History, I was intimidated. There are lots of moving parts, including experience tokens, time crystals, pocket watches, and point markers, plus cards and itineraries. Although the game seemed complicated at first glance, the rules of the game are actually very simple.

By the time we had played the first round, we felt like we understood the basic concepts, and by the end of the game, we were playing confidently without the instructions.

The instruction book that comes with Trekking Through History is comprehensive and explains the game sequentially. This was important because we were able to start playing right away without reading all the rules first, and then continue to refer back to the directions as we were playing. This is so helpful for a family like mine, with young children and short attention spans.

Watch a video walkthrough of How to Play Trekking Through History here.

Moves Fast

One of my favorite things about Trekking Through History is how fast the game moves. It can be hard for my busy family to find time to play a long game, so I love that we can finish a game of Trekking Through History in just over an hour.

My kids love the fact that the game moves fast, and turns don’t take very long. This keeps play moving and keeps everyone involved in the game. Sometimes when my family plays some of the most popular board games, we have found that it can take a long time for individual players to plan their strategy while everyone else waits for them. This didn’t happen with Trekking Through History.

Lots of Fun Strategy

My family had a great time playing Trekking Through History because there are lots of different options for strategy in this game. Players can win by organizing the most cards sequentially (this is called a Trek) or by scoring points for completing an itinerary, which is based on choosing certain cards that give specific rewards.

We had so much fun playing this game because if one strategy isn’t working, we weren’t done- we could just choose to focus on something else. Having so many different ways to score points means that this game is different every time we play, and that’s one of the reasons why this is one of our new favorite family games.

Play Over and Over

As a parent, I am always looking for games that my kids will want to play again and again. Trekking Through History has lots of features that make each game different and make it fun to play multiple times.

During each game, players collect rewards from the event cards they choose. They can use these rewards to try to complete itineraries, which give different rewards. The game comes with a whole deck of itineraries to choose from, which means that every round of every game will be unique with different goals and a new strategy.

Our game also came with a package of Time Warp cards that we can use to add a new level of fun and challenge now that we understand the basic rules.

Read more reviews of Trekking Through History here.

Try the Trekking Through History Board Game for Your Homeschool

If you are looking for a fun homeschool board game for history, I would highly recommend Trekking Through History. This game is a fun way to teach kids about the passage of time while introducing them to important people and events throughout history.

Learn more and get a copy of Trekking Through History for your homeschool here.