The Best Board Games for a Successful Family Gaming Evening
In a screen-centric world, board games may seem outdated to some, especially children. But in our family, we’ve found that putting away tablets and phones to have a little fun with board games (and a large bowl of popcorn) makes the family evening a success. For children from 2 to 11 years old, our games vary in difficulty. Tip: Let the big kids team up with the little ones!
Here are some of my family’s favorite games, including both classics and newer ones, grouped by age group.
Preschoolers
Since no reading is required, Candy Land is the perfect game for preschoolers. All that is needed is the ability to follow directions as well as some basic numeracy skills. The goal is to find the King of Kandy, the lost King of Candy Land, and each player in turn draws a card that moves them to the next space of any color indicated on the card. Candy-themed locations and characters pop up throughout the board game, and my kids think Gramma Nutt is funny because who wants to live in a brittle peanut house? They enjoy playing this game over and over again.
The ticking of the timer in this game makes everyone nervous. Perfection is a match game in which players have 60 seconds to place all twenty-five pieces in their respective places and click. If you put all the pieces back in place, you can turn off the timer, but if you are still working when the timer expires, the pieces you have will pop out of place and go all over the place. No matter how many times we play this game, the scattering pieces when the timer runs out never stop scaring my kids and they love it.
Unlike Candy Land, which focuses on simply following directions and moving forward, Sequence for Kids encourages kids to anticipate what other players might do with their move. Each player is given three cards and a stack of play chips to start with. When it’s your turn, you place one of your colored tokens on the spot corresponding to your card, anywhere on the playing field: a small animal. Each card you use you discard and draw a new one. To win, you must get four cells in a row. The strategy is that you use your chips to block your opponent’s attempts to get four in a row. Older siblings can help younger ones with these more complex skills.
Early elementary
Regular Monopoly games can go on for a long time, quickly losing the attention of young players, which is why we like the smaller Monopoly Junior board. Instead of street locations such as Monopoly itself, the younger version has properties such as Skate Park and Toy Store, which makes it more attractive. The junior version has much less money, making the math easier for younger players. Real estate can still be bought and sold, and only one player must go bankrupt to complete the game, not all remaining players. The winner is the player who has the most money at the time of the first bankruptcy. Monopoly Junior is a great way for kids to practice budgeting, but don’t tell kids why I like it.
This game can be loud, so it is not recommended when you put your child to bed for a nap, but it is good fun. Each player has a plastic headband and is presented with a face-down card, which they then insert into the headband so that everyone else can see the image on the card. After setting the timer, the player tries to ask each of the players a question that will make them guess what kind of image it is on the map. The only forbidden question: “Who am I?” Collaboration and communication is the key to Hedbanz’s success. Much of the fun can be found in the players’ incorrect guesses, and even Mom and Dad manage to make some ridiculous guesses.
Despite the fact that some updates have been made to this game, our family still plays the classic version of Sorry! This is a great game for kids as they get used to not always winning or even losing. Each player has four pawns to start with, and in order to get out of the start, he must draw one or two cards. The players then move their pawns up the board. However, if another player lands on the same spot, he will return your pawn to its original position. There are also slides on the board that can knock your pawn back a few spaces. Overall, this game can be hot, but it’s a good way to practice good sportsmanship as well as losing faithfully.
Late primary – secondary education
My kids love this game. The younger ones begin to learn in teams with their older siblings, and the older ones have been playing since they were in teams with the adults in early childhood. Each player randomly chooses fourteen tiles from the stack and arranges them on his board. To “exit”, players must have a total of 30 points. From this point on, players must either have a series of consecutive numbers of the same color, or sets or the same numbers in different colors. After the first turn, you can add one or two tiles to another player’s run or setup to continue playing. The game ends when the first player runs out of tiles, and the players with the remaining tiles must deduct points for all remaining tiles.
This is a relatively new addition to our collection of board games, but we love it so far. The board begins with pieces stacked in a pyramid shape and each player takes turns drawing a cube. Each cube color has a point value, and you can remove it if it does not touch the cobra cube and two or three faces of the cube are visible. As you take out the cubes, the other cubes move closer to the base until there is only one layer left on which the game ends. Each player then adds their colors, and if you have the most of those colors, you can collect the same colors as below for your personal cache. Add up your points to find a winner!
Murder detective does seem a little creepy for a family game, but silly names and even weapons can shed light on a serious topic. Clue’s goal is to find out who the killer is and what weapon was used. Each player makes a move on the board and ends up in one of the nine rooms of the presented Tudor mansion. Note-taking is an important part of being successful at Clue, and my kids get better at deductive reasoning by playing, even if they mostly just notice the stupidity of names like Professor Plum and Colonel Mustard.