We have recently started a weekly game night for our family. There are four of us who play - twin boys who are six, my husband and me – although our almost two-year-old will eventually join the mix. Our boys are excellent readers, so we have played some more advanced games with them. We already own quite a few, but they would be so excited to get a great game for birthdays and Christmas… which games have been big with your families?
Dominoes - there are so many ways to play and it's great even for a young child. (they play open handed so grown-ups can help if needed).
Quoridor (4 person game - also easy enough for a 3 yr old, but a challenging game of strategy even for an adult. My 4 year old has beaten me fair and square.
My boys are 5 and 7 and we love these:
Sorry, Monopoly, Connect 4, bingo, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Operation, Qwirkle, and Life (just got this and it's a little hard but fun). I have also taught my kids a few card games (War, go fish....). Enjoy!
Oh fun! We LOVE Sequence. There IS a sequence jr. version, but my son has always played the adult version. Easy rules.
My son (he is now 8) and husband love Monopoly, too. I tolerate it. We usually would put a time limit on when he was younger because it can drag out forever! Trey loves counting out the money and making change, so good math skills, too!
We don't own Settlers of Catan, but when we get together with my husband's family it is one that we love playing together.
Yahtzee is also a great one. We have even played that one on trips by rolling the dice in the box top. Again, I likes that he had to add up his points. The "overall" points we did for him when he was younger, but I liked that he had to figure out how many he would get for rolling 4 sixes, etc.
Have fun!!!
Life, Uno, Perfection, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Candyland Bingo, Bingo, Sorry, Trouble. These are some of the games that are age appropiate for your little ones, the other ones Im thinking of are 14+ my husband and daughter play those games, but we still play the ones that we listed. Our Family Game Nights are on Thursdays kind of odd lol Hope you guys have fun!!!
Disney Trivail pursuit is a fun one in our family.
We LOVE Quirkle. My parents got it for DS (6) last Christmas and it has been a huge hit. Think dominos meets scrable meets set. So fun.
SET is a good one as well. DS and I love it... SO hates it, go figure.
Apples to Apples has a "junior" version which we have and enjoy.
I'm thinking of picking up CLUE this fall because I think DS would really like it now.
Settlers of Catan is fantastic! My husband is not a big board game player (he prefers playing cards like Rook or Phase 10 or something), but he absolutely enjoys this one. Our kids do too (but they are older, 11 & 14).
If your kids are good at learning new games, and enjoy games like Monopoly, then they will pick this is without problems, even though the suggested age on the box is older than 6. There is no money involved, you simply roll the dice and collect supplies (based on the number rolled, and where you have settlements placed on the game board). There is a little bit of strategy involved in placing settlements, sort of like figuring out what is the best use of your money in Monopoly with buying houses/hotels on what properties. But nothing they can't do. Even if they don't do it well, they can do it and have fun.
The max # of people who can play (with the base game) is 4. But you can buy a supplemental set so that you can play with 6 people. That is what we did, because all 4 of us LOVE it, and so do my parents. So when they come, we can ALL play together!
Every so often my daughter would make up her own game for us to try !
Bingo w/ the some of the advanced words they know could be made.
Every so often we play Family Fued (DVD).
I used to like SORRY when I was a kid (yes, that game is that old!). My older granddaughters like that, too, plus card games like Apples to Apples and Squarrels. Their parents revise the rules to fit the ages of the children, when necessary.
Love the Cranium games.
Sorry
Apples to apples
Monopoly Jr.
Uno
Trouble (the kids love the popper for the dice)
Apples to Apples!!!
My son also started loving PayDay at 6 (good math practice).
Boggle
Sorry
Monopoly (jr version maybe)
Snorta, Pass the Pig
Life is a great one. Hi Ho Cherrio and Memory are great to introduce your little one to when he's ready. Scrabble, since they are great readers. Scattegories and Pictionary. Othello, Connect Four. There are also DVD/board games......the question is asked on DVD and you advance on the board. Enjoy.
Yahtzee is our favourite.
I sell Discovery Toys and we currently offer several board games that are great for family game night!! My favorite two are Wiz Kidz and Number Rings, but we offer several more. You can view those and everything we have at http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao
Growing up, some of my favorite games were Life, Careers, Payday, Bargain Hunter, Yahtzee, Sequence and Monopoly.
Wits and Wagers family is a fun one. My youngest is 8 now, so it is hard for me to remember the younger games. I think the boys will be able to play this one though :)
Twister is a good game for the small portion of the family, but for bigger families you could play Hide and Seek (i know it sounds cheesy but with a big family and lots of kids it is the perfect game, take it from me I have 17 brothers and sisters (Foster, step and real)) Pass-the-Parcel, Treasure hunt, doubles monopoly and seceret santa (instead of buying presents for the whole family have a chart each year that has names and shows that each person has to only buy one present for one person in the family from the rest of the family.
uno, connect 4x4, battleship, dominoes, yatzee, monopoly jr,
and from discovery toys: unjumble, wiz kids, a to z jr
have fun! ~C.~
I'll take flash cards with matching numbers, pictures, etc and play the match game on the floor. Spread out the cards, turn them over, and try to see who can find the most matches. Even a 2-3 yr old can play that.
