I think it’s important when considering board games for kids that adults can also enjoy them too. As delightful as it is watching your children enjoy themselves, you should also enjoy yourself. That’s why in our Top 10 Board games for Kids we’ve tried to include ones that parents can enjoy too. In a couple of cases we’ve included the “junior” version of board games that adults play, in that way we can help the kids transition to more adult games moving forwards. This list is in no particular order.
10) Sushi Go Party 6+
This game is great for families, Sushi Go is your very own sushi restaurant in your living room. Your aim is to grab the best combination of Sushi dishes as they go past you on cards. Points are scored by grabbing to most Sushi rolls or completing sets. The fun of this one is that its super-fast paced, a game takes around 15 minutes so even when your kids won’t sit down for a moment you’ll still be able to manage a game or two!
9) Ticket to Ride: First Journey: 6+
Ticket to Ride First Journey is part of the hugely successful ticket to ride franchise. The original won the 2004 German game of the year and in 2005 it place second in family games. The game involves you creating train routes across Europe by drawing sets of coloured cards. The game is designed for 2-4 players and so perfectly suits most families. The Benefit of this game is that it helps teach some junior geography of Europe as you make train lines from Athens to Vienna and London to Barcelona. Certainty worth a pickup if your child loves their trains!
8) Connect Four: 6+
Connect Four is a timeless classic, created in 1974 the objective of the game is to be the first to form a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of four of one’s coloured coin. It’s an incredibly simple concept to grasp, but hard to perfect. It’s a 2 player game so can be played between siblings or well suited to families with only 1 child as 3 player games are hard to come by. This game is great as it takes at most 10 minutes to play a game. Travel versions are also available for those holidays away.
7) Codenames: Disney Family Edition: 8+
This really does what it says on the tin, it brings the party game to the whole family. Throw yourself into the world of James Bond, spies and espionage. Two teams compete to see who can guess all of their words correctly first. One person on each team is a spymaster and the spymaster knows which words belong to their team Spymasters take turns giving one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. This game is great because it helps build word association and should help build vocabulary.
6) Spot It!/Dobble 7+
Spot it! Is a simple pattern recognition game in which players try to find an image shown on two cards? To be honest, the 7+ rating my even be too high as it’s essentially the card game Snap with a few extra steps. The cards have 8 different symbols of different sizes. Reveal the first card on the deck, then another, whoever matches the symbols on the card claims the card. The player with the most cards at the end of the game wins. Please note, this game is sold as Spot it! in the US and Dobble in Europe, there are some slight differences in the editions, but nothing to get hung up on.
5) Trouble 6+
I’m sure you’ve played some version of this game before, but the idea is send your pieces all the way around the board. The fun thing about the dice in this game is that it is rolled using a “Pop-O-Matic” (no, I didn’t make that up). The dice container makes a very fun popping sound when its used. The game was first invented in 1965 and comes as the oldest on this list, its gone through a lot of changes and re-hauls over the year and the current one you can find on Hasbro’s website is definitely the most streamlined version of the game.
4) Boggle 8+
In my opinion the difference between Boggle and Boggle Junior is so big that they should not even be considered the same game. I think the most difficult feature of the original game is the sand timer, instead of a 1 minute timer, I’d recommend 2 minute or ditching the timer all together. The game is a classic and will help improve your children’s spelling and vocabulary. It also comes up cheapest on this list at around £10 on Amazon. It comes in a small box and is easily portable, all you need in addition is a pen and paper.
3) Pictionary 6+
This charades inspired guessing game has sold over 32 million copies worldwide. The great thing about Pictionary is that you don’t have to be an artist; in fact, if you can’t draw, the game can be even more fun! The junior version of the game comes with markers and erasable boards which children always enjoy. This game helps inspire your child’s inner creativity and is certainly worth looking to if you’ve got a resident Leonardo Da Vinci in your home!
2) Recycle Rally 8+
In Recycle Rally the aim is to drive recycling trucks to clean up the town. You maximize your score by collecting higher-value materials. However, if too many recyclables are left behind everyone loses; this encourages everyone to work together. In the increasing eco-conscious world we live in this game is a great board game for kids that introduces recycling to children. What’s more is that the game itself is made with plastic-free recycled materials – it’s kind of like recycle-ception.
1) Othello 5+
Technically invented in 1883 the modern version of this game was patented in 1971. Players have either Black or White discs on the board. On each turn, players must pincer their opponent’s disc squashing it between two of their own, when this happens, you flip the disk and it becomes your colour. Whoever has the most disks their colour wins. What separates this game from the rest of the list is that there is no luck involved. The more your children play the better they’ll become and also have more fun. In fact there is even a thriving tournament scene, so who knows, in 15 years time maybe you’ll have a professional in the family.
Conclusion
Well that ties up our top 10 board games for kids. I picked games that I as an adult also enjoy, some of these are on the older side, like connect four which I also played as a child, but there are some newer games too. I think its most important that the game can teach children something in a fun way, for example, Boggle improves your vocabulary and Recycle rally opens the door to sustainability. It doesn’t have to be all work though games like Sushi Go Party are just quick fun!
Why Don’t You have a read Of:
https://tabletoptemple.com/are-board-games-popular-in-2022/ – this article comments on the affect that bringing up children playing board games affects the industry.
