Favorite Family Board Games
Sometimes kids games are a little, well… boring. You spin the spinner, move forward a few steps and then wait again for your next turn.
Anytime my daughter takes one of those games out, I beg and plead, “Please, No! I’ll do anything. I’ll buy you ice cream.” (Sometimes I get desperate.) These board games however are anything but boring! They are great for kids and will keep you entertained as well!
Camelot Jr
For all of your puzzle lovers out there, Camelot Jr. is loads of fun. The object is to build a path so that the princess can save the prince. (Or, you know, the prince save the princess. Really, princesses can take care of themselves) The box contains a book of different scenarios which list the pieces you can use in each problem and challenges you to build solutions for each one. It starts out easy and gets progressively harder. The scenarios stump adults almost as much as the kids. How do you solve this one? (PS.. this is one of the easiest. It gets harder!)
Sorry
Yes, we have all played Sorry. But, the game has changed slightly. The mission is still to make it around the game board back to your home base before your opponent knocks you back. However, now there are “fire” and “ice” pieces. When you have an ice piece, you can freeze any player’s pawn so that they remain frozen in position. That pawn is not allowed to move until the ice card is moved.
Fire allows you to skip large sections of the game course to reach home faster.
Cranium
I have a special place in my heart for Cranium because it was created by a guy who is an alum of my high school. That said, this game is pretty spectacular. It combines the trivia with pictionary, charades and my least favorite, sculpting. I am horrible at sculpting! Nothing I make even looks close to what I am trying to create. Just call everything a blob a let’s be done with it.
Robot Turtles
What looks like a simple board game actually teaches kids programming skills. Robot Turtles deals with sequences. Your goal is to navigate your turtle from the start to reach the jewel. You do this by setting a secuence of left, right, rotate and straight. The game has many variations. You start simple and then progress to planning a program for your robot to follow. It seems easy, however every time I play, I always have to “debug” my program. I miss one crucial step each time!
Dixit
Dixit is the perfect game for imaginative storytellers. At the beginning of the game, each player gets a set of cards with beautiful pictures on them. The player (storyteller) chooses one card and then calls out a short phrase that describes the card.
Each player looks through their hand to find one of their cards that most closely matches that phrase. Once everyone has selected, the storyteller mixes the cards up and lays them on the table. Players then vote for the card that matches the phrase the best.
Jenga
A classic, but still very challenging. Jenga lets you build a tower and then remove block by block in the hopes that it won’t fall down. For an extra challenge, play with a two-year-old. Not only do you have to be strategic about which blocks you pull, but you also have to block the toddler from clobbering your structure.
Eye Found It
Hidden pictures with a Disney twist! Eye Found It is a collaborative game. That means that if you have little ones who don’t yet like losing, this is the game for you!
Players work together to make it to Cinderella’s castle before the clock strikes midnight. Along the way, you have search challenges. You draw a card from the pile which tells you a specific image to look for on the gameboard. For instance, cats. Then, you start the timer and as a team, search for as many cats that you can find. When time runs out, tally up the number found and every player moves that amount on the game board.
My daughter, who is six, has a hard time with the collaborative nature of this game. She always wants someone to win and gets sad if I’m ahead of her on the game board. Competitive spirit like her mama.
Blockus
I always think of Blockus as real life tetris. You are given 21 pieces and your goal is to fit as many pieces on the board as possible. Everyone takes turns and you must connect each piece, but only at the corners. This game starts simple but gradually increases in difficulty as the board become fuller.
Spot It
Spot It is a simple card game with tons of variations. In it’s most simplest form each player must find an object on their card that matches with the one face up in the middle. Between any two cards, there is one, and ONLY one, object that matches. When they call it out first, they get the card. The one with the most cards at the end wins. Can you spot the match on each card below?
Included within in the deck are the rules for five different games that you can play with the Spot It cards, including Hot Potato. We also like the Spot it Junior version which has fewer objects on each card.
Disney Beat the Parents
Who knows Disney best? You or your kids? I usually nail these types of trivia games, but Disney Beat the Parents is incredibly challenging. The secret is the different question cards for the adults and kids. My daughter love this game because she is usually always able to win. If you are not a Disney fan, there is a regular edition of Beat the Parents as well.
These kid geared board games guarantee a good time for every family member. But that doesn’t mean you have to forgo that ice cream. Ice cream and board games makes for a rockin’ family night.
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We have always played board games, and I was glad when the kids got old enough to play some more “mindful” games. Cranium is really fun. We also have some building games, and some great card games that work well for travel. I love games.
What games do you use Seana? I’m always looking for more 🙂
Scrabble is my husband’s #1 choice, but my girls and I have enjoyed Boggle for many years. When the kids were younger, we played a lot of Clue (very interactive), and Squiggle. When we travel we take Hoopla and Phase 10, which are card-based. We also love trivial pursuit of various types.