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Giggly_Giraffe
Guest
What is your families favorite games to play together?
How often & when do you play them?
How often & when do you play them?
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Kelfa28
Guest
Growing up we had family game night every week.
We played board games for years. We were fans of monopoly, scatagories, the game of life and pictionary.
My sister and I were amazing at pictionary. We can almost read each others minds. We win everytime.
My daughter is too young now but I will be doing family game night when she’s old enough.
We played board games for years. We were fans of monopoly, scatagories, the game of life and pictionary.
My sister and I were amazing at pictionary. We can almost read each others minds. We win everytime.
My daughter is too young now but I will be doing family game night when she’s old enough.
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Ophelia23
Guest
Our child is only 2, so there aren’t too many games she can play with us in terms of board games. But as a family, we love to play on the bed. We’ll play Air Plane Rides, where papa flies the little one around on his feet, and I’m the turbulence monster who gets to tickle her ribs! 
I love that game. It is the highlight of my day when we all play on the big bed together.
But when the little one is in bed, my husband and I enjoy playing games very much. We play Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, Apples to Apples, Cribbage… and sometimes, we’ll play an old-school video game on the Wii together.
I love that game. It is the highlight of my day when we all play on the big bed together.But when the little one is in bed, my husband and I enjoy playing games very much. We play Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, Apples to Apples, Cribbage… and sometimes, we’ll play an old-school video game on the Wii together.
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Giggly_Giraffe
Guest
Thank-you … This is what I’m looking for!!! Imagination and family play time.Our child is only 2, so there aren’t too many games she can play with us in terms of board games. But as a family, we love to play on the bed. We’ll play Air Plane Rides, where papa flies the little one around on his feet, and I’m the turbulence monster who gets to tickle her ribs!
But when the little one is in bed, my husband and I enjoy playing games very much. We play Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, Apples to Apples, Cribbage… and sometimes, we’ll play an old-school video game on the Wii together.
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gmarie21
Guest
Love, Love, Love Farkle, and all of the Ravesnburger games we own (and getting a few more for this Christmas). I love some of the classics too (Parcheesi, card games, connect four, battleship, etc.) But I cannot highly praise the Ravensburger games! The whole company produces great products (love their puzzles too).
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TheRealJuliane
Guest
The boys and I used to love a Ravensburger game called “A-maze-ing Labyrinth.” It’s not for very young children, but it can grow with the child after maybe 7? The strategy gets more involved with older kids and teens, it becomes more of an adversary game. You can push the other guy off his track just as easily
And there are two other games, one is Word Thief, which is somewhat like Scrabble, only not. The other one is “Set,” which is pattern recognition. I am better at Word Thief, but my younger son is the champ at “Set,” which is good because he rarely wins games, being ADHD.
Labyrinth
Word Thief
Set
And there are two other games, one is Word Thief, which is somewhat like Scrabble, only not. The other one is “Set,” which is pattern recognition. I am better at Word Thief, but my younger son is the champ at “Set,” which is good because he rarely wins games, being ADHD.
Labyrinth
Word Thief
Set
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TheRealJuliane
Guest
Well, my husband used to play with the boys on our king bed…They invented games like the “Ring” game that had something to do with his wedding band…And, “Daddy, take off your socks” which involved them both trying to get his socks off (he’s got very ticklish feet).Thank-you … This is what I’m looking for!!! Imagination and family play time.
I would tell them stories, read to them, and help them build pillow forts. We also did a lot of bubble-blowing. I made a game out of cleaning up, called the “Go” game, where I would toss each of them a toy and they would run to put it away and get back to me first.
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mandajane
Guest
I work in a game & hobby store. The most popular games for the various age ranges are:
5+ Dix It.
This is a game played with a custom card deck, where each card is a full art picture. The goal is to say a sentence that describes a card in your hand, then lay them out for others to try and pick out which card it is. The goal is to be vague enough that others wont be sure, but precise enough that at least one other player figures it out. It helps children learn to look at things from other angles, and be more observant of fine detail.
8+ Super Dungeon Explorer (for kids with a talent for art)
Ticket to Ride (for kids with a talent for math)
Super Dungeon explorer has kids paint their own miniatures, then play a game with them. It just came out, so I haven’t gotten to try it yet, but from my understanding, it’s played similarly to Hero Quest, if anyone remembers that. A very creativity focused game.
Ticket to Ride is a train simulation game, where you play as a railroad baron and try and build trains across the country and combine them for bigger scores. It’s been around for a while, and is pretty popular. There’s an app where you can play it against the computer, but most people have more fun playing the board game with other people.
12+ Miskatonic School for Girls (for children who have a somewhat dark sense of humor)
Fluxx (for kids who need to work on critical thinking)
Dominion (for resource management)
Miskatonic School for Girls is based off the works of HP Lovecraft, but it is MUCH MUCH MUCH more lighthearted. You play as one of a selection of middle - high school girls, and all the teachers are monsters. You have to get your school work done and avoid the bad stuff your teachers do since they are monsters. It’s generally amusing, and I’ve found that kids who feel “misunderstood” like the game.
Fluxx is a great game in which there are no real rules, since they’re made up as you go along. The cards themselves have rules printed on them, and when a card is played, its rules come into effect. To win the game, a player must play a “goal” card, and then someone has to reach it. It’s very unpredictable, so every game ends up differently, and requires quick thinking to circumvent the obstacles.
In Dominion, you build your deck of cards as you play from piles of cards on the table. You have gold to spend, and you can spend it to buy more cards for your deck, which will open even more possibilities. some cards have victory points, and at the end of the game you total up your victory points and whoever has the most wins. It teaches resource management by requiring you to balance between buying cards that get you more gold, and buying victory point cards which are useless until the end of the game.
There are lots of other great games, but I feel like these are the best to recommend to most families.
5+ Dix It.
This is a game played with a custom card deck, where each card is a full art picture. The goal is to say a sentence that describes a card in your hand, then lay them out for others to try and pick out which card it is. The goal is to be vague enough that others wont be sure, but precise enough that at least one other player figures it out. It helps children learn to look at things from other angles, and be more observant of fine detail.
8+ Super Dungeon Explorer (for kids with a talent for art)
Ticket to Ride (for kids with a talent for math)
Super Dungeon explorer has kids paint their own miniatures, then play a game with them. It just came out, so I haven’t gotten to try it yet, but from my understanding, it’s played similarly to Hero Quest, if anyone remembers that. A very creativity focused game.
Ticket to Ride is a train simulation game, where you play as a railroad baron and try and build trains across the country and combine them for bigger scores. It’s been around for a while, and is pretty popular. There’s an app where you can play it against the computer, but most people have more fun playing the board game with other people.
12+ Miskatonic School for Girls (for children who have a somewhat dark sense of humor)
Fluxx (for kids who need to work on critical thinking)
Dominion (for resource management)
Miskatonic School for Girls is based off the works of HP Lovecraft, but it is MUCH MUCH MUCH more lighthearted. You play as one of a selection of middle - high school girls, and all the teachers are monsters. You have to get your school work done and avoid the bad stuff your teachers do since they are monsters. It’s generally amusing, and I’ve found that kids who feel “misunderstood” like the game.
Fluxx is a great game in which there are no real rules, since they’re made up as you go along. The cards themselves have rules printed on them, and when a card is played, its rules come into effect. To win the game, a player must play a “goal” card, and then someone has to reach it. It’s very unpredictable, so every game ends up differently, and requires quick thinking to circumvent the obstacles.
In Dominion, you build your deck of cards as you play from piles of cards on the table. You have gold to spend, and you can spend it to buy more cards for your deck, which will open even more possibilities. some cards have victory points, and at the end of the game you total up your victory points and whoever has the most wins. It teaches resource management by requiring you to balance between buying cards that get you more gold, and buying victory point cards which are useless until the end of the game.
There are lots of other great games, but I feel like these are the best to recommend to most families.
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chevalier
Guest
While I don’t have a family in the sense of being a father (should probably look into forming a closer relationship with my niece than it is), my mother used to play board games with me. Sometimes there were more people involved. My aunt was a bit of a shrewd businesswoman type (but only a bit and only then), so we played Monopoly. That was so cool. And my dear grannie taught me to play cards and would always let me undo moves and let me win. Her brother-in-law, now deceased (RIP), taught me to play chess, which I also played with my step-father and sometimes with my father also. Step-father was a programmer at that time, computer games were a new thing, we had a bit of a competition going in some games. Trying to beat his scores was such a challenge! (Probably still wouldn’t be able to beat them, 20 years later.) Rarely did more than two people came but sometimes we’d play card games up to four people together or a board game.
IMHO logical games are so great. They probably do a couple of good things to the kid’s brain. I see them laid out in cafés sometimes for patrons to play and I think I might use them some time (I have a lot of catching up to do with my siblings due to the broken family thing). I still play computer games even though I’m soon going to be balding and have a “dr.” to my name if things go well and I’m not ashamed of it (none that I’d admit, at least) but board games are so much cooler. Snakes and ladders is one I’m particularly thinking about.
…I was always poor at chess! I was a clumsy sickly kid that played chess with the P.E. teacher for “sport” and never won.
That was the price I paid for not being forced to do the other, more embarrassing things.
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gmarie21
Guest
They sell a Junior Labyrinth and my kids love it! We have a ton of fun playing that!
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SurlyMermaid
Guest
Mandajane,
Thanks for the tips!!!
We have all the Fluxx games and the Munchkin games. The kids and I are always playing Quelf, Cranium, Apples to Apples, dominoes, BrainQuest, Rummikub, and Skip Bo. Soooooo much fun. I cannot recommend Quelf highly enough, by the way!
Thanks for the tips!!!
We have all the Fluxx games and the Munchkin games. The kids and I are always playing Quelf, Cranium, Apples to Apples, dominoes, BrainQuest, Rummikub, and Skip Bo. Soooooo much fun. I cannot recommend Quelf highly enough, by the way!
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Actaeon
Guest
Lately I play Settlers of Catan with the GF and some friends (I haven’t started a family). In terms of strategy, it’s a little complex for anyone under 13 or so, but it’s a REALLY engaging game and each time you play it is a little bit different (because you set up the board randomly each game). Warning though: it takes about 2 hours or more to play while you’re learning and sussing out different strategies together. Also, there is a two player version as part of an expansion pack: DO NOT PLAY THIS WITH SOMEONE YOU CARE ABOUT. There is a good deal of backstabbing, shadow tactics, and back stabbing in the game… when you play with two players, that never ends well!
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mafh
Guest
We have one night a week that is board game night. Some of our current favorites are Dominion, Agricola, Pandemic, Power Grid, 7 Wonders, and Small World.
For holidays with friends or extended family who prefer party games, we have trivia contests, and play Hand and Foot (or Canasta), Bohnanza, Munchkin, Apples to Apples, Wits and Wagers, Aquire, and charades.
For holidays with friends or extended family who prefer party games, we have trivia contests, and play Hand and Foot (or Canasta), Bohnanza, Munchkin, Apples to Apples, Wits and Wagers, Aquire, and charades.
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CatholicRaven
Guest
We love Wits and Wagers, Set, and Apples to Apples. Scrabble is my favorite. Blink is a good, fast-paced game for two that we like. We also play chess, checkers, and do jigsaw puzzles. We like paper-and-pen games, and dice and card games, too (really love some of the games from Cheap— Games). And we all like video and computer games, too.
We also play games that I learned from my dad when I was little, like The Minister’s Cat, I Spy, and Rock-Paper-Scissors.
Other than that, my youngest 3, and sometimes my 8 year old, love to play “pretend.” Even the 15-month-old will sometimes pretend to be a puppy, a cat, or a monster (she’ll stick her arms out in front of her, growl, and chase the others around until she catches and hugs them; it’s so funny!).
They build with cardboard boxes and my canned goods (yet they hardly ever play with their wooden blocks–I can’t figure that one out). Sometimes I’ll build them a “tent” with sheets and blankets over the dining room table or the living room chairs.
But right now, their favorite thing to do (other than play outside on the swingset) is to dance around in circles in the living room while I sing one of their favorite songs. The three youngest each have a particular favorite, so I often get to sing the same three songs one after the other, over and over.
We also play games that I learned from my dad when I was little, like The Minister’s Cat, I Spy, and Rock-Paper-Scissors.
Other than that, my youngest 3, and sometimes my 8 year old, love to play “pretend.” Even the 15-month-old will sometimes pretend to be a puppy, a cat, or a monster (she’ll stick her arms out in front of her, growl, and chase the others around until she catches and hugs them; it’s so funny!).
They build with cardboard boxes and my canned goods (yet they hardly ever play with their wooden blocks–I can’t figure that one out). Sometimes I’ll build them a “tent” with sheets and blankets over the dining room table or the living room chairs.
But right now, their favorite thing to do (other than play outside on the swingset) is to dance around in circles in the living room while I sing one of their favorite songs. The three youngest each have a particular favorite, so I often get to sing the same three songs one after the other, over and over.
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Paradox_Games
Guest
I just designed my own family-friendly game called “Pip It”. It’s a colorful dice game that is a unique gaming experience, but features elements of Uno and dominos. If you want to be one of the first to share this game with your family, please learn more at igg.me/at/pipit. You can get it for as little as $10 shipped!
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schaeffer
Guest
We also enjoyed many mentioned above, set, uno, skip bo, ravensburger games, apples to apples, but also physical games, like marbles and jenga.
This summer, I found some old games from the sixties at a thrift shop for my grandson. He loved them and they were totally non tech and fun for him and grown ups. They include both physical and thinking parts and are easily amenable to increasing the complexity with age and understanding! Those are the games I like best.
One was called spider and fly and consists of two plastic flys on strings and one cup that was the spider. The person who is spider rolls the dice in the cup. There are two circles on the game board for the flies. One is for if an even number is rolled, the other for if an odd number is rolled.
The spider goes after the fly that is associated with the roll of the dice. The spider must be fast as well as go after the right fly, and the fly people have to be fast and know if it’s their time to snatch their fly away. For young children it’s just played like tag, if the spider catches your fly you become spider. For older children people gain and lose points not only on whether or not they catch or are caught, but if they went after the right fly, if they pulled their fly when they were not supposed to etc. With a young child one die is used, and can be a die with either numbers or pips, with older children two die may be used to practice adding skills.
This game could easily be made at home, and is great fun.
The other game consisted of a spinner and colored balls and having to collect balls of certain colors in certain orders etc, and even at five he was able to understand the varying rules. Good stuff! Even though he is of the video game generation he loved these simple games.
I also taught him to play dice. He and I both collect dice and have all manner of them, with numbers, pips, colors, pictures, six sided up to 20 sided. So we played the game with different dice at different times…each got ten pennies, chips, beans…whatever you use as a marker.
each person put a marker in , then we each roll our die. The high roller collects both markers, if there is a tie, the markers go into the “bank”. Whoever ends up with all the markers wins.
Again, this is easy to do with different ages using different numbers of dice, and requiring addition skills etc.
With older children I love yatzee, pick up sticks, and kerplunk.
This summer, I found some old games from the sixties at a thrift shop for my grandson. He loved them and they were totally non tech and fun for him and grown ups. They include both physical and thinking parts and are easily amenable to increasing the complexity with age and understanding! Those are the games I like best.
One was called spider and fly and consists of two plastic flys on strings and one cup that was the spider. The person who is spider rolls the dice in the cup. There are two circles on the game board for the flies. One is for if an even number is rolled, the other for if an odd number is rolled.
The spider goes after the fly that is associated with the roll of the dice. The spider must be fast as well as go after the right fly, and the fly people have to be fast and know if it’s their time to snatch their fly away. For young children it’s just played like tag, if the spider catches your fly you become spider. For older children people gain and lose points not only on whether or not they catch or are caught, but if they went after the right fly, if they pulled their fly when they were not supposed to etc. With a young child one die is used, and can be a die with either numbers or pips, with older children two die may be used to practice adding skills.
This game could easily be made at home, and is great fun.
The other game consisted of a spinner and colored balls and having to collect balls of certain colors in certain orders etc, and even at five he was able to understand the varying rules. Good stuff! Even though he is of the video game generation he loved these simple games.
I also taught him to play dice. He and I both collect dice and have all manner of them, with numbers, pips, colors, pictures, six sided up to 20 sided. So we played the game with different dice at different times…each got ten pennies, chips, beans…whatever you use as a marker.
each person put a marker in , then we each roll our die. The high roller collects both markers, if there is a tie, the markers go into the “bank”. Whoever ends up with all the markers wins.
Again, this is easy to do with different ages using different numbers of dice, and requiring addition skills etc.
With older children I love yatzee, pick up sticks, and kerplunk.
J
JorduSpeaks
Guest
My parents really enjoy playing Trains and King of Tokyo.
This past Halloween, I got my entire family together to play One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Shadow Hunters and everyone had a great time.
This past Halloween, I got my entire family together to play One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Shadow Hunters and everyone had a great time.
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CyrilSebastian
Guest
We play Scrabble.
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