As we have been home practicing “social distancing” this past month, my family has been playing a different board games each night. As parents of three kids, we have over 100 different types of board games we have played throughout their lives. We have played every kind of family game imaginable from the simplest Candy Land to the hardest Trivia Pursuit. So often we recommend and even loan out different games to friends and family. So today I have made a list of my favorite top 100 family board games we have played with the kids. Enjoy!
My Top Family Board Games for Under Seven Years Old
There is so much joy in playing with your kids. I believe a ton of good conversation from counting to color recognition, from taking turns to learning how to lose gracefully. Here is a short list of games my kids loved from ages two to seven.
- Candy Land
- Chutes and Ladders
- Connect Four
- Cootie
- Don’t Break the Ice
- Feed the Woozle
- Fish Game
- Guess Who?
- Hi Ho Cherry-O
- Hoot Owl Hoot!
- Hungry Hungry Hippos
- Jenga
- Kerplunk
- Memory Game
- Mouse Trap
- Old Maid
- Operation
- Othello
- Pay Day
- Pick Up Sticks
- The LadyBug Game
- Trouble
- Twister
- Who Shook Hook?
- Whoonu
- Zingo!
My Top Family Board Games for Ages Seven through 14
I believe kids of all ages can learn to play just about any game. Especially if their parents show interest and want to teach them. The difference between games I recommend in this category verses the next has to do with the enjoyably of the child. Yes I think an eight year old can play Trivia Pursuit but I don’t think they would enjoy it as much until they are past the age of 14. Nevertheless, I digress, here are some great games to play with your pre-teen!
- Five Minute Dungeon
- Acuity
- Aggravation
- Apples to Apples
- Bananagrams
- Battleship
- Blokus
- Bubble Talk
- Castle Risk
- Checkers
- Chess
- Chinese Checkers
- Cir Kis
- Clue
- Diploma Dogs
- Disney Magic Kingdom Game
- Exploding Kittens
- Farkle
- Forbidden Island
- Fruit Ninja
- Harry Potter Labyrinth
- Hedbanz
- Katamino
- Life
- Mancala
- Mastermind
- Monopoly
- Monopoly Deal
- Outburst
- Parcheesi
- Patchwork
- Perfection
- Phase 10
- Qwirkle
- Reversi
- Risk
- Rolit
- Rook
- Rummikub
- Scattergories
- Sequence
- Set
- Set Cubed
- Settlers of Catan
- Shut the Box
- Skip Bo
- Sorry!
- Spot It
- Stratego
- Sushi Go
- Temple Run
- Tenzi
- Tetris Link
- The Allowance Game
- Ticket to Ride
- Truck Off
- Uno
- War (the card game)
- What’s the Matter?
- Yahtzee
My Favorite Board Games for Ages 14 and Beyond
By the time my kids were teenagers it became the battle of the wits. Strategy, trivia, and knowledge became the element of concentration. Again, it isn’t that we stopped playing the above games, but this group became very enjoyable.
- Backgammon
- Boggle
- Bridge
- Canasta
- Cranium
- Family Feud
- Forbidden Sky
- Guesstures
- Mahjong
- Pictionary
- Scrabble
- Taboo
- Trivial Pursuit
- Wheel of Fortune
Over the next few weeks, I am going to dive deeper into the value of all of the games listed above, the appropriate ages, the fun factor, and the learning element of each one that has played out in my family. For now, I want to leave you with these list. Go dust off some games hidden in the clothes and spend some strategic time playing with your kids!
What are your favorite games?
Images of our games stacked floor to ceiling in our living room.
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