Note: All information on this site is for educational purposes only. Happy You, Happy Family does not provide medical advice. If you suspect medical problems or need professional advice, please consult a physician.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

20 Comments

  1. Pengoloo, Spot It, and Sequence for Kids are all games we love! We never bought kid’s Carcassonne, but our 6 and 8 year olds are already rocking the adult version. Another one you should try with kids is Labyrinth – very good for spacial reasoning, and no reading needed. Ticket to Ride, First Journey is fun too but requires reading.

  2. This is a fantastic list of games. My biggest struggle is not what games to buy but what to dow it’s them once they are in the house. My kids tend to ruin boxes and loss pieces.

  3. Sarah Smith says:

    Oh wow. This came to my inbox today and was so well timed! As a child, I remember family board games being fun as well as teaching lots of skills, but I was already in school when those memories were formed. With 8, almost 5 and almost 2 year old daughters, we’re ready to throw out Ker-plunk, kids monopoly and ludo. Out the window, hard.
    We’re UK so yet to check if we can get all of these here, but this will now form our present request list I think. With 2 kids birthdays in Aug and Sept, then the other in Jan just 3 weeks after Christmas – we always struggle for variety.
    We already have Uno, and everyone loves it, and would also echo the other comment that Labyrinth is really good. We also don’t believe in letting the kids win, but that one is great for early strategy practice and 3D thinking.
    Thanks for the list!
    Smith family, Bristol UK

  4. We love “The Ladybug Game” It was invented by a 9yr. old I believe. No reading is required, great game for kids & adults to play together!

  5. We love Simply Fun games. It is a home based company. The games are fun, quick and grow with kids as they get older with many of the games having different levels and twists to keep kids of all ages interested in the same gave. They also can be geared toward certain needs such as fine motor, problem solving and memory. they are a little more money but well worth the price.

  6. THANK YOU!!! What a great list! I’ve been keeping my eye out for good board games for our Family Game Nights and so glad these are road tested! I am putting ALL of them on my wishlist!
    One game that my 6 yr old and 3 yr old like to play together (does require reading) is Silly Street. The game board is a puzzle to put together first then the cards to advance are interactive with the board and each other.
    Another one we love is Go Go Gelato. Who doesn’t like playing with ice cream?!
    Thanks again for taking the time to play these and share your experience!

  7. We love the game Tenzi. It’s super easy for kids who know how to match patterns as it only involves dice. The aim is to get ten dice to match before the other player/s. You get 40 dice in a set, so up to 4 players. But there are so many variations of this game, you can play in many different ways (e.g Tower Tenzi, where you get ten dice all showing a matching number but you also have to stack them up in a tower!).

  8. Ann Johnson says:

    My daughter and I love Sleeping Queens! It teaches them math without them even realizing it – or me, for that matter. I remember my daughter laid down a sequence that was like 1 + 3 + 5 = 9, and I thought “How did you know that…?” Then I realized she just figured it out from doing math in the game. So cool to watch her learn right before my eyes.

  9. Blokus is great fun, but it’s a little difficult for younger kids, even kids around the 8-9 range. They can play it, but they don’t really “get it”, as in they don’t really understand how to place their pieces strategically, so they usually end up running out of space way before you do, which can be frustrating for them.

    1. Colin, that’s a great point, thank you for sharing! I’m chronically sleep deprived and maybe I have horrible spatial intelligence (ha!) so the kids sometimes catch me off guard when we play. But I’ll take that into consideration and update the list with another game that has even wider appeal for preschoolers. :)

  10. Richard Lee says:

    Great games for toddlers. We LOVE Orchard and Animal Upon Animal! But if that’s really your game closet, my God you could use some better adult games haha.

    1. Ha! We keep our favorite adult games somewhere the kids can’t reach them. ;-) Glad you enjoyed the list!

  11. Shirley Wong says:

    Thank you so SO much for your recommendations! We’ve purchased Ruckus, Sleeping Queens, and Stack Up, and my 4 year old LOOOOOOOOooVES these games. Less screen time and more bonding time.

    1. Shirley, that makes me so happy to hear! :) Here’s to more bonding time with our little ones!

  12. Love your suggestions and we play with most of them. How about Chickaboom…lots of fun. A balancing game with strategy and hand eye coordination. Fun and fast. Race to the Treasure and Labyrinth are also really good ones. We like the electronic Labyrinth and the Whoowasit by Ravensburger. My little ones enjoy the game too even if some of the details escape them. Thanks for the suggestions.

  13. Patricia Medina says:

    Great list!!! We now own many of the games you recommend. My 5 year old’s current favorite is Rat a Tat Cat by Gamewright. I really like how the rules can be adapted for an “easy” and “hard” version of the game, giving the game more longevity. She also LOVES to play Outfoxed. Other favorites are Crazy Eights, Go Ape, and Busytown. She’ll be getting Sleeping Queens this Christmas!! I would love for her to get into RPG such as My Little Pony Tails of Equestrian, but I think she might be too young for that still…. I have Sushi Go but haven’t tried it with her yet because of all the math it has… Wish there was a game like Sushi Go but only with addition and subtraction easy enough for her to practice….

  14. Kerstin Parker Forsythe says:

    We don’t have any of the above, except Uno. But the GoTro Family Treasure Hunt Game is our newly 4 year old’s favorite! We bought to help create his fourth treasure hunt themed birthday and we play it every night! –

  15. Stephanie Gay says:

    Thank you so much for your great lists of board games- these came in handy for my Christmas list. We also love Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza although it is a little hard for my 3 year old.

  16. Simon Tsui says:

    I love playing Blokus, Skipbo, and Apples to Apples Disney version which my children loved very much.

    My daughter created a new game and I started a project called the Underwater Hunt.