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I’ve talked quite a bit about how much we enjoy games in our family — Landon and I play Wingspan multiple times each weekend, and we also love games that our five and seven year old can play with us. In fact, when I contemplated the question: “What is considered normal in your household?”, I was struck by the fact that “playing games” was one of the first few answers I tossed out. Game-playing even made its way into the design of our front living room. When we mentioned how often we enjoy Wingspan over coffee or cocktails on the weekend, our designer suggested incorporating a small game table into one of the corners. Right now, it has a half-completed puzzle on it, but I think I might buy a beautiful chess/checkers set to leave out on its surface moving forward. I love the classic look of this set.
Aside from being enjoyable in their own right, I’ve found that games are a great way to embrace playfulness, connect with my husband and children in a different way (i.e., it’s exciting for my kids to “compete” with me!), engage in something not involving screens, and model strategizing and resilience. I also like that it implicitly invites rest, as there are many instances where we are waiting for our turns. Funny how something as simple as a game can become a tool to express family values. I feel the same way about meals and mealtimes — another canvas for value-expression.
Anyway, while we were away with friends last weekend, my children discovered (and loved!) Checkers, and our friends mentioned that Monopoly Jr is big in their household — and we’d never played it before. I’ve asked this a few times here and there, but want to make a big open ask at the bottom of this post —
What are your favorite family games?
Family Games for Kids 5-8.
JENGA // TACO CAT // EYE FOUND IT // CHARADES
The games we play most frequently in our home —
02. Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza — a wildly popular favorite.
03. Klask — a little pricier but worth it!
04. Great for restaurants/doctor’s offices: Spot it! and Disney Eye Found it.
05. Hurry Up Chicken Butt — especially good for a big group of kids / play date situation.
07. War — they each received a set of Disney playing cards in their stocking (on theme for this year) and they love to play this!
08. Slamwich.
09. Jenga!
10. Beat the Parents — we’ve not yet tried this but it’s on our list next!
By the way – we just picked up these card holders for little hands. My son has trouble with some of the games because he can’t display them all efficiently!
Game Recommendations for Slightly Older Kids.
BATTLESHIP // MONOPOLY JUNIOR // GUESS WHO? // MONOPOLY DEAL // BLOKUS
A few recent discoveries and recommendations for Magpie readers and friends:
01. Monopoly Junior.
02. Blokus.
03. Monopoly Deal.
04. Battleship.
05. Guess Who? — card game edition.
Decorative and Giftable Games.
BOOKSHELF GAMES // DOMINOES // PLAYING CARDS // MONOPOLY // SCRABBLE
In putting this post together, I also came across some gorgeous decorative versions of some classic games — these would be great if you, too, have decided to incorporate gaming into a high-traffic area. Some of these are pretty enough to leave on a shelf or coffee table, and/or would make a great family gift:
01. Pretty Scrabble.
02. Decorative playing cards — from Anthro, Dear Annabelle, or Rifle Paper Co.
03. Monopoly — “bookshelf edition.” Or see this option from Food 52.
04. Lucite tic tac toe or this brass set.
06. Another pretty Monopoly option!
Our Favorite Two-Player Games for Adults.
These are more adult-oriented, but older kids can definitely partake if patient — a few of our other favorite two-player games: Azul, Patchwork, Jaipur.
P.S. Other things I’ve bought for my family.
P.P.S. On dating my husband.
P.P.P.S. Spring dresses.
We love The Genius Square game. A STEM puzzle that is fun for kids and adults. It keeps my nephews occupied for a few hours and off their screens.
After a few rounds, we started setting a timer and they had fun breaking their own records.
Oh, my 5 year old got his first board game for Christmas and we’ve been game-obsessed ever since! I’ll definitely be getting Sleeping Queens after reading these comments.
My children love “Cooperative Games” where you work together—you all win together, or all lose together. This is helpful in my household where my boys can be super competitive. Here’s my ranking/reviews, keeping in mind my boys are almost 5.5 and almost 4, so I don’t know how well these will land for older kids, though I’m hopeful they’ll last us at least a solid few years!
1. Outfoxed (cooperative) – 7000 amazon reviews for a reason! It’s like clue for kids (sans murder). You work together to figure out which fox suspect stole the pot pie before the fox escapes. My personal fave. I gifted to another 5 year old in January whose mom told me they play it daily 🙂
2. Hoot Owl Hoot (cooperative) – this is a simple card drawing game but super cute and involves just enough strategy. Get all the owls back to the nest before the sun rises!
3. The Fairy Game (cooperative) – maybe a tad more complicated than Hoot Owl Hoot but also a sweet and simple card drawing game — my children played this with a 7 year old who seemed to enjoy it!
4. Jaipur (winning game, as my kids call them, ha) – I have this because of you (thanks for the rec!) and my 5.5 year old son really likes it. We don’t follow all the rules with him, but most of them. Bonus: adding up all the $ at the end is really good addition practice.
5. No Stress Chess (winning game) – Our newest addition (got it literally yesterday) but my son is super into it. I was debating between “Story Time Chess” and “No Stress Chess” for him; and I had to face the harsh reality that my son has never been super interested in listening to me read stories [I know, sad! Trusting it will come with age:)] I think I made the right choice with No Stress Chess for us! A fun way to learn all the moves/chess basics.
6. Zingo! (winning game) – we were gifted the Sesame Street version and it’s a cute version of Bingo.
7. I Saw it First! (winning game) – It’s what it sounds like. A beautiful board that can be reconfigured in many ways with over ~300 or so animals (We have the jungle version and I’m thinking of getting the Ocean version too).
Life and Allowance are the current favorites in our house. I also love the idea of always leaving a game out and have a table for that purpose too but usually have a seasonal jigsaw on it rather than a game, which allows everyone to do a few pieces here and there and hopefully it will all be done in time for the season to change and that I replace with one for the next season.
Dobble, battleship, code words, boggle!! No one will play boggle with me except my mother. When we started I was 7 and if we both got a word only she crossed it off. When we got older, we both crossed it off, as you’re meant to. Now only I cross it off!
Love! What a cute tradition with your mom!
For anyone with preschool-aged girls, mine are OBSESSED with the Disney Princess Enchanted Cupcake Party Game. It’s simple enough for my twin four year olds to play with each other but also less boring than Candyland or Chutes & Ladders for adults. We’ve also had success recently with the memory game and simple card games like Go Fish and Old Maid.
My husband and I like to play Carcassone or Terraforming Mars. Terraforming Mars is a long game and has enough components that there’s a bit of learning curve but I find it more low-key and less competitive than something like Catan or Ticket to Ride when you really feel like you have to have a strategy and compete against the other person. Carcassone is simpler and also pretty low-conflict. I like playing games with my husband but I often find that I’m so mentally wiped by the end of the day that it can be hard to want to sit down to any activity that requires a ton of brain power or feels stressful.
Thanks for all of these recs!! I know what you mean about finding games that aren’t too mentally taxing. I find Wingspan requires just enough strategy between rounds that I am engaged but you can sort of lapse and hang out between turns, too…
xx
Archaeology is a fun, portable one that is good for slightly older kids. (Board Game Geek says 10+, which feels right. It involves some math.)
Ooo thanks! Going to put this in my cart for my nephews!
Wait – which one is it? This one?
https://www.ozziecollectables.com/products/archaeology-1?variant=43457903755386¤cy=USD&srsltid=AfmBOorNBHEEcXQx9eRXcnVTQT4CYjd80SFRFz8QqG4NhBuVObfjRc9Nh7c&gQT=2
Another vote for Sleeping Queens (and Sleeping Queens 2)! Our kids are 8 and almost 10 – we also play a lot of games. Other family favorites are: Five Crowns (it appears they don’t make Five Crowns Jr. any longer, but it’s also great for the younger kiddos if you can find it), Farkel, Jr. Detective, Clue, Colorku, Sorry, and Stella. I think your daughter would really like Stella!
Yay! Thank you – ordering the Sleeping Queens and added the rest to my Amazon wishlist for future purchases 🙂
xx
Genuinely curious how do you and your husband manage to find time to play games? Maybe the age range of my kids makes it hard (3-11) but I can’t figure out when we would have enough surrounding quiet to play a game.
When we do…our kids LOVE Sequence, Sleeping Queens, Quirkle, Set and Otrio (a great Riff on tic-tac-toe).
Hi! It can be a struggle, honestly. The minute we sit down – “can I have some more milk?” and “Mama, look at this.” We’ve grown used to the interruptions; Wingspan works around small breaks, since there are four rounds. It’s not unusual for us to pause and restart multiple times. But the thing that has helped the most is sort of carving out specific timeframes in which we typically play — it’s helped the kids (more or less) respect that we’re doing something for ourselves, and it’s their time to play by themselves. On the weekends, we almost always play in the morning, around 8, while the kids are finishing their breakfasts and then reading / playing with toys / coloring in the family room next to us — it’s an unspoken ritual that we’re now all accustomed to. After that round, we usually play a game together, go outside together, color together, go to Mass, etc. We usually play again on Sunday afternoons, this time while they have a little screen time, which ensures we actually can focus on what we’re doing.
We also sometimes play after they go to bed in the evening! After dinner!
Thanks for the game recs!
xx
My girls like Sleeping Queens. It’s a bit complicated to learn at first, and my 5yo needs help with the math aspect, but they still want to play it several times a week. They also love the classics – go fish and old maid. We have the Christmas version of taco cat etc that we play year round 🙂 I think mancala might be fun to try with them too.
Thank you for this!! Ordering the Sleeping Queens game per all of your recs!
xx