You’ve done it! You’ve taken a RESET with your family, developed a family tech framework, and you heard about the perks of playing board games. But where to start? Look no further: This list will give you everything you need to get started!
A Board Game List For Everyone
This list of board games is intended to help your family find a game to fit the range and tastes of your family. While I and my oldest son love strategic, long lasting board games, my wife and second son are more into games for the quality time and laughs.
This list is curated with your real-world family in mind and I hope it’ll provide you with hours of fun opportunities to teach all kinds of life lessons (how to lose with grace and win with humility are great places to start).
The Categories
Each game has been vetted to ensure a good fit for:
- the appropriate age range
- safe content children play
- play time < 1 hour
- unique game ideas to spark your interest
This list is in NO WAY exhaustive. I include a link to more resources below. But here’s a start!
Games For Ages 3-5
These games are a perfect fit to help our youngest family members be a part of the fun, learn to take turns, and enjoy a game that is uniquely their own!
|
# of Players |
Game Title |
Reason to Play |
|
2-4 |
An oldie but a goodie. Works on colors and sequence, and it is just one of those games everyone needs to love (and hate). | |
|
2-4 |
It’s fun, quick, and accessible to younger players. Focuses on colors and counting. | |
|
2-4 |
A whimsical game of getting owls back to their nest before the sun rises. Works on sequence, taking turns, and problem solving. | |
|
2-4 |
Players work together to try and catch the fox before he flies the coop. Works on problem solving, cooperative play, communication, and sequence of events. | |
|
2-4 |
Has that classic dice clicker that kids love. Introduces taking turns, counting, the idea of special rules. | |
|
2-4 |
Be the first to match tiles with all the squares on your board. Works on memory, sight words, and competition. |
Games For Ages 6-9
These games step up the thought, focus, and fun! These games focus on quick-play and add some competition to the mix.
|
# of Players |
Game Title |
Reason to Play |
|
2-4 |
Lay all of your pieces while blocking your opponents. Simple, fun, fast.
Works on spatial reasoning, problem solving, strategy, and emotional development (ie: frustration management). |
|
|
2-5 |
On your turn, you play a single tile, lay one of your tokens on that tile, and work together to find places to build your roads, towns, fields, and monasteries.
Develops spatial reasoning, problem solving, critical thinking, strategy, and cooperation/competition. |
|
|
2-4 |
Be the first to get your pieces around the board. But be careful, your opponents can send you back to the beginning.
Teaches counting, taking turns, and frustration management. |
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|
2-5 |
Collect multi-colored tickets to be the first person to travel the most high-value tracks on the map.
Provides opportunities for strategy, cost-benefit decisions, competition, and taking turns. |
|
|
2-10 |
Card game focused on matching colors and numbers.
Works on strategy, matching, color sequence, and focus. |
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|
2-4 |
Create sequences of shapes and colors to score points. No reading required!
Builds understanding in math, spatial reasoning, problem solving, and shapes. |
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|
2-5 |
Build a zoo that attracts as many visitors as possible.
Critical thinking, strategy, accessible to wide range of players, |
Games For Ages 10-12
These games add storytelling and abstract thinking to the mix! They also add in games for larger groups which make them a great option to play with friends or as an addition to a movie and game night.
|
# of Players |
Game Title |
Reason to Play |
|
4-10 |
Apples to Apples Jr. | A lead player chooses a card with an adjective: “funny”, “scary”, “respectable”. Players then pick cards they think will win the vote of the card judge. Works on vocabulary and word association, as well as cooperation. |
|
3-6 |
Give a one-word clue so that some, but not all, of the other players can guess your card. Beautiful water-color artwork is a wonderful way to practice words.
Works on creativity, storytelling, competitive strategy, and vocabulary. |
|
|
2 |
A beautifully simple strategy game (simple, but not easy). Players use a total of 22 pieces to capture the opponents Queen Bee.
Works on spatial reasoning, critical thinking, strategy and tactics, competition. |
|
|
2-5 |
Players work to earn favor with the king in order to be selected as the next ruler of Kingsburg. Works on counting, strategy, resource management, and risk-reward.
Note: One of the four phases of the game includes cards showing mythical creatures including: goblins, orcs, dragons, and demons. |
|
|
4-10 |
Mad Gab | Word game, lots of zany phrases, a fun twist on a classic up-front game. Works on vocabulary and working as a team. |
|
2-4 |
Quest for El Dorado | Changing map, strategic card laying, some chance, opportunities to be competitive (impede opponent’s play) |
|
3-10 |
Super Fight | Each player builds a hero using random cards and special abilities. Players face off in pairs while the group decides which hero should win in a fight: “100 ft tall gummy sloth vs. on-fire cowboy with pack of trained rats”.
Works on creativity, storytelling, critical thinking, supporting arguments with evidence. |
|
2-8 |
A fast and fun game of eye-spy. Lay a card down in the middle and try to match symbols to the card from your deck. Works on hand-eye coordination, shape recognition, focus, and staying calm under pressure. |
Games For Ages 13+
This batch of games bring in a level of complexity and competition that is enjoyable at all age levels.
|
2-7 |
Develop your civilization through three quick rounds of card-laying.
Develops strategic thinking, tactics, focus, and semi-cooperative play (you pass your cards after each turn). |
|
|
3-6 |
A group card game that game tests your ability to think under pressure. When two cards match symbols (i.e. both have squares) you must give an example of the category listed (so “Justin Bieber!” for the category “Famous Singers”).
Works on rapid recall, focus, memory, and thinking under stress. |
|
|
2 |
BattleTech: A Game of Armored Combat. | This is a great battle game if you’re looking for one: Mechs do all the fighting, pilots rarely die, and who doesn’t want to drive around a 50 ft. tall robot?
Improves strategy, risk-reward, focus, critical thinking, and working through complex problems. |
|
2-8 |
A game of word associations. Each team tries to guess the hidden words without guessing their opponent’s using only one-word hints.
Works on vocabulary, critical thinking, team work, and creativity. |
|
|
2-4 |
Players invade a dragon’s lair looking for treasure. The more treasure you get, the more noise you make. Waking up the dragon means everyone is in trouble!
Practices risk-reward, critical thinking, strategy, and cooperative play. |
|
|
2-4 |
Collect treasure and build your card deck to acquire the most valuable lands.
Provides opportunities for competition, strategy and memory. note: some cards contain elements of magic that you may wish to remove from play. |
|
|
2-4 |
Players work together as a global medical team to fight a pandemic infection.
Teaches team work, problem solving, gives an introduction to tricky realities of logistics, and handling frustration (you will lose a lot). |
|
|
2-6 |
Power Grid | Develop your power grid to power the most cities.
Teaches risk-reward, bartering, economics, strategy, and competition. |
|
3-4 |
Settlers of Catan | Players build settlements in hopes of being the first to ten victory points. Trading with other players is key to victory. This is your new Monopoly.
Works on team work, risk-reward decisions, competitive play, and strategy. |
|
2-5 |
A choose-your-own adventure using just a pencil, paper, and narrative dice.
Works on imagination, creative thinking, problem solving, team work, and cooperative storytelling. |
Remember: The Point Is To Have Fun
This list is enough to get you started on your quest to choose a great game for your family! Like I mentioned earlier, it might take a little bit of trial and error to figure out what everyone in your group enjoys playing. Don’t be derailed if one game is a bust—try again with a different game!
Want More Games?
- Review games you want to know more about at Board Game Geek
- Find new game ideas by category! Just click one of these links:
You can also check out our boardgame podcast episode for more info and game ideas!
pc: Photo by Dave Photoz on Unsplash
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