We have Rush Hour Jr but I was thinking he probably was too young still. I'll look up the states one. He knows where all the states are (as does DD--that was quite the party trick at school when she was in K). Is that a good thing or a bad thing for this game?

Also, here is where I confess that I find Yahtzee a snoozefest. Where is that "hiding under chair" smiley? You won't find putting Monopoly in the Amazon cart either!

Hi UM
Not sure if he is too young but we just started playing Munchkin. It's hilarious - it makes fun of role playing games so if you like them it's really funny. High recommend for anyone into sci fi, dungeons and dragons or anything of that ilk. A lot of the jokes go over DS6 head but some of it, he totally gets. And the art is awesome. But it does have counting as you go up and down levels and have to have bigger numbers to defeat the monsters. There is some working together but also some working against so no real positive moral component. But DH and I probably enjoyed it as much or more than DS but then we are total geeks!

DeHe

How about Cluzzle? Would the clay be any better than drawing? I've enjoyed playing it with kids.

We bought Munchkin for DS8 when he just turned 6 as well. He wouldn't read after kinder, but he would read each and every card. Love Munchkin.

Munchkin does not look like it will go over well with my 8yo, who is very peaceloving and hates anything with violence, soooo....

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but we LOVE Qwirkle. It's a cross between Rummy (or Rumicube) and scrabble but requires no spelling skills. You must line same color or same-shaped tiles in a crossword pattern for points. My DS5 is quite good, and my DD2 loves to do the matching part, but it's still fun and challenging enough for adults.

We're a big strategy board game family (like Mayfair makes)...it's where my dh and my inner nerds really come out. An easy strategy game that kids could play (maybe 7+?) is Ticket To Ride (by Mayfair). It involves simple strategy to connect cities by collecting train cars. Great way to teach geography (they have US map, Europe, etc) and logic at same time.

Mine is afraid of movies, loud noises, we couldn't get through the first chapter of Harry potter - but DS loves evil villains and their supplies. His favorite things are security systems - we draw crazy systems with lasers, thumb prints, ejecter things. So I wouldn't say munchkin is violent in a HP kind of way, but it's a funny violence and you just collect it and read it, you are oddly not harming anyone, but having more points then they do. But my DS gets hysterics over having a phaser, xrayser, daser, maser, laser - because anything ending in aser is additive!!! But you aren't shooting anyone exactly. Just implied . I would then break out the forbidden island, and the ones like it. It's a great game.

DeHe

Funny violence might be okay. It has occurred me to recently that she never blinked an eye at Roald Dahl, who of course is quite violent, because it's so broad and funny. It's hard to say. We have this book and she thinks it's very funny, if that helps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEsadkbIA60 (warning--there is sound).

I keep seeing Qwirkle and forgetting about it--it looks good.

Thanks for the Scrambled States of America rec! DS4 is completely obsessed with it. DD8 finds it a little easy, but is happy enough to play with him. It's fitting in nicely with DD's social studies curriculum this year.

I have a NON recommendation: Slamwich. That company is usually great, but this game is not so great. It causes a lot of arguments and it goes on forever. My kids still love it, but I hate it!