Wondering what board games folks think work well for the 3-6 year old set?
DD3 likes one game A LOT, but we are trying to broaden the repertoire.
DS-almost-4 likes Monopoly, Scrabble, Blokus, Battleship, and Katamino. I think he might like Clue, but we haven't played it yet. He's too immature for chess, but other kids at the same age might not be.
We bought Robot Turtles for him last Christmas, but it's bland. After one or two rounds, you've seen it all.
Pretty much any chance-based game that doesn't involve some degree of calculation or strategy is summarily rejected.
Try Spot It, Set, or Can't Stop (the first two require speed, so you may need to handicap yourself). Oh, and Lanterns (a recently published game from Foxtrot Games that I've been seeing on a lot of shelves lately) would probably go over well. And Hive is kind of chess-like, but games are substantially shorter.
For the older end of the range, my kids (7 and 11) both enjoy Prime Climb, although we have to help the 7-year-old a little with figuring out his options each turn.
DH is a table top game enthusiast so we have a lot of games around the house.
DD6 likes Game of Life, Connect Four, Battleship. There's a card game called Mille Bournes that she always wants to play. She just got a game called Formula D that is her current favourite. We also play a lot of card games like Crazy Eights and Old Maid (I hate that name!).
When she was 3-4 she liked playing Guess Who and Busy Town Airport, as well as my favourite, Hungry Hippos.
We have some educational games such as Rockin Dice or Math Squared that are fun and help build math skills. We've also introduced her to checkers.
DH and I play a lot of table top games and she is usually my partner. My current favourite is Forbidden Island.
OOOo PayDay and Trouble! Those are really popular here!
Dd5 enjoys all the classics, chess, snakes and ladders, draughts, guess who, connect 4, any memory games ( there are some fun ones out there). We haven't really gotten into the "gifted games" yet but I'm sure we will one day. I remember loving boggle at that age
Pic Wits -- this is our current favorite family game. Our five-year old loves it, while he can't always read the caption cards, we handle that part and he's a master at playing to the judge.
Rat-a-tat-cat
It's quick, involves a combo of strategy and luck, and is great for preschoolers.
I would look at
www.boardgamegeek.com. There should be a breakdown or list of suggestions for kids of various ages somewhere on that site. You can read, in detail, about just about any game imaginable, including ratings/reviews.
Sent you a PM, eyreapparent.
Guess Who
Outburst jr
Sactagories jr
This is a great thread, especially since Christmas is around the corner. Thanks OP for starting it and thank you everyone else for great replies.
Anybody tried SET? It's probably best for the upper end of that range, like five or six, but it's good -- like matching but with more logic/perception required. You can play the
daily puzzle here to see what you think. It will probably take little kids a lot longer, though -- YMMV.
battleship was a huge hit! Thanks!
Labyrinth, (Jr - for preschoolers) by Ravensburger
Engineering Ants. We got it at Target.
Would also say that games of chance have been successful us in terms of promoting how to win/lose skills and dealing with frustration. It really can't be helped if my hippo gets all the marbles...
Anybody tried SET? It's probably best for the upper end of that range, like five or six, but it's good -- like matching but with more logic/perception required.
My 11-year-old is a SET shark. She takes it with her to summer camps and challenges the counselors. She doesn't play for money (as far as I know), but she is pretty merciless. I don't think a camp counselor (usually 5-15 years older than her) has beaten her at it yet, and she's been doing this for a couple of years.
Oh, boardgames. DD8 currently beats us both at everything every time, with the exception of chess where DH still holds an edge, Scrabble for a little while longer at least, and things like Trivial Pursuit and Cranium, where she doesn't get the older pop culture references.
From age 3 - 6, these were what she was playing:
Mousetrap
Snakes and Ladders
Connect Four
Guess Who
Operation
Tiddlywinks
Dominoes
Jenga
Jacks
Carcassonne
Simon
Battleship
Cluedo
Uno
Tenzi
Chess
and card games like Go Fish. Those were the days
Now we lose at Monopoly and Risk
Labyrinth, (Jr - for preschoolers) by Ravensburger
Huge hit around here; we still pull it out occasionally, though I really need to find the grownup version.
When DD was smaller, the issue was that her emotional maturity re. winning and competition were behind her strategic ability. At one point we had a ton of fun with Forbidden Island, which is a very exciting cooperative game (the players all work together to win against a flood).
With "guess who" as an adult playing against my kiddo I could try hard or try less hard to win providing opportunity for son to win and to lose. When I lost I modeled good sportsmanship and expected him to I do the same when he lost...and helped him do that.
And sometimes I would talk to myself about why I was or wasn't doing some strategy. It wasn't long before kid was very good at game as I was.
When DD was smaller, the issue was that her emotional maturity re. winning and competition were behind her strategic ability. At one point we had a ton of fun with Forbidden Island, which is a very exciting cooperative game (the players all work together to win against a flood).
We went through a cooperative game phase as well because my younger DS had the same issues. Not only is it good for the kid, but it can be fun for he parents as well.
Pandemic was a favorite for us.
battleship was a huge hit! Thanks!
Great!!
Monopoly, but I can't say that I've ever finished a full game.