The point of this thread is to gather some games that are fun and not too dumbed-down. Here's a list so far, of games recommended by users here. I have bolded the names of games that seem especially loved, generally going by how many people here recommend it.
Multiplayer board/card/dice games:
Abalone Apples to Apples / Apples to Apples Jr. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Artifact Axis and Allies Backgammon Balderdash Bananagrams Bandu / Bausack Battleship Bazaar Blink Blokus / Blokus Duo / Blokus Trigon Boggle Carcassonne Chess Chicken Cha-Cha-Cha Chinese Checkers Cirkus Clue, inc. Harry Potter version Connect Four Depot Diner Equate Fluxx Go Go Fish Gobblet Granny's House Growlies in the Garden Harvest Time Hearts Izzi Knet Labyrinth, by Ravensburger Made for Trade Mancala Mastermind Monopoly No Stress Chess Operation Othello Pandemic Parcheesi Pass the Pigs Professor Noggin Quarto Quiddler Quixo Quoridor Qwirkle Rat a Tat Cat Rhyme Time Risk Rummikub Scrabble Scrambled States of America Scotland Yard Secret Door Sequence Set Settlers of Catan Shogi Shut the Box Skeletons in the Closet Sorry Spellbound Stratego Sum Swamp Tableland Texas Hold 'Em Ticket to Ride Topitop Toss Up Triominoes Trivial Pursuit Trouble Uno Upwords The Way Things Work Washington's War Wordigo Yahtzee / Yahtzee Turbo Zeus on the Loose
Single-player board/card/dice games:
Amaze Block by Block Brick by Brick Chocolate Fix Clever Castle Cover Your Tracks Hedgehog Escape Hoppers Hot Spot Kanoodle Perplexus River Crossing / River Crossing Jr. Rush Hour / Rush Hour Jr. Shape by Shape Solitaire Chess
Computer games:
Age of Empires Age of Mythology Apples to Apples Blokus Bloons Tower Defense: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4+ Boggle Boom Blox (Wii) Bubble Blast (Android OS) Chess (Android OS, by Aart J.C. Bik) Civilization Cogs (PC, iPad, iPhone) Crazy Machines (PC, Mac, iPad) Flood-It (Android OS) Fritz and Chesster Learn Chess GalCon (iPad) Glow Puzzle (Android OS) Isaac Newton's Gravity (iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone) Jumpstart World Online Lego Chess Lego Universe Lemmings Lure of the Labyrinth Master of Orion 2 Meeblings, Meeblings 2 Nethack Phit (Android OS) Quoridor Rome Total War Rush Hour (Android OS) Scrabble Set Spore Starcraft Sudoku Tinker Warcraft 3 World of Goo Wrath of the Gods Yahtzee, YahtC (Android OS) Zoo Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon 2 Zoombinis Logical Journey, Zoombinis Mountain Rescue
Unknown quantities-- please post if you have direct experience with these:
My 6 year old plays too (when he was 5 even). He still finds it fun even though the questions are kind of hard for him. The questions are all multiple choice, so he takes his best guess but it's a great, fun, educational game about... well... the way things work!
Carcassonne is a game that I can't recommend enough for young kids, and adults love to play it too. On each turn you draw a tile and add it to the growing map, getting points for features you build and claim such as roads, farms, cities, churches, etc. Kids can typically learn to play it well quite early, and it has a good dose of strategy to keep them thinking. Out of the many expansion packs available, our favorite is the smallest: "Cult, Siege and Creativity".
We're so mainstream. We currently like go fish, connect four, operation without batteries, and partial monopoly (his favorite, but we've yet to finish a game), two player clue modified that I let him lay down his room cards in the rooms so he can see which one's are guessable, the weapons and people he puts the figurines from his cards to one side so he knows which one's he can't accuse. To keep myself from cheating I make my accusations systematically since I know which cards he has. He has enough attention span to finish a clue game, but not monopoly. I want to start him on assisted battleship and no stress chess after Christmas. Ds likes jumpstart world online, a 3-d subscription virtual world for kids. I'm looking for more video games like jumpstart that are more advanced than point and click. I'm considering mega man or donkey kong for the pc.
Glad you started this thread. I wanted to ask about Zoombinis logical journey pc video game. Anyone played it? (even though it's point an click)
Ooh, Clue! That and "The Way Things Work" are added to my list to buy. DS5 likes Connect Four too. I have changed my mind about No Stress Chess and may get it for the little(r) one, but DS5's playing chess all right already.
We did play the new Solitaire Chess by ThinkFun last night, and DS loves it to death-- you might want to check that out too. It's a bit like peg solitaire, in that you remove one piece every turn until you have one left, but it uses the chess pieces and moves. I think it's a great little logic puzzle game, and could be used to learn or reinforce the chess moves too.
For computer games, DS's recent favorites include:
Zoo Tycoon. More of a simulation than a game. Well worth the money, especially for the first version. Fun expansion packs include marine exhibits and animals, and dinosaur exhibits and animals. He likes this better than Zoo Tycoon 2, since he didn't like the interface of that one as much.
Master of Orion 2. A turn-based galaxy conquest game. You take over star systems, terraform planets, develop tech, build ships, battle, conduct diplomacy, etc. Sort of like Civilization, but in space.
Warcraft 3. He loves this, but we haven't played in a while (just too busy, and games take a while). Plenty of opportunities for strategic play. The characters are like little army people, but animated and more fun.
The Bloons Tower Defense series, which can be found at ninjakiwi.com and some other places. Balloons advance along one or more paths, and you have to pop them, by placing dart-throwing monkeys, Jedi monkeys, bomb and missile towers, mortars, pirate ships, glue-splattering monkeys, etc. A lot of fun, although once we killed it through infinite levels on the hardest difficulty level together, he lost interest.
Meeblings and Meeblings 2. Another ninjakiwi.com game, hosted at other sites as well. It's sort of like Lemmings, except you have to save bouncing, floating jellybeans (sorta). It's good fun, and takes good problem-solving skills to solve the tougher levels.
... plus some old, small stuff I take from machine to machine (Hex, Lemmings etc.).
Ooh - added to my Amazon order - thanks Love this thread - when I asked ds7 what he wanted for Christmas - he said GAMES !! His faves right now are Blokus, Sequence, No Stress Chess, Stratego and Monopoly. I am eagerly looking forward to hearing about more recommendations !!
My DS who is 7 1/2, loved Zoombinis! He played two different games, the logical journey and the mountain rescue. He never finished them all the way because they are a bit repetitive. However, the logic puzzles in both games are very advanced by the 2nd or 3rd level through. It was awesome to watch him reason it out.
Other games we play all the time:
Clue (Harry Potter Version) No Stress Chess Cirkus Zeus on the Loose Trouble Sorry Parchessi Stratego Bananagrams
Computer games- it's all about Lego Universe right now. DH is playing Civilizations IV while DS plays Lego Universe. I read a good book quietly in the other room :-)
DS7s favorites are the strategy computer games Warcraft 3 and Starcraft. He and my husband play and argue. My husband has been playing for years and my little guy comes up with unique strategies to win...I love it!
As a family, we sometimes play World of Warcraft roleplaying online....but not so much since it is time consuming.
We also have board or card based roleplaying games (sort of like dungeons and dragons lite) where you can do some roleplaying/character acting, but according to what your card says your abilities are.
My husband is a game fanatic, and I am just along for the ride. It seems like my son has caught the bug Nan
For younger kids, mine used to like Scrambled States of America. We don't play it much anymore though. For those anatomy lovers... we have an AWESOME game called Skeletons in the closet. This game is so fun, so easy, and doesn't take forever to play. While we LOVE the way things work, it takes much longer to play than this one. Kids learn the names of bones (basic bones, not too detailed) or there is a simpler version of play also. They have to build a skeleton by collecting bones and cartons of milk and what not.
One more... We also love, are you smarter than a 5th grader (we have the board game and the computer game.) The board game is cute, comes in like a tin lunch box looking thing. Fun game!
Yes, we are also fans of Blokus, Blokus Duo and Blokus Trigon, although we never got into Trigon as much as the others. I love the other new suggestions... DS5 would probably love Stratego now.
I noticed last night that there seem to be a slew of new logic solitaire games out lately, and some of them look pretty neat. I'll post links later (on my phone at present).
Anyone besides us like Bandu / Bausack?
ETA: Here are some of the games I noticed only recently, none of which I've tried, all of which you can probably find on websites other than Amazon as well. Anyone try any of these?
We like games a lot at our house. I love this thread (although I have vowed that we have too many games already and will not be getting more for Christmas). DS is 6, but most of the ages recommended for these games are clearly a lot older than that.
Qwirkle Carcassonne Quiddler (a word game) Equate (scrabble with equations) Labyrinth (by Ravensburger) Set Blink Toss Up Blokus Mancala Gobblet Quixo Pass the Pigs Cirkus Mastermind Quarto Izzi Settlers of Catan Sorry Clue
Oh, yeah! Mastermind! And we have and like Crazy Machines too. Sooner or later I will update the first post with a list of all the games, maybe broken down into category (board, computer, etc.).
Games! Except I feel guilty getting more games because I don't think we play the ones we have enough. DS8 loves Risk, Clue, Mastermind, blokus, Othello, and I just pulled out my old game of Triominoes which was fun (DD5 liked it better). For computer games he loves Civilization, Spore, and Rome. He also loves Washington's War, which is a complex behemoth. My DH plays dungeonmaster every 2-3 weeks for him and 3 friends to play D&D, but if someone (NanRos?) can suggest a less complicated D&D like table top card/board game that would be awesome - I will def. check out the Crazy Machines game. I'd also love to find a RP type game for my DD5 - there used to be a fairy/elf type one out there but I haven't found it lately.
My DD5 is just now getting bored with Gobblet, but liked it alot for a couple months (like regular tic-tac-toe, it gets repetitive eventually). She absolutely adores Uno, probably because she wins a lot and can beat her older brother. She also likes other card games. For practicing math facts I really recommend Shut the Box - you can make up variations for the different operations. She doesn't do too much on the computer, but I highly recommend World of Goo - which is kind of too odd to describe, but involves building and physics and problemsolving and is tons of fun - I like it too (and has been age appropriate so far - we haven't worked the entire game yet).
I'd love recommendations for age appropriate computer games that might be of interest to DD5. My kids get 30 minutes of screen time a day and i would prefer she use the time on the computer as opposed to watching tv, but that hasn't really happened yet.
Catalana, I'm really glad you came into this thread. We gave "World of Goo" for a present a couple of years ago, after I read some very promising reviews of it, but I've been unsuccessfully racking my brain today to remember the name. Good stuff, newtothis-- added.
How about Boggle, anyone? We played it as a family for hours when I was growing up. My kids love playing Scrabble, too. Another vote for Apples to Apples--my children like to play with their cousins (junior version). And I don't remember if anyone mentioned Yahtzee Turbo --I was never a fan of the classic game but I like this version.
Boggle, Scrabble & Yahtzee can also be found as computer games & online. So can Apples to Apples--I just found it APPLES to APPLES
Added Gravity (iPad), Apples to Apples (board and computer), Apples to Apples Jr., Boggle (board and computer), Scrabble (board and computer), Yahtzee (computer), and Yahtzee Turbo.
Pandemic and Ticket to Ride get played all the time around here. Scotland Yard is another favorite, but you need at least 3 players to play that one. My son is 9, and we have been playing those games for over a year.
We love a lot of games on your list! We also enjoy games from Outset Media (especially Rhyme Thyme when they were littler, Professor Noggin, and, our favourite--Artifact--has been a terrific game for all ages), and from Family Pastimes (various cooperative games: Growlies in the Garden, Secret Door, Harvest Time, Depot Diner, Granny's House, etc.--these are mostly for littles, too.)
Oh dear, what a poorly-written sentence that was. Oh well.
minniemarx, your sentence was so poorly written that I printed it and stuck it for safekeeping inside my greasy spam handbag, as a cautionary example I can wave at small children, sending them into scared submission (or at least a bored slumber).
Your suggestions are added. You did mean the board game Artifact, and not the software, correct?
Pandemic and Scotland Yard look neat too-- hadn't seen those. Thanks, blueskidoo.
just thought I would add a couple more as the holidays approach... A few others that DS6 likes that are more solitare type games include: Hoppers, Block by block, Kanoodle, Amaze, and chocolate fix. Also, really likes cosmic catch...but not sure what category that game would go in. Nice to get some energy out on a day (or months) when you can't go outside. Also if anyone likes Archtecto or Equilibrio let me know...we are thinking of putting that on the request list for DS for the holidays but didn't want it to be just another one just like what he already has.
My DS has been enjoying Spellbound and Tableland by Australian Company (now closed down I believe) Jigsaw Educational Products. I've recently taught him to play Backgammon which has been a huge hit.
Wow great thread, just made my xmas shopping a matter of copy and paste into amazon
I am way late on this but I have experience with one of the games feedback was requested on so here goes. We purchased Meta-Forms for DS then 5 last xmas, I would say it has been a hit, definitely something that offers a challenge for the entire family but it is single player
You have three shapes in three colors and you have to place them on the board in a way that conforms to the rules listed for each of the 80 puzzles. So for example they will say a blue triangle has to go next to a yellow square but not below a red square. As the game advances your asked to place a blue shape next to a square not below a yellow shape, that type of thing
Happy Holidays
PS. I would also recommend Castle Logix/Royal Rescue for younger kids (3+), my son loved both of these (single player).
I have no feedback to offer (more than what was given here). My DC love the "regulars" - Scrabble, Boggle, Chess, Uno, Battleship, etc...
My favorite game as a kid, besides Boggle, was Simon. It really stinks that they don't make it anymore and Simon 2 wasn't as good and is now really expensive!!!
I have no feedback to offer (more than what was given here). My DC love the "regulars" - Scrabble, Boggle, Chess, Uno, Battleship, etc...
My favorite game as a kid, besides Boggle, was Simon. It really stinks that they don't make it anymore and Simon 2 wasn't as good and is now really expensive!!!
Take a look at Barnes and Noble. They recently have had a small version of Simon available for about $10. I've seen it online and at the brick-and-mortar stores.
Here's a trick-taking game variant that works well with three people, that I learned in the Army. I've heard it called a few names, but "Screw the Dealer" seems the most used (adapt the name for use with the kiddos as necessary). It runs like this:
1. The game is played with a standard deck of playing cards, by 3-5 people.
2. There are 19 hands, with the following number of cards dealt to each player in each hand. For a shorter game, or to accommodate little ones with small hands, cut out some of the hands (one could, for example, play a game with rounds of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; it is recommended to stick with the scheme of decreasing then increasing again, as kids love it). Hand # 1: 10 Hand # 2: 9 Hand # 3: 8 Hand # 4: 7 Hand # 5: 6 Hand # 6: 5 Hand # 7: 4 Hand # 8: 3 Hand # 9: 2 Hand # 10: 1 Hand # 11: 2 Hand # 12: 3 Hand # 13: 4 Hand # 14: 5 Hand # 15: 6 Hand # 16: 7 Hand # 17: 8 Hand # 18: 9 Hand # 19: 10
3. Dealing the first hand falls to the player who draws the high card in a single dealer-picking draw, after which those cards are returned to the deck. Afterward, each hand is dealt by the person to the left of the person who dealt the last hand. Dealing starts with the person to the left of the dealer for that hand, and goes clockwise.
4. At the end of the dealing, a single card is turned face-up on the deck. The suit of this card is the trump suit for the hand.
4. All game play is clockwise.
5. Each hand starts with a round of bidding, starting with the player to the left of the dealer for that hand. Each person bids a certain number of books they think they will take, in gameplay as described further below. The dealer is not allowed to "lock up" the bidding-- that is, the total number of bids cannot equal the number of cards dealt to each person for that hand. (Thus, for instance, in the 1-card hand, if the first person in a 3-person game bid 1, and the second person bid 0, the dealer would have to bid 1 and hope for the best.) The scorekeeper records each person's bid.
6. Gameplay then proceeds as a series of throws, until all the cards dealt are exhausted. In each throw, the person beginning throws down a single card face up, then each person throws down a single card face up, proceeding clockwise until all have thrown a card. The first throw begins with the person to the left of the dealer; each subsequent throw begins with the person who won the last book, as described further below.
7. If the trump suit has not yet been played, the person beginning the throw cannot begin it by playing a trump card. Aside from that restriction, the beginning person can play any card from her hand.
8. Each subsequent person must play a card in the led suit, if he has one. Otherwise, he can "throw off" any suit he desires.
9. At the end of all the throwing around the circle, the person who played the highest card in the led suit wins that throw, UNLESS the led card was not a trump, and one or more trumps were played, in which case the highest trump card wins that throw. The completed set of cards thrown by the players for that throw is called a "book", and the player winning the book takes the cards from the middle, turns them upside down, and neatly stacks them in front of her.
10. At the end of the hand, when all cards have been played and all books taken, scoring for each player is recorded for the round. Each book taken entitles the taker to 1 point, and each player who gets the exact number of books bid by that player gets a bonus of 10 points. (Variants can be played with a number of different bidding and sandbagging rules, as will be familiar to players of these sorts of trick-taking games.)
11. The score for each round is added to the running total for the player. The player with the highest score at the end wins the game.
It is a pretty fun game that can be completed in a predictable amount of time, shortened by reducing the number of hands. DS5 loves it. It teaches a lot of skills, with a lot of fun introduced by the need to adjust bidding based on the number of cards and the "screwing the dealer" factor.
What I did for DS5, to help him work on his penmanship, is create a scoresheet for this game. I'll post a link to it later from home. I would enjoy hearing if anyone tries and likes the game.
ETA: It looks like it is very similar to a whist variant most often called "Oh, Hell", with maybe some minor differences: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Hell
Abalone Apples to Apples / Apples to Apples Jr. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Artifact Axis and Allies Backgammon Balderdash Bananagrams Bandu / Bausack Battleship Bazaar Blink Blokus / Blokus Duo / Blokus Trigon Boggle Cariboo Carcassonne Chess Chicken Cha-Cha-Cha Chinese Checkers Cirkus Clue (inc. Harry Potter version) Connect Four Depot Diner Dominoes (inc. Mexican Train Dominoes) Equate Fluxx Go Go Fish Gobblet Granny's House Growlies in the Garden Guess Who Harvest Time Hearts Hedbanz Hi Ho Cherry-O Hungry, Hungry Hippos Izzi Jenga Kerplunk Khet Labyrinth, by Ravensburger The Ladybug Game Made for Trade Mancala Mastermind Meta-Forms Minotaurus Monopoly Munchkin No Stress Chess Oh, Hell Operation Othello Pandemic Parcheesi Pass the Pigs Perfection Phase 10 Professor Noggin Quarto Quiddler Quixo Quoridor Qwirkle Rat a Tat Cat Rhyme Time Risk Rummikub Scrabble Scrambled States of America Scotland Yard Secret Door Sequence Set Settlers of Catan Shogi Shut the Box Skeletons in the Closet Sorry Sorry Revenge Spaceopoly Spellbound Stratego Sum Swamp Tableland Texas Hold 'Em Ticket to Ride Topitop Toss Up Triominoes Trivial Pursuit Trouble Uno Upwords The Way Things Work Washington's War Wordigo Yahtzee / Yahtzee Turbo Zeus on the Loose
Single-player games:
Amaze Block by Block Brick by Brick Castle Logix / Royal Rescue Chocolate Fix Clever Castle Cosmic Catch Cover Your Tracks Hedgehog Escape Hoppers Hot Spot Kanoodle Perplexus River Crossing / River Crossing Jr. Rush Hour / Rush Hour Jr. Serpentiles Shape by Shape Solitaire Chess TipOver
Computer games:
Age of Empires Age of Mythology Apples to Apples Blokus Bloons Tower Defense: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4+ Boggle Boom Blox (Wii) Bubble Blast (Android OS) Chess (Android OS, by Aart J.C. Bik) Civilization Cogs (PC, iPad, iPhone) Crazy Machines (PC, Mac, iPad) Flood-It (Android OS) Fritz and Chesster Learn Chess GalCon (iPad) Glow Puzzle (Android OS) Isaac Newton's Gravity (iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone) Jumpstart World Online Lego Chess Lego Universe Lemmings Lure of the Labyrinth Master of Orion 2 Meeblings, Meeblings 2 Nethack Phit (Android OS) Quoridor Rome Total War Rush Hour (Android OS) Scrabble Set Spore Starcraft Sudoku Tinker Warcraft 3 World of Goo Wrath of the Gods Yahtzee, YahtC (Android OS) Zoo Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon 2 Zoombinis Logical Journey, Zoombinis Mountain Rescue
Unknown quantities-- please post if you have direct experience with these:
This PC game has likely been mentioned, but DD7 and I adore the old PC game from Sierra called Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions. You can see it in action here:
It runs fine on Windows 7 and I like it more than the more recent Crazy Machines because the parts are easier to see and in general it is just more fun and creative.
The puzzles are very challenging and educational thanks to its terrific simulated physics. It teaches problem solving as you are forced to learn cause and effect and understand the functions and limitations of each part, yet you can also be creative and solve them in simpler or wilder ways. You can also challenge yourself by trying to solve a given contraption in one go, thinking many steps ahead.
Finally there is a sandbox mode where you can build your own contraptions.
I believe you can buy the entire series repackaged on gog.com for only $9.99 or you can find originals on eBay.
For young kids who can't yet read, Spot It and Blink are excellent and fun. DS is 3 and plays both easily. Admittedly, he is slower than everyone else, but he does do respectably. Blink is like an easier Set.
- a 50 level, 3D computer game challenge. The goal is to move a marble through endless vortex's and pathways with obstacles, to arrive at an end point for each level. It's pretty crazy. If you know Perplexus, that is the nearest to a physical example I can give, and that would be just one level. My son completely loved it. He's highly visual-spatial. There are Gold and Platinum versions to download.
I had to read the whole list before I could add, lol! Great games and ideas here!
I spent almost every Tuesday last year playing games with my DD's second grade class. It was really enlightening, challenging and sometimes a little sad (when kids told me they had a game but no one ever played it with them :() Plus with the different levels in the class (the entire spectrum) it was interesting to watch their takes on the same game...
Some that we played were Headbandz-this is great for critical thinking and the yes/no rule helps them focus) Pictureka-(card deck) there are actually 4 ways to play this, again, lots of out of the box thinking, rationalizing and persuading others) Ratuki-another card game...cards have numbers one through 5 represented in different ways (a drawing of a hand holding up 2 finger, roman numerals, etc). You can increase the difficulty by having more piles going...players place cards one up or down from the number shown as fast as they can and when the "5" comes up, the first player to yell "ratuki!" gets the pile. This is very fast paced and can get a bit out of control, but it's great to blow off steam and teach them about different ways of seeing the same thing Candyland-ok seriously, I could not believe these kids were in 2nd grade and some had never played Candyland. But even a simple game like that teaches about sharing, taking turns etc and it can be great for an older child to occupy a younger with. Connect 4-huge favorite in our house and the classroom. Turns out of the kids with speech and reading issues was AWESOME at this game and he felt really good playing and winning. Guess Who?-again yes/no questions, hones observation and comparison skills, grouping...I have even played this with other adults and we make up our own creative questions (does you person look like a spy?) lol!
DH is teaching both girls 8 and 4.5 to play dominoes and chess. DD4.5 just likes to "help" Poppa with chess but DD8 is really starting to get it
DD8 is also really into her nintendo DS now...she has Big Brain Academy (all ages, even adults) and Super Scribblenauts (also fun for adults). We even purchased the companion guide for Scibblenauts. For the regular computer, she is working through "3rd grade Adventures" and really loving it, but I already put the next one in my cart because she's blowing through it.
We have Simon and Sudoku on my tablet and our phones...I'd like to hear some more apps/downloadable games on the Android platform? tia!
Oh, and with Blink, you can handicap yourself to make it more fair.
I wish I needed the handicap. DS11 won't play me any more. I'm too slow. No challenge for him. I love the game, too bad.
I usually deal myself more cards in Blink as well to make it less depressing for the kids. Dd11, who I suspect is much faster than her processing speed on the WISC would indicate (but just error prone), actually keeps up well with me in Blink now a days and doesn't need fewer cards to win about half of the time. Since I've been in the 99th percentile or higher on processing speed every time I've taken an IQ test, that lends credibility to my contention that she isn't truly slower the way her sister is.
I definitely don't need to handicap myself with the 8yo (she is a fast processor for sure). DS4--well, I haven't played him in a while so now I don't know anymore!
The card game Sleeping Queens has been HUGE at our house lately. DS can't do the arithemetic element too well, but that doesn't make much difference. I don't find the game a thrill, exactly, but it's tolerable. I have seen other kids love it, so it isn't just my two. I don't remember if I mentioned the card game Ruckus upthread--that one really IS fun, and playable by nonreaders.
My DGS mastered all the levels of MarbleBlast through intermediate at age 4. He is now 6 and bored with it. I can't play the game at all so I was pretty impressed.
My kids are total game hounds and I need to buy some more.
Looking for some more recs for good ones that we can all play together (DD 8, DS 4, and parents). DS can read at about a second grade level (real second grade, not like what our kids read when in second grade!) but can't really write or draw reliably yet. He can do basic addition/subtraction but nothing past facts to 10, really. He plays chess about like an average 6yo would, if that gives you an idea, and has patience to sit and play a game for about an hour. He is okay with losing most of the time but obviously it's better to get games with a luck elelment so he doesn't always get trounced.
Games we already have and like that he can play include:
Sleeping Queens (some of the math is lost on him but it works anyway) Rat a Tat Cat Blink Connect 4 Uno Spot It Rummikub (card version) Ruckus Pictureka (card version) Cranium Cadoo (marginal due to drawing questions) Quelf Jr. Chess Checkers
Considering buying: Clue Othello Sorry
I recently bought Forbidden Island, a cooperative game, but am saving it for a literal rainy day.
Some of DS6's favorites right now are Rush Hour, Jr. and Scrambled States of America. He also loves to play a million different online puzzle-type games.
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!
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.
Munchkin does not look like it will go over well with my 8yo, who is very peaceloving and hates anything with violence, soooo....
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.
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: (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!
My youngest loved Rush Hour Jr, even at around 3 or 4. I had to set up the board for him, but he could solve it on his own. I always found that interesting, that he could solve the puzzle but could not set up the cars according to the picture on the game card. I'm sure that reflects something in his reasoning / puzzle solving skills! Lucy
I haven't read the whole list but my son loves the card game MadLibs. You deal each player a hand and the players have to make sentences out of the cards (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs). You can do various rounds like first round 2 sentences, one 4 words and one 6 words, then 5 and 5, and so forth. Or you can just play until someone has a sentence. We end up with sentences like "Crazy, sweaty grandmothers quickly, contentedly, sweetly devoured hot, red tubesocks". The only requirement is that the sentence be grammatically correct, but you can fudge that when they are younger. Mine has been playing it since he was about 6.
He also loves Pentago, Stratego, Risk, and "We, the People", which is very tedious and the rules are endless. His all time favorite is Monopoly, which he used to play at age 5, being two players and the banker and he'd sit for two hours and play by himself. All variations of Monopoly he likes - Monopoly Deal (card game) and Monopoly Express (very short version). UDeal Mondopoly was not so great, though. He's always liked a card game called States Rummy (I think) - you have to get 5 contiguous states and it's played like gin rummy. He also likes Canasta and Chickenfoot.
Looking for a new game rec for DS4's birthday (about to turn 5, obviously). Current favorites are Gubs (we LOVE this game), Farkle, chess, Ruckus, and mancala. I'm not looking to spend much because I've already splurged on another gift, but he has asked for another game. We do have a lot already.
We have both of those already. He is actually ready for games that are harder than those, although I find Spot It fun myself. He seems to be fine for games in the 8-12 range as long as they do not involve writing, spelling, wordplay or knowledge of the world/trivia/pop culture that a young child would not possess. Complex rules, strategy and math are fine.
If adults here like Frog Juice, I think I'm hitting buy! I wonder if it's a lot like Gubs, though? (But as I say, we love Gubs. DS played it almost nonstop for days.) I LOVE Gamewright.
It's...hmmm...well, it's awesome. It's another Gamewright card game, very whimsical, with a LOT of rules, but not actually hard to play (you can easily consult the rule pamphlet if befuddled). You have these creatures called Gubs that you're trying to free or protect, and cataclysmic events happen. There's a lot of luck, but also strategy, although you can get nailed at the last minute a little too much for my tastes. We played the hell out of it for a few weeks and are now a bit fried on it, but really, it was out of control how much we played. DS picked it up with no trouble at all. I think it says 10 and up but that seems much too high--I think 7 and up is about right (for typical kids--I feel like bright first graders would get it, and definitely 2nd graders), but it could easily be enjoyed by up to about age 11 or 12, I think.
That review mentions Magic the Gathering. I have no familiarity with that--thought it was more a collecting thing. Is it an actual game? Might DS be able to play? He reads very well and has no trouble with complex rules.
Good gracious--Geek Dad at Wired has a HUGE section of board game reviews. Freaking out! Need to buy 10 billion games! Aaaaaaahhhh!!! (You have to understand...DS wants to play games all.day.long.)
DeeDee Oops sorry! Castle Panic is the game with the expansion pack - confusing my holiday gifts this year and last year! Castle panic is similar in that its a work together game - defend the castle from the invading monsters - expansion pack adds a wizard tower - super fun!
UM Magic the gathering is relatively complex but not difficult in terms of reading - he might do better though starting with Pokemon - a great way to make friends with older kids. DS's cousins taught him in K and he loved it and played with 2nd and 3rd graders.
Other parents have told me that Pokemon is impossible to learn, annoying and expensive. Not true? I definitely want a real game, not a thing where you have to keep buying stuff...
Castle Panic and Castle Keep--I think I have these confused!
Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, YuGiOh are all theoretically expensive to keep at. It is possible to buy a starter set, but because these have a history and tournaments and 1000+ collectible cards involved and variations of rules and rule interpretations, it's messy.
The upside of that type of game (TCG,trading card games) is they have tournaments, places to play, people to play with, and offer the novelty (and additional statistical/strategic challenge) of designing your own deck to play with.
Have you looked at Dominion? It has a mechanic sort of like Magic the Gathering, but it does not require collecting cards. You have a randomly selected tableau of ten cards available, and everyone starts with the same deck and builds their own. There are lots of expansions available, but the base game is pretty fun by itself. You can get the base game for iPhone/iPad/Android pretty cheap, I believe, if you want to try it out.
We love Dominion at this house! However we have not started DS5 playing it yet. Hopefully soon.
For the mathy ones here you might want to check out Numbers League. It is a card game. There are villains and superheroes. You build your superhero so his/her "number" is equal to the villain's. It includes cards which use neg. numbers, mult., and division.
numbers league is awesome - also available on the ipad - where its this fun spinner to pick your villains to challenge
We got a ton of free pokemon cards so we haven't spent any money - but since ours were free doubles from the cousins I can definitely see how expensive it can get.
I feel like DS may be inevitably booked on trading card games or something like D and D when he gets older, but that I don't NEED to intro it now. Next year he'll be able to start in chess club at school, which he's anticipating eagerly.
You can also play online at http://dominion.isotropic.com, but there are some killer players there, and also some mean people who will not be patient with newbies (as well as some total sweethearts, don't get me wrong). I wouldn't recommend it for a kid in general, but it's fun for grownups.
Even for gifted kids, I wouldn't try to get them to play Dominion before 7 or so - I think my daughter learned shortly before she turned 8, and that was about the right time. But it does sort of scratch the same itch as the collectible card games, and it's recent enough that not everyone knows about it already, so I thought I'd point it out. Like the CCGs, there are tons of tournaments, etc., around it.
DS11 loves The Whole Brain Game, and I love to hear the ideas she comes up with during the game! It is a card game for divergent creative thinking skills. Children have the advantage in this game, as they tend to be more flexible. For some adults, such as dad who was stressed out from work, it was too much, so we had to bend the rules and only give him easy questions.
The original list on this forum thread included the game Set, which I use in my SAT prep course because it trains the brain to pay attention to subtle differences and double check answers. Try it and see if you don't feel your brain starting to think differently. Besides, it is fun and anyone can play as it doesn't require reading.
BTW, thinking differently is good. As Mini USA says, normal has its advantages but normal can never be amazing!!
It's a cooperative strategy game where the hero's come together to beat the villain. DS6 loves the good guy/bad guy aspect. It requires the ability to read and to understand strategy/multiple game mechanics at once.
This game states 13 and up but DS6 has been playing it since he was 5 and it is almost the only game he asks for now. He gets so into it that he'll start jumping up and down on the chair anticipating moves. I highly recommend this one.
Okay you guys: Settlers of Catan, Carcassone, Dominion, or Ticket to Ride for DD9 and DS5 as our first Euro game? DS5 is a very good game player with a very long attention span. DD9 hates violence and is bored by military-ish stuff.
It would be nice if they could play with just the two of them. Not sure what to say about game length. Long can be good but short is a nice option.
I don't think we have Dominion so can't comment on that one. Ticket to Ride makes me crazy--it is tedious and very frustrating in my opinion, although I know most people like it. I would go with either Settlers or Carcassonne.
Wait--we do have Dominion, but haven't tried it with the kids. I think it would be hard for a kid to win if an adult is actually trying, and therefore frustrating for everyone.
I'm not sure if this game is in print anymore, but El Grande is a really good area control game and one of my favorite games (for probably upper elementary kids not young ones)
I enjoy Ticket to Ride. DS5 likes Carcassonne, but doesn't play it very competitively yet. He likes announcing that he is a "thief in the road," though. DD9 likes Dominion, although it can be very slow with kids playing.
If I'm allowed to pick "other," Takenoko is fun and does not require any reading. Plus the pieces are very cute.
Lure of the labyrinth is a stealth maths educational tool wrapped up in a graphic novel style interface with Myst like puzzles. My DD8 loves it and because she already knows the 4th grade Maths curriculum cold does this (with the teacher's full consent) instead of any Maths 'drill and kill' homework.
Lure of the labyrinth is a stealth maths educational tool wrapped up in a graphic novel style interface with Myst like puzzles. My DD8 loves it and because she already knows the 4th grade Maths curriculum cold does this (with the teacher's full consent) instead of any Maths 'drill and kill' homework.
I saw you mention this on another thread. I did not see it on Amazon. I just googled and came up to a webpage. Is this webpage the game?
The webpage is is it - the best part is the price - it's free.
The downside (I think) is that it needs Flash so need a browser that can handle Flash.
Well, I've had it for a year and I still enjoy it. I would say that its replayability is not as high as some of the games in this thread (say, Agricola or Dominion), but you will definitely get a number of games out of it. DD9 really enjoys it, and I do too, so I think it stays age-appropriate for a long time.
I've been getting a few requests to work with 2E ESL/bilingual students and this would be perfect for them and DD would love it too since she is so competitive.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Kerbal Space Program. KSP is an open-ended game where you build your own rockets and launch them from a low-gravity planet populated by amusing alien species who much resemble the Muppets' Beaker. Real spaceship structural simulation and orbital mechanics is the focus of the game. Even on the free demo version one can work up to landing a Kerbal on the "Mun", and maybe even get him back to Planet Kerbin.
Many videos of KSP, both instructional and destructional are available on YouTube. (Making absurd rockets and blowing them up is half the fun.)
Okay, I'm going to suggest a couple of things-- but with some conditions associated.
1. Cards against Humanity-- super-modified version. I don't know if anyone has ever played Apples-to-Apples, but it's like that. But funnier/edgier. And gross/adult. BUT--
This amounts to being a game which is a little bit like Pictionary-- but verbal, like Mad Libs. Or something. It's a little hard to explain.
Clearly this is going to appeal to verbally quick kids who have that super-advanced sense of humor. But I figure that this is a population which can appreciate that better than most, so. DD plans to make a specialty version for a couple of different groups of people she hangs out with. She's not interested in the "nasty" cards (like in the official game) but more snarky current-events-and-politics themes.
2. Speaking of Mad Libs-- DD loves her free mini-madlibs app for her Android phone. She cackles in glee for hours over it.
DD10 just got Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule for her birthday, and we're all playing a lot of it. We all still feel a little like we're playing randomly, but it's getting more strategic as we start to learn what to do. Even played randomly, it's fun, and DS5 has no trouble at all playing.
Does anyone play D&D with their kids? My kids have independently been inventing something that looks a lot like a Monster Manual. I never played, but my brother did so I'm passingly familiar with it. I'm wondering if there is an easy/simplified way to get set up. We actually have the Dungeon board game, but that's pretty different.
Haven't done D&D or similar in many years. My son is interested in trying some RPG. From my research modern D&D is fairly complex, but there is a neat looking and fairly simple looking RPG called Mouse Guard as well as another using a similar rule system called Dungeon World. The system is designed to be extensible; so, if they are creating their own content that might be a nice direction to go.
Sort of off topic, but Mouseguard is a beautiful, very well-done graphic novel/series, well worth a look.
My DD has just been invited to join a long-running D+D game, she loved her introduction, but she was guided through by kids who have played for a while. We have a nephew who joined in several RPGS through a local game/card shop that hosts events like this, that might be a way to get started/set up. Nephew ended up playing mainly with adults but really enjoyed it despite the lack of kids.
Does anyone play D&D with their kids? My kids have independently been inventing something that looks a lot like a Monster Manual. I never played, but my brother did so I'm passingly familiar with it. I'm wondering if there is an easy/simplified way to get set up. We actually have the Dungeon board game, but that's pretty different.
I played it as a kid, and my DD showed enough interest last year that I acquired the books online, and started getting her and some friends set up with players, before their interest tailed off. It was just too complicated for them at 8. She still brings it up from time to time, as she clearly enjoyed the process of inventing the character, so we'll probably try again in a year or two. I never started with it until I was 11 or so.
The new version is a lot more complicated than I remember it, but keep in mind that you can basically ignore any parts of the game you find inconvenient.
There's a thing called a Starter Set that has a much smaller set of rules, spells, monsters, etc. It includes a pre-packaged adventure story to play through. It's not a great value, because it quickly becomes obsolete if the kiddos decide D&D is a hit and they want more.
What is the complicated part? Is there a lot of math? Is it slow? A lot to keep track of? Gaming of all kinds is by DS's #1 interest, so interest is intense. I don't think we have yet met a game he could not learn, but we haven't yet bought any of the top-level Eurogmes.
I know someone has to be dungeonmaster, and that that part takes a lot of planinng. My DH is willing to do this. He played the game a little as a teen, though he was not really into it by any means.
I will look at Mouse Guard and especially Dungeon World. Something extensible would work well for us in that it would suit DD10's desire to create. Her monsters are very scary and awesome. (She has one called a "sklate"--looks like a human, but its pupils are slits and it has no lips. It's telepathic, and if you get too close to one when you are under 10 years old, you will automatically kill someone you love the day you turn 11. The worst part is that you then regain your senses and realize what you've done, just before you die. Yeah, DD has quite the imagination!)
What is the complicated part? Is there a lot of math? Is it slow? A lot to keep track of?
Mostly the last one. There's math, but it's not complicated at all. A character sheet is littered with data of various kinds, all with impacts on game mechanics, so understanding all those bits and figuring out how to make them better is a major part of the game. Abilities, saving throws, equipment, armor, spell inventories, spell effects, spell ingredients, etc.* This is all stuff that was carried over from the olden days. They've added some new stuff, and added extra layers to some of the old stuff. For example, I noticed that there are more modifiers to armor and attack rolls depending on whether the weapon used is a pierce/slash/bludgeon weapon in the latest edition. It's just simple adding and subtracting of integers and rolling the dice, but it's more data to track and consider.
Even back in the olden days, the groups I played with streamlined the games. For instance, encumbrance. The rules say you're supposed to calculate the weight of all carried equipment, and compare that to a table for each player's strength, to figure out if they're overloaded. It also affects movement speeds. We just issued everyone a magic bag that had no limits and weighed nothing (think of Hermione's bag in Deathly Hallows), and told people not to try wearing 200 pounds of armor for their 130-pound elf characters. Done.
We threw out spell ingredients, too. Nobody saw the fun in RPing frequent shopping excursions, nor in watching the party die because someone was short on ghoul blood or phoenix tears.
Basically, all the rules are suggestions, and the players and DM are free to modify as they like.
*Notice how the game gets a lot more complicated for players using magic. I recommend newcomers focus on characters who hit things, and expand from there. Hitting things is easier.
Originally Posted by ultramarina
(She has one called a "sklate"--looks like a human, but its pupils are slits and it has no lips. It's telepathic, and if you get too close to one when you are under 10 years old, you will automatically kill someone you love the day you turn 11. The worst part is that you then regain your senses and realize what you've done, just before you die. Yeah, DD has quite the imagination!)
Holy crap, that is awesome, and yet frightening. Your DD isn't going to be 11 soon, is she?
I suspect we would do better to find someone to walk us through a modified version. The problem would be finding that someone, who actually wants to do this with a 6- and 10-year-old.
(BTW here is one of DS6's monsters, transcribed as written:
"eyeball raider Danger Value 6/10 Infomaition: eyeball raiders are uncommun. They live in pepole's eyes. When it is spearing time, they use their arm spears to spear your eyeballs. Eyeball raiders have very sensitave noses. the only way to kill eyeball raiders is by putting something tiny there."
Huge D&D players here - no problem finding adults willing to play - I don't recommend admitting that in public unless you are sure of your audience!!!!
ULtra - you might try the board game as a first attempt, might be more user friendly than a full game
ultramarina - my son draws monsters of his own creation, we have thousands of extremely detailed drawings of various monsters. He is also 10.
I think they would be kindred spirits!
PS both kids have been into mythology lately, so he wanted to draw the gadfly that stung Io… he drew a monster gadfly that had major weaponry. His point of view was that Hera wouldn't have just sent a garden variety gadfly..
Two apps I'd recommend are Plague Inc (a little weird, but great for teaching geography and, to some degree, biology) and, of course, Minecraft. I'm glad to see Zoo Tycoon on the list--it was a favorite of mine. http://www.ndemiccreations.com/en/22-plague-inc https://minecraft.net https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_Tycoon_(series)
Uno Guess Who Memory - where you put all the cards/discs/pictures face down and take turns to look at two at a time, and try to match pairs) Unnamed game - you say "I'm thinking of a person/animal/machine/movie/feeling/whatever ... " and give clues but don't say the name of the thing.
Of course, that's when we're not playing dress ups, or tea party, or baddies and goodies, or halloween party, treasure hunt, etc. 😀
Hey, Cogs is great! And you can't beat the value.
