What boardgames and when?

July 9, 2009 8:24 PM

Board-games for a small family with a girl, from ages 0-14 (where she stops talking to us and accuses us of ruining her life forever)

OK. Sooo... I'm going to have a daughter. She will be part of a nuclear family, a dad and a mom who are madly in love and viciously smart. If there is =one= thing I can teach her, it would be long-term strategic thinking. (Apart from "If a man beats you up, tell your Dad or Uncle Brian, so we can gently correct his behavior with a Louisville Slugger.")

In my experience, board-games offer both family interaction, and the education in long-term objectives that I'd want my scion to learn. So! Starting out from tiny tot, what games are best?

posted by Slap*Happy to education (45 comments total)

The only game that our whole family would ever sit down to play was Scrabble.

My family was pretty nerdy.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 8:26 PM on July 9 [1 favorite has favorites]

Go
posted by aniola at 8:30 PM on July 9

Well, Candy Land at an early age reinforces colors. Ours loved 13 Dead End Drive, Boggle (not a board game, but a family game), Yahtze (same) and Clue. We played Clue a thousand times. We still do. It teaches deductive reasoning.
posted by clarkstonian at 8:31 PM on July 9

Chutes and Ladders! And Monopoly, once she's old enough.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:31 PM on July 9 [1 favorite has favorites]

crash has it nailed i think. scrabble can work for the very young who are getting to grips with word power... as long as you don't flex your 'viciously smart' muscles and spoil the fun.

aside from that, i think a deck of cards (i know, not a board game) offers up possibilities for kids with Go Fish, Old Maid, up to the joys of Hearts and Gin Rummy.
posted by Frasermoo at 8:32 PM on July 9

I was a kid who loved taking things apart to see how they worked/building things. My favorite early age game was Mouse Trap (2-4 players age 6+).
posted by torquemaniac at 8:33 PM on July 9

Another game we played a lot when we were young was Memory. I think they have an edition for younger kids where you just match pictures and there aren't as many matches and then an edition for older kids and adults that's harder. It was lots of fun and definitely builds strategic thinking and memory skills. As she gets older, Risk is another really fun strategic game.
posted by garnetgirl at 8:35 PM on July 9 [1 favorite has favorites]

I liked games that had intricate (or just numerous) pieces - Mousetrap, LIFE (all the cars and wee people pegs), and Operation, but I was pretty hyper as a wee one until I calmed down enough for Scrabble and Boggle.

What helped me with strategic thinking, math, and money/numbers though was my granddad teaching me blackjack and poker.
posted by pointystick at 8:37 PM on July 9

I played endless games of Sorry with my younger sister.
posted by crazycanuck at 8:50 PM on July 9 [2 favorites has favorites]

YOu probably don't need to worry about this for at least four years. My kids are just about to turn four, and they're still much more into reading and being social than strategic thinking. BUt once they're ready to start, Chutes and Ladders (try to get an old, less-confusing version with a larger board; the newer ones are hard to parse because they decided to make 'em really "FUN" in the graphic design. My kids still find it confusing.)

Also, when they get older, do what my dad did: text adventures, the old infocom ones. We did 'em as a family, taking turns typing "W" "N" "Take Light" and so on, and mapped the places we went. I'm absolutely certain that experience was beneficial to my ability to conceptualize ideas, things and spaces.

Finally: Congrats!
posted by davejay at 8:54 PM on July 9

Your idealism is admirable. But the most important kid board game criterion? It must not make you want to gouge your eyes out when you're asked to play it over and over again.

That said, I will recommend Guess Who? and Battleship.
posted by gnomeloaf at 8:57 PM on July 9 [2 favorites has favorites]

German-style board games would be an excellent choice to play with your child(ren) once she gets a bit older. In general, they emphasize strategic play over luck, and indirect competition rather than conflict. The rules are usually fairly intuitive and don't involve referencing manuals. It's usually not possible to be eliminated and even a player in a weak position has some influence on the game outcome. The games are usually really well-designed and tend not to last excessively long like Monopoly or Risk.

The classic German board game is Settlers of Catan. I really like Carcassone as well.
posted by pravit at 8:57 PM on July 9 [1 favorite has favorites]

My family played Yahtzee for a few years like we were training for the pro circuit. We even brought it on vacation with us, including the velvet board my dad made so the dice sound wouldn't drive us mad anymore. (They have sets that take care of all of the noise now.)

I have really fond memories of those game nights. I just tried to teach my five-year-old nephew, and while I had to curb his cheating tendencies, he still killed both his grandmother and me (he rolled Yahtzee twice!). He was tickled by his beginner's luck.
posted by gladly at 8:58 PM on July 9

At our house, where we have a 5yo and an 8yo who enjoy playing games with us, we are liking Blokus, Qwirkle, Crosswise, Shut the Box, Dominos, and what is the name of that one with the monkeys--Spunky Monkeys. We get a lot of stuff from the Mindware and haven't hit a dud yet.

Despite the relatively low production values, we've had a lot of fun with cooperative boardgames from Family Pastimes, and they have lots for all different ages. We just got Old Spider & The Fly while on vacation and it was a big hit with kids from 4-8. Lots of tension, drama, and low-level strategizing as the group tries to achieve a goal together. The group-goal aspect makes these a good game to play when you've got kids with a range of ages, or are playing with a young kid who might not be able to engage fully in game play all by herself, because you can do a lot of "should we do this, or that?" and let the kid decide.

My kids love Rivers, Roads, and Rails from Ravensburger.

We have a lot of the strategy games from ThinkFun, too. You might be familiar with Rush Hour but they have lots, and for many have "junior" versions as well.

These are all in addition to Candyland, Yahtze, Uno, Set, and the rest of the usual suspects.

As to when? You and your daughter will know. We have played games that were too "old" for our kids by modifying the rules, or by playing with everyone's cards face-up (we used to play Uno this way) so that we could help our youngest. My 5yo loves Spunky Monkeys right now but it's a surprisingly long game and he rarely finishes it, and that's OK. There are a lot of nice concentration-style games that adapt well to very young kids. We have one that's all different kinds of teddy bears, and with really young toddlers you can invite them to find the matching bears from an array of face-up bears; then move up to playing with just a few pairs; until the kids are old enough for the whole array (by which time so many cards have gone missing you have to buy a new set...but c'est la vie).
posted by not that girl at 9:01 PM on July 9

I loved Memory and Guess Who when I was really little. When a little older, I really liked Double Crossing (wherein you build a train empire... it's a little bit like Monopoly but with trains and deviousness), which might be hard to find now.

More recently, I worked at a day camp where Snap was loved by counselors and campers of all ages. While Snap is a puzzle game and not a board game, it was the only game we had that wasn't either too tiresome for the counselors to play repeatedly or too hard for the kids.

Word Sweep is also an excellent game, although it helps to have an extensive vocabulary (that said, I think there are junior rules that would make it easier for kids).
posted by pemberkins at 9:04 PM on July 9

Oh, and I was also completely addicted to Mastermind from the age of five or so, although that's very much a two-player game (so maybe not so helpful with the whole-family bonding).
posted by pemberkins at 9:06 PM on July 9

As someone who loves games and is busy raising a kid, I can only speak to what was good for us:

From age 0-3: Nothing really. It's too complicated/boring/whatever. The popamatic dice provide a few hours of entertainment

4-5: Games that are very boring for grownups like Hi-Ho Cherry-Oh, Candyland, Cootie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Don't Break the Ice, Ants in the Pants - yawnfest, but there's skills in them there games if you can stand playing 'em

5-6: Connect Four, Apples to Apples Junior, Clue, Life, Mouse Trap, Guess Who, Old Maid, Battleship - Games that rely on luck, surprise and a little bit of deduction (or the grownup has to throw it a bit so it stays fun)

6-7: Rush Hour, Operation, Monopoly, Boggle, chess, checkers, Uno - the brain is opening up and can start to compete without the grownup having to throw it, kid is still at a disadvantage in reasoning and vocabulary games

7-8: Blockus, Pictionary, card games beyond Go Fish, Sorry/Trouble (if you take it easy on the kid), Othello - Strategy, spacial thinking and being able to read your opponents

8-9: Flux, Dream Factory, Masterpiece, Modern Art, most fancy German board games that don't involve too much math - your kid is a person who hasn't finished high school, doesn't get pop culture references, but can keep up with you in the figure-it-out games

9-10: Anything you can play that doesn't rely on trivial knowledge or book learnin' (trivial pursuit, Wit's End, some categories of Cranium, Battle of the Sexes, etc.) - even some pop culture references are OK (Apples to Apples) if you've exposed 'em to a lot of stuff.

That's as far as we've gotten. Good luck!
posted by Gucky at 9:07 PM on July 9 [4 favorites has favorites]

wow, pravit waded in with the German board games. I just checked my box of Ticket to Ride and I'm surprised it's rated 8+.

it's a fantastic game that rewards planning, cunning, individual endeavor, partnership and outright skullduggery, or does not reward at all depending on how the game pans out. A classic.
posted by Frasermoo at 9:13 PM on July 9

All of Gucky's plus Jenga. When they're very little they just like playing with the blocks.
posted by angiep at 9:15 PM on July 9

My daughter and I have been playing Strat-o-Matic Baseball since she was 10. Great game. They have other sports too. Great for using numbers and strategy. (My sons play too. Mom, not so much.)
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:17 PM on July 9

To echo pretty much everyone else - Go, Guess Who?, Life, Sorry/Pachisi/Ludo/Parcheesi, Yahtzee, Battleship, and there are numerous "new" games out there that have similar rules but are meant for kids.

I really enjoyed Battleship and Parcheesi and Guess Who when I was little. The other games will probably require a lot of patience.
posted by neewom at 9:21 PM on July 9

Start with Candyland and Hi-Ho Cherry O, or Snail's Pace if you can find it.

Yes, these games are totally boring and pointless for adults, but for a 3-y.o. (yes, you can start that young), they teach a critical skill- taking turns.
posted by mkultra at 9:23 PM on July 9

My daughter has loved "Go Away Monster" since she was about 18 months old. It teaches taking turns and sharing, as well as some basic furniture knowledge. And how to deal with monsters. (Yell "Go Away Monster!" and throw them in the monster pit.) It's probably the game kids can play the earliest that is a "real" board game.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 9:28 PM on July 9

Well, it's not a board game, but my grandparents taught me to play 500 starting around age 8-9, and even now, twenty years later, they still won't let me leave their house until we've played a hand or five. It's lots of fun with a few critical skills: teamwork, the art of bluffing, stink bidding, strategy, and some easy math.

When I worked in an after-school childcare program for a couple years, the only game I could stand playing endlessly was Phase 10. Mancala is good, too.

I really wish someone had taught me to play chess as a kid.
posted by anderjen at 9:34 PM on July 9

Can't Stop!, if you can find it. Apparently you can find it on Funagain Games nowadays. Most people haven't heard about this game, but it's a pretty uncomplicated press-your-luck dice-based game which is easy enough for small kids (once they've got addition down), and yet not horribly excruciatingly dull for adults (my mom still really likes it). Just as easy to play with 2, 3, or 4.

A regularly popular game at my housemate's game parties in Pittsburgh was Hare and Tortoise. We played with adults, but it's definitely kid friendly, and you get to teach them about triangle numbers! There's a cheat sheet for people too lazy to do the math, of course.

Also, card games! Kings in the Corner was my grandmother's choice to play with us until we graduated to rummy games. The equipment is minimal and the options are pretty extensive. Double solitaire (and regular solitaire) are good idle entertainments, and you can get into more strategy based games like Spades or Bridge, if you find yourself another participant.
posted by that girl at 9:54 PM on July 9

my dad gave me my first chess set for my fifth birthday, and we began playing then. i imagine it takes an extreme amount of patience to teach a young kid how to play the game and also how to create a strategy, but it would be well worth it.
posted by chicago2penn at 9:54 PM on July 9

Guess Who. Boggle. Mastermind (she won't like it until she's at least 6 or 7, though.) Can't Stop. Farmer's Chess (Chess with only the pawns and kings, promotion = a rook. Google it for more info.) Stratego. Monopoly. Connect4. Abalone (kind of advanced at first but she'll love the marbles.)

I would highly recommend against Candyland and Chutes and Ladders because the games are entirely devoid of strategy. You may think it's fun the first few times you play it with your daughter but by time 50 you'll want to stab yourself in the eye with a fork.
posted by Happydaz at 9:58 PM on July 9

I think my family got given upwords when I was about 7 or 8? We still play it now, almost 20 years later. Can be as easy or hard as you like.
posted by latch24 at 10:31 PM on July 9

I'll put in a second word for "Go" It is sort of a Japanese strategy game which is extremely simple but involves enormous strategy. PLUS you can play giant tic-tac-toe 5,6 7! in a row games when you are too young for the real Go game. We also used the markers to play tiddly-winks on the carpet.

My kids always took the Monopoly board with them on vacations. They devised different rules periodically. Grand Canyon rules, Lake Mead rules, etc. Don't ask.

And nothing says 'playing with the grown-ups' like learning the language of cribbage.
posted by SLC Mom at 10:39 PM on July 9

Go and Mastermind are both fun. I played a lot of backgammon with my dad growing up, but of course that's 2-person as well.

Can I put in a plug for poker? I learned at about 5. We'd use a change can and play for real money, and I got to keep what I won. It's a great skill to have, and really teaches the critical thinking you mention above.
posted by miss tea at 3:55 AM on July 10

Open-ended strategy games like chess are tricky when you're little. The first games I remember doing any strategic thinking on were Sorry and Uno, both of which give you lots of little contained two- or three-way choices. ("Do I move my own piece ahead or send dad's back?" "Should I blow my wild card now or hang onto it for later?") I think it helps that in both games, a lot of the choices are of the "be nice or be mean" variety, which are easy to grasp when you're young — a move in chess or even checkers that makes a big strategic difference won't necessarily get a big visible reaction, or even change the appearance of the board much, but you throw a Draw Four down on someone in Uno and right away you get the satisfaction of hearing them groan theatrically (you will be groaning theatrically, right?) and seeing their hand fill up with cards.
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:08 AM on July 10

Rat a Tat Cat. Special cards, memory, strategy. Not totally boring for adults.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:59 AM on July 10

Hardcore fans of German-style board games slag on it for being too dependent on dice rolling and thus not being "strategy-y" enough, but I wish Dread Pirate had been around when I was a kid - the pieces are so tactile (little metal pirate ship tokens, a little skull & crossbones flag that gets carried around on the Dread Pirate's ship, metal coins, glass jewels, velvet treasure pouches, a cloth treasure map board) and well-executed that I can't imagine any kid with a sense of imagination not loving it. One feature of the rules which I think is especially great for families playing with younger kids is that even if you wind up getting sunk and having to drop out of the game, there's a circumstance (someone rolling three doubles in a row, or something like that) where you can get back in.

My whole family loves it, and the youngest among us is 28. It's the sort of game that moves along and keeps people engaged with one another, not one with long silent waits as players mull over their next move.
posted by usonian at 6:00 AM on July 10

They're not all boardgames, but my younger brother & I loved Mille Bornes, Uno, Master Mind, Boggle, & Scrabble. (For the last two, we made up special rules when he was young, so that he could make 2-letter words in Boggle or could use names & proper nouns in Scrabble.)
posted by belladonna at 6:19 AM on July 10

I loved Clue and the Game of Life. I played card games with my dad and stepmother--Phase 10, poker (using pretzels or jelly beans to bet with), war, rummy. I hated Uno, but everyone seems to love that game. I also liked Scrabble and Boggle and Sorry. And Trivial Pursuit! I did a lot of puzzles with my mom.

We play a lot of Monopoly with my 11-year-old sister now.

Wait until your daughter is old enough for competitive board games. My other sister and I liked games from the time we were quite young but my youngest is only now able to handle losing (and she's still not graceful about it). Some kids have a hard time with winning and losing and get very upset about it, so it's best to wait until they're a little older, I think.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 6:28 AM on July 10

You're getting some great answers here, but you should also ask this question in the forums on BoardGameGeek.

Personal recommendations, as a daddy of three: Candy Land, Memory and Chutes and Ladders for the very young; Mille Bornes and checkers for slightly older; eventually, Ticket to Ride, Go, Carcassone. From there, the options are endless.
posted by jbickers at 7:08 AM on July 10

Game of Life

Please, everyone, do yourselves a favor and burn this game. Not only is it almost completely devoid of any decision making (pretty much on the level of CandyLand, it promotes antiquated notions of what it means to be successful and happy.
posted by mkultra at 7:08 AM on July 10

Sorry was a good game to start with my 5-year-old, some years ago. At the beginning it was about numbers and counting. Then about options. Then sportsmanship became a big deal: don't move your pieces when no one is looking, don't get angry when someone jumps your piece, don't cry when you don't win. Finally, it became a game about strategy, and being able to kick dad's butt.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 7:18 AM on July 10

I too, admire your idealism :) It's fun to plan out activities to do with your child, but bear in mind that that child may not excel at or even enjoy many of the games which have planned for her.

For long-term strategic thinking, chess is excellent. My dad taught me chess at the age of 5. It was fun being able to play a "grown-up" game with him, but I never got very good at it (I couldn't sit still long enough), and now as an adult, I have no interest in playing it. However, I like knowing that I could sit down and play a friendly game of chess if the opportunity presented, so I'm glad that he taught me.

Scrabble, Othello, word, logic, and jigsaw puzzles were big in our house from a young age. Scrabble is still pulled out at every family gathering, and all my siblings and I own the game. I play it with my 5 and 6 year old girls, with modified rules.

Please don't rule out other games that don't fit your criteria. My 6 year always wins at Scrabble and Memory. But my 5 year old has much better hand-eye coordination and beats all of us at Hungry Hungry Hippos (including me, trying my best). It makes her feel good to win, especially because that win is honest and deserved.
posted by yawper at 8:34 AM on July 10

looks like I was beaten to the punch by yawper for hungry, hungry hippos. I know it sounds stupid, but it was the most fun game when we were kids. There's not a whole lot of critical thinking going on, but we could play for hours and never get bored.
posted by TheBones at 9:13 AM on July 10

Max.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:47 AM on July 10

My dad, my sister and I started playing Skip-Bo and Hearts when my sister was about 5. We also played a lot of Sorry!

I want to second the idea of jigsaw puzzles. I used to love doing puzzles, and it was something we could do together where she could feel like she was accomplishing something.
posted by Night_owl at 9:48 AM on July 10

Game of Life

Please, everyone, do yourselves a favor and burn this game. Not only is it almost completely devoid of any decision making (pretty much on the level of CandyLand, it promotes antiquated notions of what it means to be successful and happy.

Heh. We played this game a lot when I was a kind, and I can assure you that I have no antiquated notions of what it means to be successful and happy. It's just a game (we would always look for the little extraneous bits of plastic on the "people" and then tease each other about their spouses "big nose").

Like many people above, I loved Candyland, just because I like the picture cards (I had a much older and cooler version). Life, because I enjoyed the little cars going up the track on the hills. Parcheesi, Yahtzee, UNO, Husker Du, MasterMind, Othello, Checkers, and Scrabble were all games we played as a family at various times, plus card games starting with GoFish and moving up to Rummy and Solitaire. We had a closet full of stuff (a lot of it were things my parents had played before we came around), and would just pull out whatever and figure it out (or not, and put it away for another time). On that note, I think one of the best things about a stash of board games and cards teaches you is carefully picking things up and putting them away properly.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:06 PM on July 10

Ticket to Ride, Carcassone, Settlers of Catan, Niagra, Bananagrams, Zooloretto, Pirate & Traveler, Clue, Boggle, Duck-Duck-Goose, Kubb.
posted by handabear at 5:57 PM on July 10

I'm not sure where you live, but check and see if you can get the Cranium games. They started off with just an adult game (which I highly recomment) but have released an assortment of games for all ages. I have given many different ones to my niece and nephew, and never has one missed the mark, and are all age-appropriate in terms of skills development.

Plus, even the ones for younger kid aren't poke-your-eye-out painful to play.
posted by scrute at 8:11 PM on July 10