Board games are my favorite stay-at-home family activity. We’ve talked about a few of our favorite brands here in the past, like USAopoly and Blue Orange Games. Recently, our family discovered so many more games that we love and now seems like the perfect time to share our old and new favorites all at once! (Please note: The Quirky Mom Next Door may receive compensation from purchases made through some of the links within this post.)
1. Uno
Uno is a classic! It’s incredibly simple, even my four year old has a handle on it! If your kid knows their colors and can identify that numbers are the same, you’re golden! In case you forget or haven’t played in too long, Uno is a card game in which you take turns putting cards down until you have one card left, when you must shout Uno. The game ends when one player has no cards left. They sell a lot of variations on this game, like Jurassic World.
I’d also like to mention that you can play this game for free, called Solo, online at Board Game Arena!
2. Scattergories
I’ve loved this game since I was in third grade. In Scattergories, you roll a die to determine a letter. On a timer, you are given categories and must name something that fits in the category and starts with that letter. It’s a great classic!
3. Clue
Who doesn’t love Clue?! It’s been adapted into a play and a movie because it’s so awesome. Players use the process of elimination and move from room to room to determine whodunnit. My friends and I are still trying to find a way to play this game together online because it’s just that good!
4. Would You Rather? Prove It
This game is just totally silly so the kids really get a kick out of it! It asks hilariously funny “Would you rather?” questions and sometimes, you have to prove it by doing the action you chose, like playing a round with smelly socks on your hands! Would You Rather? Prove It is pretty easy for kids of any age and it’s a lot of laughs!
5. Hedbanz
Hedbanz is where you each have a card on your head and you have to take turns asking the other plays “yes” or “no” questions to give you clues as to what your card says. My preschooler thought she was just supposed to yell out what the person’s card was so it took us some time to get this one going. It was amusing because she was pretty excited thinking that she was winning every time she yelled the answer!
6. 5 Minute Marvel & 5 Minute Dungeon
These are my personal favorite right now! Both 5 Minute Marvel and 5 Minute Dungeon are collaborative games so you are playing as a team to defeat the villain or boss. You’re up against the clock and if you can’t beat them in five minutes, you lose! The kids, even my six year old, completely understood how to play and we’ve been doing so well. It’s really cool to have a game like this that isn’t competitive!
7. Jumanji
Jumanji has been around for a long time and we love all of the movies so of course, we love the games. You have the original Jumanji but there is also a completely different game called Jumanji: The Next Level but we haven’t played it yet so I’ll come back and update when we have!
8. Fluxx
There are oodles of different themes for Fluxx. We have the Jumanji verson. The rules of this game change constantly depending on which cards have been played and it’s chaos but in an entertaining way!
9. Pictionary
My artsy kids love playing a game that includes drawing and people’s guesses are often so comical! We have Pictionary Junior but I guess that’s not really a thing anymore. I think kids can handle regular Pictionary as long as you have someone to interpret things for them if they don’t understand their card. I feel like we can make pretty much any game all ages with enough assistance!
10. Twister
Left hand green, left foot yellow! You know Twister, we all do! Somehow, we didn’t have this game until this past Christmas when the kids’ grandparents got it for us and it’s been a blast ever since. I would say that the kids have lost more often from hysterically laughing than they have from being unable to do a move!
11. Carmen Sandiego
We’ve loved Carmen Sandiego since we were kids and there are a lot of variations. Lately, we’ve been playing Carmen Sandiego: ACME’s Most Wanted, which seems a lot like Clue! We have a few other Carmen Sandiego games still to try out but this one is a favorite!
12. Disney Family Feud
It took some time for the kids to get used to the idea that people could steal points from each other but Disney Family Feud was a lot of fun! It’s a great opportunity for the kids to ponder their favorite Disney characters and movies!
13. Reverse Charades
Reverse Charades is like regular charades except instead of one person acting and a team guessing it, the entire team acts and one person has to guess!
14. Operation
Operation has been around for years but I love all of the new themes that have come out! We have The Nightmare Before Christmas version but any version of your favorite characters will do!
15. Tapple
Tapple is another game where you are given a category and must say things that fit that category but in this game, you use different letters. You say a word that fits the category, like a boy’s name: “Timmy”. Then, you tap the letter ‘T’ and the next person must find another name letter for their answer before the time runs out. This game is excellent for any child who can read!
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Hopefully a little insight into our family’s favorite games will help you to find some new ones for yours! Let us know what you think in the comments.
What are some of your favorite board games?
