Top Five Board Games for Families with Young Children!

“Guess Who” Champion! That’s my current claim to fame in our Incredible Household!

Ballet Girl is the current “Chutes and Ladders” Champion, Book Boy is the current “Monopoly Junior” Champion and Clean Mom… well, we think she’s the current “Paper Rock Scissors” Champion.

Either way, it’s easy to see that games are a big part of how our family plays together.  In this article, read how our favourite board games match up against the Web’s top lists and gain some valuable strategies that may mean the difference between you being first … or worst!  Not that it’s all about winning… uh-huh…

Why Play Family Board Games

For our family, playing board games accomplishes three (3) very important things.

First, it gives us a block of time to really interact and play with one another as a whole family for at least 30 minutes (or 90 minutes if we’re playing Monopoly Junior!) and a family that plays together has a higher probability of staying together.

Second, it’s another way that our children learn numerous skills, in a fun setting, from counting to taking turns, from reading to sharing, etc.

Last but not least, it gives our kids a chance to taste success and accomplishment (because they win at Chutes and Ladders as often as we do).

Will Glennon, from his book “Best Things Fathers Do”, says,”For accomplishment breeds the belief that you are capable of more accomplishment and success breeds an attitude that you can succeed… Studies from early childhood experience consistently demonstrate that one of the most important criteria for success is believing you can succeed, and that the most important factor in believing you can succeed is having a track record of success.  So start helping your child create that track record today.”

Not exactly what Will was going for (I think) but here’s a funny video from YouTube which eerily matches how Book Boy celebrates when he wins.

Top Five Family Board Games as per the Web

With the plethora of old and new games available at your local toy store, choosing a new game to buy for your young family can be a daunting task.  Let’s start with what the Web says are the top family (not necessarily for young kids though…) board games based on a random sample of Googled websites:

1.  Apples to Apples – I’ve never played this one, now I’ve got to buy it!  Number one game on many lists!  Why have I never heard of this game?!?

2. Balderdash – Funniest correct definition that nobody got when we last played it with friends: Mehmet Ali Agca – “The dope who shot the Pope”.

3. Monopoly – As toptenz.net put it, “It will be days before you speak to any fellow players from the last game. You will never trust or love the same again. And in the end, you still didn’t finish the game. Once you start a game of Monopoly, it never ends…even when it ends.”   So true…
4. Scrabble – My own Dad is not a big board game player, but the one game he loves to play (and kicks our butt at because he knows things like the word “AA” is a valid Scrabble 2 letter word which means rough, cindery lava…gimme a break…) is Scrabble.
5. Game of Life – this was a fun game during my youth but obviously not a precursor of real life as we ended up with 2, not 6, kids…

Top Five Family Board Games as per our Family

Now let’s focus on Incredible Dad’s top 5 board games for families with young children … based on our large sample size (which means our family).

Here are the kids’ choices:

1.  Guess Who – The question Ballet Girl kept asking last night was “Does your person have short hair?”  I tried to explain to her why it was an ineffective question (as short is a relative term and can be misinterpreted by the opponent).  She nodded knowingly as most 3 year-olds do, then on her very next turn asked “Does your person have short hair?”.  That’ll learn me.

2.  Candy Land – I think this game made their top 5 list because our tradition is that the winner gets to eat a piece of candy.

3.  Cranium Cariboo – This game is targeted to kids under 5 but Book Boy still loves to play it just to see if he can find the last ball to open the treasure chest first!

4.  Don’t Wake Daddy – A game that has taught our kids ‘Courage’ as they push that alarm clock button by themselves.  Book Boy couldn’t do this for over a year by himself (but now he can).

5.  Monopoly Jr. – This game really taught Book Boy about addition and subtraction (and the pain of bankruptcy…).

While we enjoy playing those games, here are the parents’ top family board game choices:

1.  Monopoly Jr. – Teach them how to take turns, add and subtract, pay your monetary obligations… what else could we ask from a game.

2.  Word Bingo – Clean Mom is the only one who chooses this game… but the kids still have fun playing it and they learn to read too!

3.  Dr. Seuss’ ABC – This game is more fun if you’ve read the book by the same name a million times to your kids.  Teaches letter recognition (both upper and lowercase).

4.  Cranium’s Balloon Lagoon – With 4 different games to keep everyone interested, games that teach spelling, hand/eye coordination and pure luck, this one’s a winner in our family.

5.  Brain Quest – Not really a board game (sorry) but with age-appropriate trivia questions on a ring of cards, you can play this game almost anywhere!

Some Game Tips

Guess Who – The best initial questions to ask in this game are: i) “Does your person have facial hair”, ii) “Is your person wearing something on their head like glasses or a hat” and /or  iii) Ask a question that narrows the field down further by half like “Do they have an A in their name” or ask about some other characteristic.  Don’t forget to put down your own card on your board! If you’re getting bored of the old characters, check out www.instructables.com/id/Personalized-Guess-Who/.

Monopoly – Some interesting strategies around this board game from About.com:  When you build, get to three houses as quickly as possible. The rent raises significantly between two and three houses. For example, rent on Illinois Avenue jumps from $300 to $750.  If you’re stuck with low-income properties, build to four houses quickly to create a building shortage, hurting other players’ chances to build. 24 of 32 houses (or 6 of 12 hotels) could be tied up on just six properties.  The trio of orange properties is an excellent monopoly to own because of their relationship to Jail. A roll of 6 or 8 (two of the most common rolls) from Jail lands you on an orange.

So now that you’ve seen what we play, let us know what other games your family plays using the Comment section below.

And if your family doesn’t play board games already, start playing now!

Header image from www.flickr.com/photos/localcut/.

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