Our Favorite Family Games

One of the ways I’ve tried to intentionally spend some time with my kids has been through playing games.  By spending extra time together we get to work on character traits such as taking turns, sportsmanship, and the importance of family time.

Having a larger family with kids ranging from 4 1/2 years old to 12 years old, sometimes it can be hard finding games that everyone is willing (or able) to play.   We have gotten creative and my oldest is a good sport and playing with her younger siblings.

Here are our favorite family games that all the kids can play (or at the very least help play).  I’d love to know what games are your favorite family games!

Card games such as Rummy, Go Fish, and Old Maid

We have these Melissa & Doug Deluxe Animal Card Games and they are high quality and nice sized to play with.
I taught the kids how to play Rummy last weekend and now all of them can play. (Sometimes we have to remind the preschooler to lay down a card but she’s mastered how the game works.) The greatest advantage of card games is they can take as little as 5 minutes or last all night long. There have been many times I’ve set the timer for 15 minutes and we see how many games we can play in that amount of time. It also keeps the competition down because they are competing to see how many games we can play versus who won.

Left, Center, Right (LCR)

We played LCR – Left Center Right Dice Game last weekend and the first winner was the Preschooler! This game is all luck and is really fun to play with a table full of people. We had 9 of us and had so much fun!  We like to play with pennies, nickels, or dimes and the winner gets to keep them.  After winning last weekend with nickels, my 6-year-old excited told me, “I won seventeen hundred dollars“!

Monopoly (and it’s cousins John Deere Tractor-Opoly and Horse-Opoly Board Game) are Blake’s favorite games (especially Tracor-Opoly) to play.  We include the smaller kids by letting them roll for us, help hand out money, draw cards, and find properties.  I get asked to play this at least once a week!

Memory/Matching games

I will admit, Memory is not my favorite game, but the kids like it and it’s also great for developing visual memory skills.  This was one game that we played during vision therapy for Nora.

Sequence For Kids

Sequence for Kids is one of the favorites at our house.  Everyone can play and they enjoy it.  (It’s also good for math skills so I like that!)  There are only 3 colors but we divide up into teams and the kids have a lot of fun!

Scrabble Junior

Scrabble Junior has been a good game for my struggling spellers.  We play that after the 2nd graders spell the word, they have to read it, too.  It’s fun for the beginning reader to try to read what he’s spelled and fun for the preschooler who can still play with her siblings.

Apples to Apples Junior

We have the Disney Apples To Apples – The Game Of Goofy Comparisons and even Dad likes to join in on this one!  We’ve played this at birthday parties and family functions.  The kids have also taken it to ballgames and played to keep themselves busy!  I highly recommend this game!  It is guaranteed to bring out some belly laughs.

Kings In The Corner

One of the reasons I like Kings in the Corner is because it’s generally doesn’t take very long to play.  The kids are also learning number placement (King, Queen, Jack, Ten, etcetera).  My oldest and 2nd graders love this game but the Kindergartener and Preschooler have also learned how to play with just a little help.

What are your favorite family games?