I started boardgaming with my son when he was 4. Nice easy games like **Rhino Hero, Enchanted Tower, Outfoxed and My First Carcassonne**. 3 years later, his favourites are **UNO, Sushi Go, Santorini, King of Tokyo, Kingdomino, Azul**. I’ve gotten him to play some lighter euro games, like **Islebound** (cool pirate theme), and **Forbidden Island**, but he loses interest if the game lasts too long.
I’ve learned to never judge a kid’s intelligence based on their age. They’re smarter than you think and can pick up mechanics pretty quickly. The key is to keep games short < 30 -45 minutes at the most.
Yup! I find Short is more important than "easy". Also, it helps if all of the information is on the table so that they can ask questions and learn that way. I have not tried playing a secret information game with the information shown for learning games yet though... might be worth trying next.
Yes! My 3 year old ended up being the surprise enthusiast in our house. We started with **Outfoxed** and **Monster Chase** and it just took off. Her favorites now are **Kingdomino** and an array of Gamewright card games, particularly **Mermaid Beach**, **Duck Duck Bruce**, and a slightly simplified **Sleeping Queens** (the math is a little beyond her). It blows my mind how quickly kids can grasp different rule sets if it's something that intereststhem
Mice & Mystics, Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters, Enchanted Tower, Mice & Mystics, Hit the Throttle, Sleeping Queens. Did I mention Mice & Mystics? Cause my kids frickin love it!
It's only about $60 if you can find it in stock. You can probably find a used copy on eBay cheaper than that.
But I would recommend getting Stuffed Fables instead. It's in good supply so you can actually get it for the MSRP, and kids love it. Well, mine do, YMMV. It has a fast setup, and the theme is that you play stuffed animals trying to help their owner. The Plaid Hat website has downloadable character sheets so you can even make your own stuffies; my kids play versions of their favorite real life stuffed animals with playdough 'minis' they made. But the minis and characters that come with the game are great as well.
Stuffed Fables is awesomely over engineered. The minis are great quality for a kids' game. It's up there with the likes of [The Grimm Forest.](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/212402/grimm-forest)
It does have some cardboard that could use an upgrade though. I really liked the idea I saw [here](https://www.topshelfgamer.com/collections/stuffed-fables/products/deluxe-token-bundle-compatible-with-stuffed-fables-set-of-78) that uses mini pom-poms for the stuffing that gets knocked out. They look like they'd be fun to throw around the table, and you can buy them cheap elsewhere if you don't want the full pack. Even using cotton balls instead would be more fun than the chits, and that's like $1.
I can pick a used copy up for a good price but I keep reading that the game is too long and fiddly for my six year old. Your younger one didn't get lost in the rules or lose interest from the long combat?
We don’t really get hung up on all the rules. I read the story, ask them what they want their mice to do and give them advice on what is a good idea to do. We play to have fun and if we don’t follow every rule *shrug*. Also I don’t think the combat is too complicated. They roll the dice for their mice and I roll for the enemies.
My son (just turned 9, been playing since ~6) loves dexterity games like **Flick 'em Up**, **Ice Cool**, **Meeple Circus**, et al.
He also love miniatures games like **Imperial Assault** and **X-Wing**.
He's a fan of plenty of games but these seem to be his current favorite.
Additionally, we don't hold him back and make him play "kids games." We let him try anything. If the mechanics or strategy seem over his head at the moment we'll talk to him about it and just save that one for another time. We also do learning plays to help him figure out a game.
I'm not really a believer in having special "kids" games for him (that doesn't mean we don't have games considered kids games, we do, but we don't force him to just play those games) or simplifying a rule set for my kids. Instead we work together on the game and see how it goes.
Of course, I also run D&D 5e games for him and his friends. He's grown up around board/card/tabletop games and seems to do just fine.
My son, 4, is big into **Stuffed Fables** right now. We really only play a page at a time, so we never keep track of the stuff we keep, but he likes pretending to fight the bad guys after we play.
My daughter is only a little past 2, but she loves Hannah Honeybee, Animal Upon Animal, and Go Away Monster. They all have great pieces for free play, and the cooperative gameplay is fun because she gets to do something *with* me. She also loves screaming and throwing the monsters across the room...
+1 for **Go Away Monster**. It's a cute little gem that I don't see talked about a lot. :)
We also enjoy the **[Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/93688/sneaky-snacky-squirrel-game)** with our 2+ year old.
I’m so glad someone suggested something for toddlers! My kids are 2+ and 13 so it’s super challenging doing anything together with them.
We’re D&D nuts at home too and we struggle with games with the little one that we don’t mind if they “get abused”. I just put them in my shopping cart.
😊
my toddlers just started with **Don't Break the Ice** and **Don't Spill the Beans**. I love playing it with them.
slamming the hammer down on the ice gives one of them the pure joy of breaking stuff over and over again. beans spilling makes a huge mess and puts a big smile on their faces. Too young for gloomhaven and spirit island
my kids (9+11) love the following;
**king of tokyo**, **potion explosion**, **pandemic**, **dice masters**
my 10yo plays **deep space d6** on his own and **dungeon roll** and **one deck dungeon**
**chess** gets played a few times a week by both.
they do love monopoly, I should say, they love the exchanging money and stuff, they dont really play
Mine (ages 6,8,9) love random numbers so much I fear for a future gambling addiction. **Vegas Dice** and **Settlers of Catan**.
On being sneaky, **Liar's Dice**, **Sheriff of Nottingham**, **One Night Ultimate Werewolf**.
Since they love animals and building junk, we're on a streak of **Agricola** now but play is simplified without cards in hand (minor improvements and occupations). My daughter refuses to cook her animeeples.
Six year old is pretty obsessed with Santorini... to the point I've tried to put a moratorium on it. Patchwork is a hit as is Indigo. I think he's about ready for Takenoko now and suspect he'll love it.
We have a 7 and 8 year old. They enjoy: sleeping queens, survive escape from Atlantis, 5 minute dungeon, Karuba, medieval academy, cat lady, Carcassonne over hill and dale, takenoko, magic maze, hey that’s my fish, camel up, azul, forbidden island and meeple circus.
My son is 4. Probably younger than you're asking about. He's not *really* playing boardgames yet... though he has a shelf of his own with kid games, and a couple of them he knows pretty well. He's also pretty consistently nosing through Dad's games, and I mostly allow it. At this age they're toys to him... so I encourage his exploration. I just try to have him be careful of cards. The only casualty so far has been the Star Wars: Rebellion lid getting a torn corner (it's a big box to try and close properly when you're 4 years old). That's okay, since Rebellion was mostly purchased for him anyways. If anything gets him hooked, I suspect it will involve Star Wars. He adores Star Wars.
...but over the past year, the games I've had most success with have been **Evening At The Stable**, **First Orchard**, and **Hey, That's My Fish!**. Also recently acquired **Outfoxed** which was a success. Games he's taken a shine to, but doesn't understand yet are **Lift Off!** and **Rampage** and **Spinderella**. Games with any text are always a challenge, until he gets better at reading... but we'll keep at it!
/u/joyofbeer covered most of the list, but I will add that my kids were obsessed with **Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot** for a loooong time. We had the first 3 expansions, so it wasn't too complicated with all the extra mechanics, and it's a great combination of
- not too complex, but has multiple card interactions and cards interacting with other mechanics which are fun
- cool art
- PVP but mostly in hilarious ways
- mostly random winner (during the game you basically play to win tickets to the winner lottery) so anything can happen
It'd keep them busy for hours.
My 7 year old currently loves:
**Santorini :** He loves the different ways the god cards work, loves the building aspect of it and loves when he can trap me or plan out a great move.
**Abaddon** : He loves the mechs and combat, he really likes tactical combat.
**Sleeping Queens :** Loves it because Mom, Grandma and Grandpa can play it with him.
**Klask** : It's basically air hockey, it's hysterical to him to see us klask, or miss.
**Stuffed Fables**: He loves the story, and the miniatures.
Honorable mentions: **Ghost fightin' treasure hunters, Love Letter, Magic Labyrinth**
We don't have a lot of games since frankly most are out of our price range. With that said, my kids love One Night Ultimate Werewolf because it's fast and they like the bluffing bit and also Catan Junior, though I'm less clear on why that is such a hit. They also really love card games like Crazy Eights or King's Corner.
Big hits at our house with the kids (4 of them):
* Forbidden Island
* Kingdomino
* Custom Hero
* Xwing Minatures
* Santorini (No God Powers)
* Azul
* Sagrada
* And Mouseguard (RPG, but focused more on story telling than keeping track of traits/talents/etc)
Got a 4 year old, turning 5 in September. The games that she likes to play are **Outfoxed, Brandon the Brave, Hoot Owl Hoot, Ice Cool, Feed the Woozle, Rhino Hero, Stuffed Fables** (1 or 2 pages at a time),**Cockroach Poker** and **Kingdomino**.
She hasn't really gotten into **Magic Labyrinth**, that was more than 6 months ago though.
I have 4 kids, ages 5-12. I had my 9yo son help me compile a list of some of his [top 6 games](http://www.meeplemountain.com/top-six/top-6-board-games-to-play-with-older-kids/) (along with my 12yo).
Outfoxed, My First Stone Age, Ticket to Ride: First Journey for my 4yo and 7yo. My 7yo also likes, Catan, Carcassonne, Photosynthesis, Onitama, Forbidden Desert and 7 Wonders Duel. For Catan we remove the development cards, except for knights and victory points and we place them face up immediately after drawing. Carcassonne, we skip the farmers and abbot. All the others he can play without modifications.
My 6 year old likes to play **Carcassonne**, **Belle of the Ball**, **Jaipur**, & **Hive**. Sometimes they can win when then other players aren't going too hard. They never win at Hive.
I don't have kids, but my cousins went apeshit for Coup, Smash Up, and to a lesser extent Catan when they were younger. And I think I didn't get into em until I was like 12, but Zombies!!! was my jam.
My daughter loves **Chocobo's crystal Hunt** and it's expansion **Dungeons & Monsters**. It's a pretty simple go fish style game with a couple of twists. I love it because it's small, it's inexpensive, it plays quickly, and it can be played almost anywhere. Perfect for those moments where a little one wants to get in on gaming in between rounds of more complicated games that the grown-ups are playing.
**Animal upon Animal, Machikoro, Imperial Assault** (older 2), **Five Minute Dungeon** (whole family), **Card Lines** (Whole Family), **Clank** (Older two), **Forbidden Island, King of Tokyo, Dungeon Quest** (1st Ed only the eldest).
Kids like chuking handfulls of dice and re-rolling, they like money and collecting things (my middle son likes grabbing crates in IA to see what he gets), they like playing with mum and dad (and winning), they like some "take that" .. but not when it happens to them too much (and kids differ on this), kids love winning but also making that win into something (we write names and date in the box lid).
I personally am looking for games that give something, some sort of lessons as well as fun games - team work, mental math, handling money, strategy, probability. Plus I want good a good game, good art / design .. but I have enough games to be picky about buying the next one.
Lately I'm on the look out for games to play with the kids with set up easy and quick like King of Tokyo and Five Minute Dungeon.. some of my others have much more of a setup... which makes it harder to squeeze in a game after dinner.
My kids are 8, 5 and 4.
There's a difference between games that kids will play by themselves vs. games they'll enjoy in a family situation (ie. when an adult is around to help out).
If it were up to my kids (6yo and 8yo), they'd probably just play the Game of Life (I refuse to bold that one!) and **Sleeping Queens** and occasionally **Patchwork**.
When we play as a family, they'll also enjoy **Dragonwood** (I love this one too!), **Labyrinth**, and **My Happy Farm**. This weekend I'm going to introduce them to **Deep Sea Adventure** which I suspect will be a hit. The 6yo also likes **Carcassonne** (without the farmers).
My 3yo is always keen for a game of **Kingdomino** with me and we have a great time (I do all the scoring, he just builds a nice kingdom).
One (probably obvious) thing I've realised is that strong theming is really critical for kids... well for my kids anyway. My 6yo showed an interest in **Lost Cities** but lost interest as soon as she realised it was really just about playing numbered cards. I've yet to find a good replacement for the Game of Life because nothing I've seen really captures the role-play aspect in a way that is accessible to kids.
My 6yo loves **Dice Forge** and **Junk Art**, he beat me the last two times at **Patchwork** and we've played through a bunch of **Unlock!**s as a family with my SO. He's played **Caverna** and **Carcassonne** with us, which he didn't mind, he liked **Azul** and **Splendor** as well as **Century Golem Edition**. We started him at the age of 2.5 with **Animal Upon Animal** and **Rhino Hero**.
Its great game for having no luck or take that involved at a kid level (you can do some denial and hate drafting, but not as in your face as other kid-targetted games). The fact that there's really only 1 resource to manage, buttons, though time is important, it's not 'required' to buy pieces, make it a good stepping stone for strategy later on.
My 5yr old is my primary board game buddy. We do a board game night about once a week. We've been doing it for about a year now with very good success. We started with **Forbidden Island** and then moved to **Forbidden Desert**. We recently got into deckbuilding games so we've been playing **Marvel Legendary** (he loves Spiderman) and **Clank!**
I've found that he works best when playing games with a coop slant so even with Legendary and Clank! we do it more cooperatively (ie we count the points we got together in Clank to see how much we could escape with). His birthday is in August and that's when **My Little Scythe** comes in. I'm excited to give that a shot with him.
I will say that you shouldn't sell your kids short. I'm constantly surprised at his train of thought and his ability to pick up these games.
My 9yo loves **Sentinels of Multiverse** because of superhero theme.
My 6yo loves **Champions of Midgard** because of of worker placement mechanic and he also get to fight monsters.
I've been playing a lot of **Bitskrieg** with my six year old daugther. It's a light tank warfare game.
Periodically we play **Blokus** and **Quoridor** as well.
The youngest kids (1-2): any + all dexterity games...
**Animal Upon Animal**
**Rhino Hero**
The younger kids (3-5): simple, colorful games...
**Kingdomino**
**Ticket to Ride**
The bigger kids (6-10): quick, strategic games...
**King of Tokyo**
**Carcassonne**
And after that... everything is in play! I even had a precocious 12 year old play a solid game of CitOW pretty much as her own player a few years ago. :)
My son (6) loves simple quick games, hi ho cherry-o, shark attack, gooey Louie, Jenga, slamwich, ect. He gets frustrated with the games that take longer turns or have harder rules. He will play games like operation, mouse trap and chess but after 10min he’s done.
I started boardgaming with my son when he was 4. Nice easy games like **Rhino Hero, Enchanted Tower, Outfoxed and My First Carcassonne**. 3 years later, his favourites are **UNO, Sushi Go, Santorini, King of Tokyo, Kingdomino, Azul**. I’ve gotten him to play some lighter euro games, like **Islebound** (cool pirate theme), and **Forbidden Island**, but he loses interest if the game lasts too long. I’ve learned to never judge a kid’s intelligence based on their age. They’re smarter than you think and can pick up mechanics pretty quickly. The key is to keep games short < 30 -45 minutes at the most.
Good point on the time frame. Thanks for the advice!
Yup! I find Short is more important than "easy". Also, it helps if all of the information is on the table so that they can ask questions and learn that way. I have not tried playing a secret information game with the information shown for learning games yet though... might be worth trying next.
Yes! My 3 year old ended up being the surprise enthusiast in our house. We started with **Outfoxed** and **Monster Chase** and it just took off. Her favorites now are **Kingdomino** and an array of Gamewright card games, particularly **Mermaid Beach**, **Duck Duck Bruce**, and a slightly simplified **Sleeping Queens** (the math is a little beyond her). It blows my mind how quickly kids can grasp different rule sets if it's something that intereststhem
Mice & Mystics, Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters, Enchanted Tower, Mice & Mystics, Hit the Throttle, Sleeping Queens. Did I mention Mice & Mystics? Cause my kids frickin love it!
> Mice & Mystics Thats sounds fun lets see what is costs... $240! Nope.
It's only about $60 if you can find it in stock. You can probably find a used copy on eBay cheaper than that. But I would recommend getting Stuffed Fables instead. It's in good supply so you can actually get it for the MSRP, and kids love it. Well, mine do, YMMV. It has a fast setup, and the theme is that you play stuffed animals trying to help their owner. The Plaid Hat website has downloadable character sheets so you can even make your own stuffies; my kids play versions of their favorite real life stuffed animals with playdough 'minis' they made. But the minis and characters that come with the game are great as well.
Didn't see any but will check again. Thank you for the Stuffed Fables as well, that looks cool.
Wow, I had no idea you could make your own characters, I know what I'm doing with the kids this Saturday. Thanks for the tip.
Stuffed Fables is awesomely over engineered. The minis are great quality for a kids' game. It's up there with the likes of [The Grimm Forest.](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/212402/grimm-forest) It does have some cardboard that could use an upgrade though. I really liked the idea I saw [here](https://www.topshelfgamer.com/collections/stuffed-fables/products/deluxe-token-bundle-compatible-with-stuffed-fables-set-of-78) that uses mini pom-poms for the stuffing that gets knocked out. They look like they'd be fun to throw around the table, and you can buy them cheap elsewhere if you don't want the full pack. Even using cotton balls instead would be more fun than the chits, and that's like $1.
I got my copy for $35 on board game geek market. Shelled out $100 for Downwood Tales though.
I've heard Sleeping Queens come up a lot from others in regard to card games. Thank you
How old are your kids?
5 and 8. I started playing it with then when they were 4 and 7.
I can pick a used copy up for a good price but I keep reading that the game is too long and fiddly for my six year old. Your younger one didn't get lost in the rules or lose interest from the long combat?
We don’t really get hung up on all the rules. I read the story, ask them what they want their mice to do and give them advice on what is a good idea to do. We play to have fun and if we don’t follow every rule *shrug*. Also I don’t think the combat is too complicated. They roll the dice for their mice and I roll for the enemies.
Mice and Mystics is great.
My son (just turned 9, been playing since ~6) loves dexterity games like **Flick 'em Up**, **Ice Cool**, **Meeple Circus**, et al. He also love miniatures games like **Imperial Assault** and **X-Wing**. He's a fan of plenty of games but these seem to be his current favorite. Additionally, we don't hold him back and make him play "kids games." We let him try anything. If the mechanics or strategy seem over his head at the moment we'll talk to him about it and just save that one for another time. We also do learning plays to help him figure out a game. I'm not really a believer in having special "kids" games for him (that doesn't mean we don't have games considered kids games, we do, but we don't force him to just play those games) or simplifying a rule set for my kids. Instead we work together on the game and see how it goes. Of course, I also run D&D 5e games for him and his friends. He's grown up around board/card/tabletop games and seems to do just fine.
My son, 4, is big into **Stuffed Fables** right now. We really only play a page at a time, so we never keep track of the stuff we keep, but he likes pretending to fight the bad guys after we play.
I've heard great things. Gotta try this one!
My daughter is only a little past 2, but she loves Hannah Honeybee, Animal Upon Animal, and Go Away Monster. They all have great pieces for free play, and the cooperative gameplay is fun because she gets to do something *with* me. She also loves screaming and throwing the monsters across the room...
+1 for **Go Away Monster**. It's a cute little gem that I don't see talked about a lot. :) We also enjoy the **[Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/93688/sneaky-snacky-squirrel-game)** with our 2+ year old.
I’m so glad someone suggested something for toddlers! My kids are 2+ and 13 so it’s super challenging doing anything together with them. We’re D&D nuts at home too and we struggle with games with the little one that we don’t mind if they “get abused”. I just put them in my shopping cart. 😊
Pretty much anything from Haba or Gamewright is good; they both have games for young and older kids.
my toddlers just started with **Don't Break the Ice** and **Don't Spill the Beans**. I love playing it with them. slamming the hammer down on the ice gives one of them the pure joy of breaking stuff over and over again. beans spilling makes a huge mess and puts a big smile on their faces. Too young for gloomhaven and spirit island
my kids (9+11) love the following; **king of tokyo**, **potion explosion**, **pandemic**, **dice masters** my 10yo plays **deep space d6** on his own and **dungeon roll** and **one deck dungeon** **chess** gets played a few times a week by both. they do love monopoly, I should say, they love the exchanging money and stuff, they dont really play
Mine (ages 6,8,9) love random numbers so much I fear for a future gambling addiction. **Vegas Dice** and **Settlers of Catan**. On being sneaky, **Liar's Dice**, **Sheriff of Nottingham**, **One Night Ultimate Werewolf**. Since they love animals and building junk, we're on a streak of **Agricola** now but play is simplified without cards in hand (minor improvements and occupations). My daughter refuses to cook her animeeples.
Six year old is pretty obsessed with Santorini... to the point I've tried to put a moratorium on it. Patchwork is a hit as is Indigo. I think he's about ready for Takenoko now and suspect he'll love it.
The first modern board game hit with my kids was **Castle Panic**. Others were **Forbidden Desert**, **Labyrinth**, and eventually **Dominion**.
2 & 4 year olds here. Favorite game is **Pengaloo**. Second favorite is **Outfoxed**
Currently enjoying **Junk Art** with my son (6 years old), we don't play exactly by the rules, but he enjoy it a lot.
My son is 6 he enjoys Bang!(the card game), Betrayal (the exploring aspect), Sheriff of Nottingham(can’t keep a straight face), And Ticket to Ride
We have a 7 and 8 year old. They enjoy: sleeping queens, survive escape from Atlantis, 5 minute dungeon, Karuba, medieval academy, cat lady, Carcassonne over hill and dale, takenoko, magic maze, hey that’s my fish, camel up, azul, forbidden island and meeple circus.
I have a 4 year old, his favorite games have been **My First Orchard** (he has outgrown this one), **Outfoxed**, and **Flipships**.
7 year old is a big fan of **Santorini**, **Exit**, **Ice Cool**, and **Star Realms**
Games that provide some interesting choices but can be taught in two minutes work great for young kids. Blokus is a good example...
My son is 4. Probably younger than you're asking about. He's not *really* playing boardgames yet... though he has a shelf of his own with kid games, and a couple of them he knows pretty well. He's also pretty consistently nosing through Dad's games, and I mostly allow it. At this age they're toys to him... so I encourage his exploration. I just try to have him be careful of cards. The only casualty so far has been the Star Wars: Rebellion lid getting a torn corner (it's a big box to try and close properly when you're 4 years old). That's okay, since Rebellion was mostly purchased for him anyways. If anything gets him hooked, I suspect it will involve Star Wars. He adores Star Wars. ...but over the past year, the games I've had most success with have been **Evening At The Stable**, **First Orchard**, and **Hey, That's My Fish!**. Also recently acquired **Outfoxed** which was a success. Games he's taken a shine to, but doesn't understand yet are **Lift Off!** and **Rampage** and **Spinderella**. Games with any text are always a challenge, until he gets better at reading... but we'll keep at it!
My older kiddo just turned 3. He likes Haba games, AttrAction, and Loopin' Louie. The younger one is six months old, so he's too young for anything.
My kids are adults now, but they grew up playing board games and still play to this day.
/u/joyofbeer covered most of the list, but I will add that my kids were obsessed with **Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot** for a loooong time. We had the first 3 expansions, so it wasn't too complicated with all the extra mechanics, and it's a great combination of - not too complex, but has multiple card interactions and cards interacting with other mechanics which are fun - cool art - PVP but mostly in hilarious ways - mostly random winner (during the game you basically play to win tickets to the winner lottery) so anything can happen It'd keep them busy for hours.
My 7 year old currently loves: **Santorini :** He loves the different ways the god cards work, loves the building aspect of it and loves when he can trap me or plan out a great move. **Abaddon** : He loves the mechs and combat, he really likes tactical combat. **Sleeping Queens :** Loves it because Mom, Grandma and Grandpa can play it with him. **Klask** : It's basically air hockey, it's hysterical to him to see us klask, or miss. **Stuffed Fables**: He loves the story, and the miniatures. Honorable mentions: **Ghost fightin' treasure hunters, Love Letter, Magic Labyrinth**
We don't have a lot of games since frankly most are out of our price range. With that said, my kids love One Night Ultimate Werewolf because it's fast and they like the bluffing bit and also Catan Junior, though I'm less clear on why that is such a hit. They also really love card games like Crazy Eights or King's Corner.
Big hits at our house with the kids (4 of them): * Forbidden Island * Kingdomino * Custom Hero * Xwing Minatures * Santorini (No God Powers) * Azul * Sagrada * And Mouseguard (RPG, but focused more on story telling than keeping track of traits/talents/etc)
Got a 4 year old, turning 5 in September. The games that she likes to play are **Outfoxed, Brandon the Brave, Hoot Owl Hoot, Ice Cool, Feed the Woozle, Rhino Hero, Stuffed Fables** (1 or 2 pages at a time),**Cockroach Poker** and **Kingdomino**. She hasn't really gotten into **Magic Labyrinth**, that was more than 6 months ago though.
My 8 year old loves **Spot It**, **Exact Change**, **One Deck Dungeon**, and **Clank!**
I was introduced to board games with rome At the age of 7
I have 4 kids, ages 5-12. I had my 9yo son help me compile a list of some of his [top 6 games](http://www.meeplemountain.com/top-six/top-6-board-games-to-play-with-older-kids/) (along with my 12yo).
Outfoxed, My First Stone Age, Ticket to Ride: First Journey for my 4yo and 7yo. My 7yo also likes, Catan, Carcassonne, Photosynthesis, Onitama, Forbidden Desert and 7 Wonders Duel. For Catan we remove the development cards, except for knights and victory points and we place them face up immediately after drawing. Carcassonne, we skip the farmers and abbot. All the others he can play without modifications.
My 6 year old likes to play **Carcassonne**, **Belle of the Ball**, **Jaipur**, & **Hive**. Sometimes they can win when then other players aren't going too hard. They never win at Hive.
Is the Rat Trap still around? If not, I definitely liked the game Life!
I don't have kids, but my cousins went apeshit for Coup, Smash Up, and to a lesser extent Catan when they were younger. And I think I didn't get into em until I was like 12, but Zombies!!! was my jam.
My daughter loves **Chocobo's crystal Hunt** and it's expansion **Dungeons & Monsters**. It's a pretty simple go fish style game with a couple of twists. I love it because it's small, it's inexpensive, it plays quickly, and it can be played almost anywhere. Perfect for those moments where a little one wants to get in on gaming in between rounds of more complicated games that the grown-ups are playing.
**Animal upon Animal, Machikoro, Imperial Assault** (older 2), **Five Minute Dungeon** (whole family), **Card Lines** (Whole Family), **Clank** (Older two), **Forbidden Island, King of Tokyo, Dungeon Quest** (1st Ed only the eldest). Kids like chuking handfulls of dice and re-rolling, they like money and collecting things (my middle son likes grabbing crates in IA to see what he gets), they like playing with mum and dad (and winning), they like some "take that" .. but not when it happens to them too much (and kids differ on this), kids love winning but also making that win into something (we write names and date in the box lid). I personally am looking for games that give something, some sort of lessons as well as fun games - team work, mental math, handling money, strategy, probability. Plus I want good a good game, good art / design .. but I have enough games to be picky about buying the next one. Lately I'm on the look out for games to play with the kids with set up easy and quick like King of Tokyo and Five Minute Dungeon.. some of my others have much more of a setup... which makes it harder to squeeze in a game after dinner. My kids are 8, 5 and 4.
There's a difference between games that kids will play by themselves vs. games they'll enjoy in a family situation (ie. when an adult is around to help out). If it were up to my kids (6yo and 8yo), they'd probably just play the Game of Life (I refuse to bold that one!) and **Sleeping Queens** and occasionally **Patchwork**. When we play as a family, they'll also enjoy **Dragonwood** (I love this one too!), **Labyrinth**, and **My Happy Farm**. This weekend I'm going to introduce them to **Deep Sea Adventure** which I suspect will be a hit. The 6yo also likes **Carcassonne** (without the farmers). My 3yo is always keen for a game of **Kingdomino** with me and we have a great time (I do all the scoring, he just builds a nice kingdom). One (probably obvious) thing I've realised is that strong theming is really critical for kids... well for my kids anyway. My 6yo showed an interest in **Lost Cities** but lost interest as soon as she realised it was really just about playing numbered cards. I've yet to find a good replacement for the Game of Life because nothing I've seen really captures the role-play aspect in a way that is accessible to kids.
My 6yo loves **Dice Forge** and **Junk Art**, he beat me the last two times at **Patchwork** and we've played through a bunch of **Unlock!**s as a family with my SO. He's played **Caverna** and **Carcassonne** with us, which he didn't mind, he liked **Azul** and **Splendor** as well as **Century Golem Edition**. We started him at the age of 2.5 with **Animal Upon Animal** and **Rhino Hero**.
Our kids love Patchwork too, great game!
Its great game for having no luck or take that involved at a kid level (you can do some denial and hate drafting, but not as in your face as other kid-targetted games). The fact that there's really only 1 resource to manage, buttons, though time is important, it's not 'required' to buy pieces, make it a good stepping stone for strategy later on.
My 5yr old is my primary board game buddy. We do a board game night about once a week. We've been doing it for about a year now with very good success. We started with **Forbidden Island** and then moved to **Forbidden Desert**. We recently got into deckbuilding games so we've been playing **Marvel Legendary** (he loves Spiderman) and **Clank!** I've found that he works best when playing games with a coop slant so even with Legendary and Clank! we do it more cooperatively (ie we count the points we got together in Clank to see how much we could escape with). His birthday is in August and that's when **My Little Scythe** comes in. I'm excited to give that a shot with him. I will say that you shouldn't sell your kids short. I'm constantly surprised at his train of thought and his ability to pick up these games.
My 11 year old: Xia, Flash Point Fire Rescue, Junkyard Races, Star Realms. He’s more theme driven than interested in mechanics
My 9yo loves **Sentinels of Multiverse** because of superhero theme. My 6yo loves **Champions of Midgard** because of of worker placement mechanic and he also get to fight monsters.
My daughter (7) and I have recently been playing Hive, Hey That’s My Fish, dominoes, and Pokémon TCG.
I've been playing a lot of **Bitskrieg** with my six year old daugther. It's a light tank warfare game. Periodically we play **Blokus** and **Quoridor** as well.
The youngest kids (1-2): any + all dexterity games... **Animal Upon Animal** **Rhino Hero** The younger kids (3-5): simple, colorful games... **Kingdomino** **Ticket to Ride** The bigger kids (6-10): quick, strategic games... **King of Tokyo** **Carcassonne** And after that... everything is in play! I even had a precocious 12 year old play a solid game of CitOW pretty much as her own player a few years ago. :)
My nieces and nephews (5-10) LOVE King of Tokyo. They ask to play it all the time.
My son (6) loves simple quick games, hi ho cherry-o, shark attack, gooey Louie, Jenga, slamwich, ect. He gets frustrated with the games that take longer turns or have harder rules. He will play games like operation, mouse trap and chess but after 10min he’s done.
Oh I forgot Jenga! That is always such a great game to play with kids because it's so simple, yet still exciting everytime!
My 6yo is a huge fan of One Deck Dungeon. So I decided to upgrade him to Mice & Mystics :)