Our favourite family board games

With the abundance of time we now have on our hands, some of you might be wondering what the best family board games are. Our family has always loved games and we enjoy trying new games. In this post, Our Favourite Family Board Games, I’ve rounded up our 25 favourite games of all time. As a bonus, I’ve also shared our top 5 games. If we had to choose only 5, it would be these! Our boys range in age from 8-14 and all of these games are appropriate for them. I’ve also included some games that are great for younger children (age 3 and up).

Omissions

I’ve only included games that our family truly enjoys and that don’t end in the boys arguing with each other (to put it lightly). I also haven’t included very simple games that one tires of quickly. Some of the classic games that didn’t make our favourite family board games list include Monopoly, Risk, Axis & Allies, Jenga, Life, Trivial Pursuit, Snakes & Ladders, Sorry, Clue, Backgammon, and Twister. If I’ve left a game you love off the list, please let me know in the comments section at the end of this post. I also haven’t included role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons simply because we haven’t played much of these (we do own a set though).

Our favourite family board games

Classic Games

Scrabble

I love games that have an educational spin to them and it doesn’t get much better than scrabble for language and vocabulary skills. This is a classic game for 2 to 4 players. Our family can play for hours creating words and trying for that 50-point bonus that goes with using all 7 tiles at once. Younger children can play as a team with an older sibling or parent. In our home, we let our children use French words too as it evens out the playing field when playing against adults.

Connect 4

My boys especially love this 2-player game. It’s great for young children and for kids to play amongst themselves without adult supervision. If you’re not familiar with this game, it’s a vertical game board and the object is to build a row of 4 checkers before your opponent does. This is one that my youngest always want to play again and again.

Chess and Checkers

I’ve grouped these two games because they use the same playing board are often sold as a set. They are both two-player games, and I won’t go over the rules here. Both are long-standing games with rich histories of play and competition. Checkers is the “easier” game. There is a slight investment in learning the rules of chess, but it’s really not that complicated. Kids as young as 6 can learn and enjoy playing chess. My Dad is a huge chess fan, so my brother and I learned to play as young children. I’m pretty sure my brother was the chess champion of something! It’s a great game to have if you have a lot of time on your hands. Games can last for an hour up to several days.

Boggle

I enjoy this word game even more than Scrabble. It is suitable for 2 or more players. I love that our family of 5 can play at one time as there’s no upper limit to the number of players. This game is one that my cousins and I used to play as children at my grandparent’s house. I introduced our children to it a few years ago, but I wish I’d done it sooner. You can start this game as soon as your children start to spell. In this game, 16 letter cubes are shaken in a grid with dome and then the players have 3 minutes to write down as many words as they see in the grid. The 3-minute time limit ensures a good pace of play and is good when time is limited. Of course, we usually play about 5 games in a row or more. For the youngest children, the rules can be adapted so that the letters don’t need to form words in a row. Any letters showing can be combined in any way to form words. You can also allow French words if your children are in French Immersion.

Other games

Telestrations

This is an exciting drawing and guessing game for up to 8 players (up to 12 with the party pack). It’s a variation on the telephone game. This game is definitely more fun with more players, but you can play with just 3 participants. This really is a fun game and I guarantee it will bring some laughs to the table. It’s suitable for all ages, as long as you can draw a simple picture. Can you draw an elephant or a doorknob?

Labyrinth

This is our most recent game addition and it did not disappoint. This unique game has sliding pathways that you must navigate as you try to gather treasure faster than the other players. It’s an exciting and challenging game. I was excited to see that it comes in other variations, including a Jr. version, Disney Frozen version, and Harry Potter version. It’s designed for 2-4 players, ages 7 and up.

Pictopia

We have the Harry Potter version of this game. The rules of this game take a little while to learn but it is a fun one if you know your Harry Potter trivia. There are 1000 picture trivia questions in this game. There are elements of teamwork in this game, which makes it especially fun.

Catan

This game has quite a following and has won numerous awards since the 1990s. Catan is a game of resource management where you produce resources, such as wood, and build settlements, cities and roads on the island of Catan. This game is for 3-4 players or more with expansion packs. There is a definite learning curve for this game, so prepare to invest half an hour just to read and understand the rules. Because of the complexity, this game is suited to children ages 10 and up. There is also a Catan Jr version of this game, as well as various expansion packages. Once you get past the initial learning phase, it is a very fun game that can last a couple of hours. We’ve been known to have a game last overnight.

Apples to Apples Party Mix

This is a fun party or family game that is bound to create lots of laughs. There are “things” cards and “descriptions” cards and each player takes a turn being the judge and pulling a description card. The other players try to choose the “things” (from their cards) that best match the description. The judge then determines who had the best matches and who won the round. The first player to collect 4 description cards wins. This game is designed for 4-8 players and ages 12 and up. I think this game is easy enough for children aged 9 and 10 to learn.

Gobblet Gobblers

This game is a cute and clever adaptation of Tic Tac Toe. It’s a 2-player game for ages 5 and up. This was the favourite game of my boys when they were ages 5-8. It’s a very simple game to learn and the play is quite quick.

“Smart Games” for solo play

The concept of smart games is that they are fun, skill-building brain games. The games listed here are all solo games, but they are fun to play as a team. Except for Simon, each of these games provides a card with a puzzle to be solved with the game board. The ease of play starts with a beginner level and rises to an expert level.

Camelot Junior by Smart Games

Arrange beautiful painted wood towers and stairs to reunite a princess and knight. The packaging indicates it’s suitable for ages 4-9, but I think it’s still fun for an older player. My boys enjoyed this game even though they’re not princess fans.

Cool Circuits by ScienceWiz

The object of this game is to create a connected loop to join a circuit and light up the board. It’s great for spatial reasoning skills and abstract thinking and is suitable for ages 8 and up. Some of the challenges are very difficult and I wasn’t able to solve them.

Colour Code by Smart Games

My boys and I have enjoyed hours and hours of this fun game. It was particularly great when they were a little younger. The recommended age is 5+, but I think slightly younger children could also enjoy it. Because of the special nature of the game pieces, it’s a little hard to describe this game, but it’s about colours, shapes, orders and orientation.

Traffic Control Airport by Smart Games

This is a problem-solving and spatial game where the player must orient all the planes in the correct direction. I found it a little difficult to understand this game at first, as it wasn’t quite as intuitive as the other games on this list. The instructions indicate that it is for ages 8 and up, but I think children 6 and up would enjoy it.

RushHour by Thinkfun

This is a traffic jam logic games that uses plastic vehicle playing pieces. This game is for ages 8 and up, but again I think it would work for ages 6 and up. My boys really enjoyed this one when they were 6-10 years old.

Anaconda by Smart Games

This game for ages 7 and up is about placing the puzzle pieces together on the board game to recreate a complete snake. It’s a fun game that is very easy to learn.

Simon

I think just about everyone is familiar with this game. It is a game of memory using 4-coloured light-up buttons and pitch. This game is great for kids 7 and up and can also be played in 2-player mode.

A couple of other great ones I didn’t include here are Rubik’s cube and Kanoodle. My boys keep these in their rooms.

Card Games

A simple deck of playing cards– If I could only choose one card game, this would be it. There’s a myriad of games, from simple to quite complicated, that can be played with a simple deck of cards. My favourite card game is Gin Rummy- I love the balance between luck and skill in this game. If you’re not familiar with it- look up the rules and give it a try. Whichever card games you like to play, invest in a good quality deck of cards.

I won’t go through the description of each card game, but here are some of our favourites: Uno, Spot It!, Exploding Kittens, Sushi Go!, Bears vs. Babies, Guacamole!, and Rally Up! These are all slightly quirky games with their own unique and unusual set of rules. One or two of these games would be a great addition to your game nights. Spot It! is a favourite of mine because it’s one I played with my boys when they were very young, starting around age two.

The games mentioned in this post can be purchased from local toy stores and online toy retailers.

The top five

So, if I was going on a camping trip and only had room for 5 games, these would be my choices: Chess and Checkers, Telestrations, Boggle, classic cards, and Camelot Jr.  I tried to choose at least one from each of the above four categories. I hope you have enjoyed reading about our favourite family board games. As I finish writing this post, I can hear my boys laughing and joking while playing chess. It’s music to my ears!

If you’re looking for other fun family activities, check out The Best Homemade Playdough and my Easy Giant Cookie Recipe.