It looks like we will all be staying at home for a while. I know the kids will be doing school work during part of their day, but during their leisure time, family games are a great choice!
You probably already have most of the old classics: Monopoly, Scrabble, Candy Land, Chess, Chutes & Ladders, etc. But there are lots of new games you might not have played. I'm sure you can get most of these delivered from Amazon:
Exploding Kittens. Do you have that family game, the one that everyone loves and you just can’t get enough of? For us, that’s this one! We love it and play with it so much that the cards in our first set were worn to oblivion and we had to get a second set. It takes some strategy, so even the adults and 20-something year old kids love playing it…but it’s easy enough for the kindergardener to play along also. He can’t yet read, so it took a few rounds for him to understand what each card meant..but soon he could play on his own because he recognized the colors and pictures.
If you get one – just one – this should be it!
Uno or Skip-Bo. We have both, and go through seasons of one game, and then the other. As of this writing, it’s UNO. Tomorrow may be different. I like them because they are compact, and great for readers and non-readers. Get them both, they are pretty easy to play and kids love them!
Sleeping Queens. We just recently learned about this game, but it is quickly becoming a favorite. It’s another that is fun for older kids (maybe up to middle school) but still works with younger kids since there is no reading involved. There are also multiple “levels” of difficulty so you can adjust the rules to meet your family’s needs.
Don’t let the “queens” angle fool you…my not-so-yet-liberated boys were skeptical, but when they opened it up to see the beautifully decorated cards, they soon fell in love with the kings, knights, jokers and magic potions, too.
Spot It! How good are those eyes of yours?? This is such a great game because it helps kids identify patterns, which is crucial to critical thinking. The instructions offer 12 different permutations on the rules…and we indeed like to play all 12 round robin style.
Bananagrams. An easy game that is so much fun to play. Players need to be able to read (or you can challenge your spouse when the kids go to bed…who can spell Tequila after 4 shots?) They also have versions with a pear, a watermelon, and an apple…in case you have a fruit preference. And my favorite knock-off is the whale! PS – there is a Spanish version, too!
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