Playing board games with your children is an incredible way to spend time with them. It separates them from their digitally entangled life and provides a solid alternative to screen time. It helps develop strategic thinking and problem-solving and paves an avenue for learning critical social skills such as taking turns, cooperation, and good sportsmanship regarding winning and losing.
And whereas you can certainly explore the classic board games that many of us grew up with as kids, like Candy Land or Monopoly, there has been much development in board games, and today I believe there are better options. As a father of two young children and an Uncle to slightly older kiddos, I’ve been in the trenches trying to explore my board game hobby with them. These are my recommendations for the best board games for kids based on their age.
Complete List [Summary]
2-4 Year Olds
Runners Up:
- Here, Fishy, Fishy!
- Animal Upon Animal Junior and Animal Upon Animal
- Richard Scarry’s Busytown – Eye Found It! Game
4-6 Year Olds
Runners Up:
7-10 Year Olds
- Camel Up [Read More]
- The Quacks of Quedlinburg [Read More]
- Ticket to Ride [Read More]
- Codenames: Pictures [Read More]
Runners Up:
- The Game
- Pandemic [Read my review of Pandemic]
Preteens/Teenagers
Runners Up:
The Best Board Games for Kids Ages 2-4
Depending on your child, introducing your 2-year-old to a board game may seem a bit early, but with the right game, it’s prime time for them to dip their toes in (with some parental assistance, of course).
General Note
German board game manufacturer HABA has an entire line of board games known as the My Very First Games line. You can’t go wrong with any of the games in the whole line, and they’re appropriate as early as two years old, well through the age of four.
First Orchard
First Orchard is the simplified version of HABA’s Orchard. It’s the board game I recommend starting with, and I’ve gifted it to countless other parents.
First Orchard is a cooperative game, meaning everyone works together and wins or loses together. Everyone rolls the die, collects the various fruits represented on it, and places them in the basket.
There is a possibility to get the basket icon (wild) on a roll, which is where most of the possible strategy comes into play. On some turns, you may roll a fruit icon that has already been depleted from your supply. In this case, nothing happens on your turn. So when rolling the basket icon, you should prioritize using it on fruit in greater abundance. Although it’s unlikely that your two-year-old will pick up on the strategy here, it’s something to work toward as they age.
On some turns, you may roll the crow icon. Each time this happens, the crow moves closer to eating up all your fruit and your child losing the game.
The component quality is incredible and appropriate for all ages, featuring sizeable wooden fruit and a chunky wooden die. You don’t have to worry about the choking hazard.
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Little Bird, Big Hunger
If First Orchard sounds good, but you are looking for something competitive instead of cooperative for your three-year-old, I recommend HABA’s Little Bird, Big Hunger.
Similarly to First Orchard, you’re rolling a die to collect food items that your picky birdy needs to eat to hatch and grow up. Once you collect the correct items in the right quantities, your bird grows a little (represented by moving on to your bird’s next card).
The first player to nurture their bird to maturity is the winner.
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My First Castle Panic
If your child has outgrown First Orchard, I recommend My First Castle Panic as their next cooperative game.
My First Castle Panic is the simplified version of the adult game Castle Panic and is for the older or more experience in this age group.
Everyone works together to use their cards to remove monsters on the board, most of which have a shape/color combo underneath them, which corresponds to those on the players’ cards.
If the monsters get to the end of the board and destroy your castle, everyone loses the game.
Some of the cards have special powers on them, as do some of the monsters—making the game more interesting, but it will also likely require more hand-holding than the above games.
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Runners Up:
- Here, Fishy, Fishy!
- Animal Upon Animal Junior and Animal Upon Animal
- Richard Scarry’s Busytown – Eye Found It! Game
The Best Board Games for Kids Ages 4-6
Although your kids are growing up, most games you buy will still feature simple rules appropriate for young children. But they’re also going to start to feel more fun for Mom and Dad.
Rhino Hero
I thoroughly enjoy Rhine Hero as an adult. It combines a dexterity game ala Jenga and a card game ala Uno.
You play cards that force your opponent to grow the structure, hoping they’ll knock it down. There are even Reverse cards like in Uno. You also may have to place the little rhino figure in the tower, which can sometimes be quite challenging.
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Outfoxed
You may have noticed a theme. I’m a big fan of cooperative board games for children.
Outfoxed is the next-level cooperate board game for 4-6 year-olds that contains some excellent game components and adds deduction to your child’s list of game concepts.
You’re trying to stop the fox before he gets to the end of the board. To do so, you must roll dice to travel around the board and collect clues. You also leverage the dice to reveal different fox cards and remove them from your list of possible suspects based on the clues you’ve found (a similar mechanism to the classic game Guess Who).
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Dragomino
Dragonomino is the simplified version of the hit game, Kingdomino. This one is fun for adults as well.
Players take turns placing tiles next to their own. If the terrain of the adjacent tiles matches, then they may pick up a dragon egg or that type and flip it over to reveal its contents. Most will display a picture of an empty egg, but some will contain dragons. At the end of the game, whoever has the most dragons on their tiles, will be declared the winner.
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Runners Up:
The Best Board Games for Kids Ages 7-10
So you’re raising a 7-10-year-old? You’re probably competing for their attention with video games. These are my picks to keep him interested (if that’s even possible).
Camel Up
Camel Up is hands down my favorite gateway board game. It’s the first game I introduce people to, and it’s one I’ll still whip out at a game night.
The rules are simple. It’s chaotic and engaging. And a game lasts somewhere in the vicinity of 30-45 minutes.
It’s perfect for this age range.
Throughout the game, you place bets on which colored camel will win and lose the race, both for an individual leg of that race and the final results. The camels will move according to the dice expelled from the pyramid in the middle of the board.
The black and white camels move the colored camels backward, and there are traps that you can set on players that manipulate the camels’ movements.
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The Quacks of Quedlinburg
The Quacks of Quedlinburg is a push-your-luck style eurogame. It’s also high on my favorite beginner games for adults. I’ll always have it in my collection.
You collect different potion ingredients, many of which have special abilities, and randomly pull them out of your cloth bag without looking. The more you’re able to add to your cauldron, the more points you’ll score that turn. But beware, you may pull ingredients that cause your potion to fail, and then you’re out of luck this turn, and your opponent might get ahead of you and complete his potion first.
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Ticket to Ride
I’ve successfully introduced Ticket to Ride as early as 6, but you’ll be smooth sailing with a 7 or 8-year-old.
In Ticket to Ride, you collect train cards to build tracks across the map between different destinations and complete contracts. The player with the most points (primarily based on their contracts) is the winner.
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Codenames: Pictures
They’re getting to an age where they will need a more social game. For that game, I recommend Codenames. I prefer the Codenames: Pictures version of the card game as I think interpreting the pictures is more interesting than reading the words.
Teams take turns guessing the hidden markers by chaining concepts together that describe the cards. It’s more fun than it sounds.
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Runners Up:
- The Game
- Pandemic [Read my review of Pandemic]
The Best Board Game for Preteens/Teenagers
Your kids are now basically adults, or at least they think they are.
For the preteen/teenage demographic, I suggest gateway games or games with really cool themes, with a slight emphasis on the latter.
If they happen to get really into the hobby, the world is your oyster, and you can go down the heavy strategy game rabbit hole, but until then, you need to get them hooked.
Blood Rage
This game has Viking warriors and giant monster figurines that fight each other with unique abilities. It has a major cool factor, and the rules are simple enough that I’ve gotten my own father to play it with me over Thanksgiving.
It’s also a wonderfully designed game featuring area control and card drafting. It’s the most expensive game on this list, but I highly recommend it. It’s not one he’ll get bored of quickly.
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Wavelength
Wavelength is a super fun party game that you can actually try out on Twitter.
Players are divided into teams, and one team tries to guess the position of the dial by giving clues. The category cards feature opposites and are visible to the guessing team (e.g., Forbidden vs. Encouraged). One player gives the rest of the team a clue to help the team guess the position on the dial based on where that clue may fall on the spectrum of the category card. For example, if the dial is supposed to be turned most toward the Forbidden side, you may give a clue “Murder.”
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Dark Moon
Dark Moon is a hidden traitor board game. Who can you trust? Some people playing will be secretly infected and will try and sabotage your ship. Everyone else will try to repair your ship as natural events and sabotage threaten to destroy it. It’s easy, very social, and supports up to seven players.
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Runners Up:
Full List [Summary]
2-4 Year Olds
4-6 Year Olds
7-10 Year Olds
Preteens/Teenagers
Paul Shapiro is Founder and Editor of Board Game Squad. He enjoys all types of games and experiences, but has a particular penchant for medium to heavy eurogames.