DaddiLife
  • Home
  • Family
    • Modern Fatherhood
    • Trying
    • Expecting
    • New Dad
    • Stay At Home Dad
    • Separation
    • Single Dads
    • Step Dads
  • Things To Do
    • Kids at Home
    • Newborn
    • Toddler
    • 5 – 10
    • 10+
  • Health
    • Dad Jokes
    • Fitness
    • Family Meal Recipes
    • Safety
    • Wellness
  • Lifestyle
    • Work / Life Balance
    • Money
    • Education
    • Sports
    • Gear
  • Book Squad
  • Reviews
    • Gift Ideas
    • Family Fun
    • Toys
  • Dads at Work
    • Guides for Dads at Work
    • Case Studies
    • Q&A
    • Mentoring Programme
  • Join
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Write With Us
  • Home
  • Family
    • Modern Fatherhood
    • Trying
    • Expecting
    • New Dad
    • Stay At Home Dad
    • Separation
    • Single Dads
    • Step Dads
  • Things To Do
    • Kids at Home
    • Newborn
    • Toddler
    • 5 – 10
    • 10+
  • Health
    • Dad Jokes
    • Fitness
    • Family Meal Recipes
    • Safety
    • Wellness
  • Lifestyle
    • Work / Life Balance
    • Money
    • Education
    • Sports
    • Gear
  • Book Squad
  • Reviews
    • Gift Ideas
    • Family Fun
    • Toys
  • Dads at Work
    • Guides for Dads at Work
    • Case Studies
    • Q&A
    • Mentoring Programme
  • Join

DaddiLife

The parenting website for dads

Family FunReviews

15 of the Best Family Board Games: From Toddlers to Teens

written by Robin Lewis 10th December 2021
boardgames for family, boardgames for kids, best family games

Whether you’re looking for ways to educate and inform your little ones, or just spend some time away from the screen - board games are a great way of spending a few quality hours with the family. 

Board Games have come a long way from our childhood - and some of the most popular board games are still those we remember playing with our Dads - Monopoly, Cluedo… The Game of Life! - are still going strong and waiting for that  new generation to create some fond memories.

One of the oldest known board-games comes from (who else!) the Ancient Egyptians. Believed to have originated in 3100BC, ‘Senet’ was at its heart, a race to the end - but as with many board-games it evolved into something much more advanced and interlaced with meaning. Indeed, many Egyptians believed the game was a foreshadowing of their future, both while alive and in the afterlife.

What may surprise you is quite how many new options there are for you (and your children!), whether they’re learning how to roll dice for the first time, or beginning to understand the intricacies of Pictionary, we’ve searched high and low to find our best suggestions for each age group.


Table of Contents
1
The best boardgames for the family - in summary
2
Why board games are great for us and the kids
3
Best board games for toddlers / kindergarteners
   1.    Richard Scarry's Busytown - Eye Found it!
   2.    Friends and Neighbors: The Helping Game 
   3.     Hi-Hi Cherry-O
   4.     Zingo! By Think Fun
   5.     Animal upon Animal
4
Best board games for 5-10 year olds
   6.     Exploding Kittens: A game of cat and mouth
   7.     Sorry!
   8.     Operation
   9.     Dobble (Or Spot It!)
   10.    Upside Down Challenge Game
5
Best board games for Tweens / Teens
  11.    Ticket to Ride
  12.    Articulate: Fame
  13.    Monopoly
  14.    Bananagrams
  15.    Settlers of Catan
6
So what is the best board game to play as a family? 

The best boardgames for the family - in summary


If you don't want to read our full reviews, and just want to jump to purchase then if we had to pick one in each age range they would be these:


Toddler: Animal on Animal 

(Runner up: Hi-Ho, Cherry-O)


Aged 5-10: Dobble 

(Runner up: Exploding Kittens: A Game of Cat and Mouth)


Teens/Tweens: Ticket to Ride

(Runner up: Monopoly)


Why board games are great for us and the kids


Apart from the obvious benefits of spending time together as a family, creating further bonds boosting self-confidence,  and teaching your children how to control that anger when they land on Mayfair, board-games provide an excellent opportunity to improve our brain - whether you’re 5 or 55.  

From a young age, our brains are clued into the world around us, and board-games can help develop basic skills such as colours and hand-eye coordination, improve attention span, develop language skills  and help them understand how to deal with losing…! 

As you head more towards countdown than counting,  alongside other well-known brain-sharpeners such as Soduku and the Crossword - board-games can be a contributing factor towards mental sharpness in later life - an Edinburgh University Study has shown that people who increased game playing as they get older experience less of a decline in thinking skills.

Here are our selection of the best games to play all year round - whether at Christmas, Easter, or just a fun weekend family evening.


Best board games for toddlers / kindergarteners


   1.    Richard Scarry's Busytown - Eye Found it!

View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"Each game lasts about 15 minutes and there’s nearly endless replay value. The play-area is quite large, so you need a bit of space and it will be popular with 3 year olds and upwards."

Richard Scarry’s creations are a firm favourite in house-holds across the land and this version of ‘Eye Found it!, set firmly within his Busy Town, is a sure-fire hit with fans of the books. The basic aim is to get your character to the picnic spot before the hungry piggies devour all your food. In order to do this, you take turns to find hidden items to solve a mystery on the area of play. It’s a collaborative game - all the players have to work together to make sure they all reach the picnic area before the pigs have eaten their fill. Oink!

Suitable for 2-4 players.

PROS

  • Easy to pick up - you can start playing quickly.
  • Collaboration is at the heart of the game.
  • Good for testing observation skills.

CONS

  • Large play area so you’ll need to make space.
  •  Timed sections might be challenging for the youngest players.



   2.    Friends and Neighbors: The Helping Game 

amazons choice badge
View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"A wonderful way of introducing children to describing feelings and emotions, while encouraging them to think about helping those around them!"

As the player moves around the board they encounter people with problems.  Picking a token that may provide a solution for someone on the board - they can learn empathy with situations they’ll know - being scared of the dark for example.

Suitable for ages 3 and up, and for 1-4 players.

PROS

  • Sweet way of learning about Emotional intelligence.
  • Clever way of discussing empathy.
  • Quick games!

CONS

  • Limited play once you’ve done it a few times.
  • There can be multiple answers in real life - but not in the game.


   3.     Hi-Hi Cherry-O

amazons choice badge
View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"The great thing about games like this is that it can teach skills without being obvious about it - kids will learn addition and subtraction while playing. This is a simple idea executed well."

Slightly more ‘classic’ than the previous two - ‘Hi-Hi Cherry-O’ is a great game to help children learn the basics of maths. The aim is to collect 10 cherries on your ‘tree’ by spinning a spinner to give you 1 to 4 cherries each time. If you spin the dog, or bucket - you lose some cherries. Pop! 

 Suitable for ages 3+ , and 2-4 players.

PROS

  • Simple and quick to play.
  • Excellent way to learn maths.
  • Fun and colourful!

CONS

  • The cherries might get lost!


   4.     Zingo! By Think Fun

amazons choice badge
View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"Bingo with a Zing! This delightful take on Bingo helps with teaching matching, pattern recognition, memory building and eventually word recognition."

Each player gets a card, and has to match the symbol that pops out of the dispenser (‘Zinger’) with what’s on their card. The first player to match everything on their card yells ‘Zingo!’. Bingo! A simple, joyous way to spend time and learn at the same time.

Best played with Age 3+ ,  and up to 6 players.

PROS

  • Educational - helps with sounds, colours and memory.
  • Easy to Play.
  • Quick to set-up.

CONS

  • The dispenser can get a bit ‘sticky.’


   5.     Animal upon Animal

View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"This is a great game for motor-skills, and to add a fun competitive element to their burgeoning block-building skills. Each game lasts no more than 15 minutes."

Every toddler loves an animal, and stacking blocks; in this enjoyable game of skill, players take turns to place their delightfully carved wooden animals on top of each other -  imagine Jenga but backwards. At the beginning, each player gets 7 animal tokens and then take it in turns to roll the dice and either add to the stack, or pass their animal. Roar!

Suitable for 4+ , and 2-4 players.

PROS

  • Excellent fun and enjoyably challenging.
  • Quick to play.
  • Beautiful pieces.

CONS

  • The pieces only have faces on one side.


Best board games for 5-10 year olds



   6.     Exploding Kittens: A game of cat and mouth

amazons choice badge
View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"Hungry Hungry Hippos for [the millennial] generation’ - Exploding Kittens is an obscenely fun way to spend an hour or so."

The aim of the game is to get all your balls through the cat’s mouth (in the middle of the play area) before your opponent.This is done by using the magnetic cats paw like a catapult - and lends itself to fast, frenetic play! Miaow!

It’s easy to pick up (literally, it’s very portable) and something that could be played with younger ones just to entertain (as long as you keep an eye on the balls).

Mainly suitable for 3+ , and 2 players - although they do have a tournament mode on their website to allow for greater numbers.

PROS

  • Uncomplicated fun with a colourful board.
  • The Magnetic kitten paws are delightful.
  • Tournament play is a thoughtful addition.

CONS

  • It's over too quickly!


   7.     Sorry!

amazons choice badge
View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"The hugely frustrating but immensely fun game that infuriated you as a child is most certainly one of the best board-games you should play with your kids." 

The aim is to get your three pawns from start to finish - but the journey to get them there is fraught with peril. Each turn players draw a card to discover what lays in wait for them - moving their pawn, swapping with another one on the board or utilising the fire/ice power-ups (added to the new version of the game) which power forward movement or freeze you in place. No two pawns can be on the same square so if someone lands on yours, back to the beginning you go. Sorry!

As fun as it was in 1972 when Sorry! first graced our tables, it is suitable for ages 6+ , and 2 to 4 players.

PROS

  • Rules are easy to pick up, even for younger players.
  • Compelling fun and simple.

CONS

  • Can get frustrating if you keep getting sent back to the beginning!


   8.     Operation

View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"A great game to play competitively or even test yourself solo."

Another classic - the aim of Operation is to remove body-parts  from the patient without touching the tweezers to the edges of the opening. If you touch the edge and the buzzer goes off - you lose any points from that round. It’s a very skill-led game - another excellent opportunity to improve hand-eye coordination - and as with all the best board games for children - it’s simple and easy to pick up. Nurse!

Operation is suitable for ages 5 and over, and for 1 to 6 players.

PROS

  • Easy to pick up, hard to master.  
  • All the family can enjoy it.
  • Great to improve dexterity.

CONS

  • It might get a bit frustrating.


   9.     Dobble (Or Spot It!)

View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"Dobble takes the basic concept of ‘spotting something’ and makes it much more interesting."

 There are 55 cards - and each one has a symbol in common with every other card. The symbols are all designed to play tricks on your brain (they’re different sizes, for example) making them not as immediately obvious to identify. There are various ways of playing, provided in the pack which helps ensure the gameplay doesn’t ever get stale. Snap!

Aimed at 6+ - (there is also  a Dobble Junior) - and suitable for 2 to 8 players. This is a fresh take on a game we all know how to play.

PROS

  •  So much fun to play!
  • Players of all ages can get involved.
  • Portable - can be played on the go as well as round the table.


CONS

  • Honestly none.


   10.    Upside Down Challenge Game

View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"A fantastic take on a classic genre that’s sure to get the whole family roaring with laughter."

Pick a card:  do a challenge. A familiar concept to fans of Pictionary, Cranium and their ilk. The ingenious addition here is glasses which turn your vision upside down. Giving a high-five is easy(ish) in normal circumstances - now try attempting it the wrong way up! Leading to some hilarious situations, the aim is to get to 6 points. You can win and lose points by finishing the tasks within time limits on the cards. This game really tests various skills along the way. Bonza!

The Upside Down Challenge Game is suitable for ages 8+ , and 2 for or more players.

PROS

  • Wonderfully silly but immensely enjoyable - this is a fun testing game for all players.
  • A modern take on a well-known game excellently executed. 

CONS

  • Keep a mop handy - one of the tasks is pouring water between cups!


Best board games for Tweens / Teens



  11.    Ticket to Ride

amazons choice badge
View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"A game that encourages strategic thinking (once you’ve got the hang of it)."

A modern classic, the aim of Ticket to Ride is to build a transport link between two cities. You do this buy placing train carriages on the board - trying to complete your route ahead of your competitors. The original was based in America, but there are now many variations to buy, including a European and Junior version.

It creates a wonderful environment to test your skills: should you go for the bigger points by creating the longer track, and risk someone else sneaking onto your planned route or play it safe and watch as someone else steams their way to victory because they’ve been bold. Passage!

Suitable for ages 8+ , and for 2 - 5 players.

PROS

  • Easy to learn but allows multiple strategies to be tried.
  • Many extension packs available to extend gameplay.
  • Excellent entry into further boardgaming.

CONS

  • Need multiple players to get the best experience (i.e. more than 2).


  12.    Articulate: Fame

View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"Zany, creative and makes you think of people in a very new way. Descriptive!"

Articulate is already a firm family-favourite , but as it can be quite varied in subject matter -the ‘Fame’ edition is a great introduction for children,  to the entertaining description game as it focuses purely on celebrities. For the uninitiated - players separate into teams and then take turns to pick up cards - which have names on. They then have 30 seconds to describe as many people as they can without using their name. 

Suitable for ages 8+ (although it lends itself to older players due to wider knowledge), and for 4 to 20 players.

PROS

  • So much fun trying to think of how to describe people.
  • 3 different ways to play.

CONS

  • Once you’ve done all the cards a few times, it might become easier as previous clues are remembered.


  13.    Monopoly

View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"You’d be doing your children a disservice if they didn’t play it. Go!"

What is there to say about Monopoly that hasn’t been said before? Buy property, build houses and hotels and try to get as much money as possible. A game that has been infuriating and engrossing players since its inception, Monopoly now has over 1,500 variants to try - including the recent additions of the 'boardless version' (for increased portability) and the 'life-sized' version in London - where you can run around the board as your very own 'you' shaped piece! For our money, the classic one is the one to get. Roll the dice,  collect $200, and lose it to council tax immediately. Ah, Monopoly. 

Suitable for ages 8 and up - but really you need to be older to deal with the constant frustration - and for 2 to 6 players.

PROS

  • Experience life in a microcosm.

CONS

  • The potential for broken furniture.


  14.    Bananagrams

View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"It’s fast paced, and the constant addition of new letters means you continually need to adjust the board to fit the new additions into play."

Word games are a great way of having fun and increasing vocabulary. The well known example is Scrabble, but Bananagrams is jostling for attention. Encased in a banana skin, there is no board as such, just letter tiles ala Scrabble. The aim of the game is to put your letters out as quickly as possible, with words able to be made in any direction at all. When this is achieved, you yell ‘peel’ and everyone takes another letter -  this continues until all the letters are taken. First Class!

 Suitable for 7+ , and for 2 to 8 players.

PROS

  • Encourages mental agility.
  • You get to create your own crosswords!
  • Each game is hugely different.

CONS

  • Need a reasonably big space for a game with no board.


  15.    Settlers of Catan

View on Amazon ▷

Editors Review

"The more you play, the deeper your understanding, and you learn more ways to approach the game."

No list of the best board-games  would be complete without Settlers of Catan. The aim is to colonise an Island, via gaining resources and building roads and cities and developing their settlements. There’s a lot of luck and strategy involved in getting the 10 points needed to win.

There’s plenty of interaction meaning that everyone can learn from each other and feel involved until the end. It’s easy to learn - with lots of variety in how the island looks thanks to the modular approach. 

Suitable for ages 10+ , and for 3-4 players.

PROS

  • Easily accessible, fun to master.
  • A different experience each time.
  • Games last about 90 minutes so it's an investment.

CONS

  • Games last about 90 minutes so it's an investment.
  • Not good if you don’t like chatting - lots is encouraged.


So what is the best board game to play as a family? 


We have barely touched the sides when it comes to the huge variety of games available to play with the family. What is nice is that there is something to suit everyone.

The 15 chosen here are what we think you would have the most fun with this Christmas and over the coming months to keep you and the kids entertained.

To recap what we said at the beginning if we had to pick one in each age range:

Toddler: Animal on Animal (Runner up: Hi-Ho, Cherry-O).

5-10: Dobble (Runner up: Exploding Cats).

Teens/Tweens: Ticket to Ride (Runner up: Monopoly).

Let us know your favourite on the socials and tell us if we’ve missed any of your family favourites!

15 of the Best Family Board Games: From Toddlers to Teens was last modified: December 10th, 2021 by Robin Lewis

Related

0 comment
0
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Robin Lewis

toddler climbing toys, best toddler climbing toys
previous post
The Best Toddler Climbing Toys (2022 Buying Guide)
mental health tips, mental tips for dads, winter mental health,
next post
Mental Health Tips for the Winter

You may also like

The 10 Best Toddler Swings (2022 Reviews)

7th March 2021

The 12 Best Baby Carriers for Dads...

17th January 2021

The 10 Best Family Tents (2022 Buying...

9th August 2020

The 9 best moses baskets (2022 buying...

29th August 2021

A dad’s review of the Keen Kids...

13th July 2021

The 10 best baby changing bags for...

19th January 2020

The 8 Best Car Seats (2021 Buying...

5th October 2018

A parent’s guide to mud kitchens

3rd July 2021

The Weekend Box Review

30th July 2016

The 15 Best Christmas Toys for Kids...

17th December 2021

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

business dad of the year, award, dad award

Get the latest dad news

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram




Popular Things to Do

  • A Parent’s Guide To Tuff Trays

  • DaddiLifeForce – The Power of Lego

  • DaddiLifeForce – New Years 2017

  • DaddiLifeForce – Chinese New Year

  • Tuff Tray Ideas: Some great ideas for creative tuff trays

Writers Community

write with us, daddilife


  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Youtube

© 2017 - DaddiLife. All Right Reserved. DaddiLife is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.


Back To Top