The other day I was on one of my homeschooling groups on Facebook. A person asked “what board games are any good?” A number of people listed off their games but many of them started their comment with “the best board game is….. ” In my house I have a cupboard set aside just for board games, I thought I’d share some of our favourites with you. Here are our best board games.
Strategy Games
Strategy Games are my son’s favourite games to play. Games like Risk and Settlers of Catan, and more draw him in like a moth to a flame. Games like Wonky and Chess make this lad grin.
That joy in seeing if you can devise a way to beat the people you are playing against, OR if you can find a way to foil them. For instance, in playing a game of aggravation the lad decided he didn’t care if he won IF he could stop other people from winning before he got his pieces around. He was so aggravating…. 🙂 but on a positive note he didn’t win! Made for a lot of fun.
Chess: he plays this regularly with his gramma. They seem to take turns with who wins. The set we have is a travelling chess set, it is so convenient to take it with us.
Wonky: We introduce this game to every international student who comes in. It is so fun and very easy to learn. Just need steadiness of hand.
Risk: takes a bit of time to play, but the conversation to be had while playing… I absolutely love it. I HATED this game as a teen playing against my brothers, but playing with my son… It’s a hoot!
Settlers of Catan: just a fun game. I usually lose! My son, well, he strategizes much better than I do. 🙂
Educational Games
We have tried a number of educational games and many have fallen to the wayside. These two have stood the test of time.
I think my son loves nab-it because it is partially a strategy game. Can you spell the right word to steal it from your fellows? We play this very simply with our international students. It helps them realize what they do know! We do play co-operatively near the end of the game, as it gets harder to find words with difficult letters.
Spill and Shake is just a simple spell words games. Nothing too complicated, just play a quick game and see what you can do. This game came out of my family home where I used to play with my siblings.
I DO need to mention the board game Sudoku that we had. YES, had. My son had a lot of fun with it. Large board, able to play a simple game or a more challenging. I couldn’t find the one we had, and passed along to an autistic lad who was captivated by it, so I’ve linked to a random one.
Family Fun Board Games
I know that some of these games are often used by others as educational games. We just play them to have fun. Our concern isn’t over building numeracy, geography, or other such skills. We play only to have fun with each other.Â
I grew up playing the classic monopoly game. I had so much fun with my siblings, and sometimes I would simply play against myself! But we play catopoly in our household because I have a cat-loving lad so a kind person gave us their used catopoly game to bring a smile. 🙂
If you are of Dutch descent and don’t play Rummy0 there is SOMETHING wrong with you. 🙂 At least in this corner of the world. A number game that teaches sets and runs. I grew up with it being called Rummikub. My lad has it as RummyO. Just a fun game, well worth playing with up to four people. Hint…. Don’t play with my younger sister, she takes FOREVER to make a single move. 🙂
Mastermind: the hours my lad and I have spent playing mastermind. Such a simple game of logic. Hide four pegs of any colour without your compatriot seeing. Let them guess. Give clues as to their accuracy. Then switch.
We have played three different versions of mousetrap. My lad is just outgrowing this one, but the ubuild it version has been by FAR the best. No missing pieces, easy to put together, no parts that stop aligning well, and such like. Just a solidly made game. I unfortunately couldn’t find it on amazon, so I linked up the original version. If you find the ubuild version… get that one!
We have two variations of the Guess Who game. We have Guess Who and Who’s there. Both are played a bit differently and we play depending on our mood.Â
Then we have Topple. We honestly play by our own rules. The real rules are easy enough, but the lad’s rules are more fun! 🙂 It just means we don’t play with outsiders as they just don’t get it!
I hope you are inspired by the variety in our board games.  Have fun with your children, grab up a board game and play. You’ll be delighted by the ensuing conversations and the bonds you build. If you need MORE reasons to add board games to your life check out was a guest wrote.
Lots of good choices. My husband recently purchase Five Minute Dungeon which he plays with the kids (without the time constraint). I haven’t played yet but I hear them at the dining room table having lots of fun.
That’s a new one to me as well. Good for all ages or just your littles?
I think it is better for older kids. My husband and teen were introduced to it by a fellow gamer who plays it with his older kids. If you play according to the rules, it has a time limit.
thank you for that information, it’s helpful.
Always on the lookout for new family games! We recently started playing Banned Words and it’s so much fun! My son loves Risk but none of us like playing it with him because he’s so good at it!
that was like my brothers growing up, it was no fun because it was all competition and no conversation over the battle. I”ve not heard of the game banned words.
You have a great collection! We used to have a closet like that, but not anymore. My personal favorite game is Clue. My kids like Chess (the teens) and Sorry! (the youngers).
I liked playing clue as a youngster, now I prefer anything I can play with my lad. 🙂
I am always on looking for new board games for my family, so many I haven’t heard of. Thanks for putting this together, I am checking them out!
I hope you find some that you will thoroughly enjoy
We love the game Patchwork. We actually learned about it while visiting a bibliophile friend in Wisconsin that has a family of board game collectors and enthusiasts. They are more into games than I have ever seen. I wish I knew more about the non-big-market games.
I don’t know the game Patchwork. I’ll have to look into it.