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Board games are a fantastic family activity, but for those with younger children, the choices can get very old, very fast. While your six-year-old may be able to Kerplunk for hours on end, as an adult there’s only so much poking sticks through holes and listening to marbles thud onto plastic that you’re able to take.
Hasbro Chutes And Ladders Spider-Man Edition
Climb and slide with Spider-Man in this Marvel-themed Chutes and Ladders game, a twist on the classic that’s perfect for young fans and families!
Sushi Go!
Sushi Go! is a deck-building card game for 2–5 players. The aim of the game is to create a deck of cards that totals up to give you the most points. Certain cards react with each other to create multipliers and combos. At the end of the round, all players must reveal their cards and tally the points.
Catan
Catan is the latest edition of the classic strategy board game Settlers of Catan. It can be played by 3–4 players, but the expansion allows you to play with up to six. It involves trading and negotiating in order to build the most well connected road network.
Some game designers have realised that parents are often hunting for a game that favours skill and thought, with kids' versions of many popular tabletop games now available. However, these are not the only way to play more complex games with small children.
Getting Kids Used To Board Games
Often we start off with things likeChutes and Ladders,but there are many games you can play withwhatever is on the shelf and a little imagination. Kids will often make up their own rules given a chance, so why not embrace this?
Use the pieces of a game you have to make a simpler one. For example:
Anything involving tile placement, likeLand Vs Sea, can becomea tile matching game. Simply take turns placing a tile and making a landscape/pattern etc.No winners, just fun, especially if there are meeples or other figures and buildings to play with afterward.
Resource collecting gamessuch asCatancan be simplified torolling a die or drawing cards to gain resources, thenadding the corresponding buildingsto the board when you have enough resources. Stop when you run out of resources or buildings.Most buildings added wins.
Manycard gamessuch asSushi Gocan be used assnap cards,or turned intoa memory game.
Kids often see getting their hands on “grown up games” as a special treat, and it’s also a good opportunity for them to explore the pieces and learn how to look after them.
Child-Friendly Official Adaptations
Thechild-orientated versions of modern tabletop classicsare a great way to start playing more complex games with young school-age children, asmost are aimed at around ages five to six.These introduce kids to the concepts many popular games use in a simple and age-appropriate way.
My First Carcassonneintroducestile placement and simple strategyto young gamers. Similarly,Catan Juniorintroduces the concepts ofresources and structure building, whileTicket To Ride: First Journeyhelps children learn how totranslate instructions on a card to moves on a board.
When combined with thesimple dice-based gameslikeCandy Land, which you’ve likely already been playing, thesecover the core mechanics of most tabletop titles.
Ticket to Ride First Journey
Love Ticket To Ride but the game and its expansions are a little advanced for the little ones you game with? Give First Journey a try. A simplified version of the game perfect for all ages that will prepare younger train aficionados for the more complex Ticket To Ride in the future.
Catan Junior
The trials, tribulations, and joys of Catan are made easier for younger players with Catan Junior, a family game with simplified rules for its intended play group.
Candy Land - Kingdom Of Sweet Adventures
Candy Land is a great tabletop game for children and adults alike, all racing to reach King Kandy’s castle.
Child-Friendly Games That Adults Will Love Too
There are also a number ofmore interesting games that aim themselves at kidsof around seven or eight but arealso fun for adults.
In my house,Kingdominowas a huge success, and involvesplacing tiles and claiming lands.It also has some expansions.King of Tokyois another great strategy title, and again has several variations.
If you prefer card gamesTaco Vs Burritois a simplestrategy card gamethat offers humourous and fast-paced fun. If you enjoy that, then theExploding Kittens Storeis worth a browse. The games havediffering age ranges, but several are suitable from around six and themes include:throwing foam burritosat your family (Throw Throw Burrito), a simplevariation of charades(On a Scale of One to T-Rex), andsnap with actions(Happy Salmon).
King of Tokyo
King of Tokyo is a game from Richard Garfield in which you play a variety of mutant monsters, aliens, and robots, competing to destroy Tokyo and rule as the new King.
Exploding Kittens: Original Edition
A 2-5 player card game where you must avoid the exploding kitten at all costs. Use other cards to shuffle, skip, and sabotage others in this fast-paced easy to learn card game.
Throw Throw Burrito
Throw Throw Burrito is a hilarious ‘dodgeball card game’ from the minds behind Exploding Kittens. Your aim is to collect pairs of cards - and then hope your aim is true, as you hurl burritos at your opponent while avoiding theirs.
Adapting Regular Tabletop Games To Reduce Complexity
Aneasy way to bridge the gapbetween child-friendly games and the regular ones can besimple adaptation.Some games, such asTicket To Ride, are a fairly smooth transition, but others, likeCarcassonne, are more complex.
Before moving from one to another,take a look at the rules of the adult version and see if there is anything you can exclude. For example, you can employ ano farmers rule in Carcassonneuntil everyone gets used to the other point-scoring mechanics.
Some games even include their own easy rules, as well as the regular ones, such asIello Games' Storybook seriesandIsle of Cats.
The Joy Of Co-Operative Games
A final way of adapting games is simply toplay co-operative titles. These are games whereplayers win and lose together, coming up with strategies together and helping each other out. Since there are no secrets, no advantages, andgameplay is designed to be a group experienceyou can oftenguide even very young children through the process,helping them learn.
A particular favourite here wasCastle Panic, which involvessaving a castle from being destroyed by monsters. Player turns cycle around and cards are traded through this system. You can explain and aid younger players to help this go smoothlybut when my youngest was small, we justinvented the role of “monster maker.“All he did was collect the monsters from the box - counting them out - and put them on the board (with added sound effects).
Forbidden Island- as well asForbidden Dessert and Forbidden Jungle -are also games withmostly simple rules and a co-op systemthat helps adults explain any confusion. Mostly the confusion isregarding the player roles, but you’re able to minimise this bychoosing the easiest role to navigatefor younger players.
With older children you may move onto more complex games by trying co-op games likePandemic.
Forbidden Island
Forbidden Island is a Mensa prize-winning strategy game in which 2-4 players head off on a quest to capture four sacred treasures from the titular island.
Forbidden Desert
Forbidden Desert is a fun tabletop game in which players work together to search for a legendary flying machine.
Pandemic
Pandemic is a legendary tabletop game in which players work together to research and treat diseases before they become unstoppable pandemics.
Finding The Best Solution
The best option willdepend on the exact age of your child, as well as theirability and attention span.Here are a few final tips to help find it:
