The 10 Best Board Games for the Whole Family

Do your kids love to play board games? Mine are huge fans and so we have found the best board games for our whole family. From traditional kid games, to newer puzzle games, we have found some amazing options that work for all ages. We think these are the best board games because they are either simple enough or can be slightly modified to include Little Man at 4 years old, they aren’t noisy, and my husband and I enjoy playing them!

Because of Covid, we are certainly staying home more and so we have spent many hours playing games together, so I want to share our favorites. These 10 best board games could be awesome birthday or holiday gifts (hint…hint), so just click the links to shop them!

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Qwirkle

This is kind of a combination between Scrabble and UNO. You have match colors or shapes and you get points for how you create or continue a pattern. We are able to follow all of the rules and keep score with L (8 yo) and she’s getting quite good! We don’t keep score when we play with Little Man and we do help him just a bit, but he really enjoys finding matching pieces! This is definitely one of our new family favorites!

Shop it here!

The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game

This is a great game for toddlers and preschoolers, that is actually pretty fun for older kids and adults, too. Using a squirrel that acts in a tweezer-like manner, you have to pick up a little acorn in the color that the spinner dictates and put it into your tree. You try and fill your little tree trunk first, but you have to watch out if someone spins the sneaky squirrel; she can steal one of your acorns! Along with being fun, this game is great for color identification and fine motor skills!

Shop it here!

Race Across the USA

This is a game that blends geography knowledge with a little bit of strategy. Your airplane has to visit each of the 6 states your draw from the piles and be the first to make it back to your home state. In order to earn your state visit card, you must answer a geography question; there are questions for 3rd and 4th grade, as well as 5th and 6th grade. Little Man just moves his airplane, but the rest of us get to learn about/answer questions about America’s geography!

Shop it here!

Rubik’s Race

This is a great puzzle game where you race an opponent to create the block pattern created by the dice in the box. You shift around the individual squares to get them into the correct spaces. It’s always different and definitely takes some strategic planning and thinking!

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Zingo!

Zingo! is a fun take on Bingo. It’s a great little matching game and Little Man loves sliding the dispenser to make the chips come out (I have to admit that it is kind of fun…). There are a bunch of different cards and there are two levels; the other side of the cards have images that are less frequently found on the chips. It is pretty simple, but it is a big hit here!

Shop it here!

Blokus

Blokus is an interesting strategy game with hints of Tetris. You have to place your pieces corner to corner with the goal of getting all of your pieces on the board while also trying to block your opponents. When Little Man plays (he loves this game!), we don’t enforce the corner rule for him – he can put his pieces adjacent to each other. We have had some really fun rounds and it’s a great way to help the kiddos learn about strategy and thinking ahead. Another thing we love is that it’s different each time we play it!

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Picture Charades

Picture Charades is one of my kiddos’ favorites. Little Man has been able to play it for a while since there are no words on the cards – just pictures. He is able to look at the picture and act it out. It’s fascinating to see how the kiddos’ brains work as they try and act out the various clues; there have been a number of times when they easily guess what each other is, while my husband and I have not even been close with our guesses! It’s just a great game for the entire family!

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Sorry!

This is a game that I grew up playing and had forgotten about until I was helping to clean out my parents’ attic. L immediately fell in love with it and has become a staple in our house! My husband and I love it because it brings back a bit our childhood (we even have the retro edition) and L loves it because she frequently beats us! You have to get your pieces into the Home Zone and the card you draw dictates your move. There are also ways to knock out your opponent’s pieces via the board slides and through the cards. This is another game that helps the kiddos develop some strategy and is also great counting practice for the littles!

Shop the retro version here!
Shop the “modern” version here!

Guess Who?

Okay. I admit it. This was one of my favorite games growing up…and I still love it. I think it’s super fun to narrow down the characters and it’s great for the kiddos to learn ways to describe people and things. We have the version that I grew up with and also have the new, updated version; I do prefer the updated version as it includes much more diversity. This is also a good game for FaceTime/Zoom. L’s friend has the same version and they can both have their boards and ask their questions over the screen. We definitely had many rounds of FaceTime Guess Who? during quarantine!

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Jumpin’ Monkeys

Jumpin’ Monkeys is the game that all of L’s friends want to play when they came over for play dates. You use the mini catapults to send the monkeys to the tree in hopes of them catching and hanging there. The goal is to get all of your color monkeys on the tree first. It’s not a complicated game, but there is something satisfying about flinging those monkeys through the air…

Shop it here!

Clearly, we are big board game fans in this house and I hope that our list of the best board games is helpful to you! If you’re looking for another family activity, make sure to check out my post on 10 Awesome Movies for Family Movie Night!

What do you think are the best board games? Let me know in the comments!

I hope that you and your family enjoy some of these games!

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