The Best Board Games for Kids by Age
Board games are fun, challenging, and exciting ways to pass the time with your kids, or to let older kids play with their peers. A great board game builds critical thinking skills, teaches patience and planning, and helps instill a respect for rules, for winning with grace, and for losing well, too. We have selected board games that all pass the GGGT test and that are arranged by age, so you can jump right to our best board game choices for the kid on your list.
Games for 2 Year Olds
Monkey Around
Peaceable Kingdom makes some of our favorite cooperative games, and this one is no different. Players take on the exciting and physical challenge like giving hugs, standing on one foot, and jumping. When they complete the card they add it to the game board to mark the team’s success.
Bears in Pairs
This “My First Game” is a three-dimensional matching game. There are various sets of rules to help the game grow as the child’s skills grow but here at GGGT we like to play in an even more basic format than the rules suggest by working together to open a door, collecting a bear, and making matches as they occur.
Games for 3 Year Olds
Found It!
This exciting indoor scavenger hunt game can be played with as few as 1 player and challenges the child to search around their home for objects by shape, color, location, and even beginning sound. And while it can be played with a single child, it’s at its best when played by multiple people, be it enjoyed cooperatively or competitively as a race to complete the task.
Cupcake Spinner
A GGGT Favorite — players are challenged with collecting all of the ingredients needed to make a cupcake. Take turns spinning the spinner and collect the indicated type of ingredient, be the first to collect and bake (by turning over your mixing bowl card), and invite the other players to join you to share your successful baking!
Games for 4 Year Olds
Heads Talk Tails Walk
This silly, interactive matching game has its players up and down, quacking and hopping, roaring and galloping as they try to match the bottoms of animals correctly to the tops. If you don’t make a match, the players must create sounds like the top half of the animal found and move like the animal shown on the bottom half. It's a guaranteed laugh for everyone playing.
I Never Forget a Face
This beautifully illustrated matching game from eeBoo allows kids to practice pattern recognition and develop both visual and short term memory skills as they engage with 24 children from around the world, introducing them to new cultures in turn sparking authentic and meaningful conversation.
Games for 5 Year Olds
Outfoxed!
Outfoxed, a cooperative game, sends players on a mission to figure out who stole Mrs. Plumpert’s pot pie. Clues to this whodunit mystery are hidden around the board. On each player’s turn, they must decide if it’s more advantageous for the team to collect a clue or pull a suspect card. Work together to do both, use an exciting evidence scanner to narrow down the sartorial traits of the thief, and compare the suspect cards to the known facts to solve the mystery, all before the fox gets away with the pie!
Zingo! Sight Words
Often described as BINGO with a zing, Zingo is just that. Be the first to match the tile from the dispenser to a space on your card and you are one step closer to being the winner. This fast-moving game is a great fit for early readers as it provides an exciting, hands-on way to practice sight words.
Games for 6 Year Olds
Taco Cat Goat Cheese
This fast-moving and silly card game will have all the players hysterically laughing. Put your cards down one by one in the pattern: taco, cat, goat, cheese. If what you say happens to match what you flip, don’t be the last to slap or you will collect the whole pile. And watch out for the rogue narwhals, groundhog, and gorilla cards, because they require you to act fast too.
Sinking Stones
Think of this as a “My First” strategy game. Players are challenged to plan routes and use cards to keep themselves afloat while simultaneously planning how to sink their opponents. Added bonus: like many adult-level strategy games, this one is different every time it is played.
Games for 7 Year Olds
Ticket to Ride First Journey
An exciting strategy game where players are tasked with completing train routes around the country. Collect cards that correspond with places on the board or build a route on each turn. The first to complete 6 of their assigned routes wins the golden ticket and the game.
Guess in 10 Animal Planet
Players break into equal teams and challenge the other side to guess, in 10 questions or less, the animal on the card. Strategically use or spend your clue cards to gain insights during rounds that are stumping your team and obtain victory when your team has collected 7 cards.
Games for 8 Year Olds
Sushi Go Party
This ever changing strategy game takes its players on a culinary adventure as they have to collect points and menu items. The adaptable game and menu options allows players to adjust the difficulty of the game based on the age and experience of the players. GGGT Tip: this game has a lot of rules, but it is well worth learning them, this game is truly a favorite!
No Thanks!
In this fast-paced decision making game, players use a deck with cards numbered 3 to 35 and try to accumulate cards in numerical order. On each turn they can collect the card or pass by paying a counter, but beware: seven cards have been removed from the deck, making every card a player collects a risk. At the end of play, add up the lowest number in each straight to accumulate your total. Smallest total wins!
Games for 9 Year Olds
Boom Goes the Dynamite
This is a math matching card game that uses endless combinations of basic math operations to make matches and gain points. Dynamite and timer cards add a fast-moving spin to the game, changing the winning standings at a moment’s notice.
Ubongo
Race against your opponents to complete your geometric puzzle the fastest using the a curated selection of pieces. Yell Ubongo, collect a gem, and begin the countdown, allowing the remaining players to gain a single point for completion. (Each round’s winner gets two points, one for the gem, and one for the completion.) Once the gems are gone, the player with the most points wins.
Games for 10 Year Olds
Qwixx
This fast-moving dice game can be played by just two players or by up to five. It is compact, always a blast, and incorporates strategy, math, decision making, and it only requires about 15 minutes of play time per game.
Catan
This exciting strategy game is one of resource collecting, monopolizing, trading and building. Mark your territory quickly and find and sustain enough resources to maintain your hold on the board and drive your opponents into a tough spot.
