These are the best family board games for kids with recommendations by age – toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children.
Updated November 2024
Playing board games, card games, and any other fun games are great ways to connect with other people in a lighthearted way while also developing critical thinking skills such as memory, strategy, literacy, arithmetic, visual patterns, and more.
Besides, who doesn’t love playing games? Games are just plain fun.
These are some of the best kids’ board games and card games with recommendations by age – toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children. A great list of our favorite games for kids!
The Best Board Games
Games for Toddlers
- Eric Carle Matching Game – A matching game based on one of our favorite authors/illustrators. We also love this Sesame Street matching game!
- Roll and Play – An active play game for toddlers and their grown-ups.
- Monkey Around Game – This fun movement game teaches your child simple skills like high fives, marching and jumping!
- First Orchard – Toddlers cooperate to collect wooden fruits in a basket before the raven eats them.
- Other games from your lap as part of your team
Board Games for Preschoolers
- Bingo – We especially love the picture bingo games made by eeBoo.
- Zingo – This is bingo with a fast-paced twist!
- The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game! – All the young children we know love playing this game!
- Memory – We think eeBoo’s I Never Forget a Face matching game is the best one of its kind!
- Richard Scarry’s Busytown Eye Found It! Game – Such a fun one!
- The Fairy Tale Spinner Game – Encourage their imagination and storytelling with a game of make-your-own fairy tales.
- Hoot Owl Hoot – Kids cooperate to get the baby owls back to their nest in the center of the board.
- Count Your Chickens – Another cooperative game by Peaceable Kingdom; players work together to return the baby chicks to their coop.
- Gobblet Gobblers – Like tic-tac-toe but more fun. The pieces can gobble up other pieces!
Board Games for School-Age Kids
These are some of the best family games for ages 5 and up.
- Catan Junior – Catan Junior is a great strategy and world-building game for kids and a good intro to the Settlers of Catan family of games.
- Suspend – Such a fun balancing game!
- Ticket to Ride – Build train routes and travel around the country in what is one of the most popular board games ever.
- Qwirkle – Match colors and shapes in this visually attractive strategy game.
- IQ Twist – A one-player game that challenges spatial reasoning and logic.
Games with Cards for Kids of All Ages
Many of our favorite family games are actually card games!
- We love the eeBoo card games, like Go Fish and Crazy Eights for this age! They are fun, artful, and memorable.
- We also love Spot It and Spot It, Junior Animals – fast-faced matching games that kids love!
- Sleeping Queens – This card game was an instant hit with all of our kids and remains a favorite.
- Set – Called “the family game of visual perception,” this is a game in which players identify matching patterns across different cards.
- Uno – A classic and still a winner!
- Skip Bo – A sequencing card game by the makers of Uno.
TIP: These card holders are genius in helping little hands hold cards as well as everyone else around the table. Definitely buy one for your littles. And include one when giving a gift of a kiddo card game.
How about you? What are your family’s favorite games for kids?
More Toys and Games for Kids
- The Artful Parent’s Creative Gift Guide for Kids
- The Best Kids Games for Family Fun, Connection, & Learning
- The Best Open-Ended Toys for Kids
- Creative Gift Ideas for Toddlers & Preschoolers
- Creative Gifts for Kids Who Love to Build
- 10 Fun Stocking Stuffer Ideas for Kids This Holiday Season
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