Young Children And Playing Board Games

So, you, like me, have a *maybe* unhealthy obsession with boardgames; I am very lucky to be a 20-something-year-old with disposable income to spare on said boardgames and no children to speak of. I do, however, have nieces who up until I started babysitting them last year had only ever played uno (with the completely wrong rules). I got to see first-hand the wonder of experience of all my favourite games through child eyes… and it was painful at times. So, after a year of some awful experiences and 10x the number of wonderful ones, lets break down some of the ways I found easiest to get these young children and kiddos into boardgames.

Simplicity

Simplicity is key; the games they enjoy the most and will play over and over again are usually the simplest. My first recommendation is one of the silliest, but it never fails to disappoint ‘Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza’. Think snap, the cards have one of those objects on and you go through the list, if you match on the list and card you snap first to lose all their cards wins.

Along the same vein ‘Dobble’ is also a win, we like most of the variations except hot potato; ‘Dobble Connect’ is also a lot of fun 10/10 would recommend if you like the original version.

Not just children’s games are simple another one that is always a favourite is ‘Carcassonne’ a tile-laying game where you build a French countryside, points are scored based on where you place your meeple.

Competitiveness

This is probably where I should let you all know that my mum and I aren’t competitive in the slightest, if we aren’t playing a co-op game, we usually try to help each other out and we try to instil this in the girls; they always have fun after playing but it never matters if they win or lose. That means when playing games like ‘Ticket to Ride’; a game where you build routes across a board (we have America that we usually play with the kids and Europe which is still to advanced for their age) using coloured cards you pick up; we usually play individually but with our tickets on the table and help the kiddos with their routes and make an effort not to block them. There is the children’s version however they felt like that was too young for them, they’re at the awkward in between stage.

Easy Set Up

Kids get bored. I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here but they have short attention spans so having games that are easy to get out and easy to put away are sometimes best when they are restless. When they’re in this mood Ticket to Ride or Monopoly is not a good idea but ‘Monopoly Deal’ the card game based on Monopoly is perfect. Another one we always reach to in moments like this is ‘Labyrinth’, a simple maze game where you get your pawn to characters then back to your home base to win. There's enough going on to keep them occupied but when they get board its easy to stop midway, find the winner and pack it up quickly. The easy pack-up is quite important because the rule is if you want to play something new you have to pack it away, it discourages constant switching as well as keeping the room tidy.

Finding What They Actually Enjoy

So it's all very well for me to tell you what my two snowflakes enjoy but all children are different, also boardgaming is an expensive hobby, you can't keep buying games until you find the one that your child will sit down and play with you, so what do you do?

BOARDGAME CAFES!!!

These places are an absolute godsend although it is where the rule came from… I did not know how many different games you could play in an hour (5 the answer is 5… Crocodile Dentist, Muffin Time, 3D Snakes and Ladders, Dobble and Monopoly, the last we only just started before we needed to go). They get to experience lots of different games that they wouldn’t usually have access to, and see what they enjoy and don’t. Once you find something they really like and you enjoy it as well, you buy it so you can play it together at home. This is why I bought Dobble, I am awful at it because I can't match the shapes for love nor money, so I got it to practice (so I’m a little competitive) and from our second trip I bought ‘Sushi Roll’ a card game about collecting different sushi items for differing amounts of points.

Now you have your list of board games that the young children and kiddos love and will play with you… It's time to head to ZATU!