Family Board Game Night: 10 Fun & Educational Game Ideas
How to Throw an Epic Board Game Night: 10 Games for All Ages
Both seasoned gamers and lovers of family get-togethers will find joy in a good board game night! But when kids are involved, how can you ensure those games are enriching, engaging, and fun for everyone?
These 10 board games are perfect for players of multiple ages, from classic games with a twist to new ones that will become family favorites. If you’re wondering how to plan a game night, let’s help you prepare for hours of fun, laughter, and family bonding!
How to Host a Game Night
If you’re hosting a board game night, a little planning will ensure everyone’s happiness. Plus, if you’re hosting a game night at home, you’ll want to make sure you have some basic rules so everyone can enjoy themselves:
- Set the mood just right: Add some fun background music (nothing too distracting or loud), and make sure you’ve set up a designated gaming area with plenty of seating.
- Serve some board game night snacks: Stick to finger foods that are easy to eat while the games are in progress. Pro snack tip: Opt for pretzels over Cheetos to keep any game elements free of cheese dust!
- Be flexible and stay calm: Hosting a game night should be fun! Don’t stress too much about the details, and be open to changing plans and trying new games based on your guest’s suggestions, preferences, and activities they’ve brought to play!
For more board game night ideas, check out our guide on how to connect with family over gameplay!
What to Play: 10 Top Picks for an Epic Board Game Night
Now that you know everything about hosting a game night, let’s figure out the best games — specifically when you have young family members in the mix.
1. Wake Up Stars
This social-emotional development game invites players to identify emotions on stars' faces and share stories related to those emotions. The game promotes communication skills and empathy as players build connections between emotions and personal experiences. The player with the most stars at the end wins!
Skills Developed
- Storytelling: Players learn to paint a picture through stories so others can learn what happened.
- Emotional identification: The game challenges young players to learn how to identify and speak about their emotions.
- Speaking and listening: The game encourages players to wait their turn and learn how to listen to other stories.
2. Digger’s Garden Match
This colorful matching game helps children learn shapes, colors, and counting up to 50. With 25 garden-themed match tiles and fun doggie bones, kids can improve their spatial reasoning skills while having a blast playing with their friends and family members!
Skills Developed
- Spatial reasoning: Children learn how to identify and compare common shapes.
- Shape recognition: Players determine whether or not two shapes are the same size.
- Color identification: It challenges players to identify different colors.
- Counting: Players must count to tell the number of objects.
3. Dreaming Dragon
This engaging hand-eye coordination game requires players to help sneaky lizards escape a dragon's nest without waking the dragon or breaking the eggs! The goal? Try to remove the lizards without dropping any eggs.
Skills Developed
- Focus and self-control: Players must carefully navigate the game to help the lizards escape without waking the dragon or breaking the eggs, requiring focus and self-control.
- Spatial reasoning: Players must figure out the best path for the lizards to escape without causing disruptions.
- Fine motor skills: Players must use the pinchers to pick up and move the lizards without disturbing the dragon or eggs.
4. Corner Center Match
Corner Center Match is a colorful card-matching game that challenges players to quickly match colors and shapes between cards. The most recent card used becomes the newest “target,” and the first player to have no cards left wins the game!
Skills Developed
- Patience and concentration: Players must stay focused and control their impulses to match colors and shapes quickly before their opponents.
- Matching: The game encourages players to sharpen their matching skills by quickly identifying and matching colors and shapes between cards.
- Shapes: By matching the corners of their cards with the center of the target card based on shapes, players can improve their shape recognition skills and spatial awareness.
5. Crystal Cup Rally
This three-dimensional educational race car game is for kids aged 7 and up and focuses on planning skills and adaptability. Players race around the track, strategizing their paths to get ahead and aiming to be the first to complete two laps and win the Crystal Cup Trophy!
Skills Developed
- Decision-making: Children will practice making strategic decisions as they plan their paths around the track to outmaneuver their opponents and be the first to reach the finish line.
- Adaptability: Through racing around the track and encountering new obstacles, kids will learn to adapt to changing conditions, think on their feet, and adjust their plans accordingly to stay competitive in the game.
6. Ice Tumble
This is a fun and challenging stacking game where players roll the die to collect ice blocks and carefully stack them to create an ice sculpture without any tumbling off. Ice Tumble helps children develop spatial reasoning and fine motor skills as they strategize to build their sculptures.
Skills Developed
- Spatial reasoning: Ice Tumble requires players to strategically stack ice blocks to create a stable sculpture, encouraging them to think about the placement of each block in relation to the others.
- Fine motor skills: This game involves handling and stacking slippery ice blocks, which helps children develop their fine motor skills as they carefully position each piece on the sculpture.
7. Asymbol
This creative word game is designed for kids 8 and up and challenges players to build 3D forms from wooden shapes while others guess what they are creating. Each player takes turns drawing cards and choosing one of the subjects to create. Subjects can be anything from living things and places to events or activities; the player with the most points at the end wins!
Skills Developed
- Creativity: Players must think outside the box to construct and interpret various 3D forms that others will recognize.
- Spatial reasoning: Manipulating the wooden pieces to create recognizable shapes, like rotating pieces that could be an M or a W, enhances spatial awareness and problem-solving skills.
8. Grill Party
This matching game is designed for kids ages 8 and up to learn algebra concepts through strategic gameplay. Players can practice skills such as algebra and planning as they match food pieces on the grill to scenarios on their cards. Grill Party encourages critical thinking and problem-solving while engaging in a delicious BBQ-themed setting!
Skills Developed
- Algebra: Players must understand "more than" and "less than" concepts by strategically matching food pieces to scenarios on food cards.
- Strategic thinking: Children must learn strategic thinking skills to be the first to match all their cards and win the game.
9. Get 4 & Score
This is a vocabulary-building board game in which players draw four-letter cards and race against the timer to create words that start with those letters. The player with the highest score after ten rounds wins!
Skills Developed
- Vocabulary expansion: By spelling words that begin with the letter cards drawn, players can enhance their vocabulary and discover new words.
- Quick thinking: The fast-paced nature of the game helps improve quick thinking and problem-solving skills, as players come up with words before the timer runs out.
10. Time Jumpers
Time Jumpers involves exploring influential discoveries and achievements of the 20th century. Players move around their category portal and learn history by collecting cards and placing them chronologically, competing against fellow “time jumpers” to earn the highest score and win the game.
Skills Developed
- History knowledge: This game cleverly sparks an interest in history using cards with notable events and corresponding years.
- Strategic thinking: Players learn essential decision-making skills using the “Wait. Look. Think.” methodology to consider all the different uses of letters and power cards.
- Chronological reasoning: Players must understand dates and times to organize information and win the game.
Plan Your Board Game Night with SimplyFun
Hopefully, these family board game night ideas will help your family and friends bond and create memorable experiences with the people you love.
Make any board game party fun and educational with our diverse interactive experiences. Beyond hosting a game night, you can keep these favorites around for quick 15-minute pick-me-ups between playdates and snack times!
Explore our collection of family board games and educational board games at SimplyFun, where fun and learning always go hand-in-hand!