Best Board Games for Kids

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As a kid I spent hours playing board games with my sisters, brother and friends. Playing board and card games became a Friday and Saturday night ritual when my oldest sister would come home from college.

I love board games and knew that this was a love that I wanted to pass down to my kids.

Once my kids were old enough to really get into the games, I found that childrens board games have changed a lot in the past 15-20 years.

The options are no longer Chutes and Ladders or Hi Ho Cherry-Oh for the younger crowd and Monopoly, Clue and Trouble for the older one.

There is a HUGE assortment of fun board games for kids.

Some of these games don’t even resemble the board games we played in our youth, but I’ve found they can be even more fun than what we had.

These are the best board games for kids ages about 6-8. As always though, you know your kids best. Some of these games younger kids can and will enjoy playing and same with older kids.

Best Board Games for Kids

Dragonwood

Dragonwood been a HUGE hit with my boys. I would say this might be their absolute favorite for board games

In this game you need to collect cards in order to take out monsters. It’s a competition between the players to gain the most points by taking out the bigger monsters. Everyone is competing for the same cards.

My kids have brought this game with them over to friends houses and it has always been a hit when they do that. Many times the family has gone out to purchase their own copy of this game after playing.

You can find Dragonwood here.

The Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trail game is the one my just turned 9-year-old enjoys playing the most right now.

It is based off of the computer game by the same name.

I can only find it in a bundle on Amazon at the moment. The one we have may have come in a bundle at some point, but we acquired it through a gift exchange and haven’t noticed anything lacking by only having the green version.

My son describes the game as “It’s a game where you are on the Oregon trail and you need to survive. There are cards you get to survive.”

It is a cooperative game where you are all trying to make it to Oregon. Everyone who is playing is in the same wagon.

It follows the computer game almost exactly, which is very interesting as I’ve never seen a computer game made into a card game before.

The Oregon Trail is a fun family game. All my kids from ages 6 through 11 enjoy playing it, as well as the adults. You can pick this up here.

Forbidden Island

There are many board games in this series – Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Sky.

While I feel as though if you’ve played one in this series, you’ve played them all. My kids very much feel that each game is very different and deserves to be played at least once. I will agree that each game is a different experience and a lot of fun to play.

Forbidden Island was our first game of this series that we owned and played.

My kids all enjoy playing it. It is a cooperative game where you are trying to get off some islands before they all sink.

Everyone chooses an adventurer and each adventurer has a special trait to help you gather the treasures you need to escape the islands.

We also have Forbidden Desert which is also a lot of fun and is played slightly different than Forbidden Island. You can’t go wrong with any of the games in this series.

Evolution

My nine-year-old boy has both Evolution The Beginning version as well as the full version of Evolution.

All my kids enjoy playing both versions of this game.

Basically, what you are doing is creating new species and you can give them different traits such as flying or being a carnivore.

You have to have enough food for each animal that you create as well as have them not eaten in order for them to survive.

The main difference between the two versions of the game are the jr version has less character traits, is less complicated to learn and it is a shorter gameplay.

I felt like all my kids would have done well with the regular version after we had played a few games and my kids caught on to how to play. My kids have no problem playing a game for hours though if it interests them.

The Beginning version is perfect if your kids don’t like to sit and play as long or get frustrated easily when learning something new. You can find the regular version here and The Beginning version here.

Sushi Go

My youngest son received Sushi Go as a gift when he was 5 and it’s been a fun game for us to play with friends.

This game has different cards featuring different types of sushi. You are trying to collect the best combination of cards to make different sushi dishes.

Whoever has the highest score at the end of game play wins!

Sushi Go is really easy to pack up and bring with you and it’s fairly quick to pick up how to play it.

You can find Sushi Go here.

No Stress Chess

My kids all love playing Chess and it is because of No Stress Chess.

With this version of Chess, it starts out by teaching the kids how each player moves.

They learn this by playing Chess differently than you normally would.

There are cards with different Chess pieces on them and it says how that specific Chess piece is allowed to move.

So, to start playing each player takes turns drawing a card and playing their pieces on the chess board according to what their card says.

We first got this game when my oldest was 6 and my middle guy was 3. They both picked up how to play Chess really quickly and it is a favorite game of both of them.

I don’t enjoy playing Chess personally, but my husband does. My kids like to set up Chess tournaments between themselves and my husband and they all have a great time.

You can find No Stress Chess here.

Catan Jr.

Catan Jr. is another fun game for kids that has gotten a LOT of gameplay at my house.

My kids all enjoy this game and have for years.

There are resources that you have to collect in order to build ships. Depending on where you build your ship depends on which resources you are able to collect.

If your kids are closer to 8, buy the regular version, but if they are closer to 6 than the jr. version would be better. I do think younger kids who enjoy playing games could pick up the regular version of this game after a bit and be fine with it.

You can find Catan Jr. here.

Monopoly

There are so many different versions of Monolopy and my kids LOVE to play it.

My oldest son received Klingon Monopoly for Christmas and currently, that is my 6-year old’s favorite game.

The chance and community chest cards are called honor and combat cards in this game.

These cards are written in Klingon as well as English and my husband and sons enjoy reading both versions, which always causes a ton of laughter.

You can find Klingon Monopoly here.

Exploding Kittens

The name sounds awful, but my kids all absolutely love playing Exploding Kittens! They can’t stop laughing when they play it.

Exploding Kittens can be found here.

Fishin’ Time

Fishin’ Time is another fun game that my kids LOVE playing. They love fishing in real life and so this game is great to play on the days they want to go out fishing, but can’t.

One thing I really like about this game is it can be as short or as long as you want.

You set a timer and when the timer goes off the game is over.

You can play another game if you still want to, but it’s nice knowing that the game will last X minutes.

I’m not sure how we ended up with this game. If my memory is correct I found it in a thrift store years ago (pre-kids) and picked it up on a whim incase my husband liked it.

As of this writing, Amazon does have one in stock here.

I hope you found a new game to play with your kids. Let me know what your favorite games are in the comments.

Best Board Games for Kids