Ticket to Ride is a super fun game that can actually be fun for both kids and adults. I play it with my 6 year old nephew and we have a great time, I play it with my friends and we have a great time too haha. Also, Anomia is a great game if you like Heads Up (it’s examples, not descriptions) and not tech based. I just looked and there is a kid version too- highly recommend this one as well! The “kids” play every year at Christmas, and we’re laughing and yelling late into the night.

Heads up is my favorite game! No one in my family would ever want to play with me but over Christmas I did it with my niecephews and we did the animal one and they LOVED IT!

‘Silly Street’ is awesome! Perfect for all ages… and very silly.

Ravensburger games are wonderful! Snails Pace Race is a family favorite…our 4-year-old grandson loves it!

We just discovered ‘left center right’ wild dice game and it’s SO MUCH FUN. you can play it with kids (we played it with my 4 and 6 year old nieces) and adults, it’s evenly fun. Plus it’s small to bring/store, only chips (or switch it for $ :-)) and 3 dice.

Charades for Kids! Each card has three options to play out, one being a picture so the littles not reading yet can participate. It’s pure comedy to watch and I was shocked at just how into they got playing it. They were so good it shocked me! Ha You can order on Amazon of course :)

We are obsessed with “Outfoxed” at our house. It’s a great who-dunnit cooperative play game where you have to figure out which fox stole the pie. It comes with clues and a decoder. My almost 5-year old loves it!

I grew up playing Uno, Yahtzee and SET with my family. All are based on chance, and a little bit of skill, which enabled the kids to sometimes beat the adults and the adults to have some fun along the way. I still play these games to this day (I’m 31) and I plan on playing them with my future unborn children someday.

Spot it! We’ve been playing this for years with our kids who are now 11 and 14. And we still play it. Great for when your waiting for food to come at a restaurant. :) it’s small and easy to carry. And Kids can beat their parents honestly!

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Spot+it&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

My kids (5&7) love Sleeping Queens (cards), Tenzi (dice) and Mancala… all games I really like to play with them too!

I bust out the Guess Up – the Heads Up knock-off – at adults-only get-togethers all the time and it’s always a hit! So fun!

Otrio!!!

https://www.amazon.com/Marbles-6044801-Otrio-Strategy-Based-Board/dp/B07G4LWMF3

Silly Street is our family favorite! It’s simple, fun, and we’re all laughing the whole time. It’s a good one.

Junior Molopoly! The kids buy their own ticket booths at a carnival instead of boring old houses and instead of going to jail you go to lunch. My daughter has learned so much about counting, hoarding money, being a responsible banker and owning the world. She absolutely adores it and she’s only six.
Also Uno, Harry Potter Uno specifically.

This is for younger kids — but we’ve gotten our nieces and nephews the game Monkey Around and it’s a GREAT game for kiddos (2-3 years old) that prompts them to move around. Highly recommended!

time’s up!

You dont even need the official game, you can just make your own guessing cards and then it’s even more fun that everyone has a little bit of an advantage sometimes!

Happy Salmon & Avocado Smash are favorites with my nieces!

We love Hoot Owl Hoot, Sushi Go, Carcasonne, and Zooloretto. Our kids are 4 and 8 so sometimes the 4 year old plays on a “team” with someone else. If we’re just playing with our 8 year old, Ticket to Ride and Yspahan are also favourites.

The whole family plays Sushi Go and Sleeping Queens (invented by a 6-year-old!). My 7-year-old loves Ticket to Ride and Dominion (which is an adult board game that he plays with his dad; all about strategy).

Ambassador is an awesome version of Charades, really great for groups. One person is in a separate room with a list of about 10 words. Everyone else is split into two teams with each team in separate rooms. One person on each team gets the first word from the “Ambassador,” and runs back to their team to act out the word. Whoever guesses it has to run to the ambassador for the next word to act out. Whichever team gets through all of the words first wins. It is absolutely hysterical. One NYE, no one woke up with hangovers because we were too busy running around playing the game to drink! I imagine it would be a fun slumber party or kids birthday party game too.

Silly Street! I think someone got this for us and it’s almost like Cranium for kids. I really enjoy it and it’s hilarious.

There is a fun game called Pass the Pigs that is super fun- the two dice are actually little pigs and you roll them and rack up points based on how they land. They come in a little box that is easy to travel with and the landing positions have funny names like Snouter, Trotter and Leaning Jowler. It’s funny when you get to debate, “Oh that’s totally a Leaning Jowler, he’s partly on his nose!”

Spot It, Dicecapades and Left Right Center are also favorites.

My little guy is 4 and we struggle with games. Does anyone have any suggestions for something that would keep his attention?

One of my favorite memories: we were in Tokyo with about 12 friends, and we wanted to go to a Sumo match. They only have 100 tickets that they sell the day of, so we’re standing in line at 5am waiting for tickets, and we started playing Heads Up to pass the time. Pretty soon other people waiting in line with us were playing too, calling out hints or charading. It was such a crazy day, and as always Ellen has the super power to bring people together.