meganrussell Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 So as I'm preparing to start our new school year I want to change some things up. First of all, I want to add more structure to our days - will probably make a new thread on that later. Secondly, I want to add more fun. I have a 9th, 7th, 4th, 1st and Kindy. I would love to have one or two days a week where we have a game hour - educational for sure, but also fun and relaxing games. I need some ideas about games that will appeal to all my kids, and also some for the older children and some for the younger as we may split into groups sometimes. I'd like to budget $100 for games or other fun activities. Cars games are a plus because a couple of decks of cards are cheap. Cards are so versatile but my brain is fried from too much sun ha! Any ideas or suggestions will be welcomed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 Your oldest three may like Forbidden Island for fun. It's a cooperative game: you have to capture four treasures and get yourselves off a sinking island. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 lots of ideas here http://my-little-poppies.com/ http://my-little-poppies.com/best-family-games/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=favorite+games+site:welltrainedmind.com&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 Do you know how to do a google site search? You type the terms plus site:welltrainedmind.com So I used " favorite games site:welltrainedmind.com" in my google bar and got that. You can google site search all kinds of things. Like you could put in a username and whatever, etc. It's my favorite way to search, so I mention it. :) I think with the ages of your kids, you may need to do groupings. Like maybe play with the two olders while the youngers nap. The middles could play Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert together, yes. The 1st and Kindy would group well. Right now we're crazy into games by Family Pastimes in our house. We're playing The Secret Door and Round Up a LOT, love, love. We laminated the pieces, and we've been playing 4-6 rounds a day. The games are short, cooperative, build language, would span ages pretty well, and let kids who struggle with losing have a gentle, partial lose. We also really like the more complex games like Forbidden Desert, Rivals for Catan (your two oldest could play this!), Ticket to Ride, etc., sure. But having games that go quickly can be nice if you're saying one hour. That way you could have 3-4 or 4 shorter games and go through them, maybe playing games that appeal to different ages so kids didn't always feel like the games didn't fit them. Ticket to Ride Jr. is really nice. Walmart, Target, etc. sell sets of 6 card games for a low price. They're your typical games (Old Maid, etc.). A lot of the old faithfuls are inexpensive. We play a ridiculous amount of Uno. CLUMSY THIEF - Adding to 100 Game Rat-A-Tat-Cat Go Nuts! The Completely Cracked Up Dice Game Action Game Sleeping Queens Card Game These games have been VERY popular here and popular over a long period of time, played over and over. They're games that are either marked down on amazon or go on sale if you put them into camelcamelcamel and watch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovinmyboys Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 (edited) If your younger kids have played games, I think King of Tokyo could work for everyone. Also, my kids all love apples to apples big picture (and I think it helps build vocabulary). Other ideas that we play with ages 5-11: Sushi go party Uno attack Avalon Spot it Codenames pictures Loot Gubs Qwixx I do think it will mostly work better to split up. It is hard to find games that work well for 6 people with a large age spread. Edited July 13, 2017 by lovinmyboys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meganrussell Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 Great ideas, y'all! I was thinking of having two groups, changing the groups each time. My 5 year old loves to be on my "team" when I play games, so he often just move the pieces for me or rolls the doce or whatever while I actually do the strategy stuff, etc. We have the game Last Word and it's a lot of fun! It is for sure going in our rotation. Most of the games y'all have mentioned I've never heard of. Off to Google them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcitedMama Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 My DS 7 is loving No Stress Chess and keeps begging for more games. It could be fun for your kids to play together. At first you can only play the piece on the card you draw so inexperienced players can start to memorize the way the pieces move. This also handicaps more experienced players so it can be fun for a variety of ages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsplaymath Posted July 16, 2017 Share Posted July 16, 2017 (edited) There's a wide selection of math games, including several using cards or dice (cheap!), on my blog: My favorite math games Edited July 16, 2017 by letsplaymath 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 So as I'm preparing to start our new school year I want to change some things up. First of all, I want to add more structure to our days - will probably make a new thread on that later. Secondly, I want to add more fun. I have a 9th, 7th, 4th, 1st and Kindy. I would love to have one or two days a week where we have a game hour - educational for sure, but also fun and relaxing games. I need some ideas about games that will appeal to all my kids, and also some for the older children and some for the younger as we may split into groups sometimes. I'd like to budget $100 for games or other fun activities. Cars games are a plus because a couple of decks of cards are cheap. Cards are so versatile but my brain is fried from too much sun ha! Any ideas or suggestions will be welcomed. I think one of the best things we did was start to add board games to our "library." We add by getting (usually) at least 4-5 of the kiddos a new game for Christmas so now we have quite the collection. I think a fun tradition would be buying one for the new school year. With your age group I would start with Ticket to Ride. Another suggestion might be Rush Hour. Don't worry about it fitting all your age ranges! Aim for the oldest couple (with you) and the others will slide in soon enough. (The 1st and Kindy will be happy with something picked up from Goodwill if you feel the need to accomodate them as well.) As far as card games, my kids play Pepper, Cribbage (love), Pinochle, Rummy, Hearts, Trash, RatSlap, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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