Holding a family game night can be a great way to have fun together, bond as a family and save money doing it. When choosing board games for the family, look for games that are age-appropriate for your kids and that will allow you to play them over and over again.
Classic Board Games
Classic board games have stood the test of time and it’s smart to have a couple of them on hand. If you have young children, Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders are a great choice. These games teach basic concepts like colors and counting. In Chutes and Ladders, you can also talk about rewards and consequences of different actions, because the game pictures children being rewarded for doing good and punished for doing bad. Older children may like Sorry! or Clue, which expand on the ability to strategize when playing games.
Educational Games
Educational games allow kids to flex their mental muscles. Trivial Pursuit is a classic game–purchase a version that has easy questions for the kids and more difficult ones for the adults. You can also purchase specialized learning games that focus on different subject areas, such as the Game of the States and games by the Magic School Bus franchise.
Vocabulary Builders
Teach young children how to build vocabulary with Scrabble Jr., which has words printed on one side to make it easier. As they become ready to build their own words, you can flip the board over to use the blank side. Scrabble is the next level up and features more opportunities to strategize for points. Scattergories, a cross between Charades and Pictionary, can help children focus on thinking of words that fit into different categories.
Financial Management Games
Children need to learn proper financial management and one way to do this is through games. Monopoly is a classic game that teaches financial management as children build their own monopoly of property. The Game of Life also teaches financial responsibility and introduces children to the types of things they’ll have to pay throughout life. If you want to give your kids a head start on exiting the rat race early, purchase Robert Kiyosaki’s Cash Flow Game for Kids.
Teen Board Games
Teens can be fickle when it comes to playing board games. Look for games that deal with popular culture, such as Scene It or Cranium. If your teens are creative, Balderdash may be a good choice, as they try to make up word definitions that trick the other players. You can also help students prepare for the SAT with the SAT Game for Dummies, which uses SAT questions in the game.
Photo Credit
- isolated dice image by Nikolay Okhitin from Fotolia.com
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