6 Reasons You Need to Have Family Game Night!

6 Great Game Recommendations too!

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Playing games teaches kids loads of important things! And even more importantly its screen-free family time at home, in its simplest old-fashioned form…

1. Social Skills — family time is the first social experience our children have, we teach them how to be happy and have fun playing together!
2. Taking Turns — we take turns when we play games! Waiting is haaaaard, but its good practice!
3. Following Rules — we teach the concept of rules and practice following rules, because everyone has to follow the same set of rules when we play games!
4. Recognizing Letters and Numbers and Colors — spinning and drawing cards is fun, it also teaches some great early basics!
5. Pattern Recognition and Strategy — as we play games over and over we begin to recognize patterns, predict outcomes and develop early strategy skills like choosing alternative moves.
6. Winning & Losing (& Winning again)— sometimes we can be really behind then win! Sometimes it looks like we may win, but don’t.  In games we all win sometimes, and sometimes we loose! Its the good grace and manners we model that are important on family game night 🙂

Here are our family’s favorites:

My First Carcassonne: This is our favorite game! Players lay tiles down to form a giant map – when a path becomes capped at two ends the players get to put their kids down as indicated on the tiles in the path- even really little ones can lay tiles independently and place their kids down where instructed so its great for all ages!

Candyland: This is a classic, it needs no introduction…except I strongly suggest getting the version with the spinner rather than the old fashioned cards (less to pick up, organize and ultimately loose!) If you don’t mind the deck of cards, there is a slightly cheaper version available 🙂

Chutes and Ladders: Also a classic needs no explanations! I prefer the retro edition pictured below, this is the one I grew up with…however there is a new version that is a little cheaper if you don’t care 🙂

Zingo: This is a version of Bingo – it comes in many versions for early learning.  I selected “Sight Words” but there are many variations including Word Builder, 1-2-3, Time Telling and the Original Version.

Pop the Pig: Kids LOVE this game, and this is a good one for little ones with very very low attention spans, because you can just take turns and have fun – its a good entry game for game night. This is a good gift.

Operation: This one is for older kids, but can’t you remember loving this as a child? Its just as fun now as it was back then…it’s my 5 year old’s second favorite game.  I linked the classic version again, cause that’s my deal…no surprises there anymore right? You can save a buck or two with the new one.  Or you can mix it up for your #1 Fan with a Star Wars Version, Minion Version, Doc McStuffins, Dory, Trolls, oh the list goes on…

Does your family have a favorite game?? Please tell me in the comments!!

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