Our Favorite Board Games (Preschooler and Kindergartner Approved!)

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My kids (four and five) LOVE playing board games. I bet we play four a day. And honestly, it’s the one thing that I really don’t mind playing with them. There are a ton of lessons to learn from playing board games (and starting them at an early age).

Through playing games together we’ve learned to:

  1. Take turns.
  2. Wait patiently.
  3. Hold our attention spans.
  4. Be a gracious loser.
  5. Be a gracious winner.
  6. Count and add.

Yesterday, my kindergartner played a single game for over an hour. I absolutely think that playing games has contributed to his long attention span and it makes me happy that he is able to fully commit to something for such a long period of time. Plus, games are fun for the whole family! With the holidays coming up, I wanted to share our list of favorite board games in case you need a gift idea!

Our favorite board games

  1. Monopoly Junior. My 5-year-old is currently obsessed with Monopoly Jr! Through this game, he has learned the value of money, how to do “fast math” and what it means to buy and sell something. Plus, this version is super kid-friendly and generally does not take forever to play (if you’ve had marathon days of playing regular Monopoly, you know what I mean).

2. Build or Boom. This game was recommended to me by someone else and it is such a fun hands-on, STEM game. You have to read blueprint plans to build your tower before your component does. The most fun is pushing the button to make the towers “explode”!

3. Zingo. Similar to Bingo, we’ve been playing this game since my kids were probably two years old. It’s easy to play (because you’re just matching pictures) and fun for the whole family. They even have a “Sight Words” Zingo that is perfect for kids who are learning to read!

4. Five Little Fish. This is a favorite game of my younger son. It’s a memory game that allows you to “go fishing” with your own fishing rod. Super fun!

5. Diggin’ Doggies. This is another one that my younger son always picks! Similar to Five Little Fish, it’s basically a memory game but with the fun of having a little dog that needs to find his bone.

6. Camp. This is the perfect game for my nature-obsessed kids! You learn facts about the outdoors while moving your woodland creature around the board. First one to the campfire wins!

 

Honorable mentions: Sequence for Kids, Candy Land (duh!), Guess Who, Shark Bite, and Uncle Wiggly

Bonus!

Card games we love! We also play a lot of card games, and these are our favorites (besides the normal Go-Fish, Crazy 8’s, and Uno that are classics!)

We are always on the hunt for new games! Comment below with your family’s favorites!