5 Board Games the Whole Family Can Enjoy

Playing board games as a family is a perfect way to have fun and spend some much-needed quality time together. In the Deep South, especially around the holidays, family values are important both at home and in our community as a whole. Therefore, children need time either outdoors having an adventure or playing constructively at home. These days, anything to get them away from screens and enable the family to talk to each other and give children time to play in a balanced way is crucial.

All children will gain many developmental and social benefits from playing board games, including motor skills, memory development and communication skills. In addition, if your child has autism, then playing board games is a useful way to help them learn social skills that they would otherwise find difficult in many other situations.

These five picks are fun, family-friendly board games and activities that are suitable for the whole family. Try visiting autismparentingmagazine.com for more great ideas for family games to play together. When choosing suitable games, it is important that you make sure they are appropriate for the age of your children and, if your child has autism, you may need to adapt the rules of the game to help them play.

Sequence for Kids

For a fun matching game, Sequence for Kids is a great choice that is straightforward for children to play. The aim of the game is for each player to connect four tokens in a row by matching the animal on each of their cards with a matching space on the board. While children are enjoying this game, they are also developing planning skills and learning pattern recognition. This game also has an exciting twist with the unicorn card that can be used to remove one of another player’s tokens from the board. This encourages children to watch the moves of the other players so they can decide the best time to use this special card.

Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride is a fun game that will take each player on an exciting train adventure. It is ideal for families to play together as it is suitable for two to five players. The game has a number of train journeys across North America that players need to try to claim in exchange for points. The longer the journey, the more points collected. For added excitement, destination cards can be used to earn more points, but if there are any uncompleted destination cards at the end then the player will lose points. This is the perfect game for teaching children logical thinking skills and enabling them to plan ahead.

Candyland

For a fun and simple to follow board game that younger kids can play, Candyland is a suitable option. As a two- to four-player game, it will be loved by all families as each player races along the path to be the first to reach Candyland castle. This is a great matching game, as players pick different colored cards, which allow them to move to the next space of the same color. This game is beneficial for children that struggle with verbal communication as there is limited communication required between players. It is also a great game for teaching younger children colors and the important skill of taking turns.

Animal Upon Animal

Animal on Animal is a fun game for all children over the age of four years old. It is suitable for two to four players so makes a great family game. This exciting wooden game involves each player rolling the dice before having to stack animals one on top of the other, while trying not to knock the stack over. The winner is the player that uses up all of their animals first. This is a great game for enabling children to develop their motor skills, in particularly hand-eye coordination.

Scrabble

Scrabble is a classic family favorite board game. It is suitable for older children that are eight years and above, and the game can be adjusted to accommodate beginners. This two- to four-player game involves players earning points for each word that they spell in the quest to be the player with the most points at the end. Children will enjoy creating words with their tiles, enabling them to improve their spelling skills and plan ahead as they choose where to position their words.