To ask for board game recommendations

[GoHornets]

I have two DS 7 and 5. They love board games but they always end in bickering and tears. A parent at pick up mentioned there are cooperative board games for kids/ families. Could anyone recommend one? I’d love to get them working together instead of bickering.

Current faves are Dobble, Uno, Pictionary & scavenger hunts around the house (hide toys around the house and give them a bucket each to find them ) if that helps give an idea. Both can read.

Posted in AIbU for traffic and also thought it might be useful to anyone else who’s been living under a rock like me and didn’t know about cooperative board games.

Sequence as it combines luck and thinking, is quick and easy and no debate about which words do or don't count, who looked over whose shoulder or who shouted first.

Maybe do a list type scavenger hunt too - not necessarily toys but something blue, something green, something that smells, etc.

Cardboard box decorating is a time filler too. Old coloured paper (wrapping paper will do) cotton wool, glue and tell them to decorate a house for Father Christmas with doors and windows, wallpaper etc. Pritt stick means it's not too messy. They can do it side by side so are co-operating by sharing and ignoring each other.

Salt dough modelling can keep them occupied for hours too - make a Christmas bauble to hang on the tree next year. Not board games, I know but still fun.

Mice and mystics - co operative story based game (bit d&d)

Forbidden island

Zombie Kidz.

Players have to work as a team to defeat the zombies who hav taken over the school.

My favourite is Sorry!

Thank you! I forgot, they also love dinosaur bingo as I think it takes the edge of the competition

Don’t wake dad is good as you can almost be about to win then get sent back! More random that way. My two seem to like playing the various monopoly games (minions, fortnite, friends) but they choose a teddy each so there are 4 players (they play themselves as well as for their teddy). This seems to make them cooperate more. I find if it’s a quick board game then they’re more likely to play a few games in a session meaning they both tend to have wins and losses and the stakes aren’t as high.

Monopoly junior is great for your age kids. Monopoly deal also fun but for 8 +

Ravine is a cooperative game we discovered recently. It’s about trying to survive after a plane wreck, collecting food etc, so might be a bit scary for the 5 year old (though my 6 year old loves it).

Otherwise Bandido is a really simple cooperative card game where you have to put cards down in a sort of maze shape to trap a baddy in the middle.

Pig in pants by orchard toys

Forbidden island or forbidden desert.
Or The Mind, which is joyous as it combines cooperation and silence! Until someone makes an error...

Castle Panic is a good cooperative game.

Sussed is fun, pack of question cards- each person reads a question with 3 possible answers and everyone has to guess what answer they'd pick e.g would I rather eat a.pizza, b.sausage and mash or c..chips forever. You can play for points but we generally just take turns - it's good fun for all ages and can end up in very random conversations.
Uno is great but can induce strops! Ticket to Ride is fab, yours are a bit young but the junior version is supposed to be good -you have to build train routes across a map. It's not cooperative though and can induce fury if deliberate route blocking takes place!

+1 for Bandido card game, my lot seem to like it.

We also have Karuba Junior which is cooperative, and easy enough for the 5 year old.

King domino, although not a cooperative game, doesn’t cause too many arguments ( mine are 4,4,7). You may be able to persuade them to play and beat their own best score, or a best team score 2 v 2 (we have a stuffed toy that is sometimes player 4).

There is a game called the castles of mad king Ludwig, I haven’t played it but it’s on my List of games to buy. You have to work cooperatively with the player on either side of you to build the best castle. I think mine are too young for it at present but it looks great for anyone with kids Aged 9/10 upwards.

I love these types of board games but hate monopoly etc.

Ilovespinach that’s another on my list! I have a long list!

Check out Zatu games. They list cooperative games, with reviews and they also have YouTube links that show you how to play, it beats reading the instructions! I get most of my games from there.

Settlers of Catan is our favourite game, also Splendor. (sorry - I've just seen you want co-operative games, so probably not suitable, but I can't resist a plug).

As per pp Zatu are great

Co-op games my kids enjoy(Ed) at those ages-
Princess
Orchard
Mermaid island
Hoot owl hoot
Max de Kat/Max the cat

Forbidden island & forbidden desert need some older players in the mix IMO

Competitive but great at this age (& not direct who is first type competition)
Kingdomino
King of the dice
Karuba

Plus sleeping queens because it’s brilliant but not good for sore losers!

We haven’t played it yet but outfoxed came highly recommended as a sort of cooperative version of cluedo.
We have junior ticket to ride, which is awesome (but is competitive) and kids love Lego creationary, which you can just play without really making it competitive if you want

Eye Found It is good, working together to find objects on the board and get to the end

Animal Upon Animal or Rhino Hero, if you like stacking games.
Another vote for Sleeping Queens.
Kids of Carcassonne, a child's variant of the adult game that's still fun for adults but very simple.
Looping Louis is a silly game for 4 people where you try to knock each others chickens down with a rotating aeroplane.
Kingdomino - we just let the kids rearrange as much as they want (though I often also catch my husband cheating).

Santa’s rooftop scramble is a great game. We play it all year round!

For that age group, favourite cooperative games in our house include Outfoxed, Hoot Owl Hoot, Orchard, Cauldron Quest. We also adapt a couple of games to make them cooperative when my youngest is playing with us - Rhino Hero is easy to adapt this way. Then, once your children are a few years older, there are tons of excellent cooperative games you can choose from.

Scotland Yard is fun, and it involves one player as Mr X, while the other players have to track him down.

Me and my sisters loved Sorry! But it did cause lots of arguments when it came to knocking someone off the board.