Dd1 (10) has asked for "board games where you have to think" for Christmas - ideas please!

[Miaou]

We have monopoly, Scrabble and Cluedo - all of which she loves.

We also have Cranium which she is not so keen on.

I thought I might get Tri-Ominoes for her (she loves maths) but can you suggest any others?

Many thanks

matermind - you know with the coloured pegs - good for logic

we all like triominoes

Can you still get that, PandaG? I tried to get one for her a couple of years ago but all I could find were secondhand ones on ebay and they are "collectable" (hmm]) therefore pricey! Used to play it as a kid - fab game!

oooooh look!!!

I got a travel version of mastermind last year at Teesside airport, any good?!!! What about Othello, do they still make it???

Someone suggested Othello to me the other day (had that as a kid too!) - haven't been able to find it though.

Rummikub - they do a letter version too.

Chess?

what about chess or backgammon? my dd learnt to play at around 9 or 10.

a few more ideas here

they do one called tumbling monkeys that's a bit like downfall i think

you have to be careful which stick you pull out and all that

backgammon
othello may be called something else now. When my parents were young it was called reversi (same game but different colours) so they may have re-launched it in a slightly more pc way for this generation.

I like the look of Carcasonne

Rush Hour can demand a lot of thinking (depends what level you go for) and is fun. Good also because you don't always need someone else to play it with.

Another vote for Rummikub here. Also we like Blokus (as adults we love that one too). Labyrinth is good.

Go and Blokus.

(Bright Minds have quite a few good ones).

You can get cheap versions of mastermind but they call it something else.

I absolutely loved Masterpiece when I was a kid, probably because I was obsessed with money and knowing who had what [horrible kid emoticon]. I'm not sure that I was 10 though.

Also I wasn't very into logic puzzles etc (i.e. real thinking). What about poker? could get him a poker book. that used to be a great family game at ours. Or bridge - I loathe it for cultural reasons but many people love it.

Oooh thanks, more great ideas. Dh has just suggested getting chess - she has a travel chessboard which dh can't manage as it's too small for his sausage fingers

votes for rummikub & rush hour here

Blokus is good eeek they have championships

Ooo I love Blokus.

And I'm quite liking the look of Rush Hour too.

More votes for Chess, Backgammon and Blokus

Yahtzee is fun too

Shut the Box might be a bit "easy" for her but it is compulsive fun

Othello, Mastermind, Rummikub, Yahtzee and backgammon all well played with in our house. Unless you have another similar aged child, would suggest you go for one you would enjoy playing. Fortunately I like all of these. We don't have Tri-Ominoes, sounds like a good idea for ours. Anyone any feedback on that?

Mancala, utterly addictive and the actual board can be used to play different games with various degrees of complexity.

Thanks folks! lilolil, we had tri-ominoes as kids and loved it, we played it loads in the wintertime as I recall. Can't remember exactly how it worked but it was very popular in our house.

Good point about the similar aged child - fortunately I have dd2 who is a bright 9 year old and they love playing games together, so I'm covered on all sides . In fact I might get one game for dd1 and another for dd2

Off to look at some of these I haven't heard of!

Oooh, dd1 made a Mancala game out of an eggbox - it's great isn't it!!