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Original poster

Games - what are the hits/misses with your kids?

71 replies

Earlybird · 29/09/2006 19:48

DD was given Monopoly Jr for her birthday last year (5), and to my surprise, she loves it and we play it all the time. She also enjoys Snakes & Ladders and Candyland.

What games/board games do your kids especially enjoy? Any that they don't like that are best avoided?

Thinking ahead to Christmas, and looking for ideas......

OP posts:
peachygirl · 30/09/2006 10:06

For younger children hungry hippos and stuff like that are great.
When he was a child my brother has a stay in hospital and gave himself a blister from playing it almost non stop.
My current class love the pizza game from toys R us.Pavilion Poppa's Pizza Topple if you scrll down it's the last one on the list.
You balance the pizza on the chef - we use blu tack to help, and roll the dice to see what foods tobalance on top.
It's great for fine motor skills and hand eye cordination, turn taking, recognition of pictures / objects and we do count with it too. (if you wanted to know the educatonal benefits!!!)

jodee · 30/09/2006 10:44

Furball, was that instore at The Entertainer? I'd like to get those games but they are about £10 online??

saltire · 30/09/2006 10:55

Don't wake Dad is a favourite in our house. Along with Junior scrabble, and a game called Shopping List, and Grabbing Gorillas is another favourite
Am thinking of getting Simpsons cluedo for Christmas, but last year they got tons of games ( i think woolies must have been doing an offer) and most of them have been opened, played once and not liked. So we have a cupboard of virtually untouched games

Furball · 30/09/2006 11:26

Jodee - so sorry it looks like they finished that particular promotion.

jodee · 30/09/2006 13:06

Oh well!

notagrannyyet · 30/09/2006 14:50

The games all mine have loved and played amongst themselves without too much arguing are,

Dominoes
Monopoly
Cludo (& a similar game based around Harry Potter)
Colditz
Draughs
Short chess
Chess
Card games
Quiz games ,Journey through Britain,Trivial Pursuits etc.
Dingbats
Kerplunk
Connect 4
Risk
Jenga
Bagatelle (sp)

Games we had but have given away because they never saw the light of day,
Operation
Buckeroo
Mousetrap (I loved this as a child)
Hangman
Scrabble .....infact any game involving spelling.

Clary · 30/09/2006 19:59

yes my 3 love Junior Monopoly, in fact DD (5) and DS1 (7) can set it up by themselves.

We also like Pop to the Shops, Ladybirds, Shopping List and Greedy Gorilla (all Orchard Toys) and Guess who (tho DD always picks the pretty girl with blonde hair which rather spoils the surprise elemtn lol ).

Oh and Top Trumps of course. They totally rule here.

albosmum · 01/10/2006 18:55

we love cluedo and risk but especially enjoy playing cheat and a strange MB game called smuggle which is from dhs childhood and involves attempting to smuggle cigars, wine, brandy etc.. past a customs officer - i don't think they make this game anymore
Pass the bomb is one of the few good games we have brought recently

soaringflyingCOD · 01/10/2006 18:55

this one albo?

tamum · 01/10/2006 19:05

Pit is good fun too, and cheap. Lots of yelling, and you can simplify it quite well too. I also quite like Beelines- they have to be able to do basic adding and subtraction up to 20, but it's a game of strategy (like that quiz program there used to be with schoolchildren- I'll have a P Bob (), that one).

littlerach · 01/10/2006 19:24

Dd1 loves Guess Who.
Also snakes and ladders. And Pop up Pirates.

She has been asking for a game called the magic Tooth Fairy which her friend has. Not sure about it though.

princessmel · 02/10/2006 09:57

Cariboo is great. Its part of the Cranium range. My son got it when he was 3 and he loves it. It teaches colours, numbers and letters while you play.

LemonTart · 02/10/2006 12:39

love junior monopoly and junior scrabble.
Disney guess who is fab as my youngest (2 almost 3) can play with DD1 (5) as she knows their names.
Headbanz is fun

Operation is pants - too fiddly and causes rows.

Thinking of getting Cadoo this Christmas

Marina · 02/10/2006 12:43

Ds loves Scrabble, chess, Shut the Box, Uno, Battleships, Happy Families etc.
Also Monopoly. Will look for Simpsons Cluedo, sounds perfect

iarose · 02/10/2006 18:23

lots of people mentioning UNO - never played that what is it?? we are always on the look out for new games with the wintry season approaching.
As for us, we like Junior Monopoly (DS is 6), top trumps of course, frustration, draughts and chess (which I struggle to beat my son at!!)
We also have kerplunk which they quite like tho it falls apart too easily, and guess who, which is also far less sturdy than it used to be.
My DD 4 likes shopping list and animal lotto which are both orchard toys games I think but easy enough for under 5s.

spykid · 02/10/2006 18:24

Star wars monopoly, guess who
junior cludo
cranium games...al a big hit

Xena · 02/10/2006 18:32

Another vote for shut the box DS1 got it for christmas last year and we have played championships DD1 likes it as well. Am going to get hungry hippos out for them to play with dd2 as they loved it at her age. DD1 loves happy families and also matching pairs snap etc. DS1 likes battleships,cadoo.
operation, buckeroo, don't wake dad, and some elephant game have never been played after the first game.
Butt head is a fun game for letting of steam (Dh and DS1 play)
I bought them an old game we had when we were kids called milton and they find it really funny (it was a bit like simon)

Xena · 02/10/2006 18:33

top trumps, we taught ds when he was about 5 iirc

foxinsocks · 02/10/2006 18:42

Uno - it's a card game, different coloured cards (red, green, blue, yellow) with numbers on (I think 0-9) then other cards with things like 2+ (pick up 2), change colour cards, miss a turn etc.

You place cards down in a pile and have to either match the colour or the number (and follow the instructions if one of the other cards like 2+). First one to put their cards down wins. I think there is some scoring system but we've always just played whoever gets rid of their cards wins. Mine absolutely love it!

Squominos is like dominos but with pieces with 4 sides - it's quite fun and again, you have to get rid of all your squominos to win (you put one down and then take turns putting squominos round it in a clockwise direction). We have a really old version - the new one looks quite pretty!

3catstoo · 02/10/2006 20:13

Cranium family edition is fab. My 7 yr old and 5 yr old think it's great and so do the adults that we get to play when we have get togethers. Nedds a group though. It was 1/2 price in Argos after christmas last year.

M & S travel game is a good one for the children.

Manoploly Jnr and the updated ordinary one.

Jnr Scrabble

Snakes and ladders

Guess Who

DISLIKE - Mouse trap and buckaroo, both too fiddley and tempremental for me and the children.

Blandmum · 02/10/2006 20:19

Mouse trap.....crap
Buckaroo....crap
Tooth fairy game........pure crapola

Enjoy Jenga
dominos
Hungry hippos
top trumps

Blandmum · 02/10/2006 20:20

oh, ands uno

Pollybloodyanna · 02/10/2006 20:25

At the moment we play Tumblin Monkeys and big bad wolf alot. these are good for us as both my 3 and my 7 year old can play. The two eldest like Frustration and Snakes and Ladders (but they always argue and one ends up stomping off )

RTKangaMummy · 02/10/2006 20:30

Original CLUEDO

and NILE which is about 30-40 years old and at my parents it is deffo brill

it is a game with tiles that you make the river NILE and DS loves it

RTKangaMummy · 02/10/2006 20:32

here is NILE - did anybody else play this