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During our winter break we had a full day dedicated to board games and a few extra afternoons too. The boys almost always get a board game or card game or something for their birthdays and Christmases. Here are our favourites from winter 2021-22.
Catan
We’ve had Catan Junior for several years and it’s one of our favourite games to play. Small boy is just about old enough for it and everyone always thrashes me, so they enjoy it. However, large boy got Catan proper for Christmas and we decided it had to be one of the first sessions of our games day.
Firstly, it’s a lot more complicated than the junior version – not really surprising. However, the basis is the same so we had a general idea of how it should work. Everyone has a location and according to the roles of the dice you get materials each time anyone has a turn if the number matches the land next to your location. The goal is to build towns and roads and when you have more of certain things you get bonuses. Whoever builds all their town pieces first wins.
I lost. Thoroughly.
It was good fun though, especially for a first go and large boy really enjoyed it. We’ll certainly be playing again.
Kids Against Maturity
This is a tamer version of Cards Against Humanity. We all played together for the first time and then the boys nagged me into several more rounds.
Each turn, someone reads a prompt card and each other player has to choose how to complete it with one of their cards. Then the reader chooses a winner.
In this kids version there’s a sufficient quantity of fart and poo references to make everyone laugh almost ever round.
It’s a massive pack of cards though and quite heavy so, not for holidays where you travel by plane.
Uno Flip
Small boy spotted this in a shop last summer and was desperate for it. Well, Father Christmas obliged and it’s a great twist on traditional Uno. Every time you think you know who’s about to win, someone plays a flip card and you have to turn over the deal pile, the discard pile and all the cards in your hand. So much fun!
Boggle
I love Boggle. I hate Scrabble and crosswords, my brain just doesn’t work the right way. However, Boggle is one of my favourite games. It’s simple, compact and if you can spell you can play it.
Also, I win most times.
The Lost Words
The boys loved the books of The Lost Words and The Lost Spells by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane. The poems are just lovely and the illustrations so beautiful. This game is a bit like poker and a bit of matching. You have to cover up all your cards with matching or blocking cards from the draw pile or discard pile, but other special cards let you swap for some from someone else.
It was a bit too complicated for small boy and we were so wrapped up in learning the rules the first time that we didn’t read all the cards’ descriptions. However, it’s definitely one to play again purely because it’s so delightful to look at.
Draughts
Incredible! Large boy willingly parted with his own money to buy a set of draughts pieces. He plays at after school club apparently and he’d got a nice wooden chess board (£2 at a car boot!) a couple of years ago. So he spent some of his birthday money on a set of draughts. He loves it. Small boy won’t play (probably because large boy is so competitive) but I have. So far it’s ended in a draw or stalemate. Large boy’s quite good and I haven’t got a knack for strategy so it’s a very fair match between us.
Other favourites
How about you?
What are your favourite board games or card games?
Smelly Socks and Garden Peas 
I am a huge fan of board games. Been playing trouble, monoply junior, dominoes, jenga amongst others with the kids. I haven’t heard of any of these though. Kids of humanity looks good, and so does Catan. Haven’t played Uno flip though I do play regular Uno.
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Catan is great but I’d definitely recommend the junior edition for younger kids (and inexperienced adults)
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ok ill keep it in mind
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We don’t play board games as much as we used to. We used to play Catopoly which is a cat themed version of Monopoly. We also had an Italian version of Scrabble called Scarabeo which drove us crazy as there are some letters in English that are not used in Italian h, j and k (and possibly w?) if I remember correctly. These days we do a crossword every evening.
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Scrabble in a second language sounds very challenging!
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I love to play games like this with my husband — we have Uno, Game of Life and a murder mystery thing we have to solve. It’s a really nice way to spend time together — love this post!
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Thanks, we haven’t tried Cluedo yet.
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I feel I’m a bit like your large boy, playing games in our house was slightly dangerous, we used to play a game each of us was good at – my sister – cards, my brother – monopoly and me…wii sports 😂 x
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Ha I loved Wii sports too
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Interesting! I’d never heard of some of these. Kids Against Maturity sounds like a winner. And Uno Flip–who knew? I may have to look into these. Thanks.
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Those two are particularly awesome
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Cards Against Humanity is the one game that made me laugh so hard I cried. We play a family-friendly version called “Apples to Apples”. It’s a lot of fun. I enjoy a good game of Yahtzee. We also like PayDay and The Game of Life. Oh…and don’t forget Scrabble!
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We like Game of Life too and the kids always want Monopoly, but himself and I prefer less overtly competitive games.
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Oh yes, I remember many an argument over the Monopoly board as I was growing up!
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With you on the scrabble and crosswords! My brain also does not work that way! Wish it did though. Tried chess a few times in my life – turns out I’m just not much of a strategic thinker.
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Glad it’s not just me!
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