Our Favorite Family Games to Play at Home

Tis’ the season for family games at home

Winter is coming which means darker, colder nights. This is the time of the year that my family starts cozying up at home in the evening a little more. We love to play family games at home.

Growing up with games

When I was a kid, my family played a lot of board and card games like Checkers, Old Maid, and Go-Fish. As I got older I played Pictionary, Apples-to-Apples, and Euchre with family and friends.

And as I became an adult I’ve learned and played others, too. Does anyone remember playing Presidents and A**holes at Sault Seal on a slow night?

I’ve finally even beat my husband once in Rummy. He is too good at games.

The point is, games have been a thread through my life, even more than I realized as I read this. It’s brought a lot of uncontrollable laughter and a sense of community and belonging into my life.

Bring games into my family’s life

Now that I’m a Mom, it’s become important to me to give my kids this experience, too. 

Here are some of our favorite family games to play at home with our kids. There are even some for kids as young as 2-years-old–not that I’m saying playing games with twos is easy, but if you stick with it, it’s rewarding.

Here is our game cabinet. Nothing fancy. We have a few games that we put in a closet because of the small pieces and them just getting strewn about.

One of the first “games” we got for M when he was little was this cactus game. I suppose it’s kind of like reverse Jenga.

First Orchard is the first board game we got for our oldest also, probably right around 2-year-old. It was really tough to play with him at first, but we learned patience. It’s actually a cooperative game that everyone plays against the raven.

Our 4-year-olds favorites

Above is one of M’s favorite games called Dragon Rapid Fire. It’s actually for a little older than him, but since we have played a lot of games with him, it didn’t take too long for him to catch on. He does need a little help sometimes, though.

He also really likes to play picture charades, too (no reading), although he doesn’t act too long before he tells you what it is.

My favorite game

This game was surprisingly a lot of fun. My husband and I have actually played it alone before after the kids went to bed. :D It’s a travel game, so it’s all magnetic.

My husbands favorite game

My husband likes anything strategic. He loves to whoop my butt at Rummy. I’ve only beat him overall once.

Our 1-year-old’s favorite

K is our youngest, and he’s starting to get interested in the games also, but mostly it’s just to pull them out. I might pull out jumbo memory game for him pretty soon and play with just a couple of pairs and see what he thinks.

Puzzles

Can I throw puzzles on here, too? It’s not really a game, but it’s relaxing. And it’s amazing to watch as kids start to understand how the pieces go together. And even though my son really likes to put the same puzzle together first, it’s cool to see how fast he can put that one together now. He also still really likes the huge floor puzzle we have, too.

The Ravensburger puzzles are great because they are sturdy, but you can’t currently buy directly from their site anymore.

And that’s about it. There are a lot of games not listed on here, but we have a huge variety. Now that the season is slowing back down, I can’t wait to pull them back out more often again.

Playing games during your at-home family photo session

If your family is into games, this can be a fun thing to do during a family photography session. I’ve done this with a family before, and it’s fun to capture all the expressions. Especially the kids because kids LOVE games.

Does your family play any games, yet?