Top 10 Kids Games - with Wendy Yi

My 4Yo, really likes dice games. Can't stop and Qwixx are both big favourites. Which is really good for maths and risk/reward understanding. Also glad they are games I like too

There are a lot of dark themed games in this list for such young ages. That’s probably why they are rated for higher ages.

good unique list

Thank you, Wendy. I always rush to watch your videos. This is really helpful when trying to find games for kids.

Great list: I appreciate that you specifiy which ages you think this applies to. Too many kids games list are ambiguous if it's for a 3 year old or an 11 year old. If i can make a suggestion it would be: what kinds of skills the child needs to have to be able to play/enjoy. For example, Unlock Kids, im still not sure if my 5 year old is ready for it or not.

We play forbidden island too (daughter is now 8 1/2). She also likes to play Canvas, Isle of Cats, Sagrada, Cascadia -- since she has been playing board games with us since the pandemic hit she has really been able to play and understand the more strategic games.
Monsdrawsity is a favorite as well as Via Magica, Cora Quest, King Domino, Ticket to Ride My First Journey (though now she can also handle Ticket To Ride itself). For younger we liked Outfoxed and Cauldron Quest

Ticket to Ride, first journey is another great one my kids enjoy. Fro Sale Autorama for my car loving son.

More than happy to see our Kidz in this Top 10! :)

I feel like this should have been two different lists. One that was actually the top kids games (games made for or recommended for kids) and another one about the best regular (not kid branded) games you can use to introduce kids to "adult" board games.

I play Surive with my daughter... she likes more to make damage on other player more than winning

So Orchard sounds perfect for my daughter, she loves matching games but Amazon is showing me First Orchard, Little Orchard, and Orchard Game. Little Orchard looks the most similar, but not exactly the same lol Any help?

Reef has been a success for us. Lovely chunky plastic pieces that stack and it's very easy to simplify the rules a bit if your child isn't quite as smart as everyone else's seems to be, ha ha!

Much appreciated for this list, there is definitely demand for games for this age group….

Our 6yr old most requested games are Azul, Sushi Go Party, Chip n Dale Christmas Treasure, Cash & Guns

Dragonwood is great.

My son 6+ loves playing Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu. i guess that's our elder sign. Our top 10 board games for ages 4-7yo must be: SOS Dino, Karak, Masmorra, Wizards Wanted, Stuffed Fables, Dungeon Mayhem, Hero Realms, Dragonwood, Fluch der Mumie (Curse of the Mummy)and Ramses II (or its newer version Pharao). Thanks for a great list Yiiiiis

I have 10, 8, and 7 year olds and the kids love the full size castle panic, pokemon TCg, zoo break, dixit, and they, love letter (hobbit) and a lot of kids (ages 6-10) love dungeon mayhem. I’ve brought a lot of different games to church and love letter, dixit and dungeon mayhem are the biggest hit (I volunteer in the children’s ministry ages 6-12).

Does anyone know if they have a “top 10 sabotage games” list?

I'm surprised Outfoxed hasn't been mentioned anywhere. So I'm mentioning it. Outfoxed. Very fun.

I have to respectfully disagree with elder sign. If I am talking to a parent about games to play Elder sign would never come up. A choice I would suggest would be the family game of Andor or Adventureland or the small ticket to rides, heroquest, marvel united, skull king, fireball island, karuba

A few of our family favorites in the lower age range:
3+: Sequence for Kids, Dobble, Dragomino, Coconuts
4+: Dead Man's Draw, Strike
5+: Carcassonne, Sleeping Queens, Sagrada, Flip Ships

Starting around 6-7yo, if the kid is into board games and has started young, mine could play pretty much anything in the family weight range and which games we play are more dependant on our interests so age recommandation became almost meaningless. Main hits have been Love Letter, Marvel Splendor, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Aquatica, Dice Forge, Isle of Cats family mode, Biblios, Isle of Skye, Cascadia, Stone Age, Trails of Tucana, Forbidden Desert, 7 Wonders Duel, Hanamikoji, Schotten Totten, Skull King, etc.

THANK YOU for this!! more power! 🧙‍♂

Loved playing Unlock Kids with my 6yo son. How would you compare the difficulty of Unlock Kids with Adventure Games (dungeon) ? Regular Unlock would be too hard for my son.

Great video, thanks for doing this Wendy!

Great video. Thanks

Ticket to ride New York is loved by my 6 year old son. But is fav is Coraquest

Great list! we really enjoy CoraQuest, Dragomino and Valley of the Vikings- we are just moving to slightly more involved games I didn't think of Forbidden Island (I have it but haven't played it for years) and that's a great call.

Great video. Many thnx, Wendy

First, great list!
I personally would've had a few more notes to tell parents for many of the games u mentioned (how 'First castle Panic' can be used to teach young kids to ask for help, that 'micromacro full house' was the version that introduced 'family friendly rating' per case while the first version did not, and some more notes...)

I would've liked to understand more about Eldersign being in the list. Is it a specific game that 'happened to catch on for you guys'? are there specific things there, that can't be found in other games, that make it approachable for kids (sans theme) or teach kids something?

I personally would've added 3 games that were both a hit in our house and have some objective reasoning.
the so-sadly-out of print Gulo Gulo, where the dexterity element of pulling small eggs makes kids better than adults,
the card game 'Illusion' that is both simple to be explained even at ages 4-5, handles variety of player counts, and from ages 6-7, adults don't really have an advantage. sometimes kids are less likely to be confused by image trickery,
and for ages 3-5, busytown eye found it. the visual 'where's waldo' on a 4-5 feet board is just great and pulls adults in a young kids' game, and it's cooperative. doesn't matter there's nothing else to the game except spin & move.
And honorable mention to 'Stuffed Fables' where the parent basically acts as DM, 'My First Stone Age' that is the biggest economic board game for littlest children (like ages 3-4) for me, and 'Magic Maze Kids' that is a very useful tool to practice cooperation.

I do think the dice tower could've expanded to parents but doing that means, IMO, videos that aren't reviews. Speak to non-gamer parents. Instead of straight reviews, tell parents how to use games. What this game teaches in various ages. How can it be introduced gradually until it's 'really played'. How much of it is language independent and how much of it is hidden information, meanig, how easily is it mitigated, and fits kids on an international level...
These are things I do here in my country when I write about board games.

My son likes Neuroshima hex. He's able to recognize the symbols and knows what they do when I tell him once or twice. Deep strategy still eludes him but, has fun with it.

Thank you! This is perfect as i have a daughter of a similar age.

Great list! Forbidden Island deserves a higher placement, though!

Love using bingo chips for Micro Macro! I have been using post it notes but the transperancy of the bingo chips looks like it would work ao much better. Can't wait to give it try!

My kids 9 and 8 love Marvel United Xmen, My Little Scythe, Ticket to Ride First Journey, and Draftosaurus

#1 biggest juke of all time

Run For Your Life, Candyman! is a lot better than Candyland. Especially if you play with real gingerbread men that your kids can bite the limbs off of.

Very helpful for figuring out what to get for game night with the nieces and nephews. For those of you who aren't into the cosmic horror theme for the kids, I do remember hearing that X-Men: Mutant Insurrection is a retheme of Elder Sign, so maybe superheroes could fit better?

Wendy you’re my favorite!!! Great job!

So true Wendy. I, personally, have never stopped expanding.

Haven't played Marshmallow Test but Voodoo Prince, the game it's based on, is one of my favourite trick taking games.

And once again, I agree with Wendy. I didn't like Scythe because it was too slow and repetitive, whereas My Little Scythe has a pretty good flow and speed.

Waiting for the 3rd MicroMacro to get released this month. I am surprised by the number 1 though 😄

Love this! My oldest daughter is 3.5. We have My First Castle Panic and love it! We have Ticket to Ride: First Journey (with my own rules alterations to make it a bit better) when she is ready for it. And many other games that can easily be tweaked for her when she is ready for them. So excited! I will have to look into My Little Scythe.

We have a 2 year old and we are SO excited to play games with her when she’s ready. We’re going to start with My First Castle Panic in about a year. Thanks for the list! Gave me some more ideas.

My go to game with my 6 year old is through the ages. It took a few plays to pick it up but now she’s able to take on anyone in our game group and likely win.

Great video!

My recommendation is Hero Realms which I can play with my 7 year old grandson, and he is doing allready a very good job. As we live in Germany I have to translate the card texts, but he is pretty good understanding the iconography and is soaking up the information like a sponge. Good deckbuilder introduction. We will now start the coop scenarios using each a different character.

Great List! We started with Sushi Go Party (using the more straight forward cards) and also Carcassonne (with no expansions)... we used to play Dominoes with her when she was 3 so Carcassonne has been a pretty good follow up.

My 7yr son is loving the new CMON Teen Titan Go Mayhem game... the KS just delivered.

This is a great list, thanks Wendy! I'm making a note of these to get so I can play with my niece and nephews.

Great video! Thanks Wendy!