As the title says, today we are looking at board games. As chosen by Lily, her top 5 board games to play with young kids. Jack and Lily are 12 and 8, both being autistic what they like is some areas can be younger than their age. This is one of those areas, so we are looking at this from a younger child’s perspective. Lily really enjoys board games, and we’ve been playing quite a lot during this lockdown. Sometimes Jack will play as well depending on the game.
Lily picked the 5 games, we played them and each gave them a score out of 5. I will do a quick review with each game too, and leave a link to where you can buy each game from amazon. These are affiliate links and I will get a small commission if anyone does make a purchase using the links. That will help me with the upkeep of the website, for more information, you can go to my Donations & Adverts page by clicking this link. So let’s get started on our list of top 5 board games to play with young kids.
Kerplunk
The aim of the game is to take the straws out one at a time, and try not to make any of the marbles drop down. The person with the least amount of marbles at the end wins. Setting up is as much of an event as playing the game itself, especially if you are all trying to put the straws through at the same time. It’s a good idea to make the set up fun, you have to do it at the end of every round, and can become tedious otherwise.
Once you are ready to go, I really like Kerplunk. The tension and anxiety rises every time you take another straw. I mostly enjoy the reaction of the kids when the marbles drop, especially if a lot go at once. They laugh every time, especially if it’s on my turn. We normally play 5 or 6 games, if all 4 of us are playing maybe a few more.
Rating – Dad (4) Lily (5) Click here to buy Kerplunk
Jenga
The aim of the game is simple. Build a tower of 3 blocks in a row, then take it in turn to take one block out. If you knock the tower over during your turn you lose. I do enjoy jenga, but I find setting it up a bit of a pain. It comes with a cardboard sleeve, the theory is you pull it out of the box, and the tower sets straight up when you slide the sleeve away. That has never worked once for us.
When the game starts it’s pretty fun, you get the same tension as Kerplunk. You need more skill for this game, as one wrong move and it’s game over. You need a steady hand, which is bad news for me. When I inevitably end up knocking the tower over, the kids are laughing at my misfortune again. Another fun game, but the setting up loses it points from me.
Rating – Dad (3) Lily (5) Click here to buy Jenga
LOL surprise Monopoly
A classic game, we have the LOL surprise version. Admittedly I’d probably enjoy it more if it was the original, or less of a “girly version”. But it was a present for Lily and she loves it. It does mean Jack has absolutely no interest in playing it. If you’ve got a lot of time to kill, then this is the game to play. Playing until everyone goes bankrupt and there’s one player left, must be a marathon. I don’t think I’ve ever done that ever, we normally declare a winner when someone is clearly leading and everyone’s got bored.
This isn’t a very competitive game in our house. Lily gets upset if you buy any of her favourite cards, which seems to be most of them. We tend too just play until Lily gets bored, and we declare her the winner. For those reasons, this is my least favourite of the 5 games, but Lily absolutely loves it.
Rating – Dad (3) Lily (5) Click here to buy LOL monopoly
Hungry Hippos
You have to connect the hippos to the game board every time you play, assuming you disconnect them and put them back in the box when you finish playing. I find the hippos quite stuff to put on, the kids certainly aren’t able to do it, which is a downside. Once it’s ready, it’s an easy and fun game to play.
You can play with 2 people, though I think it’s best if you have 4, one person for each hippo. The aim of the game is to swallow as many of the little balls as you can, with your hippo. The person with the most balls at the end, wins the game. If you are anything like us, things are likely to get a bit manic. It’s no holds barred, and the more aggressive the game gets the funnier Jack and Lily think it is. They absolutely love it, we can play up 10 times, before hands start to hurt from hitting the plastic levers, and we stop.
Rating – Dad (4) Lily (4) click here to buy hungry hippos
Don’t take Busters Bones
To start you need to connect the dog to the tray section, and then push it back to set it. It’s not to difficult, the kids struggle with it but can do it without my help. To play you take turns picking a card, that has a number of bones that you have to pick up out of the tray. You have a pair of cat paw tweezers to pick the bones up, this is to keep hands out of the try. As the dog lurches foward, as if to bite, when you set him off. If he bites on your turn you lose the game.
Whilst Buster is sleeping, an audio of snoring plays through some speakers. Which is a great little touch that definitely adds to the experience of the game. It’s another game of tension, and waiting for “something bad” to happen. Im guessing by now you’ve worked out these are the type games we like to play. This one is my personal favourite.
Rating – Dad (5) Lily (4) Click here to buy Dont take busters bones
Conclusion
To conclude our top 5 board games to play with young kids list, a look at the combined rating from both myself and Lily, Kerplunk and Don’t take Busters bones get the joint highest score with 9. Which is pretty much what I expected, I think these 2 are a little bit better than the other 2. Have you played any of these game? What are your thoughts on them? Also, are there any board games you would recommend us to try? If so leave a comment below, thanks.
Adam
My name is Adam. I live with my partner Natalie, and our 2 children Jack and Lily. Both children are autistic, it is now my mission to show what life around autism is like. Spread the awareness and gain the acceptance that autistic people deserve.
I think you’re the only family I’ve ever heard of who don’t end a game of Monopoly by flipping the board over and rage quitting lol!
Kerplunk is one of my faves, closely followed by Buckaroo, Jenga and Operation.
To be fair, if we didn’t let Lily win that would probably be the case 😂
Loved these games as a child (and still love some of them!) Great selection!
Thank you for commenting , I thought we had a nice selection of games 😊
I still love playing board and card games! I enjoy kerplunk and jenga a lot. I’ve never played the dog game before but it sounds fun!
Yeah Kerplunk is cool, the dog game is a lot better than what I expected when we brought it.
My two love candyland! And haha, can’t believe their is an LOL surprise game. My 5 year old would go nuts for that, and want to play it 24 hours a day. Maybe I just won’t mention it… Thanks for the ideas!
Candy land is a new one to me, after a quick google I reckon Jack and Lily would enjoy that.
I love Jenga! Thanks for all the ideas, it’s getting pretty boring with the lockdown tbh!
Thank you for commenting, you are most welcome, it certainly is, we are digging out every game we have 😂
It’s got to be hungry hippos for me, even if you do kill your hand playing it 🤣
It does get a bit lethal mate, especially if the board end up flipping in the air 😂
I loved these games when I was a kid, especially monopoly. 🙂 Great post!
Thank you, I loved them as a kid too, it’s great to now be playing them with my own kids.
I used to love playing Kerplunk, jenga & hungry hippos when I was younger. This post has brought back so many memories.
Thank you for commenting, really glad it brought some memories back for you 😊
Loving the ideas here, Jenga is a classic! Great photos.
Anika | chaptersofmay.com
Thank you for commenting, I try my best with the photos, thanks 😂
Great selection! I’m pretty sure I played all of these when I was younger. I was obsessed with Kerplunk as a kid, loved Monopoly too. Jenga is still fun now!
Sophie
Thank you, the first 4 are all classic games for sure.
We used to play a game similar to Kerplunk, except it had a donkey. 🙂
I love balance games; it is fascinating to watch the tower go up and see it wobble even when you are so careful in placing the next block. I used to be that person who ended up causing the tower to collapse . . .
Love the looks of Hungry Hippos!
Hmm I’m trying to imagine how the donkey works in the game 😂 yeah I’m the person who makes the tower collapse too.
Oh wow LOL surprise monopoly. Glad you all enjoyed playing the games.
Thank you for commenting, we certainly did have lots of fun.
Some classic games here. Operation is one I particularly like to play with my
Kids.
We did have operation, but we literally lost every single one of the pieces 🤦♂️😂
Some awesome games there bud, we just have the original monopoly, but we love board games and card games. 3d snakes and ladders, we have pie face and one named soggy doggy which are really fun, the kids love them.
Snakes and laddders was one of my faves as a kid, we have pie face, never played soggy dog though.
I love Jenga and monopoly! Although everyone in my family is very competitive so once we started a game of monopoly, we would play for hours. 😂
The LOL version sounds cool. Thanks for sharing.
This is a fun post! I love games but it also brings out the competitive side, sorta scary! I haven’t played half of these games in forever! Hungry Hippos is really fun. We play real-life hippos by lying on skateboards, usings plastic soft play balls and washing baskets. It is a great game, especially for summer!
Em x
https://www.loveemblog.com/2020/05/a-guide-to-ebay-how-i-make-1000-month.html
Oh my god. I just need some skateboards and we are on this 😂 Lily has been asking for a skateboard anyway 🤔
These all look like such fun games to play! I remember playing hungry hippos as a kid and of course Jenga too! Those are all such great options!
Yeah they are all fun, it’s creating reliving old memories playing them with my kids
These are some great games to play with kids. Board games and games is such a great way to get the family together and have some fun! We used to play a game called “sorry” when we were younger and other games!
Yeah, it’s kind of cool the kids still enjoy board games. I’ve heard of sorry, but I’ve never actually played it.
Busters anime’s if my favourite, the dog is funny
Playing board games is great for a child’s learning development. Jenga is great. It makes them have to strategize on the spot. Monopoly was my favorite game! Though it can get really nerve wrecking when someone really has a monopoly going on haha. Thanks for sharing!
Nancy ♥ exquisitely.me
Thank you for commenting. They definitely are great for learning new skills
Jenga would have to be my favourite. I also do like a game of Guess Who?
Ah yes we did have guess who? I think it got broken somehow, definitely one of my favourites.