The 10 Best Family Games To Play!

With the weather being yucky and temperatures dropping it can be easy to let family time slide a bit. In the summer it’s easy to find stuff to do. But in the winter things can be a bit more limited unless you like bundling up and braving the cold, which I am personally am not a fan of. {ha!}

With the kids being out of school for the last couple of weeks for the holiday break we spent a lot of time playing games together and it was a lot of fun! But I realized that finding games that the whole family can enjoy together can be tough unless you like playing Uno all the time.

So after much trial and error, these are the games that came back as winners with my little tribe.  My kids are 14, 11, and 7 and having kids that are a bit older does help with gameplay but some of these games will work with younger children as well.

1.  Cover Your Assets:  This game instantly became a family favorite. It was easy for my kids to learn and helped teach them exactly what an asset is, which is a fun added bonus. Even after the kiddos went to bed the grown-ups stayed up way too late playing this one. Warning it is highly addictive. 

How to Play: 

The goal of Cover Your Assets® is quite simple. The first player to reach $1,000,000 wins. This usually happens in three to five rounds. If time is short, you can also just play one hand for some quick fun.Each player builds their own stack of assets by placing matching sets of cards crisscross (perpendicular), one on top of another. While making your own sets of assets is ok, it’s way more fun to snatch them from your neighbors. Identical asset cards and wild cards will help you do just that. You may be feeling pretty smug thinking about swiping everyone else’s valuable asset cards, but remember—they can try to steal from you too! 

The stealing part is the most fun and can get kind of crazy when wild cards are involved. Some stacks have gotten as high as $500k in value! So it gets kinds of fun to start to count your money and work like crazy to cover them up before someone steals them from you.  

The game is best played with 4-6 players so for our family of 5 it is perfect. 

The game costs about $15 on Amazon, but I am sure if you looked it might be available at local stores. 

2. Parent Not Approved:  If you have ever played Apples to Apples this is very similar. One player reads a card with a fill-in-the-blank statement and then all other players submit one of their cards to finish this sentence. These can get pee-in-your-pants funny! My kids were laughing so hard they could barely read the cards. The player reading the statement card then picks their favorite as the winner, and the winner of that round collects the card and keeps it. – The first player to collect 10 statement cards wins the game.  The game time can be a bit longer on this one but it was a riot.  This is also a great game for larger groups since there really is no max player amount. We have played it with as many as 10 players before! 

The game costs about $25 on Amazon – and I have seen it at Target, but for a bit more. 

3. Incan Gold   Incan Gold is a quick, fun game of bluff and daring in which explorers push their luck while exploring an old Incan temple in search of gold and treasure. You decide when to delve deeper into the temple, adding to your riches, or retreat to camp! My kids really like one. It was easy for them to learn and understand how to play. It helps teach strategy and assessing risk. I always like games that teach a little something as well. Incan Gold is one of those games that if you have someone tell you the instructions you will be totally confused but if you just play the game and follow the directions it is a quick learn. 

Incan Gold costs about $33 on Amazon 

4. Ticket To Ride: When our kids were little Kelly and I would play this with our couples friends when they would come over. It has always been one of my favorites and, as the kids have gotten older it has been so fun to teach them to play as well.

To play each person will get different train routes to build across America, as well as plastic trains, to help them accomplish building their routes. You will need to collect colored cards to help complete your route. And fingers crossed that another player doesn’t build where you were planning, so you need to reroute! This game can get really competitive. 

Ticket to Ride costs about $45 on Amazon 

5. Sleeping Queens:   This is a great game for all ages, and it works well with younger kids. It says 8+ but Tatum was playing it well at age 6. This is another favorite at our house. The Sleeping Queens Card Game can be enjoyed by everyone. The Pancake Queen, the Ladybug Queen and 10 of their closest friends have fallen under a sleeping spell. It is the players’ job to wake them up using strategy, quick thinking, and a little luck. The player who wakes the most queens wins. 

It also can be played with only two players so it is a great game to play when you want to spend 1-1 time with your children.

Sleeping Queens costs about $10 on Amazon

6. Guesstures:  This is an oldie but a goodie. It is charades with words (Think – Clap, Tie, Butterfly)  only you’ll need to guess before the cards drop! It’s so fun to see my kid’s creativity shine on this one. And they love watching Mom and Dad being silly as they act out the word! 

Surprisingly, Guesstures was not available directly on Amazon, but Walmart had it available for around $15! 

7. Just Dance  I usually am not a fan of video games, but Just Dance can be played by anyone and you can use your phone as a controller via the app. My kids love seeing Kelly and I “dance” and we have a great time.  Plus its a fun “active” game for the whole family.

Prices vary depending on which gaming console you own. 

8. Telestrations Remember when you were a kid and you would play “Telephone” and each time the phrase passed down the line the more outrageous it would become? That’s the idea behind Telestrations except you’re drawing not writing! This one is a lot of fun and is great for big groups as well! 

Telestations is about $30 on Amazon

9. Hide and Seek – This one is free and is a complete blast to play with your kids – They are usually a breeze to find – since you can just follow the laughter! 

10. Freeze Dance – Another super simple and free game to play – My kids love playing this one and even my 14 yr old will join in. – it is a great way to get some wiggles out and have some fun giggling, dancing and having a good time. If you have an Alexa – ask her to play “freeze dance” and you’re in for a treat! 

Taking the time to play with your kids is so important.  You’ll make so many fun memories when you do! My kids beg us to play games with them and some of our best conversations have been around the table playing a game as a family.

As I contemplated my word for 2019 – the word FAMILY kept coming to me.  So this year will be one that I am dedicating to making more time for this little family of mine! And I hope to share some fun and creative ways so you can do the same!