My son’s 5th birthday is coming up and I would like to gift him a board game. Usually only the two of us play and he likes for example Carcassonne Junior, Brandon the Nrave or Karuba Junior. Any good suggestions for a new game, maybe also something collaborative?
Kids version of Ticket to Ride is loved by my 6 year old.
TtR first journey is great because it’s easy to transition to the “full” game after they outgrow it. Catan junior is similar in this. That’s also my main complaint about Stone Age kids, it’s not really the same game.
This sounds great! I will check it out!
I’ve tried compiling all the suggestions from this thread, with BGG links.
I have a 4 and 6¾-year-old, but our game collection doesn’t quite fit the audience, and we usually end up playing Star Of Africa with heavily dumbed-down house rules (and it’s already a pretty dumb game to begin with) to keep it interesting for the little one.
This thread is gold! 😍
- [My First Stone Age] (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191004/my-first-stone-age)
- Outfoxed
- Rhino Hero
- [Race To The Treasure] (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/121806/race-treasure)
- Robot Turtles
… Sorry I’ll finish this up later on desktop, this is too fiddly on mobile 😅
Great idea! The thread really shows the power of aging real people!
I’ll second Rhino Hero! For collaboration, my kids have enjoyed Outfoxed, Race for the Treasure and Robot Turtles.
I found that maybe 4-5 was way more about focusing on following rules and heavily house ruling to make a suitable experience so we could play whatever on the shelf looked interesting.
Once they got just a little bit older Battle Sheep, Hive, Azul, and Camel Up got worn out.
I picked up Outfoxed! a few weeks ago to play with a relative, it comes highly recommend as a cooperative who-dun-it.
I haven’t gotten a chance to play it yet so I can’t speak to the actual gameplay.
I have Outfoxed, and my three year old enjoys it more than my 5 year old.
We don’t play many junior versions, I find my boy outgrew them very quickly - though he still likes Catan Junior.
He likes Mancala, Kingdomino isn’t hard to pick up, and it really helped his maths skills. His favourite is the normal Carcassonne (we don’t play fields, and I give him a 50 point headstart, so it’s still a challenge for me). He loves the Dragon expansion, too.
We play Rhino Hero and other dexterity games, I ordered one for next Christmas called Menara - off a recommendation here (!) - it looks like a coop dexterity tower building game.
As for collaborative games, he loves helping me with some solos, Under Falling Skies, Aerion and Nautilion for example - you can tell a story and get them to help throw the dice.
Not really a game, but story cubes are also a win at bedtime.
If you’re open to a dexterity games, I’d highly recommend Animal Upon Animal, Rhino Hero, or Click Clack Lumberjack for that age group. Even left to their own devices, I’ve seen a group of highly concentrated 6 year olds stack animals surprisingly high lmao.
Considering he’s already into boardgames, King of Tokyo is probably in scope, or will be soon! If not, the mood of Shadows in the Woods (Waldschattenspiel) can be just so good for young kids!
I’m having some trouble thinking of collaborative kids games, but maybe Dixit? That might be an 8 year olds game tbh, I don’t think most 5 year olds are subtle enough yet lol.
Good luck!
Our kids loved the offerings from Orchard Games in preschool, kindergarten and early primary. Some are available in French as well as English.
They are definitely ECD-informed and target specific development points, but the kids loved them and they definitely made them table top gamers.
There was one that was a pick your route game called ‘Round and Round’ where you sang ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ each time a stop was reached. I don’t see it listed currently. It’s not the same as Orchard’s counting game called ‘Bus Stop’ which is also popular.
Dragonomino is a kid version of King Domino. I just bought it for my kid based on a review. I haven’t played it yet but it seems like it’s a win
I highly recommended Dragomino. Similar gameplay as Kingdomino, but without the building restrictions and the egg collecting introduces enough chance to level the playing field
We got this for our five year old at Christmas, and she loved it!
She had us, her little sister, her grandparents, her aunts and uncles, her friends, the neighbors, the nurses when we visited the hospital, and everyone else playing Dragomino with ther every day for months. By now, she routinely beats me at it.
To chime in here, we bought Dragomino for similar reasons, found it really boring and went with king domino, which is playable for a 5 year old that has some experience with Board games. Since all info is public the parents can give advice when the child gets stuck or tries to place a tile wrong. Our son did pick it up really fast (ymmv).
CoraQuest is a fun kid-friendly cooperative dungeon crawl that my 6yo and I really enjoy. (Edit): Rereading, I forgot the part about your kid turning five, so this may be a bit advanced.
Outfoxed! (2014) has been mentioned several times and I also recommend it. It’s a cooperative, clue-esque deduction game.
Thank you very much! CoraQuest sounds grad for next year! I will have a look at outfoxed!
Thank you very much! CoraQuest sounds grad for next year! I will have a look at outfoxed!
Forbidden desert! Great co-op game. We used to call it Die in The Desert because my group was so bad at it.
These were all mentioned already, but Dragonomino, Rhino Hero, and Animal Upon Animal are pretty good. We’ve had fun with Dinosaur Escape Game and Busy Busy Bake Shop as well (but they skew a little younger, maybe).
I found tbis site to be a good resource: https://weplay2learn.com/
They take the approach that games that are designed to teach fail at being fun and fail st teaching because no one wants to play them. But games that are designed to be fun can actually provide some teaching (not that you were necessarily asking about education, but I think it’s a good take either way).
Thank you very much for suggestion! I will check out the website!
Hoot Owl Hoot, Race to the Treasure and Cauldron Quest are 3 co-op games I’ve played with my kids since last summer (5 turned 6 and 3 turned 4 year olds)
My son (same age) really enjoys “My first castle panic” and “HABA Rhino Hero A Heroic Stacking Card Game”. He has a ton of boardgames but likes those two the most.
My First Stone Age is phenomenal for young kids. The memory element even gives them something they can beat the parents at. We loved it! My kiddo is 11 now and won’t let me get rid of it because of all the good memories.
My son loves Skyjo. It’s not a board game, but it’s pretty nice. I can’t recommend Skyjo Action though.
Saboteur is also really great, but you need 3+ people for that.
