Are “Go Fish” and “I Spy” not as fun as they used to be? Then it may be time to hit the refresh button on your “most fun games for kids” repertoire.
“Kids like games for a variety of reasons,” says Nicole Brady of SAHM Reviews. “Some enjoy the social nature of games because they offer interaction and companionship. Others are competitive and like the sense of accomplishment for a win or the challenge of a more difficult opponent.”
And don’t overlook the value of many video games either. “They greatly improve kids’ hand-eye coordination,” says Marissa DiBartolo, senior editor of The Toy Insider.
Like any well-meaning parent or child care provider, you’ve probably done a Google search to get some inspiration for new games you can play. But what you might’ve noticed is that there are a lot of sites out there — ones like mostfungames.com — whose game offerings are actually really inappropriate for kids.
To help you sort through all of the noise, we scoured the internet in search of the most fun games for kids that get them active and get their little minds working, too. We also took a look at popular video game sites — including PBSKids.org and Common Sense Media — and pulled out the most fun “G-rated” games for kids. From these sites, we pulled together a list of the 35 most fun games for kids that fall within the following four types: Active Games, Board Games, Card Games, and Online/Video Games.
Without further ado, here’s our list of the 35 most fun games for kids.
Active Games
1. Capture the Flag
Outdoor play is one of the keys to a healthy child. And this one’s a classic: Everyone remembers playing this game as a kid! Two teams each hide a flag. The teams try to get the opposing team’s flag without getting tagged by their opponents. The first team to capture the flag wins!
2. Frisbee Tic-Tac-Toe
This is a simple yet fun way play Tic-Tac-Toe. Use a shower curtain and duct tape to create the tic-tac-toe grid. Have kids toss Frisbees onto the grid. The first one to get three in a row wins! You can use beanbags instead of Frisbees for younger players.
3. Indoor Bowling
Upcycle the bottles in your recycling bin and create a bowling alley in your house. Line 10 water bottles up at the end of your hallway and place a line of duct tape as the starting line. Grab a medium-sized ball that’s suitable for indoor use and get bowling.
4. IQ Twist
A one-player game that challenges spatial reasoning and logic as you fit the twisted puzzle pieces on the game board to solve each creative puzzle.
5. Land, Sea and Air
This simple game from What We Do All Day is perfect for a rainy day. Lay down some tape on the floor separating the room into land and sea. The leader calls out one of three directions: land, sea, or air. For land or sea, kids jump to the appropriate side of the tape. When the leader calls “air,” they jump as high as they can!
6. Outdoor Twister
For an interesting “twist,” try taking this popular game outdoors. Or grab some red, blue, yellow and white spray paint and a circle stencil and create your own Twister game on the grass.
7. Rebound Marbles
All you need for this simple game are marbles and a flat surface near a wall. Each player throws one marble against the wall. After the marble lands, it becomes the target for the other marble players to try to hit.
8. Red Light/Green Light
The perfect game for keeping your playdate crew occupied! Have one child play the “stop light” and the rest of the children line up about 15 feet away. When the stoplight says “green light”, the other kids are allowed to move forward. If any of them move after they hear “red light”, they’re out. The first one to touch the stop light wins!
9. Suspend
This balancing game is as easy to understand as it is difficult to master. With each turn, a new rod is added to the transforming vertical sculpture, which causes the balance to shift and difficulty to increase.
Board Games
Image via Unsplash.com/moroo
10. Candy Land
You can’t go wrong with a classic! Take a trip down memory lane with this sweet little game for sweet little people.
11. Cup-A-Cup
“This game is great because it provides tactile learning while challenging kids with quick-thinking and fast-paced play. It definitely challenges the brain. Even adults will have fun with this one,” DiBartolo says.
12. Doodle Quest
Kids work to crack the quest by drawing their way through the underwater scene that’s on the quest cards.
13. KerFlip
KerFlip is an award-winning word game that rewards players for being able to make a word faster than their opponents can. Beginning spellers can make small words quickly for larger point values while master wordsmiths enjoy the challenge of identifying longer words. This makes KerFlip an ideal pick for families.
14. Penguins on Ice
An awesome travel game, this single-player logic game keeps kids busy in the car as they try and complete all of the included challenges and get all four magnetic penguin pieces to line up. “Single-player games are great because kids don’t always have a buddy or a parent to play with,” says DiBartolo.”This allows for play when kids are on their own.”
15. Qwirkle
In this visually attractive strategy game, kids match shapes and colors. This game also requires tactical maneuvers and well-planned strategy.
16. Say the Word
This cooperative game asks players to each add sentences to an ongoing, evolving story based on the characters and words they draw from the stack.
17. Shark Mania
This fun board game is a shark-chomping race where you need to reach the safety of the island at the end of the track before the shark knocks you off.
Card Games
Image via Pixabay.com/PDPics
18. Concentration
There are many variations on this memory game, but the main objective is to remember the value of face down cards as they are turned over each turn to make a pair. For the simplest versions nearly any age can play and enjoy this fun game!
19. Crazy Eights
This game is like “Go Fish’s” big brother, and it’s a great two-, three-, or even four-person activity. This game tests kids’ ability to recognize and match numbers and images (i.e., the cards’ “suits”), and has a fun little twist: The “8” cards are wild! The aim of the game is to be the first person to get rid of all of your cards.
20. I Doubt It!
Your kids will love practicing their pokers faces in this game, which requires them to lie! With 3 to 5 players, they will not only have to pick and choose when to tell the truth, but also when to call their friends’ bluff.
21. Moustache Smash
This spin on traditional card games adds speed and physical play. When a card matches your moustache, you’ll want to smash it first! Collect the most moustache cards and win.
22. Pirates TacDex
Just like in the traditional card game War, Pirates TacDex players duel to the finish while the Battle Marker determines if high or low card wins each battle.
23. Spoons
This is a really fun and highly interactive game that kids of all ages will love to play! According to The Spruce, you need at least 3 players and enough spoons for all but one player (e.g., if you have five players, you’ll have four spoons). The object of the game is to collect four of a kind; the first player to do so will quietly grab a spoon from the center of the table. It’s up to the rest of the players to grab a spoon for themselves. The player without a spoon will be knocked out of the next round.
24. Tic Stac Toe
Tic Stac Toe takes the classic pen-and-paper game to a three-dimensional, interactive level. The object of the game is to be the first player to get four of your pieces in a row.
25. Uno Attack
The random card shooter enhances the ever-popular classic UNO game providing fast, unpredictable fun for everyone.
26. War
Suitable for any kid old enough to count, this game is a good introduction to any future card game because it helps kids learn the relative values in a deck. The rules are so simple that you and the kids will be experts in no time!
Online/Video Games
Image via Unsplash.com/anniespratt
27. Angry Birds Space
This game features fun and challenging physics puzzles with levels that take place in outer space, where objects are affected by gravitational pull in ways that shake up the game play significantly.
28. Cut the Rope
Cut dangling ropes to get the candy to Om Nom while attempting to collect as many stars as possible in this fun app.
29. Free Rice
This educational site isn’t just a way for kids to kill time while sharpening their math or vocabulary skills; for each correct answer, the United Nations donated 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to end world hunger! Now you can feel good about a little extra screen time.
30. Mario Party 10
The first installment in the Mario Party franchise to hit the Wii U gives kids quick and easy fun with their favorite Nintendo characters.
31. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
Here’s what the Common Sense Media review had to say about top #1 rated most fun games website for kids: “Parents need to know that this superb educational site from PBS Kids
celebrates and builds on the beloved children’s show. The Mr. Rogers Neighborhood website offers a storehouse of the series’ best clips, plus song lyrics, new activities for kids and parents, and fun facts about the show and its creator. Computer-savvy kids as young as four can explore this site, but parents will want to share as much of this special learning experience as possible.”
32. Poisson Rouge
Here’s what the Common Sense Media review had to say about the #2 rated most fun games website for kids: “Parents need to know that registration is required for this early education site designed to teach language and math skills. You can test PoissonRouge for 10 days, but then you need to pay an annual $19 membership. You’ll need to enter an email address to sign up for the free trial, but no credit card information is required.”
33. Rush Hour
Rush Hour is a puzzle app as well as a game. Players slide small cars around a grid, moving only forward and backward, to create a path so that the red car can emerge out of the parking lot grid.
34. Webkinz Jr.
Here’s what the Commons Sense Media review had to say about the #3 rated most fun games website for kids: “Parents need to know that while we don’t recommend kids this young play alone on the computer, WEBKINZ JR. is so easy to navigate that most 3- to 6-year-olds could easily do so. There’s no reading required, and many of the games teach preschool- and kindergarten-relevant skills like shapes, letters, and numbers, as well as emotional awareness, map knowledge, and matching skills. Parents have their own login and area to set their child’s skill levels and manage the account.”
35. Where’s My Water?
In this puzzle game app, kids clear obstructions from a sewer system to deliver clean water to the shower of Swampy the Alligator.
