Author Topic: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?  (Read 5083 times)

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« on: May 07, 2017, 10:14:53 PM »
I was thinking of Catan Junior but wanted to see if the cloud had any other brilliant ideas. I also have a six-year-old and the three of us play together as a family. Little Brother is harder to interest in games. He will spend an entire game of Ticket to Ride collecting "rainbow cards," for instance, and not build any tracks. He played a pirate game for a while but then announced he just wanted to play with his little boat (he pretended to win several times and appeared satisfied).

Qwirkle, he doesn't want to play at all because there's no plot.

Anyone tried Catan Junior? Any other suggestions? We already own Hoot Owl Hoot (which is quick and LB will play happily to the end).

zhelud

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2017, 07:38:44 AM »
Pictureka
Gobblet Gobblers

Frugalicious

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2017, 08:49:27 AM »
Not a board game exactly, but my Mom picked up a set of Paw Patrol dominoes for my 5 year old for $6 and he really loves it.

Frugalicious

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2017, 08:53:24 AM »
Scrabble Junior is also good.

BeanCounter

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2017, 08:53:32 AM »
PTF

kimmarg

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2017, 09:22:40 AM »
Just got a friend's 5 year old "Robot Turtles".  They LOVED it. In fact the only issue now is they want to play about 10 times a day which is more than the adults want. It supposedly teaches programming but basically they just direct turtles around the board with cards to collect jewels. http://www.robotturtles.com/

erutio

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #6 on: May 08, 2017, 09:35:00 AM »
My 5 year old boy loves Uno.

gatortator

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #7 on: May 08, 2017, 10:11:35 AM »
blokus

we have a 5 year boy, a 8 year old girl and two adults.  we all love it.  you need 3-4 players otherwise it is not very challenging for the adults but still fun for the kids.  Both of the kids' teachers originally recommended this game to us.  it is somewhere between playing Tetris and playing qwirkle,  so not yet sure if it will work for him.


the magic labyrinth

 the kids enjoy it.  ok for adults but I think the kids like it more than we do.  Definitely a story for this one-  you move a magnetic game piece around a labyrinth, collecting tokens.  Sometimes, you cross a hidden barrier and your ball goes back to a starting corner.



Edit to add:

Oh snap!

box says 8+. but I think that is mainly for adding the points after the game.  The 5 year old loves it and just skips adding the points at the end.  (He also loves it when I jump as the spring on the game snaps.). this one is play on jenga and pick-up-sticks.
« Last Edit: May 08, 2017, 11:16:26 AM by gatortator »

bognish

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2017, 02:49:17 PM »
Ice Cream is a fun fast card game.
My kids 6&9 like Caldron's Quest. Its a collaborative game, but its pretty hard to lose once you get the hang of it. Kids still like it though.

snacky

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2017, 04:20:14 PM »
Carcassone is awesome for all ages.

High Income Parent

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #10 on: May 10, 2017, 04:21:28 PM »
With a little prompting and help, we get our six-year-old playing Apples to Apples and she loves it. 

tweezers

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La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #12 on: May 11, 2017, 08:20:48 PM »
Confession: I did a bunch of research and then bought the game I was thinking of initially.

I thought of Carcassone but I don't care for it and the kids version didn't seem as fun as Catan Junior.

Then I impulsively added Race to the Treasure! from Peaceable Kingdom, which is a cooperative game for those days when I don't think anyone can handle losing :-). We really like Hoot Owl Hoot, which is a cooperative game from the same makers. It was important to me to try to find some things that would really draw him in personally because his brother likes games better and I am trying to make it a family thing if at all possible.

And currently LB's favorite game is Sequence for Kids (shudders).

scottnews

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #13 on: May 11, 2017, 09:25:33 PM »
Race to the Treasure! looks like a really good game.   My 5 year old boy would probably love the cooperative aspect.

aneel

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2017, 06:15:15 PM »
blokus


Yep. This right here. Good for all He's and great for visual-spatial skills

LiveLean

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #15 on: May 16, 2017, 06:53:36 PM »
Chess

gisk

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #16 on: May 17, 2017, 07:16:06 AM »
My kids, love playing board games. I'm not a huge fan of Catan Junior, it was kinda simple for my boys and I didn't enjoy it at all.

I'll second robot turtles, my boys love it and will play it on their own.

Carcassonne is a great game that the kids love and doesn't drive us adults crazy. It's a little less competitive when the kids play but it's always different.

Hive is a nice simple game that is also decent for adults.The pieces feel nice in your hands and what boy doesn't like bugs :)

My youngest loves Skip Bo. He consistently beats us - straight up.

Bohnanza is another card game that can be fun. Kids can collect the different kinds of beans even if they don't understand the more complex trading strategies that an adult would use.


Mrs. S

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #17 on: May 19, 2017, 12:11:19 PM »
You might want to try coinage. It's an easy and quick game which you can print at home. Especially good for smaller attention spans. This is one of our go to filler game.

galliver

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #18 on: May 19, 2017, 12:51:23 PM »
The original post is really funny to me because my 6yo cousin did almost that exact thing while playing TTR with us at Thanksgiving. Except she collected all cards, not just the rainbow ones. She was good about taking turns, though, so whatever floats her boat.

For your son, have you considered games with more of an active/hands-on element? I remember playing "Mousetrap" with friends, and we had LEGO Creator, which is now outdated but it looks like they have a lot of different LEGO games now. I never got really into these two but I was a bit older when we got them. I also remember being immensely jealous of anyone who had the "Go Fishing" game (with the magnetic fishes and the tiny fishing rods and the rotating carousel). I also recall my sisters tended to like playing games of chance, at least with me/adults (Sorry!, Chutes and ladders, that kind of thing). Ticket to Ride is great but does involve a lot of strategy and might put the 5yo at a (perceived, at least) disadvantage.

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #19 on: May 19, 2017, 01:50:09 PM »
blokus


Yep. This right here. Good for all He's and great for visual-spatial skills

Eh, we already have Qwirkle so I wasn't looking for another of those kinds of games.

Race to the Treasure! looks like a really good game.   My 5 year old boy would probably love the cooperative aspect.

We've played it and both boys liked it--EXCEPT when the boys tried to play it together, LB wanted the ogre to win and they fought with each other!

We haven't tried Catan Jr. yet. They like the pieces. Not sure whether they will have enough attention span to learn the rules this year.
Chess

Well, to each their own. I personally have a fiery hated of Chess!

kimmarg

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #20 on: May 22, 2017, 08:59:32 PM »
Just got a friend's 5 year old "Robot Turtles".  They LOVED it. In fact the only issue now is they want to play about 10 times a day which is more than the adults want. It supposedly teaches programming but basically they just direct turtles around the board with cards to collect jewels. http://www.robotturtles.com/

We did not enjoy robot turtles, found it quite boring. 

As an Adult I agree with you, but the 5 year old would disagree. We will see if he still likes it in a few months!

Sydneystache

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Re: GOOD board game for boy turning 5?
« Reply #21 on: May 28, 2017, 08:35:14 PM »
One of the oldest board games in the world - Mancala

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mancala

Literally, you can build the board game from the ground - you make deep holes in the ground/sand pit, use shells or small rocks and bob's your uncle!

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!