Variant: When to Introduce Games to the Kids
I’m the oldest in my family, but my wife is the youngest. Suddenly, I have a number of nephews and nieces. Recently, one of the nephews turned nine and I attended his birthday party. The kids there were between ages six and nine. I looked into my closet to maybe bring a board or card game they might like. Nothing.
They are young for anything approaching Puerto Rico or Agricola. The closest thing I have to a traditional “kids game” is Mastermind. While enjoyable, I’m not sure the age range or maturity level was up to it. I eventually decided on bringing my Nintendo DS because I think that fits their particular temperment more.
But I started thinking, at what age do you introduce kids to the hobby? And, more importantly, when is a good time to move from Candy Land and Battleship to something a little more sophisticated, like Ticket to Ride or Carcassonne? I’m especially interested in opinions from those who have introduced their younglings to board games.
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I started my oldest playing chess at about 5, and then moved him on to other games. By about 7-9 many would be able to play family flux, apples to apples, etc. My oldest has taken a liking to more complex games (Talisman and MunchkinQuest for example). As a parent/uncle, etc. know your audience
It obviously depends on the individual child, but take a look at the variety of kid’s games at BGG – Children’s Games. Plenty of variety there. Should be something for everyone.
And then there’s young Master Hayden Teeter who not only plays all sorts of games from Gulo Gulo to Memoir ’44 but also does video reviews of them (with Dad’s help). Even Hayden’s little brother gets in on the act with more than just games like Candy Land.
Wow, I can’t remember not playing board games. I learned Clue at an incredibly early age, and monopoly soon after. I was definitely doing Mastermind younger than nine. I imagine my child will grow up in a gaming household, which would be quite different. Right now, my niece is 2, so we do have to consider when we’ll bring her first board game because her parents are not gamers!
It seems like the general consensus is that you’ve got to raise your kids up right – that is, raise ‘em board gaming. (Or, more correctly, rear them. As my grandfather says, you raise livestock, you rear children).
Maybe it’s too late for my nephews, but I can start my own kids on the straight and narrow.
There are some games that I think aren’t your traditional Battleship types that transition over well.
Coloretto and No Thanks are simple games that introduce some of the more advanced concepts/strategy of the bigger games. Also you could go with the simpler/party-ish games, like Bang!, Cash N Gunz….I imagine Wasabi might go over pretty well too.
As for when? Crap, I don’t know. I seem to remember playing Risk when I was less than 10 years old, but otherwise I haven’t hung out with kids that age since I was one.
I started my kid at 2.5 yrs old with Snails Race Pace. The point of this game is to teach the constructs of a game.
Now at 3.5 he’s playing Chicken Cha Cha, Formula D, Carcassonne, Hey That’s my Fish, Dweebies, etc. He’s pretty good at Checkers.
Getting kids into games is really about how much patience you have teaching them and slowly layering rules and strategy.
The strategy I’m taking with my youngest kids (3y.o. and 4 y.o. boys) is getting them into sci-fi and fantasy early (eg: they LOVE farscape), and getting them into games that only involve dice. I’ll add the board in a year or so.
My daughter’s been a tougher sell on gaming. She loves sci-fi and fantasy, but she’d rather play electronic games than tabletop ones. I’m going to attack that when she gets back from camp this month by getting her friends interested, because they seem to be some of the way toward being tabletop gaming enthusiasts already.