The Best Family Board Games for 6 to 8 year olds in 2022

Children, the worst thing ever invented by humankind. Loud, selfish, they can’t lend you money, they’ve got no good stories, their favorite way of learning about something is to break it. Long and short of it is hanging out with kids is a horrible experience, especially when it comes to board games, because there’s only so many times you can play Monopoly Junior Disney Princess edition before you swan dive into traffic.

But here’s the thing, games you play with your kids don’t have to be simple to the point of a snakes and ladders inducing coma. There’s a whole bunch of light family games out there that manage to be both easy enough for a kid to grasp, whilst also fun for the parent involved.

Let us single-handedly save your family, you’re welcome! This is a collection starter, and here are the best board games for parents to play with their kids. Side note: the presence of a child is not required to enjoy any of these games.

Here is a list of the Best Board Games
for 6-8 year olds

• Qwirkle
• Labryinth
• Click Clack Lumberjack
• Hey! That’s My Fish
• Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle
• Forbidden Island
• Mental Blocks
• The Hare and the Tortise
• King of Tokyo
• Stuffed Fables
• Pharaohs Gulo Gulo
• Clue
• Spiderman Jenga
• Once Upon a Castle
• Dragon Wood
• Dragon Realm
• Roll For It
• Sushi Roll
• Beez
• Hive

 

Qwirkle

First up on our list of the best board games 6-8 year olds is Qwirkle. It’s difficult to play scrabble with younger players unless you’re a fan of seeing how many times you can legally play the word bum in a scrabble game. Qwirkle brands itself as scrabble for people who can’t spell. It’s not only a lighter version of that game, but quicker with far fewer periods of downtime, as someone stares at their letter board, desperately trying to spell anything other than poo.

In Qwirkle you play lines of blocks onto the table with the following simple rules: you can only play a line where every block is either the same color or the same shape. You earn points for how many blocks end up in the line with bonus points if you complete a full row of six. It’s as simple as that, you build up a scrabble light network of these blocks. I would say it’s one of the best games for teaching kids set collection, hand management when to save, when to play, whilst also being an engaging puzzle for older players.

Labyrinth

There aren’t many classic family games that stand the test of time. Many of them involve rolling dice, moving around the board over and over again until it’s time to reach for a bottle of mummy and daddy’s special forbidden fruit juice. Labyrinth is the rare classic. In front of you is a board covered with loads of tiles that build to create pathways throughout a maze. Before the game starts you’re dealt a bunch of secret treasure cards that one by one you have to travel to in this maze.

Chances are your way there will be blocked. So every turn you take the maze tile not currently in play and push it onto the board. Pushing the tile has the effect of moving all the tiles in that row, creating new pathways blocking others off and occasionally knocking your opponent’s piece off the board and teleporting them to the other side. Bad luck, little man pay rent if you want me to take it easy on you. Your trip through the maze could be completely ruined by everyone else. Every turn is compelling, causing you to either laugh in triumph or hold your head in your hands. This is a game the whole family can get behind, my niece will spend hours just assembling different routes.

Click Clack Lumberjack

Kids like hitting things. They are monsters, unapologetic monsters. Thank goodness then for Click-Clack Lumberjack! This gives kids an outlet to hit things but also teaches them the value of pulling their punches. The game revolves around this tree, standing in the middle of the table. First turn you get control of this adorable little axe and you can hit that tree precisely twice.

What you want, is to hit a slice of tree hard enough so that a little piece of bark drops off. Bark gives you points. You don’t want to hit the tree so hard that an entire circular core section of the tree falls and hits the table, because anything that hits the table on your turn you keep. Bark will net you one point, whereas bits of core will deduct five massive points. Whoever has the most points when all the bark is off the tree wins! It’s a version of Jenga that prioritizes restraint and precision over destruction, which makes it a great game for kids and even better for the parent will eventually be on cleanup duty.

Hey! That’s my Fish

Family, games don’t have to be friendly, don’t know why they would. I can’t imagine anything less friendly than a family, and if you want a game that manages to be just the right amount of mean, then you need to try Hey! That’s my Fish.

The game takes place on this grid of fish and each player controls two to four penguins. On your turn, you simply move your penguin, taking away and keeping the tile that penguin started on and then move that penguin in a straight line. Each tile is worth either one two or three points, most points at the ends wins!

Movement wise you can’t go through other penguins, and this is crucial, you can’t move over gaps in the ice, which means, if you play your penguins right and remove the right tiles at the right time. You can lock off a huge section of the ice all for yourself or even better trap your opponent’s penguins on a tiny corner of the map, essentially taking that pengu out of the game. Perfect board games for kids 6-8, who can handle a bit of parental betrayal and heck, even if they can’t, life sucks. Kids here ends the lesson, life sucks and then you die. You have to learn life’s greatest lessons so why not teaching them through a board game.

Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle

We’ve covered a bunch of really light games so far . So now a little something for the slightly older kid making this one of the best games for 8 year olds. Children really like Harry Potter, ex-smelly, atmos, alakazam and other made-up words. You might be tempted to buy your little wizard fan something like Harry Potter, Clue. But you know, you can do better than that, step right up! Hogwarts battle, which is a cooperative game about defending locations from the potter verse from dark wizards. You play as either Ron Harry Hermione or Neville all praise longbottom with your own special deck. Kids are like that.

On your turn, you can spend influence to obtain cards that’ll make your deck stronger and stronger all while trying to survive, dark arts cards, helping each other out and defeating baddies. If that’s not enough, it’s also a campaign game, so you’ll be playing through a series of boxes, one for each book in the series opening them up to reveal new locations, villains, other cards, kids will like that. It’s a really nice introduction to deck building, campaigning, and co-op and it’ll be way more exciting to potter fans than just another, re-skinned version of trivial pursuit.

Forbidden Island

Now, speaking of co-ops, if there’s one thing that’s really vital to teach kids while they’re young it’s the value of teamwork. We’ve covered a whole mess of amazing games in another cooperative board game list, but they might be a shade too complex for a child.

However, Forbidden Island might just be one of the best entry points for young gamers in terms of it being a simple game, whilst also being punishing enough to engage older players in the game. Teamwork makes the dream work and this game is designed to really improve young children’s social skills.

Check out our list of recommendations for Best co-op Board Games

You’re trapped on this island, that’s very slowly sinking into the sea. Don’t you just hate it when that happens during a holiday? To win you have to move around that island collecting enough cards in order to cash in a set of four matching ones for one of these treasures, get all four treasures and then get to the chopper, job done.

However, every turn, parts of the island will sink, especially when these waters rise cards randomly show up. If you don’t hop around bailing these places out, certain tiles will disappear and you risk getting trapped. You need to cooperate and coordinate to succeed, making it very similar to pandemic same design as a Go Figure, but it’s stripped right down to its basics, making it clear enough even young kids start coming up with their own game plans.

Mental Blocks

Kids, love playing with blocks. The little idiots wouldn’t catch me doing something like that. I’m over here building a Lego death star like an adult. Mental blocks, is a puzzle game for slightly older siblings that actually has a really nice difficulty curve to it adding another skill level.

During game play you’ll be challenged to build a bunch of blocks together in a certain formation. However, you don’t know what that formation exactly is. Each player will be given their own card, which will show them this formation from precisely one perspective, giving clues as to which blocks and colors are in front of each other, or behind.

Maybe this card shows a structure from the left, maybe from above, you don’t know without actually looking at other players cards. You have to communicate with each other and work together to build this structure, so it satisfies every single viewpoint. It’s a really adaptable system as well.

You can play just a game normally if you’ve got young kids or if you’re looking for a challenge, you can play with certain restrictions like you can’t talk, or you can only move blocks of a certain color. The perfect game even if your kids aren’t good at it, it’s also just a nice collection of foam blocks, yay for blocks of fun. One of my top picks to turn your little ones into a genius with Mental Block, definitely the best board games for 6 year olds

The Hare and the Tortoise

Racing games are a huge part of board gaming history. The game of The Goose, Chutes and Ladders, Candyland which go without saying are also a great choice for the youngsters. Being the first to get to a place has always been a major aspect of board gaming, but it’s also super easy for them to be boring. Thank goodness then, for The Hair and the Tortoise not Hare and Tortoise that’s a different game.

In The Hare and the Tortoise is a good board game as you’ll build a track for these five races, tortoise, hare, fox, wolf and sheep. Instead of controlling just one character yourself, each turn you might move a different creature whilst having secretly bet before the race starts, which one or two creatures you want to win.

Each turn you can play one to four movement cards, but only of one-character type. So maybe you can play three fox cards or two sheep and one hare, but you can’t mix and match.Then when everyone’s played cards for that round, each character moves and here’s the really fun bit, each character moves according to different rules.

The hare moves quickly, but if he moves too much while he’s out in front, he won’t move at all. The tortoise will move one space every turn, regardless of whether or not someone plays a card. The sheep moves super quickly but has to stop at every stream because he’s a thirsty little sheep, look at him your thirsty little sheep.

The wolf moves slowly, but you can also paralyze other racers in fear. Players can mess up your plans. There’s an element of bluffing because you’re backing characters in secret and the way the different movement rules can ping off each other makes each turn a lot of fun. Very addictive little fun game no matter what age group.

King of Tokyo

Hooray for violence! King of Tokyo is just cool. You each play as different giant monsters rampaging through Tokyo one of my older kids favorite games. Biffing each other earning points and very subtly teaching your kids how to play Yahtzee. Each turn you’ll roll these chunky dice, they are so heavy, rolling them feels awesome. I am also a child. You can keep them or re-roll any number of them up to twice.

You’ll end up with a collection of dice, rather like a hand of poker. Based on which symbols you’ve collected they’ll do different things. A collection of numbers will earn you victory points which you need to win. Hearts can heal your monster. If you lose all your health you’re out.

Lightning, symbols can earn you these little cubes that let you buy cards that do cool things. The claw symbol will let you attack, if you’re not in Tokyo, you’ll attack the monster that is in Tokyo, they’ll lose health. But if you’re the monster that’s in Tokyo, you’ll attack everybody else which gives you a super fun choice to make. Do you stay in Tokyo? Earning points for controlling the city and dealing damage to other players, but also soaking up all the punches from everyone else on their turn. Or do you yield Tokyo to heal up and try and roll for points while laying low.

This game has sold really well for a good reason! There’s a nice selection of stuff to do, rolling these dice will always feel fun whether child or adult! The whole push your luck gambling element is really addictive and you get to play as big monsters that biff each other. What more do you need.

Stuffed Fables

Board games aren’t just a distraction, board games are art, and sometimes you stumble across a game that genuinely moves you. Taking you on an actual adventure that you don’t want to see the end. Stuffed Fables is that kind of game. You play as one of a little girl’s collection of stuffed toys, they are called stuffies and they are adorable. This is lumpy, I would die for lumpy.

The game takes the form of a campaign, as you travel through your little girl’s dreams, protecting her from the nightmares therein. It’s wonderful! It’s also an adventure book game, a really cool system where you open the book and there you find the map you’ll be playing on. Also the rules for that specific map, depending on which story you’re playing in this heartfelt campaign.

Each time you’ll draw dice from a bag and spend them for a number of different actions. Moving around the map discovering new bits of story gaining stuffing, which is your health bar adorable. Encouraging each other completing tasks, paying buttons for more cards which is adorable, and biffing up horrible creatures because your stuffies are so brave and I love them so much. Each game you’ll have new things to do. Different objectives and new tweaks to gameplay. So it’s a really nice way to gradually introduce game complexity to your kids, all while enjoying proper interactive story time with your youngins. A really sweet affecting story at that. Strong, strong recommendation.

Pharaoh’s Gulo Gulo

Okay, so Pharaoh’s Gulo Gulo is kind of a traditional, just roll and move game in a lot of ways, but it has some fun stuff too. So your explorer is going through this tomb. You start outside the tomb which is out here on the game board and then you work your way to the tomb trying to get to the mommy’s secret layer. There’s a barrel full of balls that acts also as a trap. Basically you’re going to be picking the balls out you’re trying to make the staff inside the barrel fall.

So it’s fun! There’s a mummy chasing you trying to kill you at the same time. A great way to spend time with the kids.

Clue

Next on the list is a fan favorite of family game night and that is the classic board game Clue. I know, I know, it’s very unoriginal but it’s just a classic game I can’t ignore. If I have to explain clue to you, then wow! If you like clue, then you’ll love this article I wrote about similar games to Clue

Basically, you know you’re at Mr. body’s house, somebody killed them. You’re trying to figure out who did it before anyone else. The Clue games today are more modern, like there’s a garage and a few extra things. I still like the classic version, but that’s hard to find. This one does have two sides to it, which makes it more replayable as it changes the story a little bit. I can unfold it, so there’s a boardwalk carnival kind of space and then there’s um closer to the classic. You know mansion look, but you know wasn’t miss Scarlett.

Was it, Mr. colonel mustard, this one’s kind of done like they made it real, modern and took away some of the classic characteristics? But the game is exactly the same. You know, there’s the candlestick, the knife, the gun, it’s just like a little deduction game for the kids kind of helps them um, think uh kind of abstractly,

Spiderman Jenga

Jenga is a great game for any age, but Spiderman Jenga is my favorite version. Mostly because I like Spiderman he’s great! Also this makes it more of a gamer type game, because everybody has a little spider-man pond that they’re trying to climb up the tower to get to the hobgoblin to save the day. But as you pull out pieces, they have instructions that kind of change up stuff and tell you what to do, there’s also a spinner. So it tells you how many to pull out and things like that.

So it’s just it’s a lot more fun. The art on the box is beautiful. There’s that spinner I was talking about and obviously, if you have just this one, you can play just regular Jenga. You don’t have to do the extra rules every time, you could just do the regular rules.

Once Upon a Castle

So this is a kid’s version of a roll and write game which is going to be a huge genre right now. Everybody has this little dotted line castle, so that’s kind of nice. It gives you a template to draw on. You’re trying to get resources to gather to build the different elements and be the first person to collect them. Then at the end, you can cut the whole page and draw on it. The kids like that and it’s just real cutesy. You know draw on kind of artwork like everything looks like this, and it’s just I like that but the kids like it and can help get them into roll and write board games.

Dragonwood and Dragonrealm

Dragon realm and dragon wood are kind of based in the same universe.

Dragonwood

is similar to Dragon Realm light, we’re just rolling dice to defeat goblins and monsters and stuff. You have little added bonuses like these purple cards it’s just one of the best probability and strategy games.

It’s really cute and fun, and I love the artwork and I’m a sucker for a fantasy theme, because I love Lord of the Rings and Narnia. So just that really good chi for the family game night.

Dragon realm

is basically the same but also comes with a modular board kind of feel upping the difficulty level. You’re exploring different regions and completing quests and things, but you still have the same basic cards and the dice, and you know it’s just an expanded version Dragonwood. Basically, it’s just super great artwork, great quality pieces and is on my list of great board games.

Roll for It

It’s just a good fun classic family game, perfect for 6-8 year olds but loved by adults. It’s like a better version of Yahtzee. There’s going to be these cards laid out and they have different goals and requirements. Everybody’s going to take turns rolling their dice and then trying to match it up with the cards. As you get all your dice or you fill up all the requirements you get that card.

The goal of the games is to achieve 40 points. Everyone has a different color of dice. This is the deluxe version, so it plays up to eight players, the regular Roll for It only plays four players and the cards aren’t nearly as pretty. However the game’s the same and it’s great as there’s also an app. If you don’t want to buy the game, you can spend like two bucks on the app and the app is great.

Sushi Roll

Sushi roll is Sushi Go the card game, but with dice. So there is an imaginary sushi conveyor belt and, as this conveyor of sushi’s going around people are just picking the pieces they want. That’s the general theme and kind of story behind it. You’re trying to collect sets like the more dumplings you get the more points you get. If you have wasabi, you know that increases certain sets. There’s also pudding or it looks like flan, but it’s pudding that will be like an end game bonus.

There is sashimi nagiri and all that stuff in there. It’s really fun and my kids love sushi and it does say eight plus, but our six-year-old will play this and she does fine. The dice version is easier for the kids to grasp than the card version, even though they’re exactly the same.

So something about that tactile of the dice I think is what makes a difference for the younger kids. They love it and its just cute little sushi pieces, I mean they’re just adorable and it’s fun, you know very kawaii and what have you.

Beez

This spans a wide range of kids because it’s bug related and that’s kind of the selling younger siblings, but it is also just a really good game. So it is labeled as 14 plus but you’ll find that a lot of the age recommendations do not really match up, they’re arbitrary. I highly recommend this as one of the best board games for 8 year olds!

So the object is to make a little field of flowers out of hexagonal game pieces. You roll dice match them up with the cards to score points. The only thing I don’t really care for a whole lot with this one is um. The points are little bees made out of eraser material I just wish that was done better, but it gets the job done and they’re kind of cute.

Hive

So hive has very cool pieces! They’re stones and they have bugs on them! Want more could 6 year olds ask for! There are two sets of stones, one black set and one white. You take turns playing a piece, and each piece does something different and I like that. The whole goal is to surround your opponent’s queen bee. That’s what you’re trying to do by using your other pieces, they all move different and some of them even copy other people’s movements.

It’s a great game, and I love that it comes in a travel bag just that mobility aspect. They also make a smaller version than this for even more portability! It’s called Hive Pocket. We play this one a lot, I’m terrible at it.

Well that’s the best family board game for six to eight year olds list! This list was designed to help your child learn deductive reasoning and strategic thinking early on. If you and your family are taking a vacation then you should read the article about the Best Travel Board Games for Adults Have you played any games that are a good choice with Kids, let us know in the comments below!