boardgames

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.

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.

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

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)

Kids version of Ticket to Ride is loved by my 6 year old.

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!

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.

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 😅

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.

For something with fighting, Kraken Attack is a lot of fun. And for something less combative and unique, Gnomes at Night is a lot of fun.

Fluxx. Anyone that can read can play Fluxx. Sushi Go and Patchwork would also fit the bill.

My soon-to-be four year-old loves Sushi Go and we love playing it with her. She mostly just picks the cute cards and doesn't win much, but games go fast and my wife and I have fun.

Might be a little young but I got my son (at 8yo) the Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Begins Game. You don't need a DM. We laugh our asses off playing it.

Donut County. Great little game to read along with. Simple mechanics and flipping ADORABLE.

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.

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.

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.

When my kids were about that age we would play piggy back brigade. Fun little racing game with cute pigs. Easy enough for kids to pick up and fun for adults too.

My go to for young people is King of Tokyo, also good for people not that into board games to play, quick and fun.

Cooperative games usually are more complicated for the younger ones, maybe Forbidden Desert? Though from what I recall playing it, you will lose a lot against the sandstorm so your kid would have to be able to deal with that.

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).

Jaipur is playable. Even if a 5yo child will not get the mind game, accumulate and sold ressources to win tokens is understandable.

I can recommend "Cat Rescue", it's played with cards in a cloth board and it's really cute. The mechanics are really similar to Candy Crush, it's fun to play with family.

Forbidden desert! Great co-op game. We used to call it Die in The Desert because my group was so bad at it.

My recommendations would be karak as an introduction to dungeon crawlers, ice cool for dexterity, stone age junior for the memory advantage of kids and king domino as the next step