I grew up playing all kinds of board games with my family. My all time favorite is still Boggle… and I’m really good at it, not shy to say so! Here’s the trick, don’t underestimate the letter ‘s’. It will give you another point every time you use it to make a word plural. What words can you find below, {wink}?
Or growing up we also played Pit with lots of shouting “one, gotta one, gotta one!” I also loved to play Acquire with my Dad, he’s an accountant. I love the tag line on the box, “High adventure in the world of finance.” It’s all about acquiring property. And it looks like this game is so ancient that it’s selling for almost $100… hey Dad, where’s that game box at anyway?
Now in my own family we love to play games too, although it’s much different with young ones. My son isn’t quite ready for Boggle, so we play Boggle Jr. We also just got Operation for Christmas and it still makes the kids jump every time they get buzzed! Or Memory is a hit, as well as Hi Ho Cherry O!
I recently was sent a new fun game from I Can Do That Games called Curious George Hide & Seek Zoo. It involves wearing masks and playing hide & seek, and comes with a walkie talkie. What more could a kid want? It’s a hit to say the least. They have other fun games with George or even games with Dr. Seuss characters. I’d love to play the Green Eggs & Ham game.
What games did you play growing up and what games do you play with your family now?
My 6-yr-old boys are finally old enough to games! We have been playing Trouble and a kids verson of Uno. They love playing games.
We just (re)discovered Aquire – LOVE that game :) I’m good at Boggle too ;) LOVE that too.
Fun post :)
I just want everyone to know that “Rame” is my brother and another hard core boggle player! You think we’re a little bit of a competitive family?! I love it, Rame. You win the virtual high five!
Hey my hubby just acquired a copy of Acquire after digging through his parents’ basement. If wouldn’t result in our immediate separation (hubby’s a boardgame geek), I might sneak it away and sell it.
I’d list all the games our family has but that list would take several hours to complete.
-Abby
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I forgot about Acquire. I loved that game. I used to play it with my husband and a CPA friend when I was on Wall Street.
Ahh, how my times have changed. Love this. We wrote about Family Game Night a few months ago: http://www.alphamom.com/last-weekend/2009/01/start_a_family_game_night.php#more
When I was a kid, my siblings and I loved to play LIFE, Clue, Operation, Connect 4, and Scrabble. The Curious George Games looks adorable. I’ll have to check it out! Thanks!
Jen
Creative and Curious Kids!
http://raisingcreativeandcuriouskids.blogspot.com
So fun! I was all about Hi-Ho Cheerio as a kid. We love games here.
My 5-yr-old daughter will play Master Mind and Clue (Sr.!) all day. And Zooreka with my 4-yr-old.
We grown ups LOVE Ticket to ride and Settlers.
Also found this beautiful memory game: http://ex49.com/products/content/view/93/56/
I LOVE the I CAN DO THAT GAME!!!! It is great because old brother (7) can play his sisters game with her without my help. Even the neighborhood kids can pick it up and play with out much direction from an adult. Because we travel alot we like more games that are grab and go like Uno and card games.
My kids love Candyland Castle. They are 2 and 4 and I love that they can actually play it together! We also enjoy Dont Spill the Beans (we play a modified version with my little guy). The adults around here love Yahtzee, Catch Phrase, Scattegories, and Apples to Apples.
We’re big game fans here, my favorite growing up was always Clue. Now, there’s a couple of Clue variations that I love as well. We also play Carcassone, Kill Dr. Lucky, and Who Stole Ed’s Pants.
My kids love the Eric Carle board games (EXCELLENT games), Memory (both store bought and homemade), and Jam Pack.
I’m loving that my kids are really getting into games too.
Candyland and Chutes and Ladders were my favorite kid games. And I’m waiting for DS1 to be old enough for them. He turns 3 tomorrow and I got him Memory, Lucky Duck and Hi Ho Cherry Os. He really likes to play with the Cootie game and I can’t wait to get started with the new ones.
Boggle is the GREATEST game of all time. My family doesn’t like to play, I guess because I’m pretty good at it too. Also enjoy Scrabble immensly. I really love all kind of work games. I like doing the Sudoku in the newspaper nowadays too. Keeps the mind sharp–at least that’s what they tell me. I’m still waiting for results.
I LOVE Boggle! My husband hates to play it because I can’t ever play just one game. Although, he ALWAYS wins so I’m not sure why he doesn’t like to play. Yes- it’s good to remember the “S” and also to see if the word can be spelled backwards somehow. For example: ten – net
Scrabble is my all-time favorite. I am addicted to playing it on Facebook with my family and friends. It’s great for a “long-distance” game night :)
Stephanie Neff – I almost included in this post how much more awesome I am at Boggle than you, Sweet Sista, but I didn’t want to go there. But now it’s on!! I call a Boggle Match at Easter dinner! You’re going down!
Collette – Yes, I actually love Big Boggle better. My parents still have their game, but I wish they made them again too.
Amanda – I love it! I wish we lived near so we could have a good challenge.
My older siblings used to play Risk and Clue a lot. My mom is a Scrabble wiz. We also had some unusual games like the NBC Peacock game, wherever that came from, and we had Thinking Man’s Golf. Othello was a nice alternative to checkers, and Mastermind held interest longer than Memory. But now, besides the usual Monopoly and Cherry-O games (which the kids love, btw) I look for ones we haven’t heard of before. I think Blokus is easy to come by now, but we also like Wooly Bully and Squint, Jr. And although the Rush Hour games are sold as one-player puzzles, we sometimes have fun playing them together, and they come in different ability versions.
We loved to play PIT, too! Actually, we still have the game from when we were kids, orange bell and all. My sister also found one at Goodwill that was in better shape than our childhood one and gave it to my parents. We’ve played it several times since and it’s even more fun now! I only wish someone would make a more kid-friendly version…how many kids do you know have even an inkling of what on earth FLAX is? ;)
I forgot to add one of my other favorite games: EuroRails. It’s a long game that the parents stay up late into the night playing and snacking while the kids sleep. Someday I’ll win a game against my most competitive brothers!
How funny, I’m an absolute boggle master (too!) , and we love Acquire! These were the games we played together when my family visited our grandparents’ farm and they bring back such wonderful memories.
If we someday meet you’re hereby challenged to a game of boggle (or five). I’ll bring my travel set. :)
My husband just taught (sort of) my 2 year old how to play War, the card game. He loves to put his card down and wait to see if he won or not. I can’t wait until he’s old enough to play Nerts with us, one of our favorite family games. We also love Settlers (of course) and Loaded Questions. We love games!
We were a big boggle and pit family too! Sadly I don’t actually own either game now. They don’t sell “Big Boggle” anymore(just like the original, only, uh, bigger) and the goods sold in Pit have changed. My brother, husband and brothers-in-law and big gamers and recently have been getting very into Acquire (which I had never heard of).
My son’s favorite games to play with us are Memory, Ants in the Pants, and Don’t Break the Ice.
The adults around here stick mainly to what my husband calls “the big three” Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Risk. We also enjoy Phase 10 and Skip-Bo. I love word games like Scrabble too. I actually could go on and on here, so I better stop now.
Hey Marie –
Aren’t you overestimated your Boggle abilities? You’re really not that good.
-Steph
Growing up, Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders were favorites. I later learned that my parents are NOT fans of board games, but played them with us just because they loved us and knew we were excited about it. :)
We try to have family game night in our family now once a month. Candy Land is also a favorite, as is Hi Ho Cherry-O and Guess Who.
My youngest would love that Curious George game. It might mean I don’t have to watch the movie again
I grew up playing Boogle and loved it . . . my husband doesn’t like as much (maybe I should let him win once). ;) Our favorite grown up games are Scrabble, Outburst, and TriBond.
Our kids favorites are Sorry, Trouble and UNO. They also like Operation, Clue Jr, and Chutes and Ladders.
I love board games!
Oh I LOVED Boggle and Pit too! Also loved Skip-bo and Twister!
My kids love playing Zingo and slapjack right now. Operation and Taboo still freak me out. We played a lot of monopoly and risk as kids.
Growing up, my family played lots of Boggle, Yahtzee, Scrabble and Sorry. We still play Yahtzee and Scrabble at holidays!
I loved Hi Ho Cherry-O as a kid and my son loves is now. We also like to play Candyland and Let’s Go Fishin’.
Now, I personally like any kind of trivia game, not that I’m that good at them, but I just like to “try” to answer the questions. My favorite as a kid was Go to the Head of the Class.
Operation makes ME jump!
We LOVE to play Acquire! My dad (also an accountant) played it with his brothers growing up and we rediscovered it about 5 years ago. There is actually a new version of it available. There are a few small changes, but overall it’s the same. We have the older version that we bought on eBay for $8.
You don’t find too many people that love Acquire!
I love to play games. Right now, hubby and I are into Sequence but we also really like Pictionary with friends. My mom and I can never pass up a game of Canasta with a cup of tea :)
Katy, I just noticed your link was for the Max game, thanks!
When I was little I LOVED games, and I still do! Candy Land was always my favorite and I love playing it with my 3 yr old daughter now.
My husband and I love to play Phase 10, Fill or Bust, and any games we can play with our girls.
Fisher Price had some great games I was able to get a hold of from garage sales and Mom2Mom sales. Oreo Matching, Teddy Grahams Game, Little People Bingo and Get Better Bear. We also love Operation Brain Surgery, Fishin’ Around, Hi Ho Cherry-O and Hullabaloo DVD.
Katy, what is Max? I tried to find it on amazon with no luck. I also want to try Bananagrams, I think my hubster would love it!
I love checking out new games so I will be back to see who else has a game I have never heard of, thanks!
We played Sorry! Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit. My girls are young so we play Hi Ho Cherry-O, The LadyBug Game, Hullaballo (sp?), and Trouble. We bought Blokus for my 6 year old for her birthday a couple of weeks ago and that one is a hit with all of us (except the 3 year old). Games are fun family time!
My husband and I love to play Big Boggle, Scrabble, Bananagrams, and Gin Rummy.
With the kids we play Candy Land, War (with a deck of cards) and Max (which is my personal fav) Eva’s preschool teacher in Seattle had it in the classroom and we HAD to get our own.
http://scenegreen.co.uk/p/154/603/Toys/Puzzles-and-Games/Myriad-Natural-Toys-Max-Cooperative-Board-Game.html