Top Kid-Friendly Card Games

Or maybe I’m overestimating your opinion of me!

The truth is life is busy. Running a household of six people, in a blended family where we also have to manage visits with the other parent in addition to school, extracurricular activities and keeping everyone alive and clean WHILE running a small business is Tough with a capital “T.” The fact that the tablets and televisions and game consoles keep kids happy, getting along with one another and parents sane literally has no price tag.

But even I have to slow down sometimes. I’m a go-getter, no doubt, and I have been learning this year in my own personal journey that life is about much more than accomplishing more and burning the candle at both ends. Sometimes we have to unplug and do less to accomplish more.

This is why I love holidays so much. Of course I love the different social and religious meaning behind holidays and the tradition they bring, but I love that they force you to push pause on the busy-ness of life. When you work from home and your kids are out of school, it’s difficult to be very productive, which is a natural reminder to unplug from work and focus on spending quality time with them. It’s also an opportunity to unplug from electronics and play good old fashioned board games and card games. So, that’s what we’ve done the last couple of days in the David household.

The current favorite is Skip-Bo!

If you’ve never played Skip-Bo, it’s pretty simple, and fun for the whole family. Age recommendation is 7 and older, which is all of our kids, but if you have younger children they can always team up with an adult! We also did a variation and played on teams, which really upped the competitive factor!

We do have some board games too (Parcheesi is a favorite), but there’s something about card games that you just don’t get in other games. Card games require some thinking and strategy and can be as complex as you like, but they don’t leave out the player with basic skills. There’s also plenty of time for conversation and snacking. Since the littles were at their dad’s house, we just had our teenagers, who typically spend so much time upstairs in their rooms ignoring interaction with adults that it’s easy to forget they’re at home! It was really refreshing to be able to get them to sit at the table longer than the brief time it takes them to finish a plate of food and actually spend quality time with them.

Skip-Bo is fun, but there are several other family-friendly card games you can purchase, or play with a regular old deck of cards. Besides the unplugging, quality time factors, cards are so inexpensive, you can usually find them at the dollar store! No need to go out and spend a fortune to enjoy the company of your family or entertain your kids. Some other games we like:

• Uno
• Phase 10
• Gin Rummy (used to play this with cream soda and crackers with my Nana)
• Go Fish
• Slapjack
• Michigan (this is a Boudiette family tradition!)

See you around town!