Do you (or your spouse) love strategy games and want to fold your children into the fun? Do you have a precocious game-loving child? Or are you tired of the classic kid board games? Do you want to find options to stretch your child’s strategy and critical thinking skills? Hoping to incorporate gameschooling into your homeschool repertoire?
You have come to the right place! Let me tell you why…
We are a SERIOUS game-loving family.
My husband and I have played games together as long as we’ve known each other. And it gets competitive! We LOVE a good game that can keep us on our toes, and have several favorites of our own. Playing board games infuses LIFE into our home. We spend some of our favorite nights around our big white table, laughing over a strategy game. For better or for worse, we’ve passed on our love of competition, board games, and strategy on to our wonderful offspring.
My 6 year old (known online as Buddy) is a strategy game fanatic. He is a visual-spatial processor, gifted in math, and an intuitive learner. His favorite way to learn about something is to start in and figure it out as he goes. He has impulsive-kindergarten-boy moments, but also uncanny focus when he’s hooked on something. Buddy still enjoys a game of Monopoly or LIFE, and will willingly play through our collection of preschool games with his 4-year old sister. But his true passion is strategy games.
As is pretty typical, our dining room table has recently been COVERED by games. Buddy spends every spare moment at the table, trying to convince his 8 year old sister to join in on a game.
You might wonder, what kind of strategy games are you talking about? Well…I mean legit adult strategy games that use varying game formats and complex strategy algorithms. These are games that are easily recommended for ages 8-13+…and yes, they are learnable by even young kids!
If you have a gifted thinker, math-inclined strategist child, and have not yet introduced him/her to adult-level games, I would highly challenge you to give it a try!
Kid Versions of Strategy Games
Now, some strategy games do have “kid version” equivalents, such as Ticket To Ride: First Journey or Catan: Junior. Both of these games have recommended ages of 6+, but in our experience can be played by bright kids under this age.
As we own it, I can tell you from experience, Catan: Junior is a great entry/”gateway” strategy game for young children. It takes the strategy/chance of the other Catan family games and evens out the game a bit. Distribution of resources and numbers spread evenly across the board. Play is more pleasant for younger children because players end up getting resources or being able to “do something” on every turn. It’s a great light version of the game, but was mostly played in our house when the kids were 4 & 6 years old. Now, at 6 & 8 years old, my kids want a little more of a challenge. They are clearly ready for the normal versions of strategy games.
In case you’ve never considered it before, benefits of games (or game schooling, for the homeschoolers in the house) include problem solving, anticipatory thinking, math skills, algorithm building, verbal processing, mental flexibility, language/vocabulary development, and knowledge building. If you homeschool, you can find games that correspond to any subject. Plus, playing board games builds skills like turn taking, self-control, and sportsmanship.
As I’ve titled today’s post “3 Strategy Games that Can be Played by A Kindergartener,” here are Buddy’s top 3 strategy games that he has been playing (and recruiting everyone to play with him) this week. If you haven’t added these to your collection, we HIGHLY recommend them!
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Dominion is a 2008 strategy game, which practically makes it a grandfather among strategy games. It involves a classic deck-building/card drafting/hand management strategy, developing the optimal deck that will allow the player to ultimately score victory point cards.
Dominion is recommended for age 13+, has a game play time of 30+ min, and has a 7.7/10 rating out of 63k (yes, THOUSAND) reviews on boardgamegeek.com.
In our experience playing with young kids, Dominion can be played by kids as young as 6 years old, and games really can end in 30 min (don’t you hate it when a game says it can be played in 45 min but then 2 hrs later you’re still playing?!). We have had games of Dominion go longer than 30 min, depending on the card distribution, but I would say games can reliably be played in 30-45 min.
Education benefit: Dominion requires computational math skills, algorithmic thinking, and vocabulary building (how many adults know what a duchy is?!). It would be a great game to accompany studies of medieval times, given the vocabulary and theme involved.
Be aware/for parents: There is a card in the deck that is titled Witch, and its actions result in players taking a Curse card. If this is objectionable content for you, the game can absolutely be played without using these cards, with no detriment to game play.
Agricola is another classic, having come out in 2007. I confess, we didn’t get into it until recently, because we’d heard of it’s outrageous complexity. Agricola IS complex, but not too complex for the right young child to be able to play. The premise of Agricola involves farm building through diverse mechanisms – pastures, animal breeding, reproducing, house building, farm land, and major/minor improvements. There is an added complexity in the form of hand cards.
Agricola is recommended for age 12+, has a game play time of 30-150 min, and has a 8/10 rating out of 53k reviews on boardgamegeek.com.
Agricola is one of Jon and my favorites, as well as one of Buddy’s favorites. It has been more challenging for Buddy to learn when compared to a simple deck-building game like Dominion. But a good level of challenge that can be hard to find at times for gifted kids. The variety of different ways to go about strategizing makes Agricola feel interesting and new each time we play. Agricola also has the major bonus of having beginner and advanced adaptations, plus a 1-player adaptation, so your only child (or child who wants to play while you’re making dinner and unavailable) can still enjoy it.
Education benefit: Agricola requires computational math skills, process of elimination, anticipatory planning, and vocabulary building. It would be a great game to accompany studies of farming or medieval village life.
Pandemic differs from Buddy’s other two choices this week in that it is a cooperative team game, rather than a competitive game. Despite being cooperative, Pandemic is no less strategic in nature. The premise of this game is that your team is a research team trying to save the world from virulent epidemics that are breaking out and spreading around the globe.
Pandemic received a 7.7/10 rating out of 73k boardgamegeek.com reviews. It can be played with 2-4 players, and has a stated 45 minute game time. Pandemic states that it is for ages 8+, though the community reviews recommend it for ages 10+. We would challenge this and say that the right kids as young as 6 would still very much enjoy playing this game alongside parents or adult friends.
Education benefit: Pandemic requires calculation of probabilities, predictive decision making, world geography, and teamwork/collaboration. It would be a great game to accompany studies of microbiology, virology, public health, world geography, or health science professions.
These are just 3 of Buddy’s favorite adult strategy games that can be played by a kindergartener. We hope that you will continue to follow along as we share more of Buddy’s favorite strategy games, week by week!
If you are already a gaming family, peave a comment below with YOUR child’s favorite strategy games. We’re always excited for new ideas!
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These are great suggestions! We don’t have many games but the kids LOVE to play the ones we do have. With us being mostly screen free at home these will be a great new addition to their options for free time. I feel like these will be fun tool for learning.
Thanks for the reviews!
Author
Hi Suezanne!! We LOVE games for both screen free time and learning. My children are known to have 2-3 different full board games out and played by 8-9am. I’m looking forward to sharing more of our favorites over time. If you have any that you particularly love, let me know! I always love adding to our game collection! 😀
Declan loves strategy games too! (He is also math inclined) We have dominion. But as I’ve never played, I haven’t thought of playing with him. We’ll be adding it to the rotation this week! Maybe sometime this summer we could have a game day. ❤
Author
Oh yes, must game day this summer! E would be so fantastically excited! Dominion is a pretty easy one, strategy-wise, for the kids to pick up. And it’s great because by changing the mix of cards used each game, it’s always different and the kids have to implement different strategies based on the available options. We have several of the expansion packs as well, which gives even more variety to game play. Let me know how it goes when you try it! 😀
We seem to be playing a lot of board games now too! Even though our kids are older, we find it a lovely time to sit and chill with each other. I would highly recommend it for all the educational benefits and plotting too.
Author
Right?! It’s impressive to watch a child develop a strategic brain! 😃
I love games and have never heard of any of these! It looks like your family is having so much fun, too! I will have to add them to my wishlist!
Author
Oh yes! You should! These are just 3 of many that we love!
What a great idea for family friendly fun. As a high school teacher, I see way too many kids who have been brought up with way too much screen time. Playing games would be a way to help alleviate that. Your family is adorable and they look so happy!
Author
Totally! I can imagine how, without games, my kids would clamber for more screen time. I much prefer the board games. 🙂
What a great post! I have to admit I have never heard of these games before eventhough we love games too! I love the family time toegterh away from TV and devices and the clear benefits it has when it comes to mathematical deductions and strategic planning,
Author
Awesome! Hopefully you’ll be able to try these ones sometime! 😃
With so much screen time, board games have been forgotten. So far the only game I’ve successfully engaged my daughter with is the Scrabble game. My son however found it boring. These three board games here seem pretty exciting, he might just like it. Thanks.
I haven’t heard of any of these games! My son is starting kindergarten this Fall so thank you for this list!
Author
If you guys game a lot, you should totally check them out!! So fun! 😃
Very interesting – I have never seen any of these games. I teach kindergarten and so I am curious about whether my students and families know about them. thanks for sharing.
Author
Fun! Yes, for the average kindergartener, I would probably recommend the Catan Junior and Ticket to Ride: My First Journey options. For students who are mathematically inclined/visual spatial learners/strategic thinkers, I would recommend the adult level games. 👍🏻
We are total game buffs and love love love Ticket to Ride and Catan! I didn’t know there were kids versions for the same!
– http://www.allshethings.com
Author
YES!! They are perfect entries to the games for the preschool/early elementary crew, depending on how naturally strategic-minded or math-inclined the child is!
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