If my daughter did not understand the rules she'd make new ones until she knew how to play the game the right way.. And I found often that the rules she made up for the game was even more fun then the actually way the game was suposed to be played...

I know how easy it is for the older kids to boast about winning a game and the younger ones do miss out.They are making junior versions of the most popular games now which is terriffic.Just like mum and dad little children love card games so they are a good fun game ...matching pairs ,go fish and snap.all my ol faves.

I totally agree! I'm a huge game fan anyways (board games especially) and now it even gives ME someone to play with. We definitely play our own version of Monopoly and Life. One of the best Go Fish card sets I HAVE to recommend is the I SPY set - for whatever reason EVERYBODY loves it. It's a bit of a twist to your typical Go Fish Game and it makes them really think since the cards don't exactly match. You have to check it out to really see what I mean, but it's worth it. http://www.educationallearninggames.com/i-spy-go-fish-card-game.asp We also love dominos - and you can come up with all different ways to play that! Have fun gaming!

Every so true, I play arravation with my 9 +3 year old. It's so much fun. That's when I try to get my son to say new words.like '' knock mommy off''. He'll say them than and they actually stick with him. So we play new game on ''family night''.

Games are always fun, no matter the age!! Another suggestion to put a spin the the whole "board game" idea is to CREATE YOUR OWN. Get a piece of posterboard & with a black marker design a trail of squares, or circles, or any shape. (simliar to the ones on other board games) Enter a starting & a finishing place. Then the kids (young & old) can color it in. As a family you can then, decide on the theme, or object of the game. Have fun naming the Game too. On a seperate sheet of paper, have an older child write down the rules that you all agree upon for your game. Let the kids pick out the pieces to use, (like pennies, mini toys, action figures, etc. Or even make their own out of cardboard & their own picture.) Find, or make something to keep your game in also! For the next time you want to play it. The other great thing is you can make up as many different & unique games as you want to! That way every child has a chance to use most of their ideas.... Doing this will take up lots of time! Be a great all ages family activity! It also is a nice way to have them use their creativity & imagination! You might have just as much fun as they do!!

what a great idea.  Flexibility keeps one from breaking.

Whilst nannying I often made up my own cards and we played snap sort of games with animals or colour cards............Animals (all done on the computer) instead of saying snap it was the first to make the animals noise, eg. 2 cows showed up "MOOOOO" etc, and the colours you called out the colour, if you got it right you won that hand. simple and very easy & no little bits and they can play as soon as they have rudimentary speach which usually begins with animal sounds etc.  I also had them playing MEMORY again with cards I made up, but to buy is not expensive.  they have to remember where the matching down turned card was and the one with the most pairs at the end wins.  I gave out stickers to the winner only after the packing up was done..................Always get help with the packing up before you get anything else out, what a great skill to learn. haha

Turn taking is a great skill for young children to learn. Just be weary of the very young ie. under 3 - they rather mouth the pieces!

is another good one for oyunger kids

I agree. Even though, sometime in the box they would said age requirement, but for under age we just let them roll the dice for us make them feel that they're in the game too. We love playing Trouble , that the one where you pop the dice.