Games for my son: Age 6

[PaulJohn]

Good evening all,

This topic isn't entirely off topic, but as a new poster, I thought it was far enough from RPGs that I'd put it here.

My son is about to turn 6 next month, and I'd like to find some games for him to play. Obviously there are some old standards, but I'm looking for something a bit more off the beaten path.

He's pretty smart, already reading at a 2nd-3rd grade level, but not always patient, so something 'rules light' is probably best.

I'm looking for card games, board games, miniatures games, whatever. Whatever game should be playable by just 2 people because it will normally be just he and I playing, but something that could be played by as many as 6 might be good because once he knows how to play we could have his 2 cousins join us and play (they're 10-12, so should be able to handle anything he can learn). And there's always the possibility that I could convince my wife to join us on occasion.

He actually asked about Pokemon one day, I think because of TV commercials for Diamond and Pearl, but since I've never played Pokemon, not sure what a good starting age for the game would be.

And I'm already working on a small D&D based solo adventure for him (letting him play a 3rd-5th level fighter...I'll be posting something about creating that character somewhere else).

Anyone else out there hoping to raise a gamer that has some ideas?

Thanks in advance, and safe travels!

Paul

 

[takyris]

I like easy, light D&D adventures because they encourage good math skills. "Okay, you need a 15 to hit the dragon, and you rolled an 11 and add +6 to that. What does that make?"

With D&D, at least, I'd be careful to keep it light and fluffy and aim for non-humanoid monsters as often as possible. For Rules-Lite, you might also have fun with one of the True20-type systems -- Mutants & Masterminds, if he wants to play a superhero, or True20 for something that's like d20 Modern but a bit simpler. There's still some complexity, but it's complexity that the GM can handle.

As a kid, I always enjoyed playing cardgames with my parents. The problem, though, is that most of them need more than 2 players to really be fun -- Hearts, Crazy Eights, etc. If you can come up with a foursome somehow, I'd recommend a "simplified-Bridge"-type game like Pedro (try a Wikipedia search on it), which I played with my parents and sister as a kid. It's fun, competitive, and teaches strategy really quickly.

I don't really know the rules to Yahtzee, but I've played it a bunch on my PDA, and I found it fun. It's another game that might teach some good math skills.

If you're looking at video games, things are a little sparse. Systems that are slammed for being too kid-oriented are probably where you'll have the best luck -- the Nintendo DS and the Wii both have some games that have been well-received. The site "GamerDad" has some good reviews and recommendations in that regard.

As far as strategy games go, checkers is always good, as is Othello (the "surround pips to change them to your color" game).

Sorry, I'm kind of rambling. Hope that some of this helps!

EDIT: Also, check out some of the PopCap games -- they're made for people on the go, so they don't have the painful learning curve that drives away a lot of kids. Personally, I think that "Bookworm Adventures" is a great game for all ages -- there's no time limit on turns, so you can let the kids brainstorm, and it's a great vocabulary-builder.

 

[jonesy]

Car Wars with Matchbox cars? Though I don't remember how hard the rules were to learn.

I started playing chess with my dad when I was 7. Neither of us knew that much about it so we learned as we played. We still play at least once a month. Just make sure you get a board with pieces that represent clearly what they are if you try it.

"That's not a rook, that's the bishop."
"Oh. Well then it's checkmate."

 

[bento]

I sometimes play http://www.hasbro.com/Attacktix/ with my six year old son. We have both Star Wars and Transformer ones. They now have out Marvel Super-Heroes as well.

It runs like a junior version of HeroClix. Rather than counting squares for movement, you slide the figures across the table and count the audible clicks. Once you've moved you aim and fire your figure's weapon and either your opponent is left standing or is knocked down.

Simple enough not to go over their heads with rules, and exciting enough to keep their attention. You can play a game in about 10 to 20 minutes depending on the number of figures each of you have.

We'll probably shift to HeroClix or Heroscape in another year or so.

 

[PaulJohn]

Just a quick update (keep ideas coming, but based on comments I'm going to add a few comments):

1) Checkers: He already plays some checkers with his grandmother, though I guess I should sit down and play a couple games with him just to see how he's doing.

2) Chess: Surprisingly, while we were out shopping yesterday, he saw a chess set and said he wanted it. I didn't buy it because it was an expensive set, and we already have a set someplace (we're going to be building a home later this year and are currently in a smaller home with much of our stuff in an assortment of storage places). I might have to either buy a cheap set, or dig up a set from storage (I think I have the 'learner' set with the moves pictured on the base of the piece).

3) Video games: We have a couple of Nintendo DS systems. His favorite games seem to be side scroller games along the line of the various Mario Brothers games. And at Grandmas house there is a Playstation 2, so he gets to play a little on that (the Star Wars Lego game, the Sly Cooper Series, and Harvest Moon are his favorites).

4) Uno: Picked up a Batman themed Uno card set yesterday, and though it was just the two of us (I got rid of the reverse cards) he had a great time playing. Just need to teach him to keep his cards hidden, and to conserve his wild cards a bit more, he was occasionally playing them when he had a reqular card he could use. He managed to win about 3 games in a row.

5) Yahtzee: Found some Yahtzee score sheets online, now just have to find some 6 sided dice...shouldn't be a problem (as a classic RPG dice whore), except I believe that my beer mug full o' dice is in storage. May be an excuse to buy some more dice!

6) Attacktix: I may check this out, I've been seeing it in Wal Mart for years, and if I'm not mistaken, Jeff Grubb was involved in the initial game design. It sounds like fun, though the wife may not appreciate me picking him up a game that launches missiles around the table. He likes both Star Wars and comics, so if I can pick some of those up, it'll be even easier to get his attention.

7) Car Wars: Could be fun, but do I don't remember how intense the rules are either. We've got a house full of hot wheels, so if I could create something of a 'model based' version that would keep his attention even better.

8) Pokemon: I tried to take a look at the Pokemon site, but don't know what was going on, either my PC, or just bad flash, but couldn't really find much in the way of 'information', so I may do some more research there.

In looking around online saw a game called Labrynth Junior. He loves doing mazes, so it might be something that he'd find interesting.

And saw another game at B&N yesterday that seemed like it would be fun, multiple triangular shapes that you lay down on a grid. Forget what the goal is, but it seemed fairly straight-forward.

Again, thanks for the input, but more is welcome, and forgive me if I missed responding to a point you made, I had a lot of games I wanted to get mentioned, and I may simply have overlooked something. I'll try and post as we try more games.

Safe travels,

Paul

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

My kids are seven and four. The games they enjoy and play regularly are:

Sorry
Trouble
Uno
Clue Jr. - 4 year old
Haunted Mansion Clue - 7 year old
Connect Four
Card games: Go Fish, Crazy 8s and Old Maid
Monopoly Jr. (the current favorite - I think we've played it six times in the past week).
Quarto - 7 year old, although my 4 year old loves to play with his own constantly changing rules.

 

[bento]

Quarto - 7 year old, although my 4 year old loves to play with his own constantly changing rules.

This must be a common theme with kids around these ages - constantly changing the rules. If my 6 year old likes the game pieces but doesn't care for the rules (too complex, doesn't favor the youngest player, etc.) he's adding new rules. He also likes to take out several different games to use the pieces and make up a completely different game.

 

[The Axe]

Pokemon TCG

My son is seven and really gets a kick out of the Pokemon TCG. It's not too hard to learn (though they have recently changed the rules with D&P), but you'll probably have to do the deck-building for a while---we've found that about 24 energy, 24-26 pokemon, and 10-12 trainer cards works fairly well, and most of the canned decks seem to have about that assortment.

We also play a modified version of Go (the board game) on a 9x9 board to first capture (no territory count) from time to time. Once he gets some of the basic strategy down, we'll move to 'capture 3' on a 9x9, then probably an actual full-rules territory game on the 9x9.

Both Lego Star Wars games are pretty entertaining, as are both of the Star Wars Battlefront games (though some may find them a bit violent). We've also enjoyed 'Ty the Tasmanian Tiger' and some of the character platformers (SpongeBob, Fairly Oddparents, etc.)

Of course, there are the classics: Sorry, Monopoly Jr., Trouble, etc. We've even played the big version of Monopoly once, but I'm not sure the attention span is there yet.

 

[crystal]

My boy is six and my girl is 8. We play things like chess, checkers, poker ( 5 card draw ) , pool, fooseball , air hokey, darts, puzzles, gold fish, out door we do things like, chase, hide and seek, look at the clouds make up shapes, look through the telescope at the stars and moon, name the species of plants and trees, name the bugs ( my boy is into bugs and creepy crawlies ) , microscope ( kids love to look at things through it ) ,