A couple weeks ago, I took the kids up north for a little rest and relaxation. We spent the first several days playing in the river and pool and enjoying heaps of poolside games.
RELATED: Gameschooling: The Best Card Games for Your Homeschool!
And then we had two extremely rainy days to contend with. My kids were tired of playing the games I keep in my pool bag, and the game closet was filled with games that were either too old for my little crew or ones that they had long since outgrown. I decided to head to the nearby 5 and 10 store to pick up a few new games for my parents’ game closet.
What fun we had!! And it started us on a new kick: card games! We had enjoyed card games in the past. My kids love to while away a rainy afternoon playing War or Go Fish, but this started a card game phase. In fact, I shuffled so much those first few days that my thumbs actually hurt. I kid you not! I’ve since toughened up and today I’m sharing some of our recent favorite family-friendly card games!
Family-Friendly Card Games
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10+ Family-Friendly Card Games
Clumsy Thief
2-6 players, ages 8 and up
Clumsy Thief is an award-winning, fun, easy-to-learn, quick-to-play, fast-paced math facts game. Your children will be so caught up in the action that they won’t even realize they are learning their math facts! Warning: this game is addictive and your children will request to play it over and over and over again. It is one of our family’s favorite math games.

Monopoly Deal
2-5 players, ages 8 and up
I don’t know about you guys, but Monopoly causes my kids to fight. We just cannot play it successfully. Plus, it’s a commitment to take out Monopoly. The game can last days! Enter Monopoly Deal, the fast-playing card game version of the classic game. You can collect properties, swap, steal, and charge other players. It’s all the fun of the classic game in a fast-playing, 15-minutes top format.

Phase 10
2-6 players, ages 7 and up
Phase 10 is a rummy-style card game where players compete to see who can complete phases first. A phase is a combination of cards: sets, runs, cards of the same color, or a combination. The deck includes wild cards and skip cards for added fun. Players must complete one phase to advance to the next phase. The first player to complete all ten phases wins the game.

Rat a Tat Cat
2-6 players, ages 8 and up
Rat a Tat Cat is one of the games we purchased while up north. We have been playing it nonstop, as you can see in the above photo. The game has won a number of awards. It’s an easy-to-learn card game that works on math, memory, and strategy. The goal is to get rid of your high cards (the rats) and replace them with the low cards (the cats). The player with the lowest score wins the game

Skip-Bo
2-6 players, ages 7 and up
I loved this game as a kid! It’s sort of like solitaire, but for a group. The goal is to get rid of each of your cards in numerical order from 1-12. It sounds easy, right? Well, it’s more complicated than that. Play involves several piles: draw pile, building piles, stockpiles, and discard piles. In addition to trying to get rid of your cards, you must pay attention to what your opponents are doing! Skip-Bo cards act as wild cards for added fun. It’s a great game for teaching sequencing and strategy.

Sleeping Queens
2-5 players, ages 8 and up
Sleeping Queens has been a new obsession over here! My kids are in love with it! Sleeping Queens was created by a 6-year-old, which makes it even more special. It’s a fun game where you must “wake up” Queens who have fallen asleep under a spell. The cards are beautiful and feature quirky characters such as the Pancake Queen and Ladybug Queen. The object of Sleeping Queens is to be the first player to “wake up” (read: collect) a certain number of Queens or a certain number of points. These values change depending on the number of players in the game. But there’s more to it than that: there are potions and knights and dragons involved, too!

Spot It
2-8 players, ages 7 and up
It is a simple, easy to learn game that all ages can enjoy. The neat thing about this deck of cards is that any two cards have one, and only one, match. Each card has colorful objects and words on it, in various sizes. In this game, you have to be the first to spot it. Everyone is playing at once so it’s fun and fast and crazy. The winner is the person with the most cards at the end. We have been playing the waterproof version all summer long!

Sushi Go
2-5 players, ages 8 and up
As a sushi addict, I had to try this game! I love the cards- the graphics are fantastic. In this fast-paced game, the goal is to pick the best combination of sushi. Play involves selecting cards and then passing your hand to the player next to you. Cards have point values and many interact with each other. For example, dip a nigiri in wasabi and you get three times the points! The game is a great introduction to strategy, probability, and quick-thinking!

There’s a Moose in the House
2-5 players, ages 8 and up
This is the game that hurt my thumbs when we were up north! We have played so many times that the deck looks like we’ve had it for years, rather than just a couple of weeks. In this fantastically quirky card game, the goal is to keep moose out of your house while putting them in your opponents’ houses. The cards are hysterical and the game brings about raucous belly laughter from your kiddos. It’s an easy to learn, fast to play card game that will result in giggles. The player with the fewest moose in his or her house wins.

UNO
2-10 players, ages 7 and up
UNO is everyone’s favorite card game! I’ve never met a kid who didn’t love it. The goal is to be the first player to get rid of your hand by matching colors or numbers. Wild cards, skips, reverse cards, and draw cards are included for added fun. This is a great game to keep in your purse for restaurants and waiting rooms. This year, we discovered the waterproof version and have been playing poolside all summer long! It is the perfect classic game!
…. and while not technically card games, these are the same size. Here are two dice games for families:

Go Nuts
2 to 4 players, ages 8 and up
This dice game is like Yahtzee meets acorns and squirrels and kids love it. It is fast to play and tons of fun. To play, roll your dice quickly and add up as many points (read: acorns) as you can before your opponent rolls a dog (which chases your squirrel away). The player with the most points wins the game.

Pizza Party
2 players, ages 6 and up
This is a speedy two-player dice game. Take out a slice card and quickly roll your dice. Match the images on your slice. When you “fill” a slice, grab another one. The first player to complete an entire pizza wins the game! You can watch my boys play it here:
This post has been part of a 5-day iHomeschool Network hopscotch. Please click the image below to see the other posts in this series:
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UNO and Monopoly have always been my favorite games as a kid. And I’m really happy to see my nephews and nieces still playing these too!
How many board/card games do you own? ? I’m curious.
Do you play games every day? We have sleeping queens & rat a tat cat and do like those.
I want to get more… For me it’s a storage issue 🙂
Too many! I would like to say we play daily, but that isn’t always the case. We do play something most days, though! I store them in a bathroom closet that was meant for a washer/dryer.
My favorite card fan is the classic UNO!
Set!!
Skipbo is a current favorite here with our young ones.
I’m so excited about this group!
UNO is our absolute favorite card game! Adding these others to our wishlist. 😉
We love Spot It and Uno and our new favorite us Exploding Kittens.
We love Skip-Bo, Uno, and Spot it!
We live Uno and War!
Uno I would have to say is my favorite. I remember long summer nights playing at my uncles with the whole family. ❤️
Our favorite right now is Uno. My 6 year old is just starting to understand games and strategy. With Uno, she’s all giggles!
Our favorite Card game is Uno. It’s a tradition to play every year with my grandma on Christmas night. She is 86 this year and still a great Uno player!
I love SkipBo! I had an aunt with significant delays, but she loved playing cards and we spent hours upon hours doing so.
We love BLINK. It takes about 2 minutes to play each time and really gets your hand/eye coordination working. Great for kids who have a short attention span. Good for ages 5 and up.
My kids have been loving War lately….simple and fun!
We love good old fashioned gold fish and Spot It! I also love War for number recognition.
My five year old just learned to play crazy eights and loves it!
I shared one of my favorite card games in this blog post: Tens Concentration.
Hi, Denise! Thank you for sharing this. Your book is one of my favorites and I gush about it all the time!
Right now, Sushi Go is the 8 year old’s favorite. She also likes cribbage and 5 Crowns. And there has been a lot of Set & Spot It being played over the holidays. We added the new expansion Imploding Kittens for Christmas, but haven’t had a chance to pull out the Exploding Kittens deck & give it a play.
We really love moose in the house!
We have just started playing Alphabet Animal Go-Fish (which I found at Ace Hardware haha!). I love how excited they are to play.
We love SkipBo! Also, I like Rook, Spades, Phase 10, Uno… So many! 🙂
Right now our favorite card game is I Spy Go Fish game. I want to check out the Moose game though!
Our favorite card game is Dragonwood!
We are big fans of Uno and Crazy 8s!
Guillotine is our favorite!
Love card games! can’t wait to try these!
My kids LOVE UNO and Sleeping Queens. We have Rat a Tat Cat, but I need to figure it out.
Uno is my favorite card game. My youngest loves War.
Uno is a longtime favorite. We recently bought Sushi Go and are enjoying that. When we have company we have been enjoying Superfight.
My favorite card game will always be poker. There’s so much strategy involved, as well as reading the other players.
Our favorite card game is Uno Attack. My kiddos love seeing the cards fly, as long as it isn’t in their direction! Lol
UNO!
5 crowns is one of my favorite card games 🙂
Blink is our current fave!
Phase 10
Canasta, a family tradition!
Old Maid and Go Fish are our current favorites.
UNO and SkipBo!
Dude… we love any and all. They’re currently loving good old Spot it!
Spot it is always a win! We won a waterproof version this year and played it by the pool ALL THE TIME.
I love your card game suggestions! Many of them I haven’t heard of and will be checking them out. We love phrase 10 and Uno.
Sadly, we don’t have a favorite family card game. For whatever reason, card games are a neglected/forgotten/ignored game category in our homeschool. Big bummer! lol But I’m loving this list of ideas– thank you!
I remember playing Queens Corners (a version of solitaire) when I was younger. I have no idea where I learned it, or why I stopped!
I love card games! Phase 10 and Skip Bo are among my favorites, although I also enjoy the variety you get from just a plain deck of cards.
We just got Hi Ho Cherry-O and my kids love it! Best of all, even the younger ones can play it without help.
We love Spot it and Rat a Tat Cat but our new favorite is a game played with a deck of cards called Golf.
We love phase 10 and skip bo! We also play a lot of solitaire lol!
we love Uno!
I always loved Dutch Blitz as a kid
My seven year old is my main game player! We play Uno, Crazy Eights and Spot it most of all.
Uno!
Sushi Go is a favorite right now! It has also become a favorite gift because it is so much fun for all ages.
Our family favorites are Back Alley Bridge (a traditional card game) and new-to-us Sushi Go!
With young kids our current favorite card game is Old Maid.