We’re at that point in the year when we’re often inside due to the weather.

While many days are filled with school, homework, and indoor sports practices, there’s a little more free time happening right now. And we can’t go do something active outside.

I’m definitely not opposed to screen time for my kids, with video games and movie marathons, but sometimes you do want to put away all the devices and do something else.

But if I’m being honest, there are some kids’ games that bore me to pieces. Ones I’d really rather not play because they take a while or because they’re flat out boring.

So, we have a stock of games that we actually like. All of us, kids and adults. Most of these are pretty quick to play so you can decide if one game was enough or if you want to play more or if you want to switch games.

Links in post are affiliate, so if you choose to buy one or more of these games, I get a small percentage. Thank you for supporting Things I Can’t Say. 

Exploding Kittens

I’d heard so much about this game but had no idea what it was or how to play but decided to get it for our kids for Christmas- it’s the current favorite in our house. It’s a card game for ages 7+, 2-5 players. The goal is to not get an exploding kitten card, or if you do, to have a “defuse” card in your hand, which will save you. It’s a game of strategy, figuring out when you should use other cards in your hand, like “see the future” which allows you to see the next three cards that will be drawn, “skip” to skip your turn, “attack” to make the next player take two turns, etc. It’s one of those that seems a little complicated when you look at the rules but once you play, you’ll get it. My family is super competitive so this one ends up being quite interesting around here. It doesn’t take long to play and we often play several hands of this game. I’d even play this one without the kids.

This one only takes a few minutes to play. Your child does need to be able to read to play (recommended age is 6 and up), 2-10 players. Each player is given 5 double-sided cards with pictures on them. A clue card is set in the middle of the play area (can be something like “Often found in water” or “Can fit in your pocket”) and the first to put an appropriate card from their hand down on the clue card and yell “Slapzi!” (we don’t actually do the yell part here) wins that round. Other players can challenge a card played if need be. The first to get rid of all of their cards wins.

I had friends tell me how much they liked playing Quirkle. I’ve never played the original but Quirkle Cubes is fun for ages 6 and up. It’s a matching game, where you look at your Dice and what has been played and need to play a die that has a matching attribute. In original Quirkle, you play tiles instead of dice (the dice game gives you the option to roll if you need something different to play to make a move). I’m linking to the original game because apparently the cubes game is now hard to find(and therefore expensive) but it’s the same idea. This game does take more like 30-60 minutes to play. It’s for ages 6 and up, 2-4 players.

This is a dice game. The original rules are really simple: everyone gets 10 dice and whoever gets them to all show on the same number first wins. Very simple, so as long as your child can roll dice and tell what number is on there, you’re good to go. Fast-paced, doesn’t take long to play. There’s a card pack you can get to go with the dice that gives you 77 Ways to Play Tenzi so you can switch it up. Things like Differentzi: using just five dice, roll them until you have five different numbers showing. Must roll all five dice each time. Or Battlezi: Everyone rolls two dice at a time. Player with the highest total on the two dice wins all the dice and sets them aside. Whoever has the most dice after five rounds wins. These cards give you so many different ideas for simple dice games, so I highly recommend buying them together. The set of of Tenzi dice I have has 4 sets of 10, so up to 4 people can play, but if you buy more sets, more people can play at once.

Another dice game. In this one, you have up to three rolls to get the combination that will score you the most points. Large Straight: 50 points, 4 of a kind: 40 points, all the way down to 2 pairs for 5 points. There are chips you get with your points on them and only 4 of each chip, so you have to go for the big scores while they’re still available. This is another one of those games that (to me at least) seems to make much more sense once you start playing. My 9 year old asks to play this one all the time. Ages 8 and up for this one, 1-4 players.