Peaceable Kingdom: Games That Bring the Whole Table Together

Age 18 months to 2: games played on a lap

At this age a game is really a shared activity with a grown-up. Monkey Around and Duck Duck Dance turn every turn into a movement (action cards call for hugs, high fives, hops and marches; movement dice set the dance), so nobody has to sit still or read. Seek-a-Boo has 72 big picture cards that work for naming things long before a child can play memory properly.

Look for chunky pieces, one simple action per turn and a game that ends in under ten minutes. Everything on the first games shelf is built that way.

Ages 3 to 5: the first real cooperative games

This is where the classics live. In Count Your Chickens! the whole table counts squares together to bring the chicks home before the fox gets there; in Hoot Owl Hoot! players match colors to fly the owls back to the nest before sunrise. Nobody beats anybody, so a four-year-old and a seven-year-old can play the same box without tears.

For letters and numbers, Alphabet Soup and Math Sandwich teach through play rather than drills. Puzzles at this age should be big: the jumbo floor puzzles from 35 to 51 pieces cover a patch of floor about three by two feet.

Ages 6 to 8: strategy with training wheels

Kids now enjoy a little tension. Gnomes at Night has two players moving linked magnetic gnomes through a two-sided maze where each player sees only their own side, which is a brilliant game for siblings who argue. Qwirkle (108 wooden tiles, matching colors and shapes) is the most common first strategy game in a family cupboard, and grown-ups keep playing it after the kids go to bed.

For quiet time, the seek-and-find glow puzzles with 100 pieces and the 3D suction-cup puzzles give a real sense of finishing something big.

Ages 8 and up: logic, wordplay and party nights

Solo brain teasers such as Marble Circuit and Q-bitz Solo come with numbered challenge cards that get harder as you go, and the answers are included. For a crowd, PicWits! and The How I Survived Card Game make the whole table laugh. Two Shenanigames titles on the party shelf are marked 21+ and belong on the grown-ups' shelf.

Picking by the kind of afternoon

Siblings of very different ages: choose a cooperative game, since everyone wins or loses together. Car rides and flights: the reusable sticker totes fold flat, the clings go back on the board, and nothing rolls under a seat; Travel Qwirkle comes in a pouch. A classroom or a big family table: Holiday Bingo seats up to 28 players, and the valentines come in packs of 28, the size of a typical class list.

A child who likes to keep things private: a lock-and-key diary with two keys, or the Top Secret diary with an invisible ink pen.

Picking by budget

Under $15: sticker totes, most diaries, Qwirkle Rummy and several valentines packs. From $15 to $25: almost every cooperative board game and floor puzzle. From $25: the bigger sets such as Giant Feed the Woozle, the Qwirkle editions with trays, magnetic pattern blocks and the Marble Circuit deluxe set. The whole-kingdom page has a price filter that sorts all 208 items into these three groups.

Making the first game night work

Read the rules alone first; most Peaceable Kingdom rule sheets are short. Play an open practice round where everyone can see everything and talk about their moves. Let the oldest child explain rather than play for the youngest. Stop while everyone is still having fun, and keep the box on a low shelf so kids can ask for it again. When a game is lost, lose it together: that is the whole point of the cooperative design.