For many years, if you would have suggested playing a board game with your upper elementary or junior high children, there’s a pretty good chance you would have gotten a response like, “More like bored games.” However, the fact is that board games have come a long way since the emergence of Candy Land and Monopoly. In fact, with many of the games that have become available, you may find that you enjoy these games for ages 8 and up just as much as (or more than) your kids do!

Ticket to Ride

In Ticket to Ride, players try to collect sets of colored cards to build train routes on the map. The routes that players want to build are dictated by ticket cards they have been dealt or draw throughout the game. On top of being a fun family game, the game helps familiarize players with geography.

Carcassonne

In Carcassonne, players place tiles alongside those already on the board to expand the landscape. They may also place their pawns, known as “meeples,” on the tiles in an attempt to score points. The deployed meeples become monks, farmers, knights, or robbers depending on where they are placed. Each role has a different way of scoring points. As players play tiles to complete the cities and roads, the meeples that occupy them are taken back into their supply to be played and score points elsewhere. This easy-to-learn game is great at encouraging critical skills like thinking ahead.

The Settlers of Catan

In The Settlers of Catan, players control colonies on an island full of valuable resources. Where settlements are placed determines which resources players are allowed to harvest and use to expand their colonies. One of the best aspects of Catan is that the board is completely different every time you play. The availability or scarcity of resources throughout a game provides a great lesson in supply and demand.

Timeline

The goal in Timeline is to get rid of your hand of cards by placing them in the correct spot in relationship to others on the table. When you play a card, you flip it over to reveal the year in which the event portrayed on the card took place. If you’ve played it in the correct spot, your turn is over. If you’ve played it in the wrong spot, you have to draw a new card and wait for your next turn to try again. Once you’re familiar with how the game works, you could easily create your own deck based on the history lessons you’re currently studying to sneak some homework into the fun!

What games have you been playing with your homeschool family lately? Have you managed to sneak any into your lesson plans?