Inside: Rally your family together where you all work towards a common goal with these cooperative board games for kids of all ages! Looking for more? These are some of the best board games for kids.
I still remember the anger rising up hot in my throat. I was a child, but I was determined to be the best.
At anything.
It didn’t matter what it was.
So, when my family and I came to together to play board games the scenario played out in one of two extreme ways:
- I won the game and I was a happy, cheerful, idyllic child.
- I lost the game and I was angry, negative, and mopey about my family and life.
Inside I blamed my loss on everyone but me.
They cheated. I didn’t get a fair shot. This isn’t the game I like to play. Why were my teammates so bad?
Does any of this sound familiar?
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While it’s safe to say I’m still competitive, as an adult I’ve toned it down into a reasonable amount where I can now play board games without getting upset.
It’s quite a victory for me but as a mom, I see the same unchecked desire for winning in my both my kids.
I know if I agree to play a game with them and they lose, it’s going to end up ruining our night.
Which of course, makes me never want to play board games, even though I love them.
So, what’s a family to do?
Keep on playing, just change the game.
Because nowadays, there are tons of cooperative board games for kids.
Instead of fighting and clawing your way to the winner’s circle, when you play a cooperative board game, the whole family works together to get to the end.
I have to admit, it’s was a completely foreign idea to my competitive spirit, but I gave it a shot and the results are fantastic!
Now when we play, there are no more tears. No more mopiness. No more contention.
It’s just fun, cooperation and family time.
We’re always on the lookout for new, cooperative board games to add to our collection. Here are some of the best cooperative board games for kids of all ages.
Some we own and play all the time and some are ones we can’t wait to buy!
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The 10 Best Cooperative Board Games For Kids & Families
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Race To The Treasure
This game is the most recent addition to our board games for kids and we love it.
4.8 stars from over 500 people can’t be wrong; This is one of the best kids board games on the market (and our favorite).
It has a simple objective: all players work together to build a path and collect 3 keys to the treasure. But beware, the Ogre is racing to the treasure too. Make a path to the treasure before the Ogre does and everyone wins!
Outfoxed
Outfoxed is kinda like the animal version of Clue. There’s one fox who stole Mrs. Plumpert’s pot pie and the players are the detectives.
You go around the game board either revealing suspects or finding clues. Your goal is to narrow down the suspects until you’re certain of the thief’s identity. Do that before the fox reaches the fox hole and everyone wins. Don’t reach the objective and the fox gets to eat the pot pie.
This is the next game we want to add to our collection.
Hoot Owl Hoot
This is one of the top board games for toddlers. There’s no reading required and kids reinforce color matching, taking turns, cooperative game play and more.
In this game, kids race to get their owls from the start of the board to their nest at the end before sunrise. Get all the owls back before the sun makes it to sunrise and everybody wins.
You can make it more or less challenging by increasing or decreasing the number of owl pieces you play with.
The Rainbow Fish Share & Sparkle Game
This game is based on the classic book, The Rainbow Fish. In this game, your kids are racing to fill up their own Rainbow Fish Boards with all the scales they need before the wave reaches the shore.
The Share & Sparkle game is rated for ages 3+, but there are a few special instructions that adults will need to help before children understand how to play the game.
This is a great game to supplement the book.
Dragon Dash
Dragon Dash is a cooperative race featuring knights (these are the players) and dragons. The queen has asked the knights to build a path through the kingdom, but the terrible dragons are here to stop them.
If you can complete the path before the dragons stop you, you win! If not, the dragons win.
Stack Up
Stack Up is another adorable game by Peaceable Kingdom. This board game is perfect for kids who want a little activity in their board games.
To play, kids must stack up blocks in the center of the board before the Stack Smasher knocks them over. But wait, it’s not as easy as it sounds.
With 3 different skill levels, kids can choose from stacking with their hands, with the stacking sticks attached to the blocks or with the stacking sticks and foam blocks. Each level makes stacking progressively harder.
On top of the different levels, there are also stacking challenges where kids must complete more difficult stacking tasks like stacking two blocks instead of one or closing their eyes while stacking.
If you stack all of the blocks in the center before the Stack Smasher knocks them over, you win!
Robot Turtles
This game is my top pick for board games for older children.
Robot Turtles is a fabulous STEM game that teaches kids the fundamentals of programming. In the game, the kids use their cards to program the computer (the adult acts as the computer) and move their turtle along the path.
The objective of the game is to get your turtle from the start position to the gem. Once every child reaches their gem and wins, the game is over.
Although it sounds simple, there are plenty of ways to increase the difficulty depending on the age and skill of the child. Your kids can unlock cards like ice walls, lasers, boxes, and more. And once they’ve mastered those, there are a whole other set of instructions for advanced play.
This is a game we definitely want to add to our collection!
Disney Eye Found It
Any Disney lover will adore this giant, 6-foot long board game. The objective of the game is simple: get all the players from the start to Cinderella’s castle before the clock strikes midnight.
Along the path, players can land on Mickey silhouettes which let them all work together to find as many of one item on the board as they can. After the timer runs out, each player gets to move that number of spaces.
But watch out because players can also land on the clock tower which moves the clock one or two hours closer to midnight!
We’ve played this game tons of time and it never gets old because we’re always finding new objects that we’ve never noticed before. There are seriously tons of illustrations on this game board!
Mermaid Island
Mermaid Island is the best board game for families with girls. Kids will love racing the mermaids against the Sea Witch to see who can make it back to Mermaid Island first.
Play a wand token and the Sea Witch must go back one space. Watch out for that tricky Sea Witch because if she lands on a space where a mermaid already is, that mermaid must start back at the beginning.
Get all the mermaids to Mermaid Island before the Sea Witch and everyone wins!
Snug As A Bug In A Rug
This cooperative game is a great game to reinforce color, size, number and shape matching.
The object of the game is to get all the bugs from the top of the rug (game board) to underneath the rug before the 3 stink bugs come out and stink the place up.
There are 3 different ways to play the game, each with increasing complexity, so this game will grow with your kids’ skill for quite a while.
Share With Me
Let me know in the comments below your top choice for the best cooperative board game for kids.
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