WHAT ARE PARTY GAMES FOR CHILDREN?

Party games for children are board, card and other structured games involving two or more people at the same time, adapted to children's cognitive, social and motor development. The emphasis is often on community, play and learning rather than fierce competition, and the concept ranges from simple memory and puzzle games to more advanced family and strategy games for older children.

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WHO THE GAMES ARE AIMED AT

Party games for children are primarily aimed at:

• Parents and families who want to have joint activities at home
• Educators in preschool, school and after-school centres
• Sports and leisure leaders who want to create calm, social breaks around training and matches
• Children aged around 1 to 10 years are the core target group, but games often affect the whole family as adults and older siblings participate, explaining rules and demonstrating how to take turns and manage winning and losing. In clubs and after-school programmes, board games are used to strengthen team spirit and include children who do not always enjoy more physically demanding activities.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE - HOW IT IS ASSESSED

• Many parents and educators today look at the educational value of board games, often conceived as a scale of 1-5 where several aspects are taken into account:
• Memory and working memory (e.g. memory, visual matching games)
• Maths and logic skills (e.g. number games, strategic board games)
• Social interaction (cooperation, turn-taking, prosocial behaviour)
• Emotional competence (feelings, empathy, self-regulation)
• Motivation and engagement (perceived playfulness and desire to participate)
• Studies show, for example, that memory and board games with numbers can improve children's visuospatial short-term memory, working memory and maths skills when used regularly in education. Other studies suggest that both cooperative and competitive board games can increase prosocial behaviour, and that games that focus on emotions can support children's emotional competence and self-regulation.

HOW AND WHERE PARTY GAMES ARE USED

Party games for children are used in several types of settings:

• Home - family evenings, weekends, holidays
• Preschool - planned play sessions for language, concepts, co-operation
• School - supporting maths, language and social skills
• After-school centres and clubs - free play opportunities with an educational framework
• Sports clubs - breaks between training sessions, team bonding activities
• Shops and online stores often sort the games by age and difficulty to facilitate choices according to children's developmental level. In special support and social training, games are used to create conversations about emotions, turn-taking and cooperation, often with adult presence guiding reflection during and after the game.

WHY BOARD GAMES FOR CHILDREN ARE INTERESTING

Party games combine entertainment and learning in a way that is experienced as play rather than 'training' by the child. They offer a low-threshold alternative to screen time where the family can gather around a table, strengthening relationships and creating shared experiences.

For the child, the games provide an opportunity to practise:

• Concentration and impulse control
• Logical and strategic thinking
• Empathy, taking turns and following rules
• For children who have difficulty finding their way into the group, a simple game can provide a clear, safe structure to participate in - everyone knows whose turn it is and what is expected.

PARTY GAMES FOR CHILDREN IN PRACTICE

In everyday life, party games often involve simple, recurring rituals:

• One designated game night per week
• A game on the coffee table when guests and children arrive
• A couple of "always works" games on the shelf for parties and family reunions
• For a party where children are brought along, it is practical to choose games like:
• Has simple rules and can be explained in 1-2 minutes
• Works for mixed ages (children + adults)
• Has short rounds (so children can jump in and out if needed)
• Preferably has high educational value (memory, co-operation, problem solving)

Adults can make the game accessible by

• Simplify or split rules
• Playing in teams with younger children
• Emphasise community over results and points
• Preschools often use small play stations with 2-4 children per game, making it easy for educators to observe language, turn-taking and interaction. Robust games with clear components and large pieces that support fine motor skills and withstand frequent use are chosen.
• In sports clubs, sports quizzes, co-operative team games and simple strategy games are good activities to play between training sessions, as everyone can participate regardless of their physical level. This creates variety and gives children with different abilities more ways to contribute to the group.

EXAMPLES OF BOARD GAMES FOR CHILDREN 1-3 YEARS

For children around 1-2 years old, 'games' often resemble activity toys and very simple puzzles:

• Large pieces and bright colours
• Easy turning, stacking or matching
• An adult guiding and putting the pictures into words
• The focus is on:
• Point out animals, colours and shapes
• Putting together simple pieces of a puzzle
• Turn over a card and find the same image again
• Around the age of 3, very simple co-operative and short-round dice games work well, where each move is visually clear (move a figure, draw a card, roll a symbolic die).

EXAMPLE: GAMES CHILDREN 4 YEARS AND GAMES CHILDREN 5 YEARS

For games children 4 years are typical choices:

• Memory and picture lottery games
• Colourful board games with a simple layout
• Simple co-operative games where everyone wins or loses together
• Among other things, they train here:
• Recognition and memory
• Taking turns and basic counting
• Cheering each other on instead of just thinking about winning

For games children 5 years old, the rules can be one step more advanced:

• Simple strategic choices ("risk or safe path")
• More steps per turn (drawing cards, making choices, moving pieces)
• Continued focus on clear structure so younger siblings can also keep up
• Many families stick to classic children's games at this age, precisely because they work well in mixed groups of children and adults.

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EXAMPLE: GAMES CHILDREN 6 YEARS AND GAMES CHILDREN 7 YEARS

For games children 6 years old can often play:

• Simple scoring
• More rules and opportunities per move
• Games that require some reading or speech comprehension
• Children of this age also enjoy games that combine movement and board elements, such as small missions on the floor linked to dice throws or cards.
• For games children 7 years, lighter strategy is becoming increasingly interesting:
• Plan some moves ahead
• Allocating resources or choosing tactics
• Working in teams or pairs
• Simple word games and quizzes also work well, reinforcing reading, vocabulary and general knowledge at the same time.

EXAMPLE: GAMES CHILDREN 8 YEARS, 9 YEARS AND 10 YEARS

For games children 8 years old open the door to many popular family games:

• Strategy game with planning and negotiation
• Games with more parallel rules
• Collaborative game where the group has to solve tasks together
• The recommended age "from 8 years old" is often due to the fact that at that age children can handle both the amount of rules and the strategic decisions required without losing focus.

For games for children aged 9, longer rounds are possible, and children can keep track of several resources or elements at the same time.

In games, children aged 10 are close to the level of adults and can often fully participate in classic strategy games, advanced quizzes and co-operative games with older siblings and parents