25 Great Little Games for Families on the Move & in Small Homes
Card & boardgames we’ve found to be “worth their weight” as a minimalist (ish) family moving internationally every few years
When you pack up everything you own every 2 or 3 years - and especially when what you’re allowed to take with you is limited - you become quite picky about what you own. This is, in our minds, a good thing: it makes us more conscious consumers of stuff [although Mum doesn’t love the guilt associated with buying a heavy new fantasy epic book - Kindle just isn’t the same!] and makes it easier to keep our home tidy.
Despite the pressure to minimize stuff, we are not a pro-technology family and so value more traditional past times like board games and card games. In this post, we’ve listed out the games we’ve found to be well worth the real estate they take up for our family, from games suited to very little people all the way up to the ones the grown ups love and play over tea on weekend afternoons. Many of these are card games, and can be made even smaller by recycling their boxes and instead storing them in sturdy zipper-top pouches - these are ones we bought and they’re still going strong! We also found in putting this together that many of our well-loved games are not available anymore - if you enjoy hunting on eBay for older games and want to know about those, please comment and we will follow up.
Please note that this post includes affiliate links to the Amazon store. Amazon pays us a very small amount if you choose to purchase from them - this in no way impacts the price that you pay for the products, and of course you can choose to buy these from any store you wish. Also, the age ranges we cite here and the ages we started playing (modified versions of) these games with our kids - the manufacturers list different (higher) ages.
Games for Very Little Kids (aged 3+)
Sleeping Queens - If I had to pick the one game our kids have loved the most, it would be this one. You can modify this game by having everyone play with their cards face up in front of them & helping littles use their cards. Later, play with only number cards face up (as they continue to master matching & basic addition) and “power cards” (wand, dragon, etc.) face down.
Eye Found It is another favorite around here, and its especially great for road trips & flights. Its 2 games in 1 as well - the card pictures fit together like puzzles too. There are 2 variations currently: Disney and/or Marvel.
Slamwich can easily be modified for littles by taking out the special cards (munchers, thieves). Our kids love when PB&Js come up!
Memory is an age-old classic that our kids love. There are obviously many different brands offering memory games - three good options are Disney, Ravensburger, and Chuckle & Roar.
Stello is a fun (and almost indestructible!) color matching game that builds visual processing and sequential thinking skills.
Charades for Kids requires no reading to play at the first level of each card, with 2 additional levels that keep the game fun as kids grow.
If you have a bit more room in your home/bags:
Enchanted Forest builds counting & memory skills on a treasure hunt. You can play collaboratively with littles by showing them the clues you discover, and graduate to keeping them secret later on. We have the classic edition, but there is now a Disney one too.
Candy Land is very accessible for little ones, teaching them the basics of moving pieces along a trail without needing to count. We love the Bluey version, but there is also the classic and a Disney version.
Games for Little Kids (5+)
Pass the Pigs has been around forever but its a great way to teach little kids about taking chances (& quitting while you’re ahead).
Rat a Tat Cat can be made easier by playing with everyone’s cards face-up, then by keeping the middle cards face-down as your kids build their memory skills.
Deduckto builds logic skills while being very silly & fast to learn. This is a great precursor to other detective-y games like Outfoxed (below) & Clue.
Uno is another classic “oldy but goody”. There are many variations these days; we’re happy with the original.
Go Nuts for Donuts is one of the “larger” games we’ve listed on this post, but our kids are obsessed (possibly because of the donut theme …). This game very gently introduces kids to game theory (which Mum loves) and is a great precursor to Sushi Go (below).
Kanoodle is a 1-player game, so you might disagree on us listing it here, but its so awesome for building kids pattern & spatial skills. There are also many different Kanoodles now for those seeking more complexity.
Connect4 (travel version) - this was Mum’s favorite game growing up, a love our kids have inherited. The travel size makes owning it with our lifestyle so much more doable.
If you have a bit more room in your home/bags:
Forbidden Island is not small, but it is awesome AND collaborative. Because there is no board (you create it with cards) it could definitely fit in a zipper-top bag somewhere between sandwich & freezer size if you recycle (or repurpose) the tin box!
Outfoxed is a great detective game where you race to unveil the identity of the fox before he or she escapes! With a hard board included, this could be reduced to a freezer-size zipper-top bag if you recycle the box!
Ticket to Ride: First Journey is the kids (and far more affordable!) version of this great strategy game - show us a kid who doesn’t love trains! We own the classic USA version, and there is also a Europe version. With a hard (and hefty board) this one would also need a freezer zipper-top if de-boxed.
Games for Big Kids (7+) & Grown Ups
Note: We’ve marked the ones we think are most exciting for adults here with an asterisk *
Swish builds logic and spatial perception skills, is easy to learn, and highly transportable with a to-go bag.
Bananagrams is a crossword game like Scrabble but without a board, and therefore much better for us nomads :) For extra nomad/small home credit (and for those with very good near-sight) there is this World’s Smallest Bananagrams version too!
MOBI is like Banagrams but for math, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. There is a MOBI Kids version too which is just addition & subtraction but we figure just temporarily removing the unwanted functions from the original makes more sense.
Battleship (travel version) is another classic our kids love in turn - this little travel version works just as well as the big one from Mum & Dad’s childhoods.
Qwixx* is a great, quick to learn and play dice game that helps develop strategic skills and a good understanding of chance ratios.
SET* is a favorite of Mum’s but we must admit is not everyone’s “cup of tea” - it requires most people to think differently than they usually do, and builds visual perception, logic, and creative thinking skills. There is also a free SET App (for Apple devices) for those who want to practice virtually!
Quiddler* is almost like a card version of Scrabble where you get more letters to build words from each round.
Mastermind* is another of Mum’s favorite from her childhood that builds reasoning and logic skills as you break each other’s codes. Here is a more eco-friendly wooden option!
Boggle*, the classic word search game, now comes in a much more space-conscious little design than from when Mum & Dad were kids, but is still just as fun.
Trash Pandas* lets you be troublesome raccoons stashing delicious trash for points and is another great one to teach about (pushing your) luck and probabilities.
Fluxx* changes every time you play it, and comes in more version than we can list here but include Zombie, Camping, Fantasy, Space, Anatomy, Marvel, Math, Oz, Chemistry … The only other one I’ll list link here is Spanish Fluxx in case you, like us, are trying to build up your language arsenal.
Sushi Go* is great fun, easy to learn, and quick to play, and builds memory and strategy skills. There is a French version too.
Abandon all Artichokes* is easy to understand even for kids with relatively self-explanatory cards, and builds strategy skills.
5 Crowns* is a rummy-type game with 5 different suits requiring strategy to know when to play your cards, but where the game can change at any point with rotating wild cards.
If you have a bit more room in your home/bags:
Dragonwood* involves capturing dragons, ogres, unicorns, and other magical fiends with collections of adventurers [all things our kids love] and a helping of luck! This game is complicated enough to be fun for grown-ups, but we’re able to play it with all cards up with our 5 year-olds. There is also the newer Dragonrealm which we haven’t played yet!
Catan* is quite a complex resource management, city building strategy game. Its listed for kids 10+ but we are perfectly able to play with our 7 year old if we help him think through his choices. Given there is no board (its made from cards), this can definitely be repackaged in a zipper-top bag to save on space. There is a kids version - Catan Junior - rated for ages 6+ too, but we’ve never tried it.