Its no secret that one of my favourite family themed pastimes at Christmas (or really any time of year for that matter) is board and card games. Christmas gives us some more time to spend together as a family, and that means more time to play Board Games. If you’re visiting family this Christmas and trying to think of a great gift for your clever niece, nephew or grand-kid – why not pick up one of these fun, kid-friendly games by Coiled Spring. It’s a really great way to encourage screen-free time while also engaging them in a educational way.

Board Games for Clever Kids

My six year old gets completely bored by Snakes and Ladders, and other games for ‘Kids’, she wants something more complex and engaging. However, she’s just learning to read so finding games that are challenging enough to keep her interest but also fun enough for adults to play can be tricky. I’m super excited to share with you a few suggestions courtesy of Coiled Spring (gifted for review, affiliate links below) that are perfect for those clever little ones that want something a bit more complex than Candyland.

Q-Bitz

Although there is a ‘Junior’ version (and even an ‘Extreme’ version) Q-Bitz original is one of the easiest and most fun games to play. Lydia picked it up super quickly and loves playing against us, or even by herself. The goal is to build the pattern on the randomly drawn card on your board quickest, and it can get really fun, and competitive.

 

Dr. Eureka

This one was an instant hit, and I was so impressed with how quickly Lydia got good (I dare say, even better than me!) at solving the puzzles. With this, you have to sort and re-sort the colour balls within the plastic tubes to create the pattern on a randomly drawn card. The great thing about this game is that you can increase or decrease the difficultly by creating your own ‘house rules’. For example, in the official rules you can place your tubes upside down to create the proper order of balls, but after a few times we realised that made the game *too easy* so we took that feature out.  Dr. Eureka says it’s for ages 6+ and I’d tend to agree, and maybe even clever 4-5 year olds, with a little help.

This is another game that Lydia seemed to enjoy playing on her own, as you can simply challenge yourself to do it as fast as possible, as it is a sort of logic puzzle. If your kiddo likes Dr. Eureka, there’s another similar game called Dr. Microbe they might also enjoy.

There are several more Logic, Puzzle and Sorting games on Coiled Spring‘s website, most of which can be found on Amazon.

I don’t about you, but growing up in the 80s and 90s, I bet we got a least one or two Board Games every single year from Santa. Sometimes they were classics like Monopoly or Scrabble, but every now and again you’d get a really out-of-the-box, unique ones – and those were the best Christmas afternoons! Playing with your new game with the family. Relive that retro Chrstmas experience by giving one of these super-fun games for Smart Kids this year!