Five Crowns is a card game for players 8 and older and for 2-7 players. To play you start with each player getting 3 cards and the 3s themselves are considered wild. By combining the cards in specific patterns you get rid of your cards and earn points. In the next round of the game, each person gets 4 cards and the 4s are wild but the patterns and sequences you need to form stay the same. Game continues until you get to and complete the round with the Kings wild.

When I played this game, it took a pretty long time with only 4 people and there seemed to be a lot of waiting time between turns. A couple times, the round ended before I even got a chance to play and that was a little annoying. Overall this is a game you can use to pass the time or to bond with younger kids, but I don’t highly recommend it for when you are having new company over.

In this game, three words or phrases are said and you must identify the bond between them. My sister tells me this is a wildly fun game and I have thus far just chosen to take her word for it. If, however, you have a spare copy and the time to play, throw me a group in the comments and I’ll do my best to figure it out.

My daughter really likes the game “Gobblet Gobblers”. It’s like Tic-Tac-Toe and has a grown up version called “Gobblet” that is played the same way as this one but on a 4×4 grid instead of a 3×3 grid.. This game is for ages 5 and up and for 2 players.

You put your pieces on the board one at a time, but not all pieces are the same size and lager pieces can ‘gobble’ smaller pieces by being places over them and covering them up. You can cover your pieces or the opponent’s pieces. You can also take a piece you have placed on the board and move it somewhere else.

On a scale from 1 to 10 my daughter gives this game 6. She likes that it is easy to learn, but she REALLY doen’t like it when someone else wins. You might rate it higher if you find you win more often than she does.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (the one distributed by Warren) has quite a grown up looking design, but my husband has deemed it a kids game. They certainly don’t mind. The game is for ages 8 and up and for 2-6 players. It usually takes them 30-60 minutes to play.

In this game, the goal is to get the most ‘good points’ before all the tasks are completed and the players have reached their end positions. Players get points by completing tasks given out on cards that are drawn during each player’s turn.

One good part of the game is the intrigue that comes with completing the tasks. Some players may get tired if you happen to play a round that takes a while and set up can be a little complicated.

On a scale from 1 to 10 my child gives this game a 8.

My son owns the Lego Harry Potter game called “Harry Potter Hogwarts” and he likes it a lot. Sometimes he has trouble getting his siblings to play it with him but he still gives it rave reviews. It is for 2-4 players and for ages 8 and up. The box says it takes 20-40 minutes.

In this game (once you have it all set up) you go from class to class collecting various supplies. The first one to make it back to their starting spot with a complete collection wins. You move by rolling a die. It’s not just a regular die, though. Sometimes this helps you move staircases, sometimes you get to move people around.

On a scale from 1 to 10 my son gives it 9. Then I asked what he doesn’t like about it and he changed his answer to 10.

My son has his first deck of playing cards and seems to have fallen in love with playing solitaire.   I figure that’s fine as long as he doesn’t start gambling on whether or not he’ll win the game.

You know, cuz he’s playing alone and will have to bet against himself.  Seems like that’d be a bad thing.