Playing games together is a great way to bond and enjoy quality time…but I don’t usually have the time or desire to play games that take hours to finish. These are our favorite family games that require minimal set-up and can be played in just fifteen minutes!
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I love, love, love games. I loved playing on sports teams growing up, I thoroughly enjoyed every pick-up game I played in college, game nights with friends is basically one of the best things ever, and I really love playing games with my family.
The thing is, though, I don’t have a lot of time to sit down and play games. While I do try to make regular time to play some of our favorite family games with my older kids after the littles go to bed (Friday nights is their night to stay up), the games that we play the most regularly are the ones that can be set up, played, and cleaned up in about thirty minutes or less.
I can totally manage those small chunks of time during the day and I know how important those little moments are in building relationships with my kids.
My favorite games are ones that we can enjoy either one-on-one or multiple players. I love games that are engaging for all ages. And I really get excited about games that don’t take a ton of space to store. #smallhousebigfamily
I’ve put together a list of some of our favorite FAST family games. These are the ones I pull out in those little moments of our day when I just want to slow down and connect.
Five Fast Family Games You Can Play in Fifteen Minutes
1.Otrio
We played this game (think, multi-faceted tic-tac-toe) several times at a local toy shop so I knew we would enjoy it at home as well. I love that four of us can play at once or we can just play one-on-one games. It’s easy enough for my preschooler to try to play, and fun enough to keep the adults interested too. Plus, set up is as simple as pulling the board out of the box.
2. Bananagrams
I love word games, but Scrabble can be such an investment of time. We love how fast Bananagrams is to play, and with younger kids, I also appreciate that the emphasis is not on how big the words are– short and simple are perfectly fine!
Our tabletop tennis set might be the best item I bought this Christmas! We have played daily since Christmas. My husband and I play together, and my big boys (ages 9 & 7) are getting better everyday. An added bonus is that it encourages everyone to keep the table cleared off so we will be ready to play!
4. Qwirkle
We were gifted this game for Christmas and I heard from SO MANY people how much their family loves playing this game! I can’t wait to play with with my kids. I also appreciate the fact that set up and clean up are simple, and that it doesn’t take much space to store it.
5. Tenzi
This was also a Christmas gift, and again, I heard from so many people about how wonderful this game is. Bonus, it helps with number recognition and doubles as math practice!
Do you have favorite fast family games not on this list? I’d love to hear them! Share your favorites in the comments!
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