The 10 Top Classic Family Games + A Little History

Introduction

Do you or do you not like playing games?

We all feel differently.

But regardless of how we feel about playing games at home, there is evidence that playing games is good for our health, social skills, and brain.

Here are just a few reasons to play games or consider playing them if loving games doesn’t come to you naturally.

• Playing games doesn’t cost much money. Think of it this way—besides the initial cost of the game, i.e., board game, cards, etc., and other than some snack foods for the family or your friends, there isn’t any cost to playing.
• Playing games teaches us new skills such as problem-solving, counting numbers and money, and learning strategy—overall social and mental agility. In addition, you and your family can improve your brain and ability to learn while playing.
• Playing games promotes quality time and fun spent together, interacting without distraction, and leads to conversations we might not have when looking at screens.

Playing games helps us learn about each other. How we play shows a side of us that might not always show, such as our competitive side and sense of humor.

As always, FocusGroups.org is always looking for ways to bring you new ways to make money and increase your safety, security, and fun in life.

A Short History of Family Games

Carbon dating suggests that games played with carved and painted stones, like today’s dice, go back as far as 5000 b.c.

*NOTE – The Romans invented the six-sided dice we use today in 200 BC.

Moving forward in time, a favorite pastime of the Ancient Egyptians was the game, Senet, traced back to 3000BC.

Senet has 30 squares in three lines of 10 with hieroglyphs etched into some of the squares.

The game uses prehistoric dice and seven game pieces per player.

The game's purpose was to win and be protected from the gods, Ra, Thoth, and Osiris.

Moving on, the royal game of Ur dates back to 2650BC. The game of Ur, most closely related to Backgammon, is the oldest and longest-running board game in the history of humankind.

Starting in 500BC, board games for children showed up! Up until this time, games were primarily played by adults. Then, however, due to the popularity of gaming, games for children started to show up.

The first game evidenced by courts throughout Rome was hopscotch!

From here, new games have continued to show up as archaeologists dig.

And coming into the 20th century, we saw the following:

1909 – Jigsaw puzzles

1933 – Monopoly

1943 – Chutes and Ladders

1944 – Silly Putty (a personal favorite 😊)

1965 – Operation

1966 – Twister

1983 – Trivial Pursuit

Top 10 Classic Family Games

1. Monopoly – 1935

The purpose is to buy, rent, trade, and sell properties.

The object is to become the wealthiest player on the board.

The lessons that can be learned are always to keep cash on hand, start saving early, have patience, focus on cash flow, and plan for the unexpected.

1. Clue - 1947

The object is to solve the mystery of the murder by answering three questions: what did they use to commit the murder? Where was it done? Who did it?

The big lesson to be learned is deductive reasoning, the logic behind solving the mystery.

Uno - 1971

The object is to discard all your cards. You say, “Uno,” when you have one card left to let everyone know.

Some lessons are that you don’t get to choose what cards you’re dealt, wait your turn, not give away your position, and have patience.

Battleship - 1967

The object is to sink all your opponent's ships before they sink yours.

Lessons include facing defeat and disappointment, building memory skills, and strategy.

Connect Four - 1973

The objective of Connect Four is to be the first player to form a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of their color tokens. The first player to do so wins.

Sorry! - 1933

The game's object is to move your four pawns from your starting position to your “home.” The cards you draw dictate the moves you can make. The winner is the first player to move all four pawns to their “home.”

Sorry! is an excellent game for children to practice counting, specifically what teachers call one-to-one correspondence. In the game, this means understanding that each number on the card they draw corresponds to a space on the game board.

Boggle - 1972

The objective of Boggle is to create as many words as possible using the cubed fronts of the box of cubed letters after shaking them up.

There are letter amounts given as points, and the player with the highest score wins.

Learn how to spell and how to think up new words.

Hungry Hippos - 1973

The objective of the game is to collect as many marbles as possible.

Lessons to be learned include hand-eye coordination and staying calm and focused amid lots of activity.

Operation - 1964

Operation is a game of hand-eye coordination.

Each player uses tweezers to remove all the ailments without touching the metal edging and getting the buzzer.

Players are awarded money matching the value of the “Doctor” card they draw from the deck.

The winner is the player with the most money after all the ailments have been removed.

Trouble - 1965

The object of Trouble is to become the first player to move all four colored pieces from your “home” to the finish.

Trouble uses a Pop-o-Matic feature to roll dice. It’s noisy and fun!

A Final Thought

With the coming cold season, it is an excellent time to pull these games out of the closet or run to the store and buy them.

They aren’t expensive and can bring new fun to days spent more indoors.

If you can start a family game night, excellent, but no matter what, play a board game when you are stuck indoors and bored, looking for a little human interaction.

You’re sure to learn about each other, laugh, and learn new skills.

Life is moving so fast today. Why not slow down, reconnect, and get to know each other?

All of us at FocusGroups.org wish you fun times! ❤️