If you’re looking for an affordable and fun way to spend time with your family, board games are just what you’re looking for.  Thousands of games are on the market and hundreds can be found in resale shops across the world.

While I hesitate to purchase more expensive games, I know that the replay value is worth the cost. Heading to an overpriced movie theater generally costs my family of 5 about $60 for 2 hours of fun. But the purchase of a new board game is usually cheaper and can be played time and time again.

As a family, we enjoy connecting over a competitive board game. Laughing and discussing strategy make game playing even more fun.

For the one-time cost of a board game, years of fun family time will be spent. All you’ll need to purchase are some yummy snacks and drinks to make family game night a success.

If I had to choose 3 board games to add to our game nights, I would choose:

Forbidden Island

Labyrinth

Battle Sheep

And the best part is that I could purchase ALL 3 of these games for about $50! That’s YEARS worth of fun for the price of taking my family out to dinner, to the movies OR one ticket at an amusement park.

But the savings isn’t the only reason you should play board games with your family. From a young age, board games can help boost your child’s mentality, motor skills and communication skills.  Whether they’re learning shapes, or numbers, board games are full of hidden learning opportunities. As they get older, they’ll use strategy to win simple games like Connect Four. Older kids will love the challenge presented in games like Chess and Scattegories. Even into the teen years, kids won’t mind family-time as much if you offer fun games for them to play.

3 Tips for a Stress-Free Family Game Night:

Make it Fun:

Don’t play games that your child struggles with or they won’t find it fun. Instead, offer easy to understand games with simple rules until your child is confident. Then you can slowly add in more complex games that require more thinking.

Put Away Electronics:

No one likes to wait on opponents who are busy on their phones or tablets. Make it a rule that while playing board games, no one will text, answer their phones or watch TV. It makes game play much more enjoyable when everyone is focused and really present.

Invite the Whole Crew:

There’s no reason Grandma and Grandpa can’t join you for a fun family game night. If they aren’t gamers, invite neighbors or friends. A great way to get teens hooked on board games is to host a teen game night. Provide fun snacks, quiet music and a relaxing place to enjoy being with their friends.

Not sure where to start?

Check out these great educational board games.

History Board Games

Science Board Games

Geography Board Games

Language Arts Board Games

Strategy Board Games

Math Board Games

Board Games for Couples

With so many board games, it’s easy to create a huge storage issue. Luckily, we found Bit Game Storage to help us keep the game obsession manageable. We were able to streamline our board games, making them easily accessible and tossing away several over-sized game boxes.

Before:

For under $50, we found a storage system that made this gaming family smile, from ear to ear. No more lugging huge, half-empty boxes to our friends’ homes. Now we can simply place our favorite games into our Bit Game Storage travel box and take along 8 of our favorites!

AFTER:

Board gamers across the world can now enjoy their favorite educational board game, without stressing about how to store them efficiently!

Don’t miss our favorite board games for couples, too!