How we play games is how we do life! You can use games to teach your kids about honesty, being on a team, taking calculated risks, cooperating with others in a competitive field, and figuring out the most important goal you should be strategizing for.
My personal favorites for beginners to board games:
- 7 Habits of Happy Kids (fun, simple, and easy to play)
- Forbidden Desert (cooperative game)
- Compounded (chemistry lab game)
- 7 Wonders (good training for the next set of games!)
- Splendor (also a fun, easy to learn game with strategy skills)
Personal favorites (for more seasoned players) that have a strong structure for teachable moments:
- Wealth of Nations (best game that teaches world economics)
- Food Chain Magnate (entrepreneur simulator game)
- Terraforming Mars (made by scientists)
- Through the Ages (excellent historical game)
- Power Grid (provide power to customers by building a network)
- Robot Rally (robots playing “Capture the Flag”)
- Ticket to Ride (easy geography and strategy game)
- Settlers of Catan (and later upgrade to Terra Mystica)