Board Games For 8 Year Olds – Play These Now

Intro to Board Games for 8 Year Olds

You have purchased a few board games and now you want to start introducing this great hobby to your kids, nephews, and/or nieces. Here are some of the board games for 8 year olds that I used to introduce my nephew to the board gaming world when he was 8. Granted he sits on his PC playing games all day, but there are those occasions where he will ask to play a board game. He enjoyed playing these games, and I believe they are great choices. Some are even great to teach to your kids and they can then teach and play it with their friends. All of the board games listed below are fun for both adults and kids to play.

Head over to the conclusion for a quick list of the most popular board games for 8 year olds in my opinion. Some of these games do have lower or higher recommended ages. This is from my personal experience with the game and introducing it to new players.

FAQ

What are the best games for 8 year olds?

Some of the best games for your 8 year old to play are those that will develop their mind while having them interact with you and your family. I recommend, Jaipur, Blokus, Crokinole, Ticket to Ride, and Loopin’ Louie.

What games do 8 year olds play?

Try focusing on board games, arts and crafts, playing in the garden, roller skating, building sandcastles, supervised swimming pool games.

What are the best games for 9 year olds?

These board games will work for your 9 year olds. I recommend, Jaipur, Blokus, Crokinole, Ticket to Ride, and Loopin’ Louie. In addition, try focusing on arts and crafts, roller skating, sandcastle building, playing in the garden, supervised swimming pool games.

What activities do 8 year olds like?

Board games, arts and crafts, improvised obstacle courses, supervised games in the swimming pool, book reading, roller skating, building sandcastles.

How do I entertain my 8-year-old?

Improvised obstacle courses, book reading, board games, sandcastle building, supervised swimming pool activities, roller skating, arts and crafts.

Jaipur – Board Games for 8 Year Olds

Jaipur was introduced to me by a friend of mine and it instantly blew my mind. So much so that I kept his copy for years before finally having to give it back and purchase my own copy.

It is so simple to teach. The box might say ages 12+ but in my opinion it is just fine for 8 years and up. The boardgamegeek community also agrees with me on this one.

I taught it to my nephew and we were playing within 5 minutes. We had a blast and we must have played about 3 games in a row. That is a lot for him. I know I can take Jaipur over at any time and he will want to play it.

You play as two traders in the city of Jaipur. You are trying to obtain two seals of excellence to be invited to the Maharaja’s court. On your turn, you either interact with the market by gaining new goods(cards) or sell goods(cards). You receive more gold if you are the first person to sell a particular type of good, and will also reap bonus gold for selling three or more of particular good. The person with the most gold wins a seal of excellence. The first person to two seals of excellence wins the game.

Blokus

Blokus is a great game for introducing to 8 year olds in my opinion. The rules and scoring are quick and simple to teach, but the game can be tough to master, similar to chess. I recommend playing this with 4 people. This is a great one to teach if your kid is having friends over.

You pronounce the game as “Block Us”, and play with color-coded Tetris-shaped pieces. Players place these pieces on the board trying to block their opponents’ best plays. Your piece can only touch the corner of one of your other pieces. It must not be adjacent to another one of your pieces. It can be adjacent to an opponent’s piece. The goal is to try and fit more of your pieces on the board than any of your opponents. Each square block for each of your leftover pieces counts as a negative point. There are a few caveats with scoring, but the person with the highest score at the end is crowned the winner.

Crokinole – Board Games for 8 Year Olds

I have something to confess. I have never played this game with my nephew, but it will be a hit with kids, I can just tell. You flick discs on a board, what’s not to like? I recently got my own crokinole board which I will post on Pinterest and Instagram.

You each have 12 discs and take turns flicking them onto the board. The disc must land in the innermost circle (15 points) if the board is empty. Any subsequent disc flicks must cause one of the opponents’ discs to move, or the flicked disc and any of your discs it touched are taken off the board. Play continues until all discs have been flicked. Tally up the points (each region on the board has certain points associated with it) and play again until the first person reaches 100. There are also other variants of scoring, but this is the one I use to introduce to new players.

This game can be played at 2 or 4 players. The 4 player variant is much of the same except that you pair up into two teams. Your kids will love this one. I recommend starting out with a cheaper board in the beginning and to look at more expensive options if the game gets a lot of attention. I have posted two boards with good ratings from amazon below. These are not my personal boards as I decided to go with a handcrafted board made locally in South Africa.

Ticket to Ride

This game has already been on one of my lists. Such a testament to what a great game it is, and I am sure it will be on more of my lists to come. It just works in so many situations.

I had a barbecue (what we call a braai in South Africa) just before our lock-down started. My mom and my nephew were over and I was looking for a game that would work in the situation. They both love ticket to ride, and it was the instant go-to game. He is 12 now, but when I first introduced him to the game he was 8 years old. They both have become quite competitive at it as well. He won this game and was quite chuffed with himself. I won’t go into the brief gameplay summary, but if you are interested you can see it here.

Loopin’ Louie – Board Games for 8 Year Olds

I first played this with my nephew when he was 8 and he loved it. It is a really a simple kids game, and can be played with ages 4 and up. It can also be turned into a fun game to wrap up an adult board gaming session. I have used it many times in that kind of scenario and it has always gone down well.

You are trying to protect your chickens from Louie’s acrobatics. Odd concept but it works and is a blast to play. Each player sets up their three chicken tokens in their barn. Louie, who is battery operated is started up. He goes around in circles either stealing your chicken or getting bumped up into the air by you. Sometimes you will hit him at the perfect spot and he will land down smack-bang on top of your opponent’s chicken. It is hilarious to watch. The player with the last remaining chicken is crowned the winner.

It is a relatively inexpensive game to pick up so there is no reason not to give this one a go.

Conclusion to Board Games for 8 Year Olds

• Jaipur
• Blokus
• Crokinole
• Ticket To Ride
• Loopin’ Louie

That wraps it up for my list of board games for 8 year olds. Some of these can be introduced at younger ages, and some will be played well into your adolescent and adult years.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. Let me know down in the comments below what I can improve upon, or what you enjoyed.

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