As the school year ramps up, and weather starts to cool, it’s the perfect time to start some routines that help us, as families, reconnect and enjoy our time together indoors.

There’s a lot of attention given to the importance of family dinners and their correlation with children’s success. But if you’re struggling to make family dinners feel like the positive, regular routine that you’d like it to be, keep in mind that it is actually the quality family interactions and commitment to family that is the most important. If you’re looking for another great way to create quality family time, try a weekly family game night.

We’ve recently instituted a family game night — every Friday night — and in the face of busy weekdays where we’re trying to shove a whole lot in to a tiny few hours, our game nights are a chance to go beyond a short meal together and really bond and enjoy quality time together.

The number one influence in us, as a family, was learning about some board games that we can actually get excited about playing together!

It’s easy to feel like playing games with kids can be exhausting

When I was a brand new mom, I longed for the day that my kids could play board games with me — I loved board games as a kid.

But, then, I started playing games with my toddlers. Between the breakdowns from losing to the repeated rounds of Candy Land, Hi Ho Cherry-O and Uno while my kids were young, there was a long time that I felt like playing games with my kids was a bit of a drag.

Even as my kids got older, it seemed like only my older kids could keep up with the more strategic games. Trying to play board games as a family usually meant someone was left out.

But once your kids are 4 or older, there is quite an opportunity to play games the whole family can enjoy — even if it means having non-readers team up with another family member

Playing games with your kids can be invigorating

Games are that combine a similar amount of strategy and chance – allowing the older kids in the family to enjoy the challenge while the younger kids still have some opportunity to do well, are very well suited for families.

So, in that vain, I’d like to share with you some of the newest and best games to play with a variety of children’s ages in a family household:

Fun family games that work with a wide variety of ages

Go pick up a new game and create a family tradition with game night! Your kids will thank you!