Not only are these games a great way to exercise your child’s mind, but they’re also crucial to teaching the value of teamwork and a great way to spend quality time as a family.
Azul is an award-winning, tile-placement strategy board game where each player is a tile-laying artist challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora. The goal is to complete your display board, earning points as you place tiles and create patterns. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. For two to four players, ages eight and up, this is perfect for a rainy holiday afternoon. Details: R1099 from Toy Kingdom.
Catan is a multiplayer board game, where each player takes on the role of settlers, with the aim of building and growing settlements by trading and getting resources. There are also extension sets with different themes, adding new dimensions to gameplay. This board game is perfect for kids aged 10 and over and is a great family game. Details: R649 from Takealot, Toy Kingdom and Hamleys.
Codenames is a board game where two rival spymasters lead their teams to unmask the secret identities of 25 agents known only by their CODENAMES. Two teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. The first team to make contact with all of their agents wins but, be aware if a teammate makes contact with the assassin the team instantly loses. Codenames is fun when played by two to eight people from the age of 14 and up. There is also an Afrikaans version. Details: R349 from Takealot, Toy Kingdom and Hamleys.
Exploding Kittens is a highly strategic, kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette. Players draw cards from the deck until an Exploding Kitten card is drawn, at which they explode and are out of the game – unless that player has a Defuse card like laser pointers, belly rubs and catnip sandwiches. All other cards in the deck are used to move, mitigate or avoid the Exploding Kittens. The game is played with two and allows up to five players. Perfect for age seven and up. Details: R629 from Takealot, Toy Kingdom and Hamleys.
Dominoes with a kingdom-building twist! In Kingdomino, you are a Lord seeking new lands in which to expand your kingdom. You must explore all the lands, wheat fields, lakes, and mountains in order to spot the best plots. But be careful, as some other Lords also covet these lands. Played with two to four people from age eight and up. Details: R425 from Takealot.
