Curling Up With a Board Game or Two

Every year I try to find a few new board games to add to our collection at home.  I wish we were better about finding time to play them all year long, but over Christmas break, we generally do dig them out and sit around with board games a time or two or three.

This year we added Name 5 to our stash.  While we were at my in-laws on Christmas Day, this was a perfect game to play after our meal.  We divided into teams as the game directed and tried to follow the rules of taking turns with the questions and letting each team answer their own "name 5." However, this was hard to do.  All of us wanted to chime in with an answer to whatever the topic might be.  Although this game is listed as for ages 12 and up, my ten and seven year old were able to contribute to the teams they were on.  I like this one, and could even see using this as a little icebreaker or opening activity at school.

Smart Mouth is a game I played long ago with a student at school. I was always intrigued by  this game, but had forgotten about it until I happened upon it again on Amazon.  This is a great game for word lovers who must think of a word that begins and ends with a certain letter. There are a couple other variations to this, but that version is all we have played at this point.  

Although not board games, I must have been in the mood to shop at one of my favorites, Mindware.  My girls have had their noses buried in these extreme dot to dot books.  I have been looking at these for a while and after they have been so engrossed with them, I think I'll add a few more to our collection.  I'm also thinking these would make great birthday gifts for friends if I had some on hand.