The Best Cooperative Board Games For Kids (and why you should play them) 

This is part of our series on the best board games for kids. Check out our comprehensive guide.

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Cooperative games are great for kids. They create a sense of camaraderie as you all band and work together to strive to achieve a common goal or objective. You’ll share the same highs and lows and by the end of the game, regardless of the result, you feel a closeness with the other players you just took a journey with that you don’t get with competitive games. Playing these games with friends can be a lot of fun, but playing them with children is especially rewarding and holds more benefits than you might realize.

The formative years are the most fundamental developmental stage in children. This is the period where the brain and neurobiological development are at their fastest after birth and occurs between 0-8 years of age. The type of exposure a child experiences during this time determines the kind of connections in their brain and will play a big part in who they grow into. By nurturing their emotional and social needs during this critical time, you’ll be able to play a large role in who they become.

Playing cooperative board games with your kids is incredibly beneficial as it will teach and instil in them some exceptionally positive traits. Below are just some of the benefits you can expect to see from regularly participating in gaming sessions with them, as well as some of the best cooperative games we’d recommend for younger kids.

Why Should You Play Cooperative Games with Your Kids?

Building Interpersonal Relationships

As adults, we take for granted how easy it is to make friends and foster positive relationships. Easy if you’re not a natural introvert like me anyway! We’ve had years of experience with social interactions and deal with many people in our day to day lives. In time, we come to know how to cement and make long-standing friendships last as well as recognize how to appropriately engage with the different people we deal with. Children are of course still figuring all this out. Making friends and understanding how to interact with people takes time and not only is it a long and bumpy road but can be particularly difficult at certain ages of a child’s development. It requires a lot of trial and error and experimentation but can also cause a lot of anxiety as well, so it’s important that parents try and promote social interactions in a healthy way whenever possible.

One of the best and most common ways for children to create friendships in their formative years is by participating in activities together or finding common interests. School is where children get the most practice with social interaction, where they work together both in the classroom and when playing sports. An alternative to sports for kids who don’t enjoy something so physical is of course board games. By playing collaborative games with children at home, in a safe environment where children can be themselves, it will help them practice the social skills that are essential to making friends and engaging with them. Even better is if siblings participate in the game too, this will help create better relationships at home and be a chance to have some bonding time.

Develop Positive Character Traits

If given the choice, we would all want our children to grow up to be kind, well-adjusted members of the community. Well, playing a cooperative board game can certainly help kids do that. Rather than competitive games where it’s an ‘everyman for themselves’ mentality, cooperative games are (funnily enough) all about cooperation. Competitive games tend to enforce a degree of selfishness or even ruthlessness and children may place an element of self-worth on who wins and loses, which can affect their experience. When everyone is striving to achieve the same goal, you can expect to see children take away much more positive traits.

Cooperative board games for kids rely on generosity and selflessness. An active player may not be able to make the move to win the game, but the move they do make will help the next player to do so. They give up the glory of being the player to win but assist someone else in doing so. Additionally, unlike competitive games, there’s nothing to gain from blocking anyone but you from winning as everyone wins and loses together. Similarly, if a player makes a wrong move that costs everyone the game and they clearly feel bad about it, you can’t help but feel a sense of empathy for that player given everything you’ve all gone through. These games also promote a sense of trust between players. You may not see what a player has in mind or think what they’re doing is correct, but just because it’s not what you would have done you have to trust that what they are doing is for a reason! Playing these games often enough will certainly help children master at least some of these qualities.

Teamwork and Collaboration

There are plenty of points in our lives where we’ve had to work together with other people on something. Some people genuinely don’t enjoy working as a team and there are certainly some negative aspects of participating in team sports. That said, it can’t be denied that teamwork does bring out a lot of positive traits and teaches children a lot of important lessons.

With cooperative games resulting in everyone winning or losing together, it’s in the players best interests to communicate with each other frequently throughout the course of the game and to lay out a strategy together. This needs to be mutually agreed upon as if there is no trust between players the plan can’t be executed properly. Working together and supporting each other, as well as listening to and welcoming others’ ideas will only increase the chances of the players coming out on top in the end. Motivating each other throughout the course of the game will encourage everyone to do their best and giving props to someone for making an excellent move will make them feel good about themselves and like they’ve truly contributed to what the team is doing. Whether you win or lose, you do it together, which is important for children to learn from a young age. The elation you feel from winning with others in a team is like nothing else, but losing doesn’t feel as bad as a group either as you’re all there to pick each other back up at the end.

Improve problem solving and reasoning

At times, even the simplest of cooperative games can involve an element of strategy and require you to think several moves ahead. There can sometimes be many moving cogs as it were so you’ll need to think carefully and deliberately about what you’re about to do and why. Challenging children with these scenarios and encouraging them to think outside the box will only help them with real world problems. These games are enjoyable for the whole family, promoting teamwork and collaboration among all members.

Giving children the chance to problem solve complex situations and not look at everything as ‘black and white’ will encourage them to think outside the box and use critical thinking. Understanding how to work around the obvious answer and explore other avenues through trial and error is something many children don’t learn to do until they are much older, so this will give them an advantage over others their own age. Encouraging children to explain their thought process and the reason behind their choices will benefit them when retrospectively looking at the result of their actions. Evaluating if a certain action was a good one and understanding what went right or wrong will help them see patterns in the decisions they make for the future.

Fun Through Learning

Our school systems are very dated and not only is what is being taught in need of an upgrade, but so is the way it’s taught! It’s a ‘one shoe fits all’ approach with most public schools but not all children learn successfully in the same way. Some can just sit and listen but others are auditory learners, some kinaesthetic and others prefer to learn through play. Cooperative board games actually teach lot’s of important things and will only help benefit kids with what they do at school.

Through playing games kids will learn a lot of the same things they would do at school but in a fun, informal and interactive way. This approach may in fact enable kids to learn better than in a more formal and authoritative setting like a classroom. Depending on the game, maths, spelling, problem solving and more will all play a part in the board games children will play.

A Welcome Break From Screens

Let’s face it. In this day and age, it’s almost impossible to get away from screens. TV’s, tablets, smartphones…whatever it is you’re reading this with! They’re absolutely everywhere and whilst they present some positives, there are also a host of negatives that come with them as well. All parents are probably guilty of relying on screens to keep children entertained and understandably so. This is a fast-paced age we’re living in and having a child in front of a TV screen or tablet is a simple way to keep them busy while you take care of what you need to. But long term it’s certainly not a healthy approach.

As difficult as it can be, finding some time to spend with your children away from screens is very important. Aside from the reasons described above, committing to something that everyone is engaged and actively participating in creates a sense of togetherness and is a great bonding experience. Playing cooperative games requires focus and concentration as well as communication and the sharing of ideas. Matching games, for example, can teach important skills like color recognition and memory. There’s no way you’ll be able to give them 100% of your attention with one eye on the board and the other on your “X” feed. Playing cooperative games with your kids is certainly a more stimulating alternative for them than YouTube, so it’s worth investing some time in playing with them whenever you can!

So there are just a few reasons why it’s worth encouraging children to play board games. Here’s some recommendations for you to get started with.

Five Cooperative Board Games For Kids We Love

When it comes to our favorite cooperative board games for kids, Hoot Owl Hoot! stands out as an excellent choice. This game encourages teamwork and helps children develop important social skills.

Hoot Owl Hoot!

Ages 4+ Players: 2-4 Time: 15 minutes

I’ve played this with my daughter many times before and it’s a simple and fun game for young kids. You have to get baby owls home to their nest before the morning and you do this by moving them around a circular board. Movement is based on color matching and strategically placing your owls as you communicate with each other to make the most beneficial move. This game has very little in the way of rules but planning ahead is essential in order to get your owlets home.

Full Hoot Owl Hoot review here.

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Outfoxed

Ages 5+ Players: 2-4 Time: 20 minutes

A well designed whodunit for kids where you have to figure out which sneaky fox stole Mrs Plumpert’s pot pie. Players reveal clues and suspects to each other as the culprit tries to get away but the only way the clues will help other players is if they get help from their teammates. It encourages deductive reasoning and collaborative skills as well as critical thinking and problem solving. It’s been likened as a mixture of Clue and Guess Who, and is great for both younger and slightly older kids.

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My First Castle Panic

Ages 4+ Players: 1-4 Time: 20 minutes

I was delighted to find out there was a lighter version of castle panic for younger kids. It stays true to the original strategic fantasy game where you have to protect your castle from marauding monsters, but makes the gameplay much more accessible for younger players. It involves colour and symbol matching and plenty of strategic cooperation, collaboration and problem solving. You share your cards with each other and have to agree on the best course of action or risk your castle being overrun!

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Race To The Treasure

Ages 5+ Players: 2-4 Time: 20 minutes

Another simple game, race to the treasure is a tile placing game that involves working together and staying engaged in order to win. As one of the popular cooperative kids games, the objective is to beat an ogre to a treasure chest by connecting tiles. The tiles must go from one side of the board to the other in a way that gives you a path not only to the chest itself, but the three keys needed in order to unlock it. This game helps promote shared decision making and cooperation in order to outpace the ogre and get to the chest first.

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Unlock! Kids Detective Stories

Ages 6+ Players: 1-4 Time: 20-60 minutes

A game perhaps best for older children to finish the recommendations. It’s similar to the advanced Unlock! Games in that it’s a cooperative escape room style game with challenging puzzles but requires no app, just physical cards and player pieces. There are three different stories with two adventures each to work through, where you search the landscape for clues and combine symbols to try and solve puzzles. No complicated calculations of maths required but it’ll certainly get kids thinking. The game’s challenging and engaging nature is reminiscent of the unpredictability found in ‘Flash Point: Fire Rescue,’ making it a thrilling experience for players.

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Conclusion: Try a Cooperative Game

Board games are a fantastic way to get children away from screens and engage in a fun and interactive activity with their family. They not only provide a break from technology but also offer numerous benefits such as promoting critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and teamwork.

In this article, we discussed the importance of cooperative board games for kids and provided five recommendations for you to try. These games, from Hoot Owl Hoot! to Unlock! Kids Detective Stories, cater to every age group and interest, making them perfect for family bonding.

Playing cooperative games as a family strengthens relationships and fosters a collaborative spirit. Instead of competing against each other, everyone works together towards a common goal, enhancing unity and understanding.

So next time your child asks to watch TV or play on their tablet, suggest trying a board game together. It could become a new favorite family activity that promotes bonding, learning, and fun. You might even discover your child’s love for strategy and problem-solving! Grab one of these cooperative games and enjoy some quality time with your little ones. Happy gaming!

For more great family games that younger kids can play check out our favorite dexterity games here.