Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.
- Claude Monet
Dad Suggests was created to share with others the many different things that we have loved sharing with our own children.
Our hope is that - by reading or visiting our children’s bookstore - you will find something special to enjoy with your own family.
- Ryan
All in Board Games
Peaceable Kingdom is the king of cooperative family board games. And not only are they promoting cooperation, but they’re cultivating kindness through board games as well. Is it any wonder they’re one of our very favorites?
One of my most important jobs is promoting creativity and imagination in the kids - so I get very excited about new board games with good stories and engaging gameplay like The Enchanted Tower.
The following board games are some of our very favorite fantasy-themed family board games. If your family loves fantasy as much as ours does, or if you have a little one obsessed with dragons and magic, make sure to give these games a try.
I think that one of the secrets of My Little Scythe’s greatness is that behind the cute exterior lies an extremely well-balanced and incredibly interesting strategy game. Created by a father/daughter team, this board game is vibrant and detailed and screaming for a cartoon adaptation.
What we really love collecting now are games that introduce strategy and decision making in a bite-size, family-friendly format. Very recently we’ve added a new board game to our collection that fits this description perfectly. Its name is Honga.
These are the best board games for 2-year-olds. They might teach practical skills like cooperating and counting and following directions. But, most of all, they are fun - and they provide us very valuable bonding time for the whole family.
My First Castle Panic has turned out to be a perfect family board game for us. Having a 3-year-old and a 3 year age gap between our kids always makes it a truly remarkable experience when we find a game that legitimately works for all of us in the spirit of a true family game night.
Our son’s imagination is very strong, and he’s prone to get super excited when he gets his hands on something like Zombie Kidz Evolution and its tracking system. And the more he heard about this board game, the more excited he got.
All five of these games give me a mental workout where I begin to calculate my options and the possible outcomes, just like I’m playing chess. But my wife and our 6-year-old give me more than my fair share of defeats.
From my experience, it’s clear to see that no matter what the medium, being given a choice during a story fires up our 6-year-old’s imagination and sucks him into the action like nothing else. I really think Prospero Hall and Z-Man knocked it out of the park with House of Danger. It’s like the perfect storm of imagination for a family activity.
Discover the best gifts for Chess players. If someone is obsessed and in love with something - it tends to make shopping for them easy. But what if you know absolutely nothing about their interest? Well, fear not, if that interest happens to be chess, I’m here to help.
The newest addition to our collection of family games is Gnomes at Night - a cooperative maze game. But this time when I say cooperative, I really mean it. Cooperation is not a choice in Gnomes at Night, and that’s what makes it special.
We’ve been playing a lot of card games in our house recently. Perhaps it’s because our 6-year-old has recently graduated to really holding his own in competitive card games. Check out our list of the best card games for families and let us know your favorite!
The fact that my son was so enamored with the idea of booby trapping the entire house has definitely endeared this classic movie to me - even more than the power of my own nostalgia. I simply had to buy this board game when I saw it.
As a father of kids ages 6 and 2, junior versions of board games are a trend I greatly appreciate. In case you’re unaware, junior versions of board games are basically simplified versions of their better-known adult versions. Whether they say “junior”, “for kids”, or “my first”, they all mean the same thing - better access to the fun for the young ones.
First Orchard by HABA is perhaps the very best board game to be your child’s first board game. This cooperative game teaches basic skills like taking turns and rolling the die - and the wooden game pieces are high-quality enough to be toys by themselves.
These are the benefits of teaching chess to kids. Chess is very good for a child’s brain. Playing chess strengthens their executive functions (cognitive control) at a time in their development when they need it the most, and when it can make the biggest impact on the rest of their lives.
These are the best logic games for kids. Children aren’t born with the ability to masterfully resist their impulses and weigh the potential consequences of their actions. For that reason, learning logic through games is not only a lot of fun, it truly grows an incredibly useful skillset.
