Board games for 7 YO boys?

[Canice]

I need to shop for a 7 year old boy who says he wants Hot Wheels and board games for Christmas. Hot Wheels I can work out, but I'm wondering if there are any particular games that might be appealing to a 7 year old boy?

Slightly OT, but what an eye opener that was, looking over the tags on the tree! I'm not kidding, I didn't even KNOW what 90% of the stuff was that kids were asking for! If I had more time, I would have taken some of those, but they want all the gifts by Friday so I had to go with the identifiable stuff like "Barbies" and "trucks" and "purse", lol.

[funnybone]

It's not a board game, but my boys loved and still love Jenga.

[Taeler]

Sequence - package looks boring but my 3 nephews love it!

[KristaMB]

How about Battleship or Blokus? I've seen them both at Target recently.

[sage]

My nephew liked Clue a lot. It does help if they can read as the "clue list" had check boxes to mark the clues as you get them.

What about those boxes that have multiple games in one pacakge like checkers, chinese checkers, chess, solitaire, sometimes backgammon.

Yahtzee is fun. Sorry was a big deal when I was little.

[leightx]

I have a 7 y.o. girl and a 6 y.o. boy, and their favorite games are Apples to Apples Jr., Uno Attack, Pass the Pigs, Sequence, and Monopoly Jr. Uno Attack and Pass the Pigs aren't board games, but are still a lot of fun! :)

[jellyben]

I second Blokus. My 6yo loves it. Also, Apples to Apples Jr. is supposed tp be good.

[foodlady]

Lego Creator. This game was MADE for a 7 year old boy!!!

[sdcook]

I have two boys in that age group who love board games. Some favorites are Battleship, Trouble, Sequence, Boggle, Upwords, Connect Four, Uno and the Spongebob Squarepants version of Life. One loves chess and the other loves backgammon, so they are getting one of the all in one sets someone mentioned above.

[JMM74]

Monopoly! There's so many different versions, I'm sure you could find one that would appeal to him. Star Wars maybe?

[Laura]

This is an old one, by my son always liked playing Stratego. The age recommendation is 8+ years, but I don't think a 7 year old would be frustrated with it.

I would also recommend Uno attack but technically it is not a board game.

[SaraInWisc]

I play No Stress Chess with my 7 year old fella. It looks a regular chess game but you draw cards telling your moves. It really helps learn how to play the game.
Cranium also puts out good games for different age ranges.

[clairea]

In addition to many of the games mentioned, my kids love The Game of Life and Sorry.

[jmarie]

I have never played it, but I have been hearing a lot about "Apples to Apples", and if I am not mistaken I think I saw a Junior edition at Target the other day. You might want to check it out.I read a couple of good reviews on Amazon and other sites.

[srahndennis]

Of all the games we have, we play monopoly jr and payday the most. I bought payday because I loved it as a kid and DS (7) really likes it, too. We also like laborinth jr. Glad to hear the kuddos on Blokus - he's getting that for Christmas.

[Kristilyn1]

My boys like Monopoly, Life, Stratego, Battleship and Uno. We also love Uno Attack.

Kristi

[HejazSunKat]

This one's come highly recommended. I bought it for my (then 8 yr old) nephew last Christmas and though I never got any feedback on it it sounds like fun to me:

http://www.amazon.com/5505-Scrambled-States-America-Game/dp/B0000663RL/sr=8-1/qid=1165460230/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1086394-8071924?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games

[leightx]

This one's come highly recommended. I bought it for my (then 8 yr old) nephew last Christmas and though I never got any feedback on it it sounds like fun to me:

http://www.amazon.com/5505-Scrambled-States-America-Game/dp/B0000663RL/sr=8-1/qid=1165460230/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1086394-8071924?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games

I forgot about this one! My kids have worn ours out they play it so much, and both of them know all of the states (and many of the capitals) from playing. One of the restaurants near us gives the kids a blank US map, and both of mine had a blast filling in each of the states before dinner. :eek: Sadly, my husband and I were of absolutely no help, especially with all of those tricky NE ones. ;) Anyway, I highly recommend this one too, and the book that goes with it is hilarious: http://www.amazon.com/Scrambled-States-America-Laurie-Keller/dp/0805068317/sr=8-2/qid=1165461706/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-2039804-2284833?ie=UTF8&s=books

[Meganator]

Many good suggestions here...but I just had to add that I have never met a single other person in my life who has heard of Stratego. :) It was big in our family, though - I didn't know they still even made it.

[donleyk]

Many good suggestions here...but I just had to add that I have never met a single other person in my life who has heard of Stratego. :) It was big in our family, though - I didn't know they still even made it.

This jumped out at me also. I've not noticed it on the shelves when we purshase games for T for T. I'll have to look closer!

[TKay]

I loved Stratego when I was a kid! My boys are just getting into board games big time, so I'm happy to see all the suggestions. I was going to mention Monopoly Jr. and a chess/checkers set. My son is six and learning to play chess. He LOVES it. So the game that teaches chess mentioned above might be a good one. Good luck!

[TKay]

Oops! I failed to mention this too. I've read all these good things about chess and how it helps kids learn to concentrate and do better in school and on and on. So I'm a big proponent of the kids learning chess. Sorry, I know that was off-topic.

[Curiosity Hears]

DD at seven loved mancala, checkers and Uno.

[cas]

My kids loved Uno Attack and Pictionary Junior when they were younger.

[Canice]

Thanks, everyone! I had a disasterous trip to my second most hated store on earth, Toys R Us (the #1 title goes to the grown-ups' version, CompUSA). The one near my home has, as I recall, loads of board games, but the one I went to today had krapp. But I found Jenga at a drug store and Apples to Apples Jr and Trouble at a neighborhood Five and Dime. They're both family-owned businesses, so I feel better about that anyhow. Oh, I did pick up one thing at Toys R Us: the little guy wanted Hot Wheels too, so I got a box set of 5 cars with some track and loop or such. No batteries, just good ol' fashioned gravity-powered. As a recovering tomboy, I can attest to gravity's superiority in such matters anyhow. (Even if I included batteries, I didn't want to put that on the parents for the future - those things are expensive!) Also included a couple of individual cars off the rack.

I never would have come up with those games on my own --and they were practically the only three on the list I could even find-- so once again the BB pulls through! :) Thanks again!!

[KristaMB]

Canice, I'm glad you were able to find some games. I've gotten some great ideas from this thread for future board game purchases.

Thanks, everyone! I had a disasterous trip to my second most hated store on earth, Toys R Us (the #1 title goes to the grown-ups' version, CompUSA).

I just had to comment on this. Have you ever been tortured into a Fry's Electronics? It is by far the worst store on the planet. I just thought I'd warn you. I wouldn't want you to have to bump CompUSA and Toys R Us down your list if you ever wandered into a Fry's. ;)

[Canice]

Aaaaaaaaaaccck! Fry's!!! :eek: I didn't think it existed anymore! Haven't seen one in at least 10 glorious years.

When I was a tyke I had to spend looong hours while my parents poured over wallpaper and carpeting books - absolute torture. One of the many wonderful things about being an adult is that you don't have to do that anymore. But if you're a nice and kind and patient girlfriend you WILL go to CompUSA. Then you pick up a Page Up (http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?t=98152&highlight=compusa) for your recipes, trying to make the most of the (unpleasant) experience.