I love board games! They’re such a fun way to spend time together as a family while working on skill building. You can practice many academic and soft skills through games.
Now that my middle kids are reading, we finally have enough players ready to play all our games. For a long time it was just my husband, our oldest, and me. Do you know how many games you can’t play with only three players? It’s crazy! 😀
So I’ve definitely been enjoying this aspect of my kids growing up. Bring on the 4+ player board games!!!
You’ll often find us playing a game between dinner and bedtime. It’s a fabulous, screen free way to end the evening. Lately, we’ve been playing a lot of creativity boosting games. They’re fun, because they don’t rely on chance to win. You have to actually make an effort and think.
Here are five of the best board games I’ve discovered that boost creativity. They each require creative thinking and planning to win.
1. Morphology Junior
I bought Morphology Junior
Now that I have more readers, we play it quite frequently. And I discovered that even my non-readers love playing with the pieces.
It’s so much fun!
In addition to the board, marker, timer, and die, you’ll find a bunch of random objects. These include some rubber rings, wooden people, cubes, a string, and some other items. You can see some of them in my picture above.
You break into teams for this game. On your team’s turn, one person draws a card. They read aloud the clue, and then gather their building materials. The builder tries to use the pieces to get the rest of her team to guess the word before the time runs out.
For instance, the last time we played, my oldest drew the word hand. She gave her team the clue, “Body related” and started building. Here’s what she made:
Her team guessed the word, and they moved their piece forward on the board.
Each move, you also roll the dice. The number you get changes how the game is played slightly. For instance, it limits the number of pieces you can use, allows the other team to try and steal the word, or morphs the round into charades with props. Lots of variety and fun!
Game play is fairly quick – it takes about half an hour to forty-five minutes to play the full game.
2. Cranium Cadoo
Cranium Cadoo
In this game, the goal is to get four of your pieces in a row. To place your piece, you must draw a card and successfully complete what it says.
You may need to:
- Draw a word for someone to guess
- Act out a word
- Sculpt a word from clay
- Go find a couple of objects meeting a provided description
- Answer a multiple choice question
- Solve a riddle
There’s a good variety of cards included, so it doesn’t feel repetitive. One box of cards is for solo play, and one is for combo. On the combo, two people place a piece on the board, on the same space.
You roll the die to determine if you draw a solo card or a combo. I love the combo ones, because they encourage working together.
3. Bible Brainstorm
Bible Brainstorm
As your team moves its piece along the board, you must draw a card from the box corresponding with the space on the board. You’ll find the following types of squares:
- Word puzzles
- Charades
- Drawing
- Christian music
- Bible trivia
You draw a card, and then do what it says. You may need to make your team guess what you’re acting or drawing. Or answer a multiple choice question about a song. SThe vast majority of the music cards I’ve experienced relate to a hymn, not to modern music, which I appreciate!
Some of the questions are a bit hard for younger players. So, we utilized the recommended adaptation in the book to draw five cards and have them pick the one they want to use.
To win, you have to show as a team how your God-given gifts help you serve Him. For instance, you can sing a hymn together and explain how you can offer praise to God through music. Or recite a scripture you’ve memorized you could use to share God with others. It’s a fun way to examine the different gifts and talents God gives people, and think creatively about how you can use them to serve.
4. LEGO Creationary 
My oldest daughter saved up and bought LEGO Creationary 
The game contains a variety of LEGO pieces, and cards. You draw a card and build the word using the pieces. You try to get the other players to guess what you’re building.
Unfortunately, this is a retired game, so tracking it down at an affordable price may be a challenge. It looks like some are available on eBay for less then the expensive price on Amazon.
If you can’t find it, consider getting out your Pictionary cards and a box of LEGOs and try a DIY version. Or just work together to brainstorm a bunch of words and write them on paper. Then draw a word and get busy! You can either set a point limit (first person to have the other players guess 10 words) or a time limit (let’s play for 20 minutes).
We have so much fun building things in this game. It’s amazing how many different creations you can build from one set of blocks.
5. Scribblish
Scribblish
Instead, everyone plays simultaneously. Once you’ve drawn your word/phrase, you write a caption. Then, you roll up your word into the cool holder, and pass it. The next person looks at your caption and draws a picture. Then they roll it up and pass again.
This time, the player looks only at the picture. They must write a caption. Play continues until the final square is reached.
Now, the fun really starts! Looking at the final square, everyone guesses which roll was their original one.
When everyone is ready, unroll each and check them out. You see if you correctly guessed yours. Sometimes, it’s amazing how far off the pictures ended up. It reminds me a lot of the telephone game, where it only takes one person not hearing correctly to completely change the message.
You really have to think creatively to try and figure out what the picture is!
What Creativity Boosting Games Do You Play?
Can you recommend any other creativity boosting board games? I’d love for you to share your favorites in the comments below.
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