ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Fun Card Games for Kids

Updated on March 2, 2008

Family Fun with Card Games

I remember playing card games with my grandma when I was a kid. We had a lot of fun, playing just about every card game you could think of. Out of all of the different games, a few have remained favorite memories.

Card games are great to play as a family, but they also teach kids how to play with each other. You can teach them the concepts of following rules to play a game, but also about being good winners and gracious losers. As your kids get older, you can start introducing them to more complex games.

Halloween Concentration Card Game
Halloween Concentration Card Game
Crazy Eights Card Game
Crazy Eights Card Game
There are a lot of different versions of the game available.
There are a lot of different versions of the game available.

Concentration / Memory

You can buy a special deck of cards with fun pictures for this game, or just play with a regular deck. A neat thing about this game is that it can be played as a solitaire game or with multiple players. To play, you mix the cards up, then spread them out facedown in front of you. You flip over one card, and then try to flip over its match. If you match two cards, you get to add them to your pile. As the game goes on, you have to remember where cards are to make matches. The player with the most number of pairs in their pile at the end of the game is the winner.

Crazy Eights

Special Crazy Eights card games are available, but you can play this one with a standard 52-card deck. You will need at least two or more players. Each player is dealt eight cards, but the point is to get rid of all of your cards. The first person without any cards at the end wins.

To play, place the deck face down in the middle of the table after dealing. Turn the top card over to start the discard pile. During your turn you can discard any cards that match number or suit (if the discarded card is a four of diamonds, you can put any fours or diamonds down). Eights are crazy, so you can play them at any time. If you don’t have anything to discard, you have to draw from the deck until you can discard (some versions, particularly for younger children, allow you to only draw one card before passing on to the next player). The first one to get rid of all of their cards wins.

Old Maid

Like the other games presented here, you can play this with a regular deck. There are a lot of specialized Old Maid card decks that you can purchase as well (they are pretty fun). You need at least two players for this game. If you play with a regular deck, remove one of the Queens. Whoever ends up with a single Queen at the end of the game is the loser. The specialized decks will have a single Old Maid card.

To play, deal all of the cards to the players. Each of the players discards any pairs that they have (pairs of same numbers or matching suits). When you have your turn, you spread your cards out face down, offering them to the player on your left. That player must choose one of your cards, without seeing it first. This card now belongs to that player. If that card makes a pair, the player can discard the cards. This exchange of cards continues from player to player until everyone has discarded all of their cards—except for the one person left with the old maid card (the queen).

Uno

The best part about this game is that it is fun for both older children and adults. In fact, I still love to play it. The object of the game is to either be the first player to get rid of all of your cards or be the first player to score 500 points, depending on the version you play. I’ve found that everyone plays the game with some different twist.

The game is played with 108 cards. You should read the game instructions when you purchase it, but remember that everyone likes to make variations. Many of these variations make it easier for children to play. The fun part of the game is that you want to yell “Uno!” when you discard to the point that you only have one card in your hand. If the player doesn’t say “Uno” before another player catches them, she must draw cards as a penalty. The cards are colorful, with fun action cards like the wild cards and skip.

There are other, newer versions of the game available, some presented as board games, but the classic one is the best.

Family Game Time

You will have a great time playing these with your kids, or watching them play with friends. Your only problem might be that the games are so fun they become addictive, and your kids will want to play all the time. After you introduce your family to the basic games, experiment with new ones. Family time is special, so make the best of it.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)