When I was growing up, one of my most favorite things was family game night. We would all sit down around our kitchen table, fill up our ice cream float cups and play a mean game of Hearts.

Even back then, when life wasn’t near as hectic as it is now, it seemed to draw us back together as a family. So of course, as we started raising our children, my husband and I decided we wanted to have this special family time too.

The problem we soon found was how to find games that everyone could play. With an age span of 7 years, our 15 year old was not so keen in playing Go Fish all the time, nor could our 8 year old play Risk. How do we solve this dilemma?

Some Great Answers

You knew I had some answers, right? First off, a game we were introduced to this summer on our family vacation was a fun family game called
Mexican Train Dominos. It was fun, several people could play at one time (which is good in a family of 7) and the dominos rules were easy to learn and follow. One note – the rules that came with our game were different than how we learned how to play. Our rules are in the next post.

Apples to Apples (which does come in a Junior version) is fun and easy for everyone to play because the winning card is subjective to the judge’s opinion – read no right or wrong answer here.

Blokus is a great colored tile game that is easy for everyone to play. The cool thing about this game is that no matter your age it really works to exercise your critical thinking skills. It is fun to watch how smart your kiddos really are!

These are great Christmas gift ideas and birthday present ideas because they are inexpensive and they don’t involve technology. Which means more time to talk and laugh together! What good Christmas gifts!

 As you browse around this site, we hope you’ll find some effective parenting skills that will work for your family. As far as our family goes, we believe  The Total Transformation Program is the one tool that’s had the biggest impact on our household, but you need to find out for yourself. Click here to try it free for 30 days, and if you decide to keep it only then will you  have to pay for it.

Mexican Train Dominos is a great game that we’ve recently been introduced to, but we found the rules in the game we bought to be a little confusing.

These are the Mexican Train Domino rules we learned to play that seems to best suit our younger kiddos.

The dominos themselves are different than regular dominos because they go up to double 12’s. One cool thing is that if counting dots is hard for your little ones, you can buy these dominos that have numbers instead of dots. The game go basically like this – each person takes a number of tiles based on how many are playing. Then starting with the double 12 tile (or the closest double someone has in their pile) it is placed in the middle. Every round goes down 1 number. Everyone then must start their leg (think spider here) with the same number that was the double. If you don’t have that number on your tiles, you pick one from the bone pile. If you can play you do, if not the next person plays. You then only play on your leg until 1 of 2 things happen.

1st – If someone, who has their leg going, cannot play a domino on their leg after they pick from the bone pile, you can play on their leg. They place a plastic train (that comes with most domino sets) on their leg so everyone knows it is open to play on. As an added treat – we use M&M’s instead of train. Then when the person whose leg is open can play on it again, they can chose to remove the train (or eat the M&M!) to close it off from other players.

2nd – You can start a Mexican train. You do this by using a tile that has the same number as the doubles you started with and starting a leg separate from the main game. Only one person can start a train per round but anyone can play on it at anytime.

A few nuances – if you play a doubles tile during the round (like 3’s), the doubles tile must be “satisfied” before regular play can continue. How this is accomplished is that either the person who plays the doubles tile must play another tile with the same number or it goes around the table for each person’s turn until someone can satisfy it. You must draw if you can’t play. You can however play the drawn tile if it matches. This can mess up the best laid plans! Also, it is not uncommon for someone to get stuck for the whole round without getting their leg started. The upside here is if you play rounds down to double 1’s, this evens out.

The winner of the round is the one who gets rid of all his tiles first. Everyone else has to add up all their dots (only area little ones may need help) on all their tiles. This is their score for that round. Winner of the game is the person with the lowest score.

Mexican Train Dominos. Easy dominos rules and a fun family game! Great for family Christmas gifts!

As you browse around this site, we hope you’ll find some effective parenting skills that will work for your family. As far as our family goes, we believe  The Total Transformation Program is the one tool that’s had the biggest impact on our household, but you need to find out for yourself. Click here to try it free for 30 days, and if you decide to keep it only then will you  have to pay for it.