Five Games in One Box

Get Your Game On

• What: Six Games in One Box
• When: Four years and up
• Why: Lots of games, compact storage
• Where: Amazon

Our kids love a game, and I love avoiding screens. So when we got this set of five games in one box, I couldn’t be happier about it.

The classic games set comes with a box that stores all the pieces for each game. One side of the sliding lid comes printed with a checkerboard pattern. The flip side of the lid has a Chinese checkers board printed on it, while the bottom panel of the actual box has a backgammon board. In addition to checkers, chess, Chinese checkers, and backgammon, the set also includes a bag of brightly colored plastic sticks about the size of a stirring stick for pick up sticks. 

The box easily holds all the pieces for each game as well as the instructions. It takes up about as much room on a shelf as a standard board game box, but holds so much more. If your child isn’t ready for chess yet, checkers makes a great place to start. And younger kids enjoy moving the colored marbles around the Chinese checker board as a precursor to learning (and following) the rules.

The plastic pieces mean I don’t worry about my kids ruining them, though you can get sets with wooden pieces as well.  And plastic makes replacing them easy and affordable, though we’ve had no trouble corralling everything in the wooden box when not in play. The lid can be slid into the track with either side up to make the playing surface, or left off completely for backgammon or containing any other play inside the box.

If you want to get a lot of bang for your buck, look no further than this treasure chest of classic games.