A Match Maid in Fun

• What: Old Maid Card Game
• When: 4 years and up
• Why: Easy to learn, fast, fun
• Where: Amazon

Want an easy matching game to play with your kids? How about a game that doesn’t depend on memorization? Grab a deck of Old Maid cards and get started making matches.

eeBoo Old Maid Playing Cards on Amazon

Though you may remember Old Maid from your own childhood, this card game works best with three or more players. No matter how many kids join the game, shuffle the cards then pass out the entire deck among all the players. Avoid the Old Maid to win the game. Players take turns laying matching pairs down face up, then taking a card from the next player’s hand without looking. Once all the pairs have been matched, the person holding the single Old Maid card loses. Kids can then restart the game from the beginning, or dwindle down players to get to a final top two, who end up passing the Old Maid back and forth among them by constantly rearranging their cards.

You can get a lovely illustrated set of Old Maid cards from eeBoo, who make the fabulous Fairy Queen game and Crazy Eights as well. This set comes with 22 matching sets of cards with fun names like Pitchfork Pearl and Naturalist Nellie that appeal to young kids. The different colored borders and entertaining illustrations help kids make matches, even if they can’t read the names. And the sturdy box with sliding drawer means kids can pack up the cards with minimal effort when they finish playing. The same company also makes an Animal Village version of the game, where the cards come illustrated with different creatures instead of people.

No matter which version of this popular card game you choose for your kids, enjoy the merriment of avoiding the cantankerous Old Maid.