Educational Board Games for 10 years Old
Choosing a suitable board game for a 10-year old isn't as simple as picking up the most popular one from the store. You need to remember that at this age, kids are transitioning into a more complex cognitive phase. This enables them to handle more sophisticated games which require strategic thinking. However, they also still love imaginative and physically engaging games tailored for younger kids.
Written by
Máté Lencse
Educator, game designer,
founder of PlayWise
Why listen to him?
Máté has been regularly playing modern board games and classic abstract board games since 2013. He plays because he loves to. He plays because as an educator, it is his most important motivational and developmental tool. He plays because as a father, it is one of the highest quality times spent with his daughter. He plays because it adds to his marriage. He plays to get to know games and as a game designer, to be able to create new ones. Thus, it's not surprising that he often plays through 15-20 games weekly. Learn more about him and his background on his author page or follow him on social media:
Three critical skills that board games can help improve include:
Now onto specific games for 10-year-olds:
Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride is a true classic and an excellent introductory game, as its rules are not too complex, yet there is plenty to think about.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 8 and up, 30-60 min, 2-5 players
Tools
1 game board, 240 train car pieces, 110 train cards, 30 destination ticket cards, 5 scoring markers, and a rulebook.
Skills
The game enhances strategic planning, decision-making, route optimization, and spatial reasoning, as players must carefully choose and connect railway routes while blocking opponents.
Instructions
Players collect train cards to claim railway routes on the board, aiming to connect cities based on their destination tickets. Longer routes and completed tickets score more points, but incomplete routes result in penalties. The player with the most points at the end wins the game.
Catan
Catan is a thrilling board game where players aim to build and develop holdings by trading and acquiring resources.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 10 and up, 60-120 min, 3-4 players
Tools
19 terrain hexes, 6 sea frame pieces, 9 harbor tiles, 95 resource cards, 25 development cards, 4 building cost cards, 2 special cards, 16 cities, 20 settlements, 60 roads, 2 dice, a robber piece, and a rulebook.
Skills
The game enhances strategic thinking, resource management, negotiation skills, and decision-making, as players must trade, build, and expand while adapting to an ever-changing board.
Instructions
Players take turns rolling dice to produce resources, which they use to build roads, settlements, and cities. Through trading and strategic placement, they compete to be the first to reach 10 victory points and win the game.
Clue
Cluedo, also known as Clue in North America, is a classic murder mystery board game.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 8 and up, 45 min, 2-6 players
Tools
1 game board, 6 character tokens, 6 weapon tokens, 9 room cards, 6 character cards, 6 weapon cards, 1 solution envelope, a detective notepad, 2 dice, and a rulebook.
Skills
The game enhances logical reasoning, deduction skills, critical thinking, and memory, as players must piece together clues to solve the mystery.
Instructions
Players take turns moving through the mansion, collecting clues to determine who committed the crime, with what weapon, and in which room. By making strategic accusations and eliminating possibilities, the first player to correctly solve the mystery wins the game.
Risk
Risk is a board game of diplomacy, conflict, and conquest. It's a classic game of strategy where players' ultimate goal is to occupy every territory on the board and eliminate other players in the process, thereby establishing supremacy in the world.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 10 and up, 120 min, 2-6 players
Tools
1 game board, 5 sets of army pieces (troops, cavalry, artillery), 56 Risk cards, 5 dice, and a rulebook.
Skills
The game enhances strategic thinking, tactical decision-making, risk assessment, negotiation skills, and resource management, as players must carefully plan attacks and defenses while expanding their empires.
Instructions
Players take turns deploying armies, attacking opponents, and fortifying their territories to gain control of the world. Battles are resolved using dice rolls, and players must balance offense and defense. The last player standing or the first to complete their objective wins the game.
