Card games for kids: 12 to play by age, what each one practises, and how to make your own deck

For a 7-year-old, start with Go Fish, War, Snap or Memory (also called Pairs): they need one regular deck or a cheap set, a minute to explain, and almost no reading. From about 8 or 9, move to Crazy Eights, Uno, Rummy or Spit, which ask your kid to plan a few moves ahead. In Kubrio's How to make a board game course, your kid invents a game your family can play at the table, and a card deck your kid designs is one of the easiest places to start.

Which card games work for a 6 or 7-year-old?

The best first card games have one rule to hold in your head and a short round. These four fit.

• Go Fish. Ask for a rank, collect pairs or sets of four. It practises asking clearly, remembering what others asked for, and taking a "no" calmly.
• War. Flip, compare, the higher card wins. It is pure luck, which is the point at 6: your kid gets practice with bigger-than-and-smaller-than numbers without anyone being "bad at it".
• Snap. Flip and slap when two cards match. It practises quick matching and good-natured losing.
• Memory (Pairs). Cards face down, find the matching pairs. The New Zealand Education Hub notes that Pairs makes children remember where cards were uncovered, which is working memory in action.

Use a regular 52-card deck for the first three. Memory works best with a set of picture pairs, or with a deck of cards your kid draws.

Which card games work for ages 8 to 10?

At 8 and up, kids can follow a rule that changes the next player's move. Try these.

• Crazy Eights or Uno. Match the suit, the number or the colour, and use special cards to change the game. Understood.org lists simple card games such as Crazy Eights, Uno, Go Fish and War among its ideas for working memory, because kids hold the rules in mind and track which cards have been played.
• Rummy. Collect runs and sets. It practises sorting, spotting patterns and adding.
• Spit or Speed. A fast two-player game where both play at once. It practises quick comparison under mild pressure.
• Cribbage. For a kid who loves counting, it turns adding to 15 into a game. The rules take one sit-down with a parent first.

Which card games work for ages 11 to 13?

Older kids like games with a plan in them. Hearts, Spades and Euchre have trick-taking and partners, and a game such as Phase 10 or Set adds pattern-hunting. Strategy games draw on working memory, self-control and flexible thinking at once, the same skill set the Education Hub page above describes. Set the rule that your kid explains the game to a newcomer before you start; teaching it is the best test of knowing it.

Do card games help with math?

Card games very likely help young kids with number sense, but the strongest research is about board games, so be careful how far you stretch it. Ramani and Siegler (2008) found that about an hour of playing a linear number board game improved low-income preschoolers' skill on four number tasks (magnitude comparison, number-line estimation, counting and numeral identification), and the gains lasted at least nine weeks. Their abstract is on ERIC. Those children were around 5, and the game was a numbered track, not a deck of cards.

What that does tell a parent: playing with numbers, in a game your kid wants to win, works better than a worksheet. A game like War, Cribbage or Rummy gives the same kind of repeated, low-stakes practice. It is not a substitute for school math, and I would not promise a test score from any card game.

What do card games practise besides numbers?

They practise remembering, waiting and losing. A kid who holds a hand has to remember which cards have been played, inhibit the urge to blurt a plan, and switch when a bad draw ruins the first one. Researchers call these updating, inhibition and flexibility. A randomized trial of modern board and card games with children at risk of social exclusion was designed to test whether playing them builds those three skills. A parent doesn't need the trial to see the everyday version: a kid who can lose a round of Uno and deal again is practising something that matters at school.

How can your kid make their own card game?

The easiest way to make a card game is to change one rule of a game your kid already knows, then draw the cards. Here is a version that takes an afternoon.

1. Pick a base game. Memory, Snap and Go Fish are the easiest to remix.
2. Pick a theme. Dragons, space pets, kitchen monsters, a made-up school.
3. Draw 20 cards. Ten pairs works for Memory. For a Go Fish remix, draw five sets of four, one set per creature.
4. Add one special card. A "swap hands" card or a "skip a turn" card is enough.
5. Play it with the family and watch. Where did people get confused? Which round dragged? Change one rule and play again.

That loop of making, watching players and fixing is the game designer's whole job. Your kid makes the cards, the rules and the fixes; you play and say what was confusing. If your kid wants a bigger project, How to make a video game takes the same ideas onto a screen, and How to make a map turns a card world into a place with paths.

What to do at home this week

1. Pick one game and learn it together. Choose by age from the lists above. Read the rules aloud once, then play a practice round with cards face up.
2. Play three rounds, short. Ten minutes at the table beats an hour that ends in tears.
3. Ask one question after. "What was the hardest decision?" or "What would you change?" turns a game into a design conversation.
4. Draw a deck. Use index cards or paper cut into rectangles. Ten pairs is plenty.
5. Play the new game and change one thing. Write the final rules on a card and keep it in the box.

FAQ

What is the best card game for a 7-year-old? Go Fish is the easiest to teach and the most forgiving, and Memory is better if your kid likes finding things. Both need only a minute of explaining.

Are card games good for kids? Yes, when they are fun and short. They give practice with numbers, remembering what has been played and handling a loss, and they happen with other people at a table. The research on board games and number skills is the strongest, so treat card games as good practice, not as a guaranteed boost.

What card games can we play with a regular deck? War, Snap, Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Rummy, Spit, Hearts and Cribbage all use a standard 52-card deck. Uno, Set and Phase 10 need their own decks, and Memory is easiest with a set of picture pairs.

How do I stop my kid from quitting when they lose? Start with luck-heavy games like War and Snap, keep rounds short, and say out loud that you lose sometimes too. Playing the same game again the next day, once the sting has gone, teaches more than any talk about being a good sport.

Can my kid really make their own card game? Yes. Changing one rule of a game they already know and drawing their own cards is the simplest way in, and most kids 6 to 13 can finish a first deck in an afternoon.