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In the mood for a board game but tired of the ones you have lying on your shelves? Well have no fear, because there are plenty of DIY board games you can make at home!
In this article I am going to be sharing with you 10 DIY board game ideas that you can make out of everyday materials that you can findlying around the home.
They are great to make on a rainy day or to keep the kids entertained during vacation.
10 Best DIY Board Games
- Lego Chess
- Guess Who
- Lego Tic-Tac-Toe
- DIY Chutes & Ladders
- The Rainbow Game
- DIY Memory Game
- Easter Egg Hunt Board Game
- Cereal Box Board Game
- DIY Customised Monopoly
- DIY Checkers
1. Lego Chess
Difficulty to Make: Medium
Players: 2
Ages: 8+
This Lego Chess set by Teach Beside Me is a whole lot of fun to make, almost as fun as actually playing the game.
If your house is anything like mine, then you will have a load of spare Lego lying around. Simply create the pieces and the board out of Lego and play chess as normal.
You can have a lot of fun with this game – the themes you can muster up are unlimited, from abstract pieces to the Star Wars themed one below.
You can even destroy your pieces when they are taken off the board for added effect!
2. Guess Who
Difficulty to Make: Easy – Medium
Players: 2
Ages: 6+
Guess who was one of my favorite games as a young child. This version of guess who by kidcityfamily is so simple to make yet so fun to play.
Customizing each character is easy – whether your child is into super heroes, cartoons or even their favorite sports team, you can incorporate it into guess who.
We have even played a version where we had pictures of our family and pets on each of the tiles.
If you want to get even more crafty you can use wood and hinges like this version from almostmakesperfect.
We have made a few of these to gift friends and family during Christmas and they are always a crowd pleaser.
3. Lego Tic-Tac-Toe
Difficulty to Make: Easy
Players: 2
Ages: 4+
Another great DIY Lego board game. This time the ever so simple Tic-Tac-Toe.
For this version of the game you can either do a quick 5min set up of the board and pieces or come up with something super awesome and intricately detailed. The choice is yours.
That’s the great thing about Lego – the project can be as big or as small as you like.
If you aren’t feeling your creative juices flowing you can even purchase premade Lego tic-tac-toe sets with different themes like the one below.
4. DIY Chutes & Ladders
Difficulty to Make: Medium
Players: 2 – 6
Ages: 5+
I absolutely love this DIY board game idea by artsycraftsymom. All that’s required is a sheet of paper ruled into 100 squares, some popsicle sticks, wool or pipe cleaners and some glue.
Once you have the sheet of paper all ruled up – simply let your little ones express their creative side by coloring in the squares or drawing a picture.
After the board is colorful its time to pain the popsicle sticks and then place the chutes and ladders on the board.
Wait 5 – 10 mins for the glue to dry and you are ready to play. This is a great rainy day activity for the kids.
5. The Rainbow Game
Difficulty to Make: Medium
Players: 2 – 6
Ages: 5+
This is an adaption of the traditional chutes and ladders game and uses the same concept but makes it colorful and 3D.
All this game needs to make is a printer, some scissors and that’s it! (or if you are feeling super creative you can draw the necessary pieces.
The printable template can be found at mrprintables.
6. DIY Memory Game
Difficulty to Make: Easy
Players: 2 – 6
Ages: 3+
Memory games are brilliant for helping develop young children’s cognitive development and in fact have been proven to have a many benefits for both adults and children.
Board games can be educational and fun!
I love to customize the memory games for my kids. Again, the skies the limit here, you can use pictures of the family, super heroes you name it.
Simply print doubles of each image. Lay all the cards face down on the table and play memory in turns with your family.
7. Easter Egg Hunt Board Game
Difficulty to Make: Easy
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 4+
Another brilliant DIY board game by mrprintables. This is the perfect game to play during the Easter holidays to get the children in the mood for egg hunting!
My children absolutely loved playing through the game and lifting the flaps to find the eggs – if you are going to play more than a few times though I would recommend using light cardboard!
The game involves counting numbers, remembering hidden objects and strategy in deciding where to hunt / which direction to go in.
In order to make this game you will need to print the template here, have a cupcake wrapper (or other place to put the eggs).
8. Cereal Box Board Game
Difficulty to Make: Easy
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 4+
What is the crucial item in a board game? The board of course.
And what better blank canvas board than an unfolded cereal box. There are plenty of ways to create a board game using an empty cereal box. One example is the one above by thecrafttrain who created a dinosaur themed game after visiting the Museum.
It’s very creative getting your little ones thinking about the theme they want for their game, and while they may need some help – half the fun will be drawing the pictures and coloring in.
9. DIY Custom Monopoly
Difficulty to Make: Hard
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 9+
All families have a love hate relationship with Monopoly. It is one of those games that sits on everyone shelves…
And while there are plenty of different themes for Monopoly available today. Nothing is quite as cool as a personalized version of the game.
There are two options when it comes to creating a DIY Monopoly board game. The first is whether you want to do everything from scratch – ruling the lines for the board yourself and creating your own custom chance & community chest cards…
OR
Printing a blank version of the board here and using it as a base – then taking the money and cards from another set of the game like the above picture from thecraftables.
My kids loved to create cards based on areas of our home town and neighborhood and we even created some super awesome custom chance cards based on our family and pets!
You can find template game board and cards here!
10. DIY Checkers
Difficulty to Make: Easy
Players: 2
Ages: 4+
Last but not least is a DIY checkers game. This is incredibly simple to make and just requires you to collect a few milk bottle lids, create a checkered board and then customize each sides pieces!
The one above is from deceptivelycreative and incorporates maths problems in the game! That’s awesome.
There are many different and creative ways you could create a checkers game – and I would love to see a few of your creations!
Why DIY Board Games?
Board games are a great way to make learning fun for children and we have even published a full article on the best educational board games broken down by the skills they teach.
By making board games with your children you stimulate their creative minds and it’s a great bonding experience.
A lot of the DIY games I have made with my children are almost as fun to make as they are to play!
How to make a DIY Board Game?
Most of the board games above I have linked to the original creators of the game. If you are inspired but need a little help, many of the above links have step by step instructions of how to make the board games yourself in an easy to understand way.
Summary
Listed above are what I think are the best DIY board game ideas to make for kids. However, I am sure many of you are super creative and can think of other cool board games that can be made at home.
I would love to hear your experience with board games and how you went creating any of the ideas listed above.
If you loved this article make sure to check out our article on the benefits of board games – 8 reasons why they are good for you!
One Response
Eu achei muito irado vou tentar fazer todos em casa