10 Fun and Easy Card Games for Kids

Nowadays, children hardly play any indoor games. To them, games mean mobile games and surfing the internet. Indoor games which were common a decade ago, like ‘Snakes and Ladder’, ‘Carrom’, ‘Monopoly’, or ‘Card games’ are close to extinction today. Do you remember those times, when you played board games with your siblings during those summer vacations? What a time it was! Playing games and enjoying with your cousins—those were the things we looked forward to in Summers. Don’t you think your children are missing that fun? Of course, they are! Well, it’s time you bring back those times and introduce these games to your children. Start with card games, you will have umpteen options and your kids will never ever get bored. Here are some amazing card games that you can play with your child and believe us, he is going to love them!

10 Simple Card Games for Children

You can introduce these kid-friendly card games on game night, which is perfect for family bonding time!  A great parent-child bonding activity which can challenge your child’s cognitive development is by playing card games such as number card games even if you’re at a party or at the airport, playing card games for kids keeps them engaged and its loads of fun!

1. Go Fish

Go fish is an exciting game and it gives an opportunity for older kids to learn how to memorize the other player’s cards.

Age Range: Seven and above

Number of Players: Two or more

How To Play

• Deal the cards.
• If there are two to three player, each player gets seven cards. More than three players, each player gets five cards.
• The remaining cards are set to face down in the middle to form the fish stack.
• Players sort their cards into groups of like cards (numbers, faces, etc).
• Player on the dealer’s left plays first, asking another player for a card to match those in their hands.
• When a player requests a card to another person, and that person has it, he must hand that card to the person who asked for it.
• The requester can ask the same player or any other player for cards until they say “go fish,” meaning that they don’t have the card asked by the first player.
• The player who makes the request must then draw a card from the fish stack.
• The player who says “Go fish!” plays next.
• When a player collects the same cards in a set, he will put them face down.

Winner:

• The first player to complete the set and have no cards left.
• If two people are out of cards at the same time, the player with the most sets wins the game.

2. Snap

A fun and noisy family card game that can go on forever.

Age Range: Six and above

Number of Players: Two or more players

How To Play

• Deal out all the cards, face-down.
• Not looking at the cards, set them in a stack in front facing down.
• The first player to the left of the dealer takes the top card, flips it over, and places it face-up next to his own stack.
• The next player does the same and so do the other players as their turn comes.
• The game continues until a player notices that two same cards on top of any of the face-up stack.
• Whoever notices this, shouts, “Snap!”
• That person who shouts “Snap” at first, will receive all the cards of the matched stack and will add them to the bottom of his own face-down stack.
• The play continues from the person on the left.
• If at any point, a player runs out of cards in their face-down pile, they can overturn the face-up stack and start again.
• In case of a tie, the stacks are combined and placed in the middle to form a “snap pool”.
• The game continues until someone turns up a card, which matches the top card in the snap pool.
• Whoever shouts “Snap pool!” first, takes the whole pool.
• If a player incorrectly calls “Snap!” at any point, they must give every player one card from their face-down stack.
• When a player is out of both face-up and face-down cards, he’ll be out of the game.

Winner: The person who gets all the cards wins.

3. Memory

Also known as Concentration, this is a fun card game for people of all ages.

Age Range: Three and up

Number of Players: Two or more

How To Play

• Shuffle and place the cards, spreading them face down on the table.
• With kids, lay down the cards out in a grid format to make it easier to remember where the cards are.
• The objective is to find matching pairs. The player needs to remember where the cards are when they’re turned over.
• Players take turns turning over two cards.
• The player who finds the matching pair gets to keep it and play again.
• If not, the play passes to the next player.
• It ends when everything has been paired up and removed.
• Each player will then count the number of cards they have collected.

Winner: The player with the most number of pairs wins the game.

4. Slapjack

A great children’s card game, if unsupervised, will get loud, but is a lot of fun and easy to play.

Age Range: Five and up

Number of Players: Two to five

How To Play

• Deal the cards, face-down, to all the players.
• It’s all right if some players have more or fewer cards.
• The person who is on the left side of the dealer begins the game by flipping the top card of his pile and by keeping it face-up in the centre of the table.
• All the players will flip the top card of their stack and place it in the centre to make a face-up pile.
• The game continues until someone plays a “jack”.
• All the players must attempt to place their hand over the face-up pile first.
• The first player who places his palm on the face-up pile takes the pile and adds it to the bottom of his stack.
• The game continues with the player to the left, who starts a new pile.
• If a player is out of cards, he can remain in the game by placing his palm down on the next “jack” first. If he fails, then he is out of the game.

Winner: The last person left wins.

5. Crazy Eights

An amazing, challenging card game for kids of all ages.

Age Range: Five and up

Number of Players: Two to four

How To Play

• Deal the cards.
• If there are two to three players, each player gets seven cards. If more than three players, each player gets five cards.
• The remaining cards are set to face-down in the middle to form the draw pile.
• Take the top card from the draw pile and place it next to it to begin the discard pile.
• The player on the dealer’s left must match the top card on the discard pile in number or face.
• If the player doesn’t have a match, they can play an eight and name the suit in play.
• Eight can be played on any card and the person having it can nominate a suit.
• If a player has neither a match nor an eight, then draw a card until they get one.

Winner: The person who has nothing left, wins.

6. Beggar My Neighbour

A game of luck that gets exciting when set on a time limit.

Age Range: Six and up

Number of Players: Two to six

How To Play

• Deal the cards one at a time. It’s all right if some players have more cards than the others.
• The players collect their cards and put them in a face-down stack, not looking at it.
• The one who sits to the left of the dealer places their top card face-up in the centre.
• Moving clockwise, each player will add one card to the central stack until someone turns up a face card; Ace, Jack, Queen, or King.
• This player can demand payment from the next player:
  – Ace gets four cards
  – King gets three cards
  – Queen will get two cards
  – Jack gets one card
• The payment cards will be placed on the central stack.
• If a face card is flipped over, then the next player to the left has to pay up.
• The game continues until payment is complete without face cards.
• The last player who turned up a face card will take the entire central stack and puts it at the bottom of their own.
• The last player begins the next round, and the game starts all over again.

Winner: The player who goes out first by using up all his cards.

7. Sequence

A card games that can be played by everyone. The only point to note, every single player must be patient and should pay attention while playing this game.

Age Range: Six and up

Number of Players: Two to five

How To Play

• The cards in this game are ranked in numerical order and face order. A sequence is when cards are in order of the same suit.
• Deal the entire deck, face down, to the players.
• It’s all right if some players have an unequal number of cards.
• The player on the dealer’s left should place the lowest card in their hand face-up.
• The player with the following card in the sequence of the same suit plays next.
• Players continue playing until they get the ‘Ace’ of the suit.
• The last player starts the next sequence by putting out the lowest card.
• The player will get another turn if a player plays a card that cannot be followed.

Winner: The person who has no cards left, wins.

8. Menagerie

Also known as ‘Animals’, this noisy and fun card game is perfect for kids’ party.

Age Range: Six and up

Number of Players: Four or more

How To Play

• Every player must choose an animal name and write it on slips of paper. They are then folded and put into a basket or box.
• Each player takes a slip, and the name of the animal they get is theirs for the game.
• Bonus, now everyone learns the names of all the animals.
• Deal the cards, face-down in a clockwise manner to all the players.
• It’s all right if some players have an unequal number of cards.
• Players will then put their cards in a face-down stack and not look at it.
• The player on the left of the dealer will flip his top card over to start a face-up pile.
• Every player will then do the same.
• If the players notice that another player’s card is the same as that of the flipped over a card, they must then shout out the name of the animal of the other player three times.
• Whoever succeeds to shout out correctly gets that player’s face-up stack and places it below their own.
• If the player calls out the wrong name, they must give their face-up cards to the player whose name was yelled out.

Winner: The player who gets all the cards.

9. My Ship Sails

This game is fun when it is played at a quick speed.

Age Range: Six and up

Number of Players: Four to seven

How To Play

• Each player is dealt seven cards face down. The remaining cards are not required.
• Each player has to collect seven cards of the same suit.
• The cards of the player must be hidden, sorted by their suits, and they have to decide which suit they should collect.
• The player can change their mind on which suit will be collected as the game proceeds.
• Each player puts an unwanted card face down on the table. The player on the right side must pick up this card.
• When a player’s hand has one suit set, they must shout, “My Ship Sails!”

Winner: The player with a complete suit set will yell “My Ship Sails!”

10. Sevens

This game is also known as Fan Tan, Card Dominoes, or Parliament.

Age Range: Six and up

Number of Players: Two or more

How To Play

• Deal the cards, face-down in a clockwise manner to all the players.
• Players must sort their cards into sequences in each suit.
• The player with the ‘7 of Diamonds’ starts the game by putting down the card in the centre.
• Each player adds a diamond card to the sequence.
• This can go from either from lower card to a higher or vice versa.
• If the sequence is going up, the cards must be placed to the left of the seven.
• If the sequence is going down, the cards must be placed to the right of the seven.
• Similarly, a new sequence can be started if other players have a seven of another suit.
• A player can skip their turn if they do not have a card to play.

Winner: The first person to use up all their cards win.

For children, card games are easy, fun, and engaging! They can be played anywhere with their friends or with you as a family.

These card games help in the cognitive development of a child and are a must-try for logic smart-oriented kids. In order to understand more about your child’s ‘smarts’ and enhance his overall development, try FirstCry Intellikit – active learning for little ones.