Three card games we love

I really hate playing Happy Families. As a grown up it seems like such a pointless sorting exercise. I can’t understand why my son loves it so much. Luckily we have several other card games which we can all enjoy together…

Bird Top Trumps - or any Top Trumps. He played this daily for a long, long time (he got it when he had just turned 3). It’s the reason he learnt to read 3-digit numbers so quickly - snowy owls and bald eagles have big wingspans! Since those heady days though we have moved on to some more interesting games — which is not to say Top Trumps has been forgotten.

Sleeping Queens has queens, dragons, knights, sleeping potions, magic wands, and jesters. It also has cards numbered 1-9 which you can only trade in if you do a sum with them (eg 2+2=4 means you can trade in those three cards, 1+2+3=6 means you can trade in those four). And the queens are worth points in multiples of 5, so there is lots of basic maths practice. My five year old played it every day for about two months after receiving it as a Christmas present and we still play it every week. Listed as 8+ but we have found it great for 5+. Also available from Steam Rocket in the UK.

Muddles is a game where you combine two animals (eg a pig and a frog) to make a Muddle (eg a pog). You can only make certain animals into Muddles and different Muddles are worth different points depending on their rarity. You trade cards in to hopefully get cards that will be of more use to you. The points range from 2-6 and if you’re lucky you’ll get about 30 points in a game so there’s some addition practice. But it’s also a gentle way to start thinking about probability. You have three cards in your hand. If you hold three identical cards you can choose any Muddle on the table. So, if you have two Jellyfish and you choose to just swap one card in the hopes of getting three Jellyfish, how likely is it you’ll get what you want? Or would you be better off trading two cards, which would give you a higher chance of scoring, but your score would likely be lower. This is another game we play at least once a week. It’s listed as 6+ but my son has been playing it without a problem from 5.

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