Anitra Smith is the managing editor of The Family Gamers, and co-host of The Family Gamers Podcast.
Explore the reviews and podcasts she has contributed to.
Quatorze seems like a short filler game, but it’s deeply strategic. It will probably take longer to learn it than to play it the first time.
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It’s rush hour! Can you build a network of busses, trains, and ferries to get every commuter home to the suburbs?
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Have you heard of gameschooling? We revisit what worked for us this year, incorporating games into our homeschooling.
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All players race to come up with words or short phrases that connect the ideas on each pair of dice. Try to come up with something for all ten possible combinations before time runs out.
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There has been huge growth in board games that also use mobile apps over the last couple of years. We’re seeing more and more of it. We have 5 tips for playing app-assisted family board games.
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Jonathan designed several of our family’s favorite games, including Filler, Stroop, and The Kringle Caper. He tells us a bit more about those, and about his newest micro-escape room, The Independence Incident.
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In Play This, Not That, we examine two “classic” games that you might be tired of – you want to encourage your kids, or parents, or friends away from these games, keeping the parts you enjoy from these games and ditching the parts you don’t.
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Design your Meeple Land theme park – full of fun rides and attractions for all kinds of meeples… Wait, where’s the bathroom?
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Science isn’t the only place that games can help! Our social studies curriculum this year was US history and geography, with a concentration on local Massachusetts history, culture, and geography. Could we use games to reinforce these lessons too?
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Why do we need to “spring clean” our board games? How can you make the decisions on what to purge? We tackle the tough question of “how” in this podcast.
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Play fruit-themed cards one at a time into columns. But don’t peek at what you’ve played before! Test your memory with this simple but challenging card game.
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Our goal with Room to Grow is to help you bring your kids through a series of games that grow in complexity.
Logical deduction is a skill that usually needs to be intentionally taught; these three games will help you teach it!
A lot of parents are re-evaluating school choices now, like I did. What does it look like to jump into homeschooling with an older child? Games can help.. but could we strike a balance that allowed for a lot of fun but didn’t get in the way of learning?
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The Key feels a lot like a logic grid puzzle. As you work to gather your clues, you’ll feel that you’re getting closer and closer until you find the key piece of information that makes everything else snap into place. More complex than games like Outfoxed and Concluzio, this might be the next step if your family wants a more challenging deduction game.
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Once a quarter, we welcome a guest to the show who has NOTHING to do with board games, but is still awesome. This week, for our first episode of Outside Board Games, we welcome author Rajani LaRocca.
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The snails are racing through the garden and over the wall (and over each other!) Which snails will make it to the winners’ podium? A great game for younger kids to play with their whole family.
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We pick roll and write games that avoid arithmetic and sequencing, in four levels of difficulty. Which roll and writes give players room to grow?
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A legacy game with rules that gently ramp up over time – and NO conflict! We think it’s perfect for families.
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This week, we welcome James Hudson, friend of the Family Gamers and part of Skybound Games publishing. Also, it’s become tradition – James on the ’39s!
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