Our family loves to play games together.  And as my 5-year-old’s strategy skills build, we’re able to play more and more complex games as a family.  Our family’s current favorite board game is Parcheesi.

In this game, your goal is to move four pawns from your start position into your home.  On the way, you can capture your opponents pawns for a significant bonus, or you might be captured and back sent back to the start yourself.

Rolling a pair of dice determines when you leave start, as well as how many spaces you move your pawns.  Rolling doubles gets you another roll.  Rolling doubles once all of your men have emerged allows you to use both the tops and bottoms of the dice, which is always exciting.  Just don’t roll doubles three times in a row, or your furthest pawn has to start over again.

Like most games, winning the game involves a bit of luck and a bit of strategy.  And, similar to many fun games, the board can shift rather quickly.

Two to four players can play Parcheesi at one time, which makes it perfect for our whole family to play together.  The game also works well when only two or three of us play.

Most importantly, we all have fun and enjoy playing.  So when my five-year-old asks me to play over and over and over again, I can easily say yes (instead of trying to redirect him to something else, which is how I feel about some of the [from my perspective] once-is-definitely-enough games that he enjoys).

I remember playing this game with my brothers while I was growing up.  So for me there’s a bit of nostalgia involved.  But even my husband enjoys it, and he was new to the game last year.  Most importantly, seeing the excitement in my boys’ eyes as they move their pawns around the board and not ever being sure who will emerge victorious makes Parcheesi a fun and engaging game.

You can pick up your own Parcheesi game HERE.