Card games for kids.
For many generations, playing cards were the first place a child counted to ten without being asked. Here’s the order to learn the games on this site, and what each one asks of a child.
Guide·updated ·3 min read
War first
From around four or five. There’s only one rule to remember: the highest card wins.
It’s the game where a child learns the order of the cards without being taught. After ten hands they know the king beats the queen, and after twenty they know the ace beats them all. Nobody told them; they saw every time who took the cards.
There’s a second lesson too, less obvious: the suit doesn’t matter. Children almost always believe red beats black, or that hearts are better than spades. The first few matches of War cure them of that, and the lesson holds for all the other games.
A bonus for parents: you have nothing to decide either, so you can play even when you’re tired.
Macao second
From around seven or eight, when a child can remember that a 2 means something specific and that an ace asks for a suit.
This is where the first real decision appears: I have several cards I could play, which one do I put down? And the first notion of a resource: the blocking 4 is worth more if you save it.
It’s also the game where a child learns to look at the others, not just at their own hand. Whoever drew three times in a row probably has no clubs. You can’t explain this to them; they catch on by themselves around the fifth match, and it’s a lovely moment to see.
One thing to watch for: you can lose badly at Macao. A red joker means ten cards, and a seven-year-old can take that personally. It’s worth saying beforehand that it happens to everyone.
Sweep, later
From around nine or ten, and only if the math isn’t a chore. Here you play a card and pick up from the table the cards that add up to exactly its value.
It’s real arithmetic, done for pleasure: a king is worth 14, so it picks up a 10 and a 4, or a 9 and a 5. A child who plays this for an hour has done more addition than on a page of homework, and hasn’t complained once.
It does ask for patience, though (a match lasts 20–30 minutes), and it asks you to give up a good capture because it would open the table for your opponent. That’s a kind of thinking that comes later.
What ISN’T for kids, among the five
Liar Liar. The whole game rests on lying: you lay cards face down and declare they’re something else. As a game it’s excellent and there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s a mechanic a young child either doesn’t understand or understands too well.
Seven Cut isn’t unsuitable, but it’s hard to grasp: you have to remember what’s come out and judge whether a trick is worth cutting. Under ten, it usually gets played at random, and played at random it isn’t fun.