Card Games for Kids

Kids get bored when you ask them to be at home on hot summer days or rainy afternoons. But you can teach them how to play simple card games and keep them busy. Card games are fun and are enjoyed by every age group. Card games for kids are quite simple to play, with no complicated rules. So, are you ready to teach your kids some nice card games? Then here are some card games for kids to play at home.

Children's Card Games

Old Maid
Old Maid is an age-old card game which comes under scapegoat games. Scapegoat games are nothing but card games where the players have to avoid receiving a particular card. In this game the players have to avoid getting the "Old Maid" card, which is a queen card. This game can be played by 2 to 8 players. More the number of players more the fun in this game. Before playing this game, remove three queens from the deck of 52. The queen that remains is the "Old Maid". Now, shuffle the cards properly, choose a dealer and ask him/her to deal the cards among the players, evenly. Every player will hold the cards in their hands and discard the cards that form pairs. For example 5 of heart and 5 of spade.

Now, the game starts in clockwise direction, i.e. from the left of the dealer. The dealer will hold his cards, face down and ask the player sitting to his/her left to pick a card randomly. If this picked card forms a pair with any of the cards, the player will put the pair down. Then he/she has to pull one more card from the dealer. If the card does not match, then the game continues with the next pair of players. Similarly, pairs have to be put down and the game ends when the Old Maid is the only card left in the game. The player with the Old Maid in the hand loses.

Add the Cards
This is one of those math card games that can help your kid to improve his/her arithmetic skills. Use a 52-cards deck for this card game and you can remove the queens, kings and the knaves to reduce the difficulty of the game. This game can be played by two or more than two players. Deal the cards evenly between the players. Then each person will keep the pile of his/her cards on the table. The cards should be face down on the table. Then each person will draw a card from his/her pile and place it on the table, facing the card up. Now, every player has to find out the sum of the drawn cards on the table. The player who first yells out the correct sum, wins the round and keeps the cards. The game is continued further and ends when one player acquires all the cards.

The Pig
"Pig" is a very funny card game that is enjoyed by both kids and adults. To play this game first remove four cards from the deck of 52, such that the four cards belong to one denomination. Say, make a set of all the 4s or all the Queens. This set of four cards should be equal to the number of players. So, if 4 players are playing then there will be total 16 cards with a set of 4 cards that can be 4 kings, 4 aces, 4 knaves and 4 queens. Shuffle these cards properly, choose a dealer and deal them among the players, such that every player has 4 cards in his/her hands.

The object of the game is to make a set of 4 similar cards (any of the sets that was made in the beginning of the game) or not to be the last one who notices that some other player has made the set. Now, the game starts like this. Each of the players chooses a card that he/she wants to pass. Every player will keep this card to his/her the left and simultaneously pick up the card placed at his/her right. The game continues like this and ends when a player has successfully made a set of four cards, puts a finger on the nose and stops passing the cards. Now, the other players should immediately stop passing the cards and should put their fingers on the nose. The last one to realize that the game has ended is a PIG!

There are innumerable fun card games for kids and these were some of the popular ones. So, what are you waiting for? Teach these card games and enjoy playing them with your kids. Good Luck!