I have found that one of the most frugal and versatile games to keep on hand for family nights are just a simple deck of cards. With one deck of cards, the possibilities are endless for keeping your children entertained. With younger children (between 3 and 5 years old) holding a deck of cards is a great way to build hand and eye coordination. As they get older, you can broaden the types of games you are playing that will help with memorization, skill and speed.
Here are a couple of beginner games to try with your children.
Old Maid
There is no need to buy a fancy deck of cards to play a round of Old Maid because you can just use a standard deck of cards. This game is great for kids between the ages of 5 and 10, because it is easy to learn and simple to play. This game is more fun if you have 3-6 players, but you can play with only two players (which is easier for smaller children and putting together matches).
Before you can begin, remove all of the queens in the deck, except for one. This one queen will be the Old Maid. Shuffle and distribute the cards, one at a time and face down.
Each player looks at their hands and pulls out any two cards that match in rank. Each player lays his match face down in a pile beside him or her. If a player has three cards of the same number, one stays in his or her hand.
After matches are all sorted, fan out your cards for the other player to grab from. Keep taking turns and making matches. Since there is only one queen, the Old Maid, no match can be made for her. At the end of the hand, the player left holding the Old Maid loses the game.
War
Shuffle the cards well. Deal the entire deck, keeping all of the cards down and no peeking. To begin, both players turn their top cards simultaneously and place them side by side, face up, in the center. The one who plays the higher ranking card gets to keep both the cards (aces are high in this game). These cards are added to the bottom of the winner's stack.
When both players turn over cards of the same rank (you have an ace, they have an ace), "war" is declared. Smaller children really get into this and you can shout, "War!" out together. Each player then places the top three cards from his or her stack face down on the original card. Then each places a fourth card face up on top of the three face-down cards. The higher face-up card will win all of the ten cards. If these match you can declare a, "DOUBLE WAR!" (Be sure to shout it for added enjoyment) and then the card game continues.
Whoever ends up with the entire deck of cards is the winner. A player can also win if his or her opponent runs out of cards in the middle of the war.