There are all types of children's card games on the market. These can be great fun for children as they often have bright colors and fun designs. However, many children's card games can also be played with a regular "grown-up" deck of 52 playing cards. Playing children's card games with regular playing cards is an excellent way of teaching children about numbers, point value and suits. Go Fish, Crazy Eights, and Old Maid are just some of the different types of classic children's card games that can be played with a regular deck of 52 playing cards.
Go Fish is usually best played with two to five players. The ace is high and the two is low. Go Fish is one of the children's card games where only the numbers on the cards are used and not the suits. The dealer deals the cards out around the table of players with four or five people getting five cards each and two or three players getting seven cards each. The rest of the cards in Go Fish are placed in a pile face down in the center of the table.
A player is selected to go first and he or she asks any player for any value card he or she already has at least one of. If the player asked has one or more of the asked for card, the player must give them to the player who asked for them. For example, if Garrett asked Jenna for a seven and Jenna had two sevens in her hand, she would have to give Garrett both of her sevens. If Jenna had no sevens, she would tell Garrett to "Go Fish." Garrett would then draw the top card from the pile. If he picked up a seven, he would show everyone the card and take another turn. If the card was not a seven, he would keep the card and Jenna would take her turn as she is the one who said "Go Fish."
Rules vary for children's card games such as Go Fish, but in most versions of the game if the player asking for a card gets the card, he or she keeps playing until they no longer get the cards they are asking for. Go Fish ends when there are no cards left in the draw pile, or when a player runs out of cards. The player with the most groups of four cards the same, wins.
In Crazy Eights, each player is dealt seven cards. The rest of the cards are put in the middle in a deck with the top card face up to start the discard stack. If an eight is turned up in children's card games of Crazy Eights, it must be put back in the deck and the next card turned up. The player on the dealer's left starts and matches a card in his or her hand to the suit or the value of the card on the top of the discard pile.
If the player in Crazy Eights cannot match either the value or the suit, he or she picks up a card from the pile until a play can be made. Eights can be used as any value and any suit in most versions of children's card games of Crazy Eights. The player using an eight must call the new number value or suit. The player who is out of cards first, wins the game.
Old Maid requires at least two players. Before the dealer deals out all of the cards, any queen must be removed from the deck. It is okay if a player has an extra card. After the players view their cards, they discard all of the pairs. At each turn, a player lets the player on his or her left pick a card from his or her hand. If the card makes a pair, the pair can be discarded. Each player that discards his or her cards is safe. The person left with the "Old Maid," or the extra queen, loses the game.