Except for a suitcase with books (replaced partly with the library in my tablet) we bring a lot of board games with us on holiday. I take them out of their boxes, pack them into zipped plastic bags and put them into one box. Due to this our baggage doesn't look like we're preparing to move house, and during the holiday nobody can say "I have got nothing to play with".

Board games are a great idea for spending time with family and friends. They teach rivalry and the rules of fair play. The youngest players learn to deal with failure. Some of our games need a table, so they are great when "the children are bored when it's raining". Others don't have a board, so we can play anywhere: on the beach, on a picnic, in the tent.

1. Mushrooming and Chinese Chequers
On the front burner, an absolute classic. Everybody knows Mushrooming. We go around the board collecting small "edible" mushrooms. This game has a big asset: there are two winners: the one who collected the most mushrooms and the one who is first to the finish. I don't need to recommend Chinese Chequers. It could be a boring game because apart from moving the chequers nothing happens. But every time there are a lot of emotions. For the youngest players I recommend two chequers per player. The rules of the game are the same but the children won't be bored.

2. Playing in Painting and Colourful turning head
These games are a phenomenon. I bought them many years ago. They were very cheap and they don't have a board, so I can put them in my pocket and play anywhere. We need a flat surface only. We don't even need to throw a dice. Colourful Turning Head is a version of the card game in which we have to add an element which matches the colour or picture of the cards lying on the table. In Playing in Painting we "buy" pictures for the colours. Younger children can learn about colour palettes, and older players can handicap themselves and improve their memory by covering the pictures.

3. Zoo
Another game without a board. This is one of my son's favourite games. Each time we build a different zoo from the pieces, then we go around it and visit the animals at random.

4. Racing turtles
This is quite an interesting game that has been around for a few years. There are original pieces in the shape of turtles, which race to the finish on the backs of playmates. We have a mystery element (we don't know to whom the turtles belong) which is an additional asset of the game.

5. Taboo
This is definitely a game for the whole family. You can buy a Junior version or the full version. We have to describe a word to other people without using other banned words. In my family the winner is the person who gets to use the "scream pump", which signals the use of a taboo word.

6. Worms
This is a pleasant game with a hint of gambling. Eight dice, sixteen tiles with worms which you have to take off from a grid and answer the question: Should I throw the dice or take what is on the table? We practice adding up to 36 and decision making.

7. 5 seconds
There are also two versions of this game: junior and full. You have 5 seconds to answer a question beginning from, "Name three .....". Almost all the questions are simple, and you are able to answer them. But time pressure changes everything. "Name three places starting with H". Let's start! "Home, house and, and, and..." ;-) Time's up! 5 seconds is too short for thinking...

8. Jenga
Adults like building bricks as well. Try to take one brick out of a pile and don't bring down the tower. The first, second, third... After a while the tower looks like Swiss cheese with big holes, and after the next attempt the construction sways hazardously .

This is our "top 10" of games. I hope that after this holiday the list will be longer.

I recommend them and I wish you a lot of fun!