I agree on scrabble, that is fun. Also backgammon and chess. As for with kids, I found it to be a very good idea to play boardgames about travelling the worldmap in various games, to learn geography. I used to play one where you got 4 cards with cities you had to travel to first, to win the game. You moved around, got planetickets and boat tickets. It was called the europe game or around europe, something like that. It is old, 30 years ago. Also, the game about finding the lost diamond in africa. And the oldest game known to man is fun, do not remember the name. Moving some balls around, a bit like chess, checkers and backgammon. Very simple and complicated at the same time. I will try to find out the name.