“Families of the World” Card Game: Print, Play, and Learn English and Spanish

This resource is inspired by the classic card game of gathering families from different countries. In this initial collection, we have 12 different countries, each represented by a family of 6 members: the father, the mother, the son, the daughter, the grandfather, and the grandmother.

To win the game, players must interact, communicate, and use strategy to be the first to gather all the members of the same national family. The player who manages to collect the most families will be the winner.

The game requires the use of memory and deduction to remember which cards your opponents have or do not have.

To quickly identify each group, the cards for each country share their corresponding flag and the name of the country at the top.

Game mechanics and rules of the families game

1. 1. Initial dealing: 7 cards are dealt to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down in the center of the table, forming the draw pile..
   2. Asking for cards: The starting player (or the youngest) asks another player of their choice for a specific card (e.g., “Do you have the father of the Chinese family?”).

      Essential condition: In order to ask for a card from a certain family, the active player must have at least one card from that same family in their hand.

   3. Exchange: If the player who was asked has the requested card, they are required to hand it over. The player who asked gets another turn to request another card from any participant.do a dársela. El jugador que la pidió vuelve a tener otro turno para pedir otra carta a cualquier participante.
   4. Drawing a card: If the questioned player does not have the card, the active player’s turn ends. They must draw a card from the central deck. If the drawn card is exactly the one they had asked for, they call out “Good luck!” and continue their turn by asking for another card. If it is not, the turn passes to the player on their left.
   5. Completing families: As soon as a player manages to gather all 6 members of the same family, they must place them face up on the table to show them.

End of the game: The game continues until all families have been completed. The winner is the person who has managed to gather the highest number of complete families.

Each card in this collection has been designed with extreme care and great educational value. This is everything you will find on each one of them:

• 100% Bilingual cards: All texts appear in English and Spanish, naturally facilitating the association of words related to family relationships.

• Identification by flags: The flag of the corresponding country appears in the corners of each card. This icon helps children visually group members of the same family and memorize world geography in an intuitive way.

• Cultural elements and landscapes: Each family member is uniquely illustrated, accompanied by representative elements, monuments, cities, or landscapes typical of their nation. A true visual delight to look at!

• Top section (Country and Family): The name of the country and the title of the family group appear here. For example: España / Spain and just below FAMILIA ESPAÑOLA / SPANISH FAMILY.

• Bottom section (Family member): It indicates the family role formally and, when it exists, its affectionate name in a standardized way:

  • Padre / Father (Papá / Dad)

  • Madre / Mother (Mamá / Mom)

  • Hijo / Son (Sin nombre cariñoso por estandarización)

  • Hija / Daughter (Sin nombre cariñoso por estandarización)

  • Abuelo / Grandfather (Abuelito / Grandpa)

  • Abuela / Grandmother (Abuelita / Grandma o Granny)

Enjoying this bilingual game at home or in the classroom is very simple. Just follow these steps:

Step 1: Download the cards for free in separate PDFs by pairs (Father/Mother, Son/Daughter, Grandfather/Grandmother) by clicking on each of the images, or download all the cards (78) in a single PDF using the button you will find below and at the end of the page.

Click on the following button to download a single, high-quality PDF file (96 megabytes) containing the entire “Families of the World” deck with 78 cards, ready to print.

Step 2: Print and cut out

We recommend printing the cards on white cardstock or thick paper so they have more body and durability. If you want them to last forever, you can laminate them! Afterwards, cut out each card along the outer edges.

Step 3: Time to play! (Basic instructions)

1. The cards are dealt among the players (for example, 7 cards each) and the rest are left face down in a pile in the center of the table to draw from.

2. On your turn, you must ask another player for a specific member of a family that you already have in your hand to try to complete it. For example: “Do you have the Padre / Father of the Spanish Family?” (This is a perfect moment to encourage kids to ask for it in English if they want to practice!).

3. If the player has it, they must hand it over to you, and you keep playing. If they do not have it, you draw a card from the pile, and the turn passes to the next player.

4. The player who manages to gather the most complete 6-member families when the cards run out will be the winner.

All ready to start the journey around the planet? Click the button below, get your scissors ready, and prep your best English pronunciation to enjoy an afternoon full of laughter, culture, and learning.

📌 Note: This game is constantly growing. Soon, we will add more countries and new illustrations so that your “Families of the World” deck becomes bigger and bigger.