Dartboard? Surprisingly, web sites are saying kids can learn steel-tipped darts younger that I expected.
As a kid, I loved them. But as the guy now responsible for wall and floor repair, I'm much less a fan.
I did get to witness one friend throwing a dart at his brother, as young teens. Got him right in the middle of the back, sunk it up to the hilt. Right at that spot you can never reach when you have an itch, his poor brother ran around the house like a chicken without a head, until someone pulled it out for him. Thankfully, my kids and their friends are not anywhere near as wild as we were.
Look into a foosball table. Can play 2 a side for a total of 4. They are reasonably priced to as much ans you want to spend and can easily be slid/moved out of the way. My kids that age and their friends love it.
Yeah, foosball is very high on my list, very close second to billiards in my mind, right now. What triggered this was that my son received an ultra-mini billiard table a year ago, this thing is like 18 inches x 36 inches, and he plays with it constantly. He seems to have a real interest in this, which makes sense, I remember loving billiards as a kid about his age. Of course, I liked foosball too, just didn't have one at home.
Bumper pool table is smaller.
I've been thinking about this, too. I had one friend with a bumper pool table, so I played it occasionally. But my issue with the room is the 9' width more than the length, so I'm thinking we'd still be very tight around half the sides of a bumper pool table, as my recollection is that the diameter was pretty close to a standard pool table width.
Even just a game table. Looks like board games are making a comeback based on a current thread in a car forum I'm on and the younger guys discussion.
Yep! Got a 60" round table down there already, which they use for Uno and Crokinole. We also have space for a larger rectangular table, but it's been repurposed to Barbie doll house territory for a few years, until my daughter outgrows that phase (likely soon).
Our children mainly use the foosball table when friends are over. Surprisingly, what gets used the most in our playroom is a small basketball (5” ball diameter) hoop mounted up on the wall. But you need a fair bit of wall/ceiling height for that. Our younger son (13) and middle daughter (10) play one on one. There is some “discussion” (read:arguing) that goes along with their games. 😂
Thanks, this is very helpful!
You ever play Crokinole? It’s a game our children love, but for one reason or another, we’ve never bought a board. It doesn’t take much room.
It's funny you bring this up, as casual conversation over the last 45+ years had me believing I was one of the few people in the world that knew this game. I inherited two old Crokinole tables from my grandmother, which have been handed down thru the family for who-knows-how many generations, and I was somehow of the impression this was a thing only known in our area of PA. Story I got from her was that it was played by the Native Americans indigenous to this part of the country, and then adapted to a better playing board by the settlers.
In any case, the goal here is something more on the feet, to compliment cards or crokinole at the game table. I would truly love ping-pong over anything, but they just take more space than we have.
I just went thru some old photos, and found this one. You can sort of see one of our Crokinole tables in the left edge of this photo of one corner of our basement rec room(s). That old Jotul is now gone, that space being re-purposed for a huge Barbie dream mansion, and the big square trestle table has been moved out to make space for the rest of Barbie's entourage.
Just realized I don't have a good photo of the room where this billiard/foosball/whatever table is going, but it's directly under and the same size as this old dining room (now my kids' study):
Incidentally, the two paintings visible in that last photo are of my grandmother's house, from where the Crokinole tables were received. George Washington used the dining room of that house as his headquarters for ten days in December 1776, from where he planned the famous Christmas attack on the Hessians. Gramdmom used to tell me double-agent John Honeyman was imprisoned in the spring house you can still see in the lower left corner of the painting of the barns, although sources disagree on that. If you don't know his story, it's worth a read, as good as any modern Jack Ryan tale.
My mom used it more than the rest of combined and never took the cover off. 
