Sleeping Queens
Sleeping Queens is an engaging and educational card game perfect for kids of all ages. With simple rules and quick gameplay, it’s easy to learn and provides lots of entertainment. This whimsical game encourages strategic thinking, math skills, and social interaction as players work to awaken the most sleeping queens before the rest of the players, but watch out for other players sleeping potions and knights that steal queens!
Sleeping Queens portability makes it ideal for classrooms, family game nights, or on-the-go fun. It’s a is a fantastic card game for kids to enjoy while learning valuable skills in a magical world. We love to play pretend, especially as knights with swords, potions and dragons. So you can imagine our excitement when we found a card game in that genre that both the kids and adults enjoy. Sleeping Queens is a huge favorite in our house!
4 FREE printable Sleeping Queens themed worksheets at the bottom of this page!
Gameschool:
- Math – counting, addition, forming mathematical sentences (option to change rules to allow subtraction, sequencing and equivalent equations.)
- Turn Taking
- Matching
- Strategy – which cards to play and when
- Critical Thinking & Planning Ahead
- Memory
- Reading Not Required
Players: 2-5
Ages: 8+
Game Time: 20 min
Who We Play With:
We play as a family with our 6 and 3 year old. Our 3 year old can’t form mathematical sentences on his own yet so he plays with his cards showing. Of course, this means we can see what cards he has but it’s still a lot of fun for us all. We just pretend we don’t see them! As for my 6 year old, her math skills have come so far since we bought Sleeping Queens. It’s really wonderful watching her learn as we play.
How To Play
Set Up
Shuffle and lay the 16 queens (green cards) out on the table in 4 columns. Leave a column clear in the center for the draw and discard piles.
Shuffle the power cards (purple cards) and deal each player 5 cards. Put the rest of the deck in the center of the sleeping queens.
Game Play
Player to the left of the dealer starts.
On your turn you can do one of the following:
Play A King – Put your king face up on the discard pile. Pick up any sleeping queen and place her face up in front of you. She is now awake.
Play A Jester – Place the jester face up on the discard pile. Flip over the top card on the draw pile. If it is a power card, add the card to your hand and take another turn. If it is a number card, starting with you, count around the table equal to the number on the card. The last player counted gets to awaken a queen and keep it. The number card is then discarded and play continues to the left.
Play A Knight – Place the knight face up on the discard pile and choose a queen to steal from another player.
Dragons – Your opponent can defend their queen by immediately playing a dragon card. Discard both the knight and the dragon and each player picks up a new card. This does not count as a turn for the dragon card player.
Play a Sleeping Potion – Put an opponents queen back to sleep!
*Tip* Pay attention to the queen’s value and where she is placed. This could come in handy next time you go to awaken a queen.
Wands – Your opponent can defend their queen by immediately playing a want card. Discard both the wand and sleeping potion and each player picks a new card. This does not count as a turn for the wand card player.
Discard – there are 3 ways to discard cards and draw new ones.
- Discard a single card of any kind and draw one card, or
- Discard a pair of matching cards and draw 2 new cards, or
- Discard 3 or more cards by forming an addition equation and draw as many cards as you discard.
Example: if you have a 4, 3 and 7 you can make the equation 4+3=7 and discard them all for 3 new cards.
If you have a 4,2, 3 and 9 you can make the equation 4+2+3=9 and discard them all for 4 new cards.
At the end of every turn, draw enough cards to bring your hand back to 5. You should always have 5 cards in your hand (not including your queens).
Special Queen Powers
The Strawberry Queen – Immune from sleeping potions and knights. Once you wake her, she is yours for the rest of the game.
The Rose Queen – Takes another queen with her when she is awoken from the center of the table. Select another queen from the center of the table. Note: If the rose queen is stolen with a knight, she does not take another queen with her.
Cat & Dog Queen – You cannot hold the Cat and Dog Queen at the same time.
Example: If you hold the Cat Queen and wake up the Dog Queen, you must put her back to sleep in the center and end your turn.
Determining A Winner
You can determine a winner by points or the amount of queens.
2-3 players: 4 queens or 40 points worth of queens
4-5 players: 5 queens or 50 points worth of queens
Points: Play until all queens are awake and whoever has the most points wins.
House Rules
You may want to switch up the rules to practice math.
- Allow subtraction equations. 4-1=3
- Allow equivalent equations. ex. 6+3=8+1
- Allow sequencing. ex. number cards 3,4 and 5
Would we play this again?
Definitely. Sleeping Queens is so much fun and a great way to practice mathematical sentences. Each game is a little adventure. The whole family enjoys playing this game.
Sleeping Queens is made by Gamewright.
Click the picture to download 4 free Sleeping Queens themed worksheets:
