One of our biggest challenges here at Parents@Play is to find games that tweens and teens will not only be willing to play with their family, but that they’ll actually want to play (and that don’t involve cell phones or anything else with a screen). Here are four that we’re confident will soon be on your family’s list of game-night hits.

Disgusting Anatomy Brain (Scientific Explorer)

This kit is part chemistry experiment, part anatomy lesson, part art project, and all disgusting. It starts innocuously enough in the kitchen, where you cook up some gooey gelatin and pour it into a mold to create a slimy, life-sized model of a human brain. While you’re waiting for it to set, read the booklet and find out the basics of brain anatomy and function. And since your eyes use 65% of the brain’s pathways (a fact we learned from the booklet), there’s also a mold for a monster-sized eyeball (which, along with the brain, you can paint as revoltingly as you’d like). A fun, engaging, educational project to do with your kids. For ages 9 and up. www.alexbrands.com

Really Bad Art (Gather ‘Round)

The premise is pretty simple. Each player takes a card that has a short phrase on it, and without showing the card to the other players, draws his or her best representation. Gather all the cards face down, add one more, mix them up so no one knows whose is whose, and then match the cards with the illustrations. Oh, sorry, forgot to mention that you have only six seconds to read the card and draw. It’s a clever, fast-paced, and really fun game that’ll keep everyone laughing and wanting to play again and again. For 3-6 players, ages 12 and up. www.wonderforge.com

Stick Stack (Gather ‘Round)

All you have to do is pull a muti-colored stick from a bag and, using one hand, place it on top of another stick, being sure that they overlap on a matching color. Easy peasey. Except for the part where all those sticks are balanced on a small cup that’s attached to a vertical post. Oh, and that post has a spring at the bottom, which makes it wiggle and wobble all over the place. If sticks fall off on your turn, you keep them in front of you, and on your next turn, you can play one from that pile or draw from the bag. The game goes on until the bag is empty and at least one player is out of sticks. For 2 or more, ages 8 and up. www.wonderforge.com

Suspicion (Gather ‘Round)

You’ve been invited to the A-list masquerade party at a famous art collector’s villa. Poor guy has no idea that you’re a jewel thief and that your plan is to wander around the mansion stealing gems. Unfortunately for the collector, quite a few of the other guests have the same idea. The object of the game is to figure out the identities of your fellow players before they figure out who you are. You do that with deductive reasoning, which simply means that you’re using clues (some of which come from dice rolls and cards which allow you to move your character or someone else’s), logic, strategy, and possibly some guessing to expose your opponents.  If you like Clue (or even if you’ve never heard of Clue), you’ll love Suspicion and have a great, brain-teasing time playing it. For 2-6 players, ages 10 and up. www.wonderforge.com