I play a lot with families. My tips for playing with families would be:
- Level Toddlers up all the way by engaging parents and older siblings. Use Flashcards and the Wabbit Tablet too. Have parents read to them.
- Complete childhood aspirations, level their 4 basic skills (mental, social, creativity and motor) and make sure their character value traits are at about 50% before the age up to teen (except Conflict Resolution which you should try to level up by having parents teach to say sorry until they are in range to receive the permanent trait) I usually have them join scouts too and get all the badges or for artistic sims, the drama club.
- As teens, if you play Discover University, try to get the right skills up to at least level 7 for whatever university degree you might be considering them for There are generally 5 skills to work on). Carls Sims has the best resource for this information under the Pack Guide heading. I also work on the athletic aspiration or the Friend of the World. These seem easy for teens.
- Lot traits are so underrated. Make sure your lot traits match up with your current goals. You can change them whenever you want or as needed to complete certain goals. This is not a cheat. You just have to go into build mode.
For gameplay, I always make sure my sims spend their reward points on these aspirations first:
- For children: Incredibly friendly, Observant, and Stormchaser. These help with the Social Aspiration which I find the most difficult to complete and I like storms LOL.
- For Teens: Speed Reader and Savant. I also usually choose a Knowledge Aspiration to get them the Quick Learner trait as well. You don't have to keep it on there to keep the trait but pick one as their first aspiration option.
- For young Adults: Shrewd (reward for the Wealth aspiration); Long-Lived (reward for the Athletic Aspiration), Entrepreneurial, Marketable and Professional Slacker.
Finally, take vacations and trips to the park, museums etc.
I am a terrible builder and have no building tips to curse you with.