At our house we love games. Amy and I grew up in a home where we played games at least weekly. Even now, when we visit our parents it's just not right if we don't play several games. When my husband and I were first married we would often pop in a movie, grab some treats, and play a game of Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, or Dominoes. And now my boys love games. Nearly every night before bed we sit by the fire and play a round or two of a game. Occasionally during the day my nearly-4-year-old and I will sit down for a game while the youngest is napping. Since the Easter Bunny brings a new game nearly every year we have collected quite a few. Here are a few of our favorites:
Phase 10 for Kids: There are two different versions that are included... one is perfect for my preschooler while the "more advanced" version is great for my Kindergartner.
War: I started playing this with my oldest before he started pre-K. It's great because you can teach number recognition as well as greater than and less than. This game can take forever though... so make sure you have some time to spare :)
Old Maid: Fun for all ages. Easy enough for our preschooler to pick up on the first time he played. Great for matching.
Go Fish: This has been our favorite for the last several months. Another great one for matching.
Yahtzee Jr.: Very simple, very fun.
Candy Land: Classic board game. Great for recognizing colors.
Chutes and Ladders: Another classic board game. I love to point out the pictures and help the boys recognize good and bad decisions when they go up the ladders or down the chutes.
Garanimals Fun at the Zoo: We don't own this one. . .but we might need to get it! We checked it out from our library recently and the boys loved it! It's similar to Candy Land but very interactive (when you pull the "invitation to kangaroo's party" then everyone gets to move to the space and then hop around the room like a kangaroo. Fun!)
Playing games is such a fun way to spend time with your children and teaches so many great things: taking turns, being a good winner/loser, following directions, etc.
What are some of the favorite games at your house?
Thanks for sharing these and I love the idea of games for Easter. I think we'll have to add that to the Easter baskets this year along with the coloring books, crayons, and matchbox cars :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas! Where did you find those card games? We've tried playing with regular cards but these look so much more fun!
ReplyDeleteI've seen the War game at Walmart and Target... I think they may have Old Maid as well. My mom actually gifted a bunch of card games to my boys when my youngest was born and I don't know where she got them!
ReplyDeleteI will need to check out the Phase 10. I have an Elmo junkie in our home:-) Kerri
ReplyDeleteWe just started playing Uno with our 5 year old. For now we leave out the "special" cards (skip, reverse, draw, etc) but will add them as she gets better at the game.
ReplyDeleteSome other favorites at our house (we are a HUGE game loving family): Cranium Hulabaloo, Cranium Cariboo, Curious George Hide and Seek Zoo, Don't Break the Ice, and Candyland.
We love games, too! We have a great, simple 'dominoes' type game called Hiss that I LOVE. We also LOVE Sequence for kids. I love finding games that the kids can do by themselves and both those fit that bill. A game that we really love is Pictureaka but they definitely need help reading the cards. Its really fun though. Its like "I spy". We have another one called Coocoo the Clown and its like a simple Jenga game. We like it a lot.
ReplyDeleteJDaniel has just discovered games. These look great.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for linking up to For the Kids Fridays!
ReplyDelete:)rachel at SunScholars.blogspot.com
I LOVE Phase 10 for kids also... sadly I can't find it anymore. I've tried to give it as a gift to neices/nephews. Very hard to find but GREAT game for preschoolers!
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