Tag Archives: games

Great Travel Games for Young Kids

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This time of the year, I start thinking about small things to buy for Buddy’s Easter basket. And one of the things I always look for is travel games. We’ve traveled a lot less in the last year due to the pandemic, but we still have taken several very long car trips. And sometimes, we’ve brought travel games to with us when we’ve had to wait somewhere like a restaurant or a doctor’s office. Here are our favorite travel games.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Travel Yahtzee

My family loves playing Mickey Mouse Yahtzee Jr., and we made our own version to play at home. (Our original is from the 80s and is at my dad’s house.) When we decided to do a 18 hour road trip last summer, I wanted to make a to-go version. I looked at the current travel Yahtzee available, and eventually decided to get a vintage one off of Ebay. I had that version as a kid, and I knew it would be easier to keep the dice contained. They way we play it is you have three rolls to get as many of the same kind as possible, with the number 1 being wild. If someone else has the same score already, you get bumped down to the next lowest score. I printed and laminated a score card and put it on a little clipboard left over from our Disney trip.

World of Disney Eye Found It Card Game

We’ve loved the World of Disney Eye Found It Card Game for a long time. It is a staple to play at home, and recently we sent a set to my dad so we can play it on FaceTime. To play the game, you have to be the first one to find a certain object on your card. Then you can discard your card and a new item is chosen. It’s great because it doesn’t take up much space, so it’s great to throw in a purse or carry on.

Spot It

There are so many versions of the Spot It Game. The one we have is Planes Spot It, which has both images from the Planes movie as well as letters. To play the game, you put down two cards and you try to be the first one to find the one thing they have in common. It comes in a heavy duty tin, so it’s really great for travel. We kept this one in the diaper bag for years.

Magnetic Bingo

We bought Take and Play Anywhere Bingo for Buddy when he was 3, and almost 3 years later, it continues to be a favorite game. This version of bingo has 24 different animals and a spinner to use to select the animal. It was a great game before Buddy knew his letters and numbers, and he still really enjoys all of the different animals. This one also comes in a magnetic tin that is very durable. The Take and Play Anywhere game series also includes hangman, memory, and fishing, which all look fun.

Road trip Scavenger Hunt Game

I bought the Briarpatch Travel Scavenger Hunt Card Game last summer before our 18 hour car trip. The box says the game is for ages 7 and up, but Buddy was able to play it at age 5 without a problem. We started playing it with a card holder, but then Buddy discovered that he can just prop the cards on the edge of the window. I modified the rules a bit from how they were written. We each choose 5 cards, and then we discarded them as we find the thing. I go through the cards before we play and pick things that I think are more likely to be seen depending on where we are driving. It takes awhile to play, and it makes a long car trip pass more quickly.

Spin and Play Board Game Book

I bought the Spin and Play Counting Games board book before our trip to Bogota in 2019. This board book has five different board games with two dice in the middle to spin. I liked it especially for that trip because it was easy to take in our carry on, and we played it both on the plane as well as in the hotel room. It’s also a great way to practice counting and simple addition.

Cars and Trucks Card Game

Cars and Trucks is another card game we’ve enjoyed on trips as well as at home. It’s not currently available online, but this war game is similar. We have played it on planes, and we like to bring it as a game to play when we arrive at our location.

Melissa and Doug Flip to Win Memory Game

Buddy likes to play memory, but it takes a lot of space to set up, so it’s not a great choice to play while traveling. So we got him the Melissa and Doug Flip to Win Memory Game last Easter to use for trips. It’s great because there are a lot of different game choices, so it’s nice to use even at home. The flaps are a little loud, so it’s probably better as a car trip game than a plane game.

Mental Games to Play While Traveling

While it’s great to be able to buy games to take with you on trips, it’s also helpful to have games you can play without anything else. We play these a lot while waiting in lines at the store, as well as when we travel.

  • Animal Game – One person chooses an animal and the other people ask yes and no questions until they guess it.
  • Alphabet Game – You look around at signs, license plates, labels and anything else you can find and look for the letters one at a time in order. We’ve found this to be a great game to play while sitting in slow city traffic where there are lots of lisence plates and billboards to see. We play this in grocery store lines as well.
  • iSpy – One person picks something they can see, and the other people ask yes and no questions to guess it.
  • Color game – We play this two ways. Usually we play it like iSpy, and one person says the color of the thing they see. Then the other people guess what it is. But we have also played it by picking a color and then seeing how many things you can find with that color. The person who finds the last thing of that color wins.

If you have any other travel game suggestions, I’d love to hear about them in the comments section.

Fun and Easy Ways to Boost Your Preschooler’s Math Skills

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I’m a seventh grade math teacher, and my husband and I have always both been mathematically inclined. (We even met in a math class!) Needless to say, both of us naturally see ways to incorporate math with Buddy. However, it isn’t something that comes naturally to many parents. We have all heard to read to young kids, but how many parents think about setting a foundation for strong math skills? Not many, I’d suspect. So I’m here to share my experiences with having fun building Buddy’s math skills.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

The Common Core math standard topics for Kindergarten are: counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking, number and operations in base ten, measurement and data, and geometry. These are the skills that I’m working on with Buddy through play and everyday life experiences.

Counting and Comparing

Playing games and keeping score is my favorite way to build this skill. Buddy loves games, and I’ve blogged about some of my favorites here and here. We also predict and count different items as we play (how many animals do we have here?)

One of Buddy’s favorite games is Cars and Trucks, which is a kid version of war. When we are done with the game, at least one of us will have to count into the twenties to figure out who has the most cards. That game also involves special +1, +2, and +3 cards that help kids practice addition.

Adding and Subtracting

We started the idea of addition and subtraction with the game Uno Moo. You start the game with five animals, and after each game one person is out of animals, and everyone else has some left over. We just let the people with animals left over pick some more to get five. So I ask Buddy questions like, “I have two left over, how many animals do I need to take?”

Sometimes when we play games, we add how many we have together. Playing memory and Let’s Go Fishing are two great games for that. “I have three matches and you have five. How many matches have we found together?”

We’ve also started to do some addition/subtracting with Buddy’s physical therapy exercises. I’ll set a certain number of times that we are going to do an activity and then we count how many we’ve done. Part way through, we’ll figure out how many more we still need to do.

Understanding Two Digit Numbers

Buddy made the connection between counting past twenty with Advent calendars. Something clicked in his head, and he understood that once you hit twenty, you continue counting normally. Soon after that he started noticing two digit numbers everywhere, and he wanted to learn how to read them.

We practice reading and comparing two digit numbers at basketball games!

We point out numbers in the world around us, and Buddy points them out too. The grocery store is a big one for us. He will count the checkouts up to 28 on our way out of the store. And he’ll read the aisle numbers as we are in them. He also makes note of large numbers on packages (that package has 12 towels!). Other places we practice reading two digit numbers are restaurants with table numbers, street signs, and basketball scores. (March madness is very important in our house!)

Shapes

Since I’m a math teacher, I’ve always been very conscious about naming shapes correctly with Buddy. When he was learning names of shapes, if he called a square a rectangle, I’d say, “yes, but it’s a special kind of rectangle.” Some of my seventh graders have the hardest time understanding that squares are also rectangles.

We play with magnatiles often at our house. It’s one of Buddy’s favorite things to do. At first, we were calling the triangles: little, medium, and big. And then I realized that it would be so easy to call them by correct names. So we call the small ones with equal sides equilateral triangles, the ones that can be made into squares right triangles, and the tall, skinny ones with two equal sides isosceles triangles.

Pattern blocks are another fun way to play with shapes, and learn different names for shapes. There are trapezoids and parallelograms and hexagons, which are all shapes that are not often seen in kid’s shape activities. If you don’t have your own set of pattern blocks, you can have your kids use digital ones or print ones out.

Measurement and Data

Buddy and I sometimes pull out a ruler or measuring tape, and he measures different things. Occasionally, we will measure to see which item is longer or taller. But most often, he just wants to see which number is closest to the item’s length or width.

We also use measurement when we cook or bake together. Buddy and I made a Boston Cream Pie last weekend, and we needed 6 tablespoons of cornstarch for the filling. I asked him to help me count, and after we did four tablespoons, I asked him how many more we needed to add. Moments like that one combine several of those math standards (counting, addition, and measurement) into things we are already doing.

The kindergarten data standard is about sorting things into categories and then counting how many things are in each category. We’ve done something similar when we did a sort with attribute links. We also sometimes do something similar when we play with counters. Buddy loves to grab a handful to fill up one of his magnatiles creations, and sometimes I’ll ask him how many of each he has. (Two squirrels, three owls, and five apples!)

Buddy playing with attribute links, which can be sorted by color, shape, or size.

Great Math Resources

Hopefully I’ve helped you realize that you can easily incorporate math activities into your normal life without buying anything else. But I wanted to share a few more things if you are looking for something else to supplement the math in your home.

My favorite math books are Countablock and 123 Count with Me. Countablock is perfect for helping kids count to 100. It’s a chunky board book, and it’s so much fun! 123 Count with Me is great for helping kids read, write, and add numbers. There are grooved numbers to trace and flaps to lift to engage kids. The book counts up to 20, and then there are addition problems with flaps as well. (The alphabet counterparts to these books, Alphablock and A is for Apple respectively, are also great!) Buddy also loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and there is at least one math topic built into every episode.

Those are a few examples of some of the ways my family does math together. Some of those math moments might take a little extra thought initially, but then it will become second nature. If you can help to establish a comfort and curiosity with numbers before your child starts school, it could serve as a foundation for a lifetime of strong mathematical thinking.

Fly Swatter Hockey

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One of our favorite family activities is to play with a beach ball while we hang out in Buddy’s room. Over the years, we’ve played with the beach ball in a variety of ways. When he was little, we just rolled it around. Now, we often use it to play variations of basketball, volleyball, and soccer. We recently took Buddy to his first hockey game, and since then he’s wanted to play hockey with the beach ball.

I bought two fly swatters from the dollar store a long time ago, after reading about doing balloon tennis from Little Bins For Little Hands’s blog. However, we never got around to doing that activity. When Buddy asked for a hockey stick, I realized that the fly swatters would work perfectly.

Fly swatter hockey is simple. My husband and Buddy were the hockey team, and I was the goalie for the other hockey team. I stood in a narrow space between an ottoman and Buddy’s bed, and they had to knock the beach ball past me. A door opening would also make a good goal. We only had two fly swatters, so I just kicked the ball away instead of swatting it.

This was a fun and easy activity that provided a perfect way to get rid of some energy while stuck inside. We have played this several nights this week, and Buddy loves it! I’m sure this will be a frequent activity for the rest of the winter at least.

Do you have any other ideas for fly swatter activities? If so, please leave a suggestion in the comments section.

Great Games for Preschoolers

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Buddy loves playing games, and it’s something our whole family loves to do together. Last year, I blogged about games that work for both toddlers and preschoolers. In the course of the year, we’ve discovered more games that are so much fun. These games are better suited for preschoolers rather than toddlers. Buddy is currently almost four, and some of them he wouldn’t have been able to play a year ago.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Silly Street

Skills Needed: Counting, various physical skills

Skills Practiced: Character building, gross motor, creativity

This is my favorite of our new games. I had never heard of Silly Street before we received it as a gift. It is a board game where you pull a card for each turn, and then you have to do something before you can move. Some of the cards are mental tasks (name as many red foods as you can – move one space for each), some are social/emotional tasks (find a picture of something sad on the board), and some are gross motor tasks (stand like a flamingo). The first day we played it, we did three games in a row! It is so fun, and so silly! We have brought it to friend gatherings, and it was great as an adult and kid mixed group party game.

Cars and Trucks

Skills Needed: Counting

Skills Practiced: Counting past twenty, simple addition (adding 1, 2, or 3), comparing numbers, reading numbers

Cars and Trucks is a kid version of the card game war. Each person picks a card, and whoever’s vehicle has more animals wins the round. There are bonus cards that say +1, +2, or +3. Then you get an extra card and you get to add on the animals to the total amount. There are 45 cards in the deck, so once a two player game is done, at least one person has to count past twenty. (Last week, I lost by a lot, and Buddy counted his cards out to 30 by himself.) As a math teacher, I especially love this game. It’s so fun, and it’s such good math practice.

Disney Eye Found It

Skills Needed: Finding simple objects

Skills Practiced: Memory, perseverance

We call this one the Mickey game at our house. Buddy got it in his stocking last year, but he wasn’t quite up to playing this at age 2. However, by the time he turned 3, he was able to do it well. Basically, this is a look and find card game. Every player gets five cards, and you can get rid of your card by finding the target item. (In the picture above, the person who finds the anchor first can get rid of their card.) It quickly becomes a memory game, because you’ve seen the cards many times before, but they are so detailed it takes some skill to remember where objects are. We love this game for it’s portability, and because we love Disney too. There is a board game version of this that also looks fun.

Yeti in my Spaghetti

Skills Needed: Ability to grab a small rod

Skills Practiced: Fine motor, logical thinking

Yeti in my Spaghetti is a simple game. Once the game is set up, you take turns pulling out a piece of spaghetti. When the Yeti falls in, the last person to successfully take spaghetti without knocking in the Yeti wins. It is a little like Jenga, but easier for younger kids.

Let’s Go Fishing

Skills Needed: The ability to get the end of a pole in a fish mouth

Skills Practiced: Fine motor skills, patience, counting, addition, comparing numbers

Let’s Go Fishing is so much fun, but is definitely a challenge for Buddy. The fish chomp their mouths open and closed, and the fish rotate around. It took some practice for Buddy to be able to do it, but now it’s not too difficult for him. Once we get our fish, we count them to see who has the most. Sometimes we count how much we’ve caught together as we play (I have 4 and you have 4 – how many fish have we caught?)

Have you heard of other great preschool games that I didn’t include? Please mention them in the comments.

Halloween Tic-Tac-Toe

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Buddy loves games, so I’m always looking for fun new ones to play with him. When I saw this candy tic-tac-toe Etsy listing, I thought that it would be fun to do with Buddy. He first learned how to play tic-tac-toe this summer, and it’s a go to game for us when we are waiting at a restaurant. I knew this candy version would be fun to play.

I cut out a piece of black cardstock and drew my lines with silver sharpie. (Mommy musings’s blog has a free printable Halloween Tic-Tac-Toe board that would also be fun to use.) Then I grabbed some candy corn and pumpkins, and went to go find Buddy.

Buddy was super excited to play tic-tac-toe! It was great having actual pieces to move instead of just drawing in each square. Of course, Buddy asked immediately if we would be eating the candy. Fortunately, these candies aren’t favorites of Buddy’s, so he was willing to play with them instead.

This was so easy and fun! It’s definitely an activity that will probably move into our diaper bag for restaurant fun.

Alphabet Kaboom Game

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This summer, Buddy and I spent a lot of time working on alphabet activities. When I came across the idea for the alphabet kaboom game on The Many Little Joys’s blog, I was excited to make it to play with Buddy. However, when we tried to play the game, Buddy wasn’t interested in it. So I put it away for another day.

I pulled out the kaboom game this weekend, and Buddy and I had a blast! The set up for the game is super simple. I grabbed a handful of jumbo popsicle sticks and wrote a different letter of the alphabet on the bottom of each one. I also wrote the word Kaboom on the bottom of six sticks. Then I put the sticks in a metal bucket so the written parts were in the bucket.

It’s very easy to play the game. We took turns pulling out a stick and saying the letter. Sometimes we would add a word that started with that letter as well. But whenever someone pulled a Kaboom stick, that person had to put back all of his/her popsicle sticks. At the end of a set amount of time, whoever has the most sticks wins. Buddy didn’t like the idea of setting a timer, so we just listened to music and the game ended at the end of each song.

Uh oh! Buddy got a Kaboom!

Buddy liked this game so much that we played it over and over again! We probably played eight or more games in one sitting. It was a wonderful way to practice letters, and we both had fun. We will be playing it again soon.

 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom STEM Game

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When I discovered Preschool STEAM’s blog this summer, I wanted to try out some of their Storytime STEAM activities for Time to Read Tuesday. This Chicka Chicka Boom Boom building activity made me excited because I already had all of the necessary materials. Plus we love the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Originally, I had planned to do the activity the same way that Preschool STEAM did it. I gathered the materials to build a coconut tree (wooden blocks and popsicle sticks), and then I asked Buddy to see how many letters he could get into the tree. We read the story first, and then we started to build the tree. I didn’t have jumbo popsicle sticks, so we just used regular sized ones. However, I think jumbo ones would work even better. 

Once we started putting on letters, Buddy had the idea for turning the activity into a game. And I’m so glad he did, because we had so much fun! He asked to get our fishing pole from this bath set to use with the letters. (If you don’t have something similar, you can also use a kitchen spoon, string, and paperclip like we did in this fishing for magnetic letters activity.) 

Buddy decided we would take turns using the fishing pole to get a letter and then we’d put it on a tree. Of course, we said the letter as we picked each one. Whoever made the letters fall down lost the game. We also cried out “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” when that happened. It reminded me a lot of the game Jenga and a game from my childhood called Don’t Monkey Around. We had a great time playing together.

Every time the majority of the letters fell, we took down the whole tree and talked about ways to rebuild it to be stronger. We tried laying more popsicle sticks and arranging them in different ways. Then we’d play the game again to see if we could do better than the last time.

This activity is one of my new favorites. It took no time to set up, and very little time to pick up. It was a great way to practice letters with Buddy, and it was so much fun! We will definitely be playing this game again soon!

Do you have any other ideas for fun alphabet activities? Please share your ideas in the comments section.

Party Games and Activities for Preschoolers

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A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Buddy’s third birthday party, but I didn’t have the time to include all of the games we played. Buddy loves games, so I knew I wanted to included some fun games as part of our party. We had guests from ages 2-6, so we needed games and activities that worked for a variety of ages.

The best advice I have for anyone planning a birthday party for a toddler or preschooler is to have most of the activities open ended stations. There are lots of different stations that can work for any theme. Here are the ones we did at Buddy’s parties:

  • Books
  • Puzzles
  • Photo Booth
  • Dress up
  • Coloring and Stickers
  • Playdoh
  • Blocks or Duplos
  • Sensory Bins
  • Craft tables
  • Cars or Trains
  • Chalk and bubbles (if it is nice enough to be outside)

If you would like more details about how we did these things at Buddy’s parties, please read here about Buddy’s second birthday and third birthday parties. One of our guests loved the stations so much she asked for some for her birthday party!

I did include some games as stations at the parties as well. We did a toss game (toss the coal in the hole for our train themed party) and a ring toss as well (tricera-toss game for a dinosaur party). There wasn’t much structure to these games, so kids could do them independently or competitively with a parent or friend. The ring toss game was a huge hit at our most recent party, and I’m sure we’ll do something similar next year.

I spent a lot of time looking for more structured games to do at the party, and it was tough to find things that worked for young children. Here are the ones I did:

  • Bingo – There are many free printable bingo games available online. I found a Thomas the Train one for our party. We played until everyone won.
  • Cake Walk – This was the favorite game at the party. I printed out a picture of each Thomas the Train character on paper and laminated them. I then printed out a smaller version of each picture and cut them out. Each guest started on a picture and they walked in a circle to music (the theme song to Thomas and Friends of course!). When I stopped the music, everyone stopped on a picture. I drew a card and the child on that picture got to go pick a prize. Then I removed that picture, and we started again. I kept pulling cards until every picture was chosen, so every child received a prize.
  • Prize hunt – I asked my sister to hide Thomas the Train minis during our bingo game. There was one train for each kid. They were so excited to go look for their own train! You could easily do this for any theme.
  • Train race – When the kids found their trains, they raced them against each other on a board. This was a little confusing for them, though, and was my least favorite of my games.

Other ideas:

  • Duck, duck, goose – This is better if played outside or somewhere with a lot of space to run. At a birthday party of mine growing up, it was a dog theme and we did “dog, dog, puppy”
  • Red light, green light – This would have been great for our train theme if it had been nice enough to play outside.
  • Pin the Tail on the Donkey – There are ways to adapt it for any theme, and many pre made versions that can bought for different themes.
  • Musical chairs- There is one less chair than kid, when the music stops, the person who is missing a chair is out.
  • Musical statues – We almost did this one. Everyone dances to music and freezes when the music stops.
  • Piñata – This was a favorite at my birthday parties growing up. I debated doing one this year, but I decided Buddy would enjoy other games more.

Do you have other ideas to add to this list? Please share in the comments.

Great Games for Toddlers and Preschoolers

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Buddy is really into games right now. It’s really fun that he’s finally old enough for us to play games as a family. Before Christmas, we started playing memory and go fish with a tiny Thomas the Train card set, which was a favor from his Thomas the Train birthday party. We also tried a game from our library (Zingo), and he immediately fell in love with it. I asked my family to get games for us for Christmas, and we got some awesome ones! All of them are appropriate for both toddlers and preschoolers.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Most of the boxes for these games suggest them as for ages 3 and up, but they can be appropriate for younger kids. I’ve listed the needed skills for each to help you decide if it is appropriate for your child. Right now, Buddy is 33 months old, but he would have been able to play most of these at a younger age. Not only are these games a lot of fun, but they also help Buddy to work on many different skills, including learning to take turns and to be a good winner/loser.

Zingo

Skills Needed: Matching pictures

Skills Practiced: Fine motor skills, counting, comparing numbers

Zingo is Buddy’s favorite game right now. We play at least 3 rounds of it every day, and he can’t get enough of it! The idea is simple – be the first to match all of the pictures on your card. The red shooter dispenses the pictures, and they can be inserted in a slot on the shooter if they aren’t needed. We count how many pictures we have, how many more we need, and who has more pictures. There are two different levels of cards, and one side has more overlapping pictures between the cards to make the game more competitive. There are several other versions of this game including sight words, counting, and spelling.

Uno Moo

Skills Needed: Matching colors and farm animals

Skills Practiced: Colors, counting, fine motor skills

Uno Moo is a great version of the classic Uno game for young children. Each player starts with five animals, and you take turns putting them into the barn by matching either the color or the animal. There are figures that represent wild cards (the little boy) and draw two cards (skunks). Buddy loves the little figures, and it’s easy for him to know what can and can’t be matched. I got the older version of this game because I wanted the haystacks to hide the animals and the puppy figures. (Both are not included in the new version.) There is also a card version of this game.

Stack Up

Skills Needed: Stacking blocks

Skills Practiced: Colors, counting, fine motor skills

Stack Up is a cooperative game. Players work together to stack all 12 blocks before the smasher smashes the tower. Younger players use their hands to stack the blocks, but older players work together to use sticks to stack the blocks. You spin the spinner to determine what color block to stack. If it lands on the smasher, the figure moves forward one space. If any blocks fall, the smasher moves forward again. Buddy can hardly stand the excitement by the end of the game (see the second picture above)! There are challenge cards and two different types of sticks to challenge older players.

Seek A Boo

Skills Needed: Matching pictures

Skills Practiced: Memory, vocabulary, counting, shapes, colors

Seek a boo is a spin on the classic memory game. There are 36 large circle cards and 36 square find it cards. All of the cards are split into groups of six with a different color and a different topic (shapes, animals, clothing, outside objects, food, and toys). The child spreads out the six cards, and the parent shows a square card with a picture to find. We count how many times it takes for Buddy to find the matching card. After you do the first six, you can do another round with a different color. You can do two or more colors at a time to make it more challenging for older children.

Go Fish

Skills Needed: Matching farm animals

Skills Practiced: Find motor skills, counting, comparing numbers

Go Fish is a classic card game that is usually played with older kids. I really wanted to find a Go Fish deck for Buddy’s stocking since he loved playing it so much with his Thomas cards. But his Thomas set only had 8 matches, so it wasn’t really enough to play a good game. Most decks out there are made for older kids that can read numbers. But the set that I linked above just has pictures of farm animals. The deck is set up to get all four cards of each animal, but we just play with half the deck and have two card matches. We got this card holder to help Buddy hold his own cards, and it’s a great fine motor activity putting cards in and out of the holder.  When we finish the game, we count the amount of matches that each person has and compare the numbers to see who wins. We have also played memory with these cards.

Memory

Skills Needed: Matching pictures

Skills Practiced: Memory, counting, comparing numbers

Memory is a preschool game that has been around forever. It’s a great way for young children to work on remembering things, which is a great skill to practice. I made the set shown above on Shutterfly with pictures of our extended family. We have a large extended family, and none of them live close to us. This is a great way for Buddy to learn everyone’s names. He loves seeing everyone’s pictures and pictures of himself with them. When we finish each game, we count our matches and compare to see which person won.

Candy Land

Skills Needed: Color recognition

Skills Practiced: Fine motor skills, colors

Candy Land is another classic game for preschoolers. Small characters travel a multicolored path towards the Candy Castle. Players draw a color card to figure out where to go on the path. Specially themed candy cards send players forward or back to specific points on the board. Whoever reaches the castle first wins. Picking one card off the top of the deck and moving the figure on the path are both great ways to practice fine motor skills.

Our family loves playing all of these games, and I ‘m sure your family will too. Have I missed any great toddler or preschool games? Please leave your ideas in the comment section.