When my children reached the age where they could finally start to play board games, it was a wonderful new activity that we could do together. But some games are simply too complicated for the toddler/preschool set.
Fortunately, we have 3 family favourites that my toddler can play but also my school-aged son is still interested in playing (this is essential for those afternoons when I am trying to make everyone happy!)
What are these three board games that have been well played, well loved and don’t drive mama crazy?
1) Memory
It’s a classic. This Toopy and Binoo version is well used and fun. But the game can be played with a deck of cards or a fun activity is to make your own cards with your favourite characters, upper/lower case letters and so on!
2) Hungry Hungry Hippos
Another classic that we all played as kids I’m sure. Now the ‘marbles’ are plastic, but the game play remains the same. Simple for little hands to get used to, and exciting enough for our mini competitors to get into the spirit of wanting to chomp chomp chomp!
Extend the game (and learning opportunity) by taking turns counting how many balls everyone got.
3) Cariboo Island
This is a branch of the popular Cranium game, but geared to the younger set. There are two sets of cards, one for younger children, the other for older, which makes this game great for growing with the kids. Select a card, then with the key open a box that fits the requirement (by colour, shape, letter etc) and search for coins. Collect 6 coins to open the treasure chest!
ETA: Honourable Mention: Candyland.
How did Candyland become the game parents have grown to not love but the kids do? Especially those of us with special versions like Dora? This gets an honourable mention because we don’t own this game, but Grandma does, and it’s well loved and used each time we visit 😉
A really fun game for all of us.
What are some of your favourite board games for younger children? Do you like playing board games? Honestly, I can’t wait for the kids to get old enough for games like Scrabble, Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit!
I think this is a great topic… it’s very hard to find games that are both appealing and playable to the young ones. I’m not particularly in agreement on the inclusion of Hippos though. I find the game noisy, lacks any skill or cognitive development, and the marbles are both easy to lose as well as a choking hazard.
If I’m wrong, I’m wide open to correction. 😉
I’d love to see a follow-up post with more suggestions (my 3yo likes the memory game, and Blue’s Clues mystery game). I’ll have to check out the Cariboo game.
You are right about the balls! We have to store it away from the kids and play under supervision. It is loud, but sometimes loud is fun for this age. I have more games we play but more for my 5 year old that I’ll be doing a post about! I’m sure there are a lot of other ones for the little set to check out. Hopefully readers will chime in!
These are great games! It’s true though, it can be tough to find boardgames that are fun, and not too complex for the littler ones – they also have to be engaging enough to keep their attention!
We actually found Monopoly Crazy Cash on sale at Wal Mart around Christmas for $5.00 so picked it up as an extra gift for our 5 year old – he loves it! Helps him to learn counting, and we pretend all the money is in Millions which makes it even more fun.v
awesome post! Liam loves Hungry Hingry Hippos, but it’s the only one we’ve got and it gets boring for Mommy and Daddy! I will look into the Caribou game! Sounds fun!
We play Cariboo (most likely not in its orginal format) with our speech therapist all the time. It is one of E’s favorites.
I’m always looking for new games to try!
DD (4) loves boardgames! Here are the popular games in our house right now:
Busytown Eye Found It – players work together, not against each other. We play this over and over!
Cat in the Hat I Can Do That – this is an active game, good for little ones who can’t sit still.
Chickyboom – a balancing game.
Fun!
We love Cariboo and Busytown as well as puzzles and marbleworks (not technically a board game but they like racing marbles!). My kindergartener really likes Guess Who but my preschooler isn’t ready for it yet
We have hungry hungry hippos and memory too (the My Little Pony version of course 🙂 ) We got Operation for Christmas and it has also joined these 2 as the faves. These are our 3 go-to’s!
We enjoy playing dominoes – a colourful version with ladybugs and flowers, etc. Also found a little travel size version – perfect when we are stuck waiting somewhere. I played Hippos as a child and had been considering pulling it out – wondering if my toddler would be ready for it. Great to hear it is on the list. Will have to check out the others too! Thanks!
Our new favourite game is Camelot Jr. I love all the games made by SmartGames! A little pricey but timeless and span a large age range. We play games most nights before bed. Uno, Guess Who, Cariboo Island (french version) are the favs right now.
So far the only game we have is Memory and E really loves it even though he isn’t quite old enough to play by the rules. I spread all the cards out and he searched around and matches them up. I can’t wait to get into the other games too!