From shortly after my daughter was born, I have been not so secretly waiting for her to be old enough to play games. I made modifications to games for three year olds so she could play them at two. It’s possible and certainly helped introduce her to games. Here are some good ideas. Also note that these are affiliate links, yet they are also games for little ones I actually own and bought myself.
Acorn Soup
The Acorn Soup game is perfect for little ones to learn to follow directions. They make a soup by following recipe cards which only require recognizing pictures and counting up to three. It is the perfect game to play when you just want to let them be a bit more self guided.
I Can Do That
This Dr. Seuss card game is perfect for kids who cannot sit still and play a game. We played it on a long camping trip and my daughter remembers that as the highlight of the trip. I won’t give away the secret, but it is a game that may actually be easier for the kids than the adults.
Candyland
Candyland is the classic I played as a kid, but that version is impossible to find. I don’t like the newer versions nearly as much (there is no story!), but the game is the same. Kids just need to know colors and basic rule following (easier said than done sometimes). We have played this a while, and she has finally started to understand that you cannot pick your own card and that you do not want to go backward just to get more candy cards.
Go Fish Card Game Variations
We have these fish cards (which claim to be for 5 and up), but we don’t just play go fish. We play match, fish pond, easy go fish and more. Here are so of the variations.
- Go fish where you see each other’s cards. Everyone has a little fish pond. This makes it much easier to play.
- Match where you leave the unmatched cards from the last round face up (otherwise it would never end).
- Match where the little one picks four cards and you only pick two.
- Fish pond- where you find all the fish of a particular color before the other person finds all of their color fish.
Puzzles
We play with these puzzles from Melissa and Doug to practice how puzzles work, but also make it a game. We take turns finding a piece that fits and giving hints. Have the little one give you hints… even if they don’t make sense it is still creative and fun. You can use any jigsaw puzzle for these, but you want one with at least ten pieces, but not too many more.
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