EL board/ dice/ card games for toddlers

Early Learning Early Learning General Discussions
1

My toddler has been lately hooked on such games and I need more creativity to keep the fun going. So here is what we’ve been using right after he turned 2:

So, I am thinking to add a scrabble-like game to work on spelling (the magnet letters and the blocks are not challenging anymore). So I am hesitating between Bananagrams and Appletters, the second has fewer letters but chunkier pieces. I don’t really mind about the rules as I start by adapting the EL way first. Here are the links for the two games:

Bananagrams: http://www.amazon.com/Bananagrams-BAN001/dp/1932188126/ref=pd_sim_t_1

Appletters: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005X6DTYU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&keywords=appletters&qid=1350335864&s=toys-and-games&sr=1-1

Also, I like the Story Cubes idea about helping with creativity and artistic expressions but I am still wondering if the absurdity with some combinations will affect his understanding of how REAL things work. So I’ll keep them for later isA. http://www.amazon.com/Rorys-Story-Cubes-Original-Actions/dp/B006HVMK8Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1350337774&sr=1-2-fkmr2&keywords=story+cube+set

Otherwise, starting slowly with Mancala may help develop early strategic thinking IMHO. http://www.amazon.com/Wood-Folding-Mancala-in-Sleeve/dp/B00004T76D/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1350337880&sr=1-1&keywords=mancala

Can you share any ideas that you are using or intending to use? Thanks!

2

Aahh, games!

We love them in our house, and have quite a collection- both of store-bought and homemade versions…I have actually found that Alex will often ‘invent’ her own versions of her favorites. One recent example:: she loves sorting things, and I bought ten small plain cardboard boxes. I make huge stacks of hand-written vocabulary words, both new and old, and she ‘sorts’ them into the boxes by parts of speech. This usually involves a race and setting the pile of words to be sorted across the room from the boxes so that she runs back and forth to also burn off some energy :biggrin:
The other day she had our enormous box of plastic animal replicas out and was tearing about the room throwing them into boxes. I actually thought it was random, but she informed me she was sorting them according to ‘their name’! She had separate piles for mammals, birds, insects, amphibians, reptiles, and ‘I don’t know’ lol (this is a version of a game we play at the zoo where,)

So! Board games and card games…
Before I forget, Alex holds her cards in a homemade version of the card-holders available for purchase, and I have made a few in different sizes for different games: extremely simple to do! Use 2 plastic lids, say the tops of butter tubs…put them together, make a small hole in the center and push a brad through. Voila, ready to play! (I usually put a small piece of tape over the brad as she seems to want to play with it constantly!) BTW, we originally bought one and it doesn’t work nearly as well as the homemade version…

Now: Our absolute favorite is a game called Sum Swamp. So many skills packed in! You roll three dice, two with numbers and one plus/minus. This sets up an equation to tell you how many spaces to move. Also, spaces on the board are marked odd and even: you then roll a numbered die. You can’t go until you roll either an odd or even number, depending on your location. Plus a whole lot more math skills. We have extended this game by purchasing polyhedral dice and using an operational die we found with all four major operations…
http://www.amazon.com/Sum-Swamp-Addition-Subtraction-Game/dp/B00004TDLD/ref=pd_sim_t_10

War! You can invent almost any version to focus on skills.
Go Fish! Of, course… We actually use a set of colorful Go Fish cards.

We really like S’MATH as well!
Jenga requires quite a bit of concentration and fine motor skills.
Where in the World?
http://www.amazon.com/Talicor-Where-In-The-World/dp/B0006ZJPF0/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1350462653&sr=1-1&keywords=where+in+the+world
Dominoes and about a million variations
Alphabet Soup
Our homemade RightStart-inspired Skittles game. We bought the set of ten skittles, and I painted five yellow and five blue. She keeps a running score to 100 on the RS abacus.

Speaking of RightStart, whilst not strictly a game, she uses the RS balance to play games, including how many combinations can you find to ‘balance’ (equal) a ten on the other side…variations of this provide hours of fun, practice, and mastery of math fact to ten.
http://store.rightstartmath.com/mathbalance.aspx

Ooh! The game called Muggins! ( actually a game called Knockout is on the back as well) rules can be modified for even toddlers if you use only addition/subtraction) we also supplement a math games with the RS Abacus so that if she doesn’t know an answer she can figure it out…
http://www.amazon.com/Muggins-Knock-Out-Wooden-Math-Games/dp/B001HTBOSK/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1350462222&sr=1-1&keywords=muggins+math
Chutes and Ladders
Blokus
http://www.amazon.com/Mattel-R1983-Blokus-Classics-Game/dp/B001P06GX4/ref=pd_sim_t_5
The Scrambled States game. (Read the book first!)
http://www.amazon.com/Gamewright-5505-Scrambled-States/dp/B0009XBY1W/ref=pd_sim_t_4
Sequence Rummy
Various memory games.
Head full of Numbers: http://www.amazon.com/Head-Full-Numbers-Math-Game/dp/B000EG6F0E/ref=pd_sbs_op_4
BINGO of every variation imaginable! Some purchased, but I made a blank BINGO board, laminated it, and we write in new vocab words, play ‘I am thinking of a synonym/ antonym for…’,
(On the IPad there are two awesome apps, Sight Word BINGO and Math BINGO, that she adores!) we have done variations of this, States/capitals BINGO, you name it…
Hhmm, I know I am missing some, so tomorrow I will take a look and see which of the better ones I am forgetting!

Okay! I am going to post this so it isn’t lost, and will edit in links for you :slight_smile:

3

We are having hours of fun playing board games during weekends. Apart from some of the games listed above, we have
No Stress Chess which my son enjoys a lot. I am also using a book http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/193627731X/ref=pe_217191_31005151_dp_1 to go along with it.

Katamino is another favorite. http://www.amazon.com/Family-Games-8051-Katamino/dp/B0009H9SUC
Dobble is extremely fun. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asmodee-ASMDOBB01EN-Dobble-Card-Game/dp/B0031QBHMA
Logic board http://www.absorbentminds.co.uk/acatalog/info_M_50_11.html

I have just bought ‘Rush Hour’ and I’m planning to buy Tridio http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Brain-Toys-Tridio-Twist/dp/B0062WYQTQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1350466031&sr=1-1&keywords=tridio

4

Here are some of our favorites (in addition to the ones you mentioned):

Hisss - my twins were playing this when they were just a bit older than 2
Spot It Junior - great for building visual perception skills
Qwirkle - like Scrabble, but with shapes/colors
Blink Card Game - Good for cognitive skills. We make up our own rules sometimes.
Ravensburger FITS - Like a board-game version of Tetris, great for building thinking skills, geometry
Playground Board Game - contains mini-games for letter/number skills, but I alter the rules for my 3 year olds to add more challenge

I try to buy games that the kids will enjoy now (even if we have to change the rules), but can also grow with them.

Hope that helps!