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12 exciting games to play with children
As the holidays approach, you should also think about the little ones and how different they are and each one has their own interests. The most common question I get from other parents is, is this game developmental? Don't worry - all games are developmental and develop different skills in the child. Be it dexterity, vision, planning, or something else. It's often more difficult to figure out what to buy for a child than for an adult, but don't worry, as a father of three and a huge board game enthusiast, I have quite a bit of experience in this matter. My wife would say I'm more of a gamer than a father, but anyway, here are my recommendations for different games, for different ages.
For the youngest (2.5/3+)
I always tell all parents that it's never too early to start trying games with kids, and for my kids, these were some of the first games we played together:
Coconuts
"Coconuts" is almost like a game where you have to put a coconut in a monkey-catapult and try to hit the cup. When all players have shot all their coconuts, the one with the most cups wins. That's it! That's pretty much all the rules. Of course, you will not tell the little one, but you will give the catapult, a coconut and enjoy the joy on his face, seeing how the coconut flies through the air!
This is a very great game for all ages, especially up to school age, as the game encourages the child to explain and find connections between two things. Each player has several cards with things in front of them and in the middle of the table there is a property, for example "warm". Can a sock be warm? Is the sun warm? If the item matches this property, the player may place it in the middle by flipping it upside down. In this way, a new feature appears in the middle of the table. The player who gets rid of his cards first wins. But that's not the main thing in this game.
Three piglets
A very important thing that children need to learn is patience and the ability to work alone. If it can be learned in a very interesting way - together with Smart Games - then great! At this age, a great game is "Three Little Pigs" , where you have to hide the little pigs in houses from the angry wolf.
For active (4+)
It wouldn't be a child if he didn't want to run and fight all the time. It's great if such an activity can be combined with games that directly require manual dexterity or precision.
All players play in one team or each on their own and try to get the common or each their own hedgehog home so that it is not caught by the fox. This game uses something I haven't seen in any other board game - a ball that has mushrooms, leaves and clovers sticking to it as you roll it. These things are needed for the hedgehogs to move to the next squares. And to make it not too easy for adults, there are rules that make the game more difficult, so kids can try to outplay their parents.
"Halli Galli" has already become a classic among board game fans. It is especially good for children because there is always action and no time to get bored. Will you be the first to ring the bell when the real clowns appear on the table?
All on the same team and no need to argue (4+/5+)
Sometimes I am told that the family does not play games because the children tend to get offended and argue. And then I ask, have you tried playing co-op games? Cooperative games are games where all players play on the same team and win or lose together.
In this game, players work together to feed the mice with things of the color they like. It doesn't matter if it's socks or things, the main thing is that the color is right. And the most unique thing is that it all happens with the help of the phone. Personally, I've never been more excited to hand my kids my phone than knowing they'll use it to play this game together.
All players are detectives trying to catch the sly fox who has snagged the delicious pie before it sneaks into the cave! This game has everything that kids could love - rolling dice, moving around the field and a unique device to find out if, for example, the guilty fox has an umbrella or not?
Farm Rescue
One of the most popular games in the world is the good old memory game. Farm Rescue adds an interesting twist to the memory game principle. The players, throwing the dice together, first turn all the drawings - farm animals - face down (the animals are hiding in the grass) and when an already hidden animal is thrown again, they must remember together where it is hiding in the grass. Will you be able to help the farmer catch the wild wolf before it gets to the farm animals.
For the patient (6+)
When we read books, we always feel and experience all the choices of the main character. What if we could make those choices ourselves in the book? In this book, the reader helps the brothers, who have just become knights, complete a task that will take them around the whole kingdom and go through various adventures. But the reader chooses exactly where to go and what to do and in what order!
The “IQ” series is an assortment of small size and easy to carry head foresters where players have to fill the field with the given pieces. The tasks are at different levels, which means that not only children, but also adults will be able to challenge themselves.
With brothers, sisters and the rest of the family (6+)
This award-winning board game created in Latvia will bring fun and exclamations of surprise to the whole family. One player is a janitor and the rest are unsophisticated students who run around the school catching fish during class. The most unique components of the game is the field, which consists of boxes, giving the feeling that it is really a school. And the players hit the penguins with a stick, moving them around the field. Who doesn't love wheelbarrows?
This is one of the most played games in my family for the second year in a row. One game lasts only 10-15 minutes and is a great substitute for Uno . Everyone chooses an animal and takes 8 cards, which they shuffle and then turn to face the others. That's right - players only see a portion of their cards. Everyone plays one card and then the highest number wins all cards, which are one point each at the end of the game. BUT each card also has its own ability that makes every play full of surprises!
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