Board Games for Kids

This week, Geek and Sundry celebrated International Tabletop Day, streaming board game play and collecting money for Extra Life.  I love Geek and Sundry and really appreciate the role board games can play in anyone's life, but especially the skills kids can gain.  As such, in addition to our regular reading, painting, performing and coloring, we've been playing a lot of board games.

Jeremiah picked out a new game for Genevieve, and we've really enjoyed it.  Hoot Owl Hoot by Peaceable Kingdom was a great hit.  Peaceable Kingdom tries to be environmentally friendly in their production and they create a lot of cooperative games.  I love cooperative games because instead of pitting players against one another, they encourage teamwork.  Players win or lose together, and frequently they may all lose but they have fun together.  This game involves matching colors and allowed some fun storytelling about the owls flying back to their nest.  Genevieve is learning a bit of strategy, slowly realizing that it's not always best to play your favorite color and that although the suns are pretty, they move the game closer to the end.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Game is based on the Eric Carle book.  The furthest a player can move each turn is 4 spaces, using number recognition from the spinner and one-to-one correspondence as the piece is moved.  There is a moon space, leading to a missed turn which is an interesting lesson for preschoolers.  She practices counting skills as she collects food for the caterpillar at different stops.  She loves helping everyone reach the end so that everyone becomes a butterfly.

We played some classic games like Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders.  I love the history of Chutes and Ladders, being a lesson in karma.  Some of the boards have fun illustrations to demonstrate that.  It can be tricky to navigate the board, so preschoolers may need some guidance but there's plenty of counting and one-to-one correspondence.  We somehow finish Chutes and Ladders, but Candy Land's art is too distracting.

I have fond memories of entertaining myself with different challenges in Hi Ho Cherry-o, so I love playing this with Genevieve.  It's great counting, and you can play cooperative or competitive.  The newer version has a puzzle for the cooperative version.

Finally, we played more matching games.  Christmas, animals and habitats, and Jake and the Neverland pirates.  All these games help with concentration and social skills.

Genevieve and Tobias also watched us play some different board games with friends.  She was able to come and go, helping me when she wanted.  She liked helping choose where to stop in Tokaido and building bamboo and rolling​ dice in Takenoko.  She also enjoyed showing off her art to Dad's friends.