Games for Toddlers

My daughter's three favorite games are Sequence for Kids, Guess Who, and Don't Break the Ice. She was actually 3 when we got her Guess Who, but it didn't take her long to get the concept and play it right. We just set up the boards opposite one another so that we would know if she were knocking down the right people or not.

As for Sequence, everyone gets three cards and you take turns playing a card and placing a chip on the space that matches. The first person with four in a row wins. She wins quite often.

Don't Break the Ice is probably a favorite because she likes to make the ice break. It is fun, though.

Another that's more for older people, but my daughter and my friend's kids like is Jenga. They have a lot of fun with it.

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Candyland castle and lucky ducks are 2 great games that my triplets love to play. I got these games when they were 2 and they love them.

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Hello,
I recommend Boggle Jr. for preschoolers. It's a set of 3 and 4 letter words on picture cards, and there are letter dice which the child has to identify then match it up to the card. Helps with letter recognition and site words. You can help and there's no time limit; you can do 1 card or 20, depending on how engaged they are. You can also spell with just the letter dice or just look at the picture cards-very flexible.

We also "play" Connect 4. My 2.5 yo has learned to set up the game, and learned to "take turns" by each of us putting in a checker. We don't actually use strategy, we just practice taking turns putting them in until the whole screen is filled. She then loves to empty them all out and start again. She even does this on her own. (Fill and dump)

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I have 2 1/2 and a 3 year old and they just got- lets go fishing. THEY LOVE IT!!!!! Little fish go up & down and around and they have to catch them when their mouths are open. Have fun!

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I have a great game idea that I haven't seen suggested yet:
Cariboo (by Cranium). We gave it to our then 2.5 yr old last Christmas, and she still LOVES it a year later. It's a "treasure hunt" game that incorporates shapes, colors, numbers, and letter recognition. This game also has 2 skill levels so it "grows" with your child. A description from the box says: "Take turns matching letters, numbers, colors, and shapes to unlock doors and hunt for treasure. As you find treasure balls, place them in the tumbling tidepool. Once you've found the last treasure, the special Cariboo treasue chest will pop open and it'll be time to play again."

I can tell you that I love this game too! It's quick - not as dragged out as other games can be, so you can play a few games or one before bedtime. Another game my daughter loves is the basic "Memory" game. You can set out as many matches as you want for your daughter's skill level.

Best wishes!

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If you have an Ollies near you, they have a great assortment of games, tangram-type things, matching, etc. and they are VERY reasonably priced (usually under $5)

My son got a game called Cariboo for his birthday and he loves it. There are 2 levels, beginner & advanced. You have to match up the card you picked to the card on the game (either for color, number, or letter) then you "open" that square with a key and see if there is a ball under it. You feed the balls you find into a tunnel and at the end a treasure chest opens to reveil a beautiful jeweled ring. He loves playing it and he just turned 3 so your daughter would probably like it too.

The Leapfrog Letter factory game is great. It has 2 levels. The first is matching colors and the second is letter recognition and some more advanced questions like "what comes after C"? It has a game board that the kids move around allowing them to count spaces, but the battery operated part of the game helps them to know if they counted correctly by announcing the color of the space they should have landed on. I can not tell you how much fun my kids have had with this game over the past couple years!

N.

Try puzzles! My granddaughter loved them and you can graduate to more complicated ones as the child grows.

In addition to the recommendations you've already received....Candy Land Castle is a good game for matching colors and shapes and taking turns. It is quick game also. My kids started to love puzzles at that age. If she likes to perform, Hullaballoo is a fun game. It is a DVD game by Cranium. Another one for performing and following directions is "Dr. Seuss I Can Do That". Kids select three cards to make a sentence. An adult can read the sentence and tell the child what to do ("Take 4 big steps with the dress under your arm.") Zingo is a fun picture-matching bingo type game.

Other posters have written great suggestions. Here are a few more: By 2 1/2 by daughter was an avid jigsaw puzzle fan; I was constantly buying new puzzles to keep up with her! She was doing the 24-piece puzzles at first, but by a little past 3 was on to the 100 piece ones. She also LOVED card games. She had trouble holding the cards in her little hands so I bought her a gadget to use to hold the cards. She loved Hearts, Crazy Eights, some form of Rummy (can't remember which), etc. She had a small basket in her room with all sorts of card games. She also loved Slamwich, when she was a little older, maybe 3.5. Good luck! It's such a GREAT age! :)

Hi C.,
You can make almost "free" matching games from paint samples from your local home improvement store. They have disney's micky mouse heads in different colors and may also have crayon's in different paint colors. They are in the sample-card section. You can use as is or peel off/cut out the shapes and glue them to thick paper. (Card stock or a folder cut into card sizes.)
Fisher Price also makes simple games in blue canisters.

Good luck and have fun!
C. Taormino

Might not be what you are looking for but my kids recieved, Elefun at about that age and just love it still 3 yrs later.
A fan blows colored butterflies out the elephants trunk and the children try to catch them in a net. It's a great active, but controlled game to keep the kids moving in the winter time.
I also think Puzzles are excellent for mom's and kids to do together.
Sorry I can't think of any actual board games or anything that is that attention grabbing or appropriate for that age.
Fisher price or Melissa and Doug have cute stuff.

oooo, just remembered the Oreo cookie matching game is totally a classic and super cute for that age.
And I would probably not recommend Lucky Ducks where they quack around the pond and you match the shapes. Before they understand it it's hard to play because its so crowded and when they are a bit bigger it's so easy to "cheat" that it really isn't much fun. just my opinion.

Have you seen the puzzle pals that match the letter to an object? Those are great.
Also, a Tupperware shape sorter ball is great for that age, as is any Play Doh factory stuff!

Chris
I got my daughter the ladybug game and Elfen fun game that spits out butterflies from his elephant trunk,its cute
and the Dora memory game. The game were all on sale at Target for $4 last week..I loaded up!
Good Luck!
S.

My son will be 3 in February and he LOVES the Eric Carle games (The ABC Game, Brown Bear Panda Bear what do you see Game and I think there is The Hungry Caterpillar counting game too)... They are for ages three and up but my son loves them and has been playing them since he was two. There are ways you can "alter" them for younger kids and then still play them as they get older.

Candyland Castle game! We have it, my kids love it!