Board Games For Toddlers And Kids
What are the benefits of board games for kids? Well the first thing to realize is that playing a board game with your child is a great way to spend time together and bond. It is a fun activity, and at the same time your child will develop learning skills. This will also improve the child’s self esteem.
The learning skills that your child can develop are recognizing the shape of numbers, letters and other shapes, counting when they need to move a piece forward in alignment with a dice throw, grouping objects together, the perception of colors and dexterity skills and eye to hand coordination.
Any board game can teach children important social skills such as taking turns, verbal communication, waiting, sharing and how to interact with other people. Your child will learn to improve their attention span while playing board games and enjoy the competition of the game. They will learn about luck and how it can change very quickly either for the better or the worse. They will learn not to give up when the going gets tough which is an excellent skill to learn.
Choosing The Right Board Game For Your Child To Play
When your child is very young, say 2 or 3 years old, it is more important to choose a board game that is enjoyable and improves their self confidence, rather than worrying too much about teaching values and ethics. These are the best board games for toddlers. The learning will come from taking part in the game. If there are a number of children involved then make sure that each one of them has a job to do such as rolling the dice or looking after the bank.
When children get to 4 and 5 their thinking skills are more sophisticated, so you can choose more sophisticated games that challenge their reading or numeracy skills. There are plenty of these types of board games available.
2 Year Old Board Games
When children are this young it is best to keep it simple. The games will develop learning skills naturally, so don’t concern yourself too much here. Here are some of the best board games for 2 year olds:
Ravensburger Snail’s Pace Race
With this game a dice is used to determine how many paces forward a snail will move. There are 6 snails and they are all competing with each other to cross the finishing line first. The dice and snails are made from wood and the game is safe for toddlers.
This will help your young child with their counting skills and color recognition. If they are playing with other children then it will promote conversation such as “do you think the red snail will win?” Each game will take around 10 to 15 minutes to play so it is just right for a 2 year old.
Snail's Pace Race – Children's Game
Thinkfun Roll And Play Board Game
There is a big soft dice with this game that your 2 your old can easily roll and then they will be given the corresponding card color and have to do what it says on the card. If your child cannot read then you will need to help them initially.
As your toddler gets used to playing the game they will start to remember the words on the cards and what they mean. This is a great interactive game that the whole family can play and it will make your 2 year old very happy. The game will encourage your child to be creative and help develop their motor skills.
Thinkfun Roll and Play Board Game
Haba My First Orchard
This is a simple and enjoyable game that any two year old will love. There is a hungry cow and you have to save the different color wooden fruits from being eaten by the cow. Your child can play this game on their own or just with you or up to four players.
There is a game board and die and this game will encourage shape and color recognition skills in your child. They will also learn about rules and how they need to be followed to be successful in the game. When not being used as a game, your child can play freely with the wooden fruit.
3 Year Old Board Games
Your child should have developed some good skills by this age so the games recommended are a bit more of a challenge. They are still great fun though which is very important. Here are some of the best board games for 3 year olds:
Richard Scarry’s Busytown
This is a really fun game for kids aged 3 and upwards. Inside the game you will find a board which is the large map of Busytown. The players of the game have to find items as they go along and end up catching the ferry so that they can have a picnic.
Every time your child finds the items in question they will improve their self confidence. They will improve their attention to detail in this game and also the game encourages teamwork between those playing. Matching skills and the identification of objects are also part of this game.
Wonder Forge Richard Scarry's Busytown
Sequence For Kids
This is a strategy building game for younger children aged 3 years old and upwards. If your child cannot read yet there is no need to worry as they will figure it out and it will actually help with their reading skills. It is a fun, exciting and challenging game to play.
Each player will play a card from their hand and then place a chip on the corresponding space on the game board. The aim is to get 4 chips in a row as this means you will have completed a sequence. If you have a unicorn card then you can put a chip anywhere and with a dragon you can remove one of your opponent’s chips.
Candy Land
This is a classic game for young children and they will find it very exciting. You have to journey down a magical road and as you do so you will find some sweet surprises. There are fun illustrations that your children will love and a set of colored cards.
As your child chooses their cards, they will move their pawn and you will arrive at different destinations such as Chocolate Mountains and Cupcake Commons. The first person to reach the castle is the winner. Your child’s imagination will run riot with this game.
Candy Land – The Kingdom of Sweets Board Game
4 Year Old Board Games
Here are some of the best board games for 4 year olds:
Peacable Kingdom Hoot Owl Hoot
The aim of this game is to help the owls to fly back to their nest before the sun rises. It has a game board and a series of color cards. When your child plays a particular color they can fly to that space on the board. If a sun card is drawn then this brings the sunlight nearer.
You want to work together to get all of the owls home in time. This will ensure that everyone wins. There are two levels to play this game so when your child is able to they can play the second level. This is a fun game for all 4 year olds.
Peaceable Kingdom Hoot Owl Hoot! Cooperative Board Game
Thinkfun Zingo
This has all the excitement of the classic Bingo game but instead of numbers there are picture tiles. This is a good learning game as your child will need to match with cards that have been “called”. If they can read are or are learning this will certainly help.
There is a “Zinger” where the tiles are randomly drawn from. If a player gets a match on their card then they mark this and the first player to fill their card is the winner. There are two levels of play which are beginner and advanced. This game will help with image and word recognition as well as concentration, memory retention and matching skills.
My Feelings Game
With this game you will be able to tell how your child is really feeling and what they are thinking. The aim of the game is to reach the end of the path by exploring, recognizing and acting out emotions. Your child will explore emotions in a very fun way.
You will all win by playing this game. You will connect with your child and you will laugh together as you are playing. Your child will have great fun playing out their feelings. There are 280 scenarios to help your child explore their emotions and talk about them.
Educational board game to explore emotions through fun play!
5 Year Old Board Games
Here are a couple of the best board games for 5 year olds:
Qwirkle Board Game
This is a game of strategy for children of 5 years old and upwards. It consists of colors and shapes and you need to be strategic to win. The tiles are very beautiful and are shiny and made out of wood. There are a large number of in game choices.
You have to build lines of matching tiles based on the shape or the color and when you get a match you receive points. This game will certainly challenge your child and it will help them to think ahead and anticipate. They will also sharpen their problem solving skills with this game.
World Of Disney Eye Found It
This game is very colorful and has a lot of favorite Disney characters in it. You will be joining Mickey Mouse and his friends as they race through 12 realms that are beautifully illustrated. There is Alice’s Wonderland, Radiator Springs and Peter Pan’s Never Land to name but a few.
The game board is 6 foot long and you start by setting the clock to 1:00. The clock will then start ticking and all of the players must work together to get to Cinderella’s castle before midnight. Give the spinner a spin and then you can move, tick the clock forward or search. This game improves your child’s attention to detail and observation skills, and helps to build teamwork and cooperation.
World of Disney Eye Found It Board Game
Help Your Child Enjoy Board Games More By Teaching Them How To Read
You will find that your child will enjoy some of the board games a lot more if you teach them how to read. You can teach your child to read as soon as they reach 2 years of age as long as they can speak. Don’t go thinking that you need special skills to do this. All you need is the help and guidance of a proven reading program.
One of the best reading programs out there is called Children Learning Reading. This has been created by a qualified teacher, Jim Yang, who taught all of his kids to read when they were just 2 years old. There are videos that you can watch here that show his kids reading when they were two.
A Lot Of Research
Jim Yang wanted to find the most efficient approach to teach young children how to read so he spent a very long time researching this. The optimum solution for Jim was a reading program that would create fluent readers out of young children by teaching them how to read quickly. Through this scientific research he discovered that the combination of phonemic awareness and synthetics phonics instruction was the ideal solution.
It took Jim quite a while to create his reading program around these principles and it was worth it as the program has produced very impressive results. He was able to teach his 2 year olds how to read in less than 3 months.
A Very Efficient Reading Program
Jim has sold his Children Learning Reading program to thousands of delighted parents who have used it to teach their children how to read. The program has been designed to be fun for the child and as a parent you will have fun teaching it too. It is vital that a reading program is entertaining for your child because they have short attention spans if the program is boring they will not be keen to learn.
The first aim of the Children Learning Reading program is to teach your child about the individual sounds (phonemes) that the letters make. This is done through the use of synthetic phonics instruction. As you child learns the letter sounds they will also develop their phonemic awareness.
By using the Children Learning Reading program you will see that your child’s reading ability develop very rapidly and it is common for most young children to learn how to read in just 11 weeks. If you go here you will see many raving testimonials about the program.
You Do Not Have To Be A Teacher
A lot of parents worry that they do not have the appropriate skills to teach their child how to read from an early age. The fact is that you are the perfect person to teach your child how to read because they trust you and love you, and have learned so much from you already.
There are full step by step instructions of how to teach the program and you will know exactly what you have to do in each lesson. You will never be in a position where you do not know what to do next.
There is also no need to worry about your child becoming overwhelmed by the Children Learning Reading program. The lessons are really gentle, and each one builds on what has been previously learned. Just follow the simple instructions and you will be teaching your child how to read in no time.
Lesson Structure
Each daily lesson is designed to last between 10 and 15 minutes and if you feel this is too long then you can divide them up even further without reducing the effectiveness of the program. If you spend less time each day then the program will take longer to teach.
You will be delighted by the progress that your child is making each day under the program and they will soon transform from not being able to read to becoming a proficient reader. They will become proficient with the letter sounds and be able to combine them to create words and also use the sounds to decode words that they don’t know so that they can pronounce them correctly.
The Children Learning Reading program has 50 lessons in total and it is divided into two parts. Part one has 28 lessons and is dedicated to teaching the individual alphabet sounds and being able to combine them to create whole words. By the time your child has finished part one, they will know all of the different letter sounds and they will be able to blend these sounds to form simple words.
In the second part of the program there are 22 lessons that will build upon what has been learned in part one. You child will be introduced to digraphs (which is the sounds that combined letters make) in the second part. Part two contains more advanced words, phrases and sentences but this is done gradually.
As well as the main materials there are fun drawings, stories and rhymes to go with the lessons. The Children Learning Reading program is a completely proven reading program and it is very inexpensive.
Teach Your Child To Read Starting Today
Teaching your child to read is one of the greatest gifts in life that you can give them. Any parent can teach the program to their child and you will see results very quickly. You can find out more about the Children Learning Reading program here.
