I Can't Stand Candyland! Need Ideas for Other Games!

There is bingo type game called Zingo. It is great for matching practice. Also a game called guess who I am. It is an oral 21 question type game. You put a piece of cardboard with an animal or person on it. Then ask yes or no questions about who you could be. Both games have been bought at Target. Give them a try.

I have 3 young kids and they all LOVE EleFun. It is a game where butterfly shaped cloth come out of the nose of an elephant, motored by a fan inside. As the butterflies float down, the kids try catching them with their small nets. The kids play it together, but often, I play along with just my toddler. Sometimes my toddler plays the game by herself. It's lots of fun and is a great toy for those days when you can't go outside! - C.

Cooties is fun, and my 3 year old recently got into Twister. We play just the two of us so one spins and one does, but it's still fun that way and you get to work on colors and left/right.

I highly reccommend cooperative games such as Snail's Pace Race, The Sleeping Grump, etc. There are some of these appropriate for really young children, and the cooperative rather than competitive style is great.

http://www.forsmallhands.com/store/index.php?main_page=in...

http://www.ecotoytown.com/games/3to7.html

Have fun!

Try Jr Boggle; it teaches them spelling and they can even play by themselves if you're not available. We also got a states game that our kids love and it teaches them all the states in the US. Puzzles are great too, esp Melissa and Dougs. Good luck, we had the same problem! i went to the thrift store and found a lot of good games; you just have to watch out for missing pieces.

Hi K.,

Another vote for Monopoly for kids (not junior)

Zingo (two small kids can actually play this on their own)

Dominos (we don't play the "real" way yet, just taking turns and matching without adding)

Hi Ho Cherry-o (fun, but lots of cherries to pick up)

For card games: old maid, go fish, war
Hint: it can be tough to hold the cards. Use a foil/saran wrap container. Keep it closed and tuck the cards in the edge.

Good luck gaming!

This isn't really a "game" but you could get flash cards. I saw some in the dollar section at Target yesterday. I think kids consider them a game.
What about Hungry Hungry Hippo...not sure what the age range is on that.

Look for a game called "Caribou". It is made by Cranium group. Basically the game is to find the hidden balls behind doors by matching letter cards. It comes with a special keys to open the doors. Once you find all the balls, it opens up the treasure chest. My son LOVED this game!

Kids on Stage!! Great fun--a sharades game for little ones.

My son always loved Trouble - Its a board game with a ball you push and you have move your colors - Its a great way to keep counting! hope this helps!

Regards,
D.

Hi K.
what about one of those fun cycles that hook up to the t.v.
apparently, the more a child pedals, the more they make the specific games work, I think they have educational games on there as well. Also, as I understand it,it's a good way for a child to learn while at the same time get exercise. I saw one at Toys R US. Have you considered taking her to a toddler yoga class? they have ones whereby the parents also attend, that might something new and exciting.
p.s. good luck with your second pregnancy. :) I too have been trying for over a year with no luck yet, but I am so happy that someone else finally did it!!
congrats!

K.,
I used to be a consultant for a company called Discovery Toys. They have wonderful toys and games, very educational too. check them out online discoverytoysinc.com and you can also locate a consultant in your area so you can see the games in person or he/she might have suggestions for you. It's great stuff and stands the test of time!
R.

I am still giggling at your candyland burn out :)
For low cost, try just matching...regular deck of cards...or kid version..grocery store (a few things from your pantry, a purse, scrap paper for check, washable crayon:)..a recycling bag...an old shoe box for cash register...same with lemonade,
shoe, candy store, fruit stand, car wash, gas station..and you can expand..dress up clothes can be from scraps of material from Fabric store..for physical fun, my kids all time favorite is when I bought jersy material (pre cut so no worries if you do not sew) and it is a cloth tunnel...They love to crawl through it and be swung by dad in it..good calming tool too by the way..even sitting and rolling a little ball, coloring, singing, dancing..baking, cleaning..is still fun..time together which is oftern their favorite.
for some cash: Target/Walmart carries ELEFUNTEN...butterfly nets to catch the butterflies that blow out of the elephants trunk..Lucky Ducks (though they quack a lot)...Monkey Business..many more..great requests for bday or look on Craigslist for games....At LakeShore and Learning Express, many fun games to grown and teach with..
I have so many and when I see one ( have a 3 and a 6 year old) I will post or send..

We are definitely a game family. We have so many and our daughter really loves playing them, too. I love Brown Bear, Panda Bear what do you see? It's based on the Eric Carle books and it's a memory game that adults can enjoy playing too. It's for two to four players.

Another one is Kids Sequence. Sequence is a game that is easy to play, fun. We have the adult version and play it all the time, and instead of numbered cards, the board is filled with animals.

Another one we just got that is fun because it's really silly is the Cat in the Hat, I can do ThaT. You read these silly tasks like Put this one your head and spin around and it's fun while the kids and adults do these silly things together.

The ladybug balancing game. It's a very nice wooden game that really teaches them about balance and colors. There's a tree with leaves and different colored circles on the leaves. You roll the die to see what color you get and have to decide what size ladybug to put on the space. If you put too many big ones, oops, all the ladybugs slide off. It's great for helping them learn about shapes and sizes and how different size objects have different weights.

Good luck!

Froggy Boogie!!! So fun! and our kids like blokus, just for the pretty designs.

Try "I Can Do That." It's a Cat-in-the-Hat themed game. My five-year-old loves it, but I think it's suitable for younger kids.

Cooties, Don't Break The Ice, Old Maid, War (the card game). Some 3-year-olds can handle Uno, Skip-Bo, Connect 4 (if she isn't ready to play this one, she'll probably still like to make patterns with the board and pieces--which is good educationally. Patterning is a math skill.)
I'll 2nd the recommendation for Ravensburger's Snail's Pace Race, too. I wasn't sure it was still around. Actually, just about anything in the way of Ravensburger games & puzzles are great.

Hi K.,

I love the LeapFrog games. They are educational and fun. They have bingo, go fish, math games etc.

D.

Chutes & Ladders, Memory, Hi Ho Cherry-O, Yathzee Jr, Alphabet Soup

Hungry Hungry Hippo and Hi Ho Cherry-O are two games my kids both loved! Both have small pieces to pick up though, so you may want to wait til baby #2 turns 3... War is a great card game to play. It helps teach numbers too. When my son was in first grade, the teacher suggested putting down two cards each and whoever had the highest total won the hand. Now we play it with multiplying the numbers for my 7 yr old. Go Fish is also a good card game, and when daddy is available, Old Maid is fun too. If you don't have UNO, you can play Crazy 8s, similar rules, regular deck of cards. Checkers is also an oldy but goody. :)

Mickey Mouse yahtzee is quite fun! Good luck.

My sister in law has given my girls a couple of games that they absolutely love, and are easy enough for my 3 year old to play and enjoy. One is called Pretty Pretty Princess (it involves spinning a spinner thing and moving around a board, collecting jewelry and tiaras - yep, it's pretty girly but oddly my husband plays it with them all the time?!). The other one that my little one loves is The Sleepy Princess and the Pea, which is sort of a group game (either everyone wins or everyone loses) - where there is a little bed, and based on the number that you roll, you either put a pillow or a blanket on the bed (there is a "pea" at the bottom of the bed that makes it not very level). If everyone can get the pillows and blankets on there without it toppling over, you all win. She loves this game, although it tends to drive the rest of us nuts.

I think my SIL got both games on Amazon.com or somewhere. Happy playtime!

K.,
I don't know if you can afford it but the leapster has some really great learning games also. Our son really loved his, and the games are grouped by age. SO, she could be learning her colors and shapes, or letters etc.
I would also look at the board games at toys r us...they have the best selections, I know there are more out there, I just cant think of the names.
W. M.

I have loved UNO since it first came out and was looking forward to playing it with my son in a couple of years. This christmas my mother sent us the Little People version and as a 3 year old he can play it well. Not only are there colors and numbers to match but each little person picture has their own designated number so little ones can match pictures even if they don't know their numbers yet. I was surprised at how quickly he caught on to the idea of saying "uno" when he gets to his last card. Now he says it for the last slice of bread, etc.

Hi K., yes certain games can get very old. My kids used to like memory/matching games, hungry hippos, and bingo. Toys R Us has an entire selection of pre-school games. My kids are now grown and we still play games. Good Luck

I have a 3 and 5 year old. My mom got them board games for christmas they are Dr. Suess games one based on horton hears a who and another one that I can't remamber what it is called they love them and they are easy for my 3 year old to play it is fun to watch them play together, they especially like the Horton one, she got them at Target. My 3 year old also loves Hullabaloo also at target. All these games envolve getting up and moving too which is nice on rainy days.
C.

Hi~
My stepdaughter always had fun with Pretty Pretty Princess. You collect jewels as you go so you get to "dress up".
Have fun!
Lory

Hi K.,
My four year old loves the Lady Bug Game. She also loves Hi Ho Cherry-O. Those two games should hold you over for a couple of months. Good luck and have fun! Congrats on #2. We are also expecting #2 in May!!!

My favorite of all of my kiddos games is the Monopoly game for kids..not the junior version....I love monopoly, so this was right up my alley!...it teaches your kids to count in many ways and may need to help with the game, but it's fun..and of course...Don't Break the Ice is a fun one too!

We introduced puzzles to our daughter very early on ( she is 29 months now) and we have so much fun putting them together. She asks to do puzzles everyday.

Hungry Hippos, Connect 4, go fish, twister, all worked with mine

Caribou and Don't Spill the Beans!

When our daughter was three she LOVED Uno(still loves it and she's 7), memory games (cards..concentration type...I used regular decks and I made ABC decks with index cards), puzzles (LOVED any kind), and and making things from boxes.

We would get her boxes from the grocery store and painters tape. I pulled the tape off and stuck it on the edge of the table. She would use the tape to create planes, trains, cars, space ships, etc. Then we'd take it outside and she would paint like crazy. After it dried, plastic containers and lids, rocks, more cardboard, and arrangement stones (go in the bottom of vases to hold up cut flowers), etc. were hot glued on. I ran the hot glue gun, but she did the sticking. I glued where she said. By the time she was four, she was running the low heat hot glue gun. By kindergarten, she was a hot glue gun champ.

She still loves to create!
Stephanie

Hi K.!

I loved my Alphabet Zoo Animal Bingo Game. It was another instructive way to learn and prepare for school :O)

A simple board game, roll dice to move to a square. Each square contains a picture of an animal. You say the animal "D-D-Duck", and your daughter needs to guess what the animal starts with, then mark out the "D" on her BINGO card. Try to get BINGO, or blackout.

They can't totally "stratgize" at 3, so I needed to improvize when my son kept wanting to go land on the Alligator :O) I would say which letter does this animal END with? Or, what other letter is in this animals name? Things like that would help him to get to mark off more letters on his BINGO card :O)

Very fun, and was a very instrumental part in learning alphabet sounds.

~N. :O)

Zingo is fun. It's like Bingo, but there are three in a row instead of five, which makes it a bit quicker; plus there are alternate ways to play: like 4 corners and blackout. The tile dispenser is fun to slide, too. Here's a link to it on Amazon, but I have seen it at Toys R Us, too.
http://www.amazon.com/Think-Fun-7700-ThinkFun-Zingo/dp/B0...

All 3 of my kids were game players, so I've played Candyland to death too. One of our favorites was Elefun. You load little butterfly-like things into the a blue elephant. When you turn it on the butterflies shoot up into the air and you catch them with nets. Great fun!

our gilrs are about to turn 3yo and they now LOVE puzzles of any type

Pretty, Pretty, Princess. A favorite of my girls and even my son at that age!

Zingo and puzzles......enough said :)

Try puzzles!
Also - Playhouse Disney has great games and activities online based on their pre-school themed shows like Mickey Mouse Club House etc. You can download free pictures to color - even design some of the pictures before printing on Charlie & Lola (my fav)and there are really fun games that will help her learn to operate the mouse. It's free!! Whoo Hoo!

Try some of the cranium games like Cariboo or Hullabaloo. My three year old enjoys them. She also likes to play Zingo.

There is a card game out where you build a peanut butter & jelly sandwich with the cards. It is so fun and the kids love it. It has simple rules and my kids loved it for quite a few years. The first rule is the youngest in the group goes first so that was a very big hit!!!!

My kids go crazy for Hullalbaloo. Ours is the DVD version, which you may have to go online to find as I know the audio version is more readily available in stores (it may be better if you want to focus on listening and not include the TV anyway).It's fun, ivolves movement and teaches shapes, color, animals and cartegorization. Cranium Cariboo is another good one. It's a learning game where the winner opens a "jewel" treasure at the end. It's really fun for the little ones.

I saw an article in the Feb. Family Fun magazine that suggested Log Jam, Polly the Porcupine, and Go Ape! for kids 4 and up. Sounds like your daughter would be able to handle them. Also on their website was a page with links to 50 games/activites to do with toddlers. It's worth checking out.

http://familyfun.go.com/parenting/child/dev/specialfeatur...

Hungry Hippos and Break the Ice were always favorites in our houselhold. It's been a long time since my kids were little but I remember those for sure. Also, Sorry was a good game that they liked but I think it's for a slightly older child.

They also loved making forts with furniture pieces (we have a modular sofa) and boxes and blankets.

J. F.

My favorite game is Trouble. It is a kid version of Sorry and has a bubble in the middle you push on to roll the die. It won't get lost. It was a game I could play over and over with my kids. The others were not my favorite either.

I can not recommend Cranium games highly enough. They are fun for kids and parents. I can't remember the name of the one where you get to open the treasure chest but just ask in a toy store. We love Zooreka now and have played it for a couple of years. She might be old enough for it. Also Guess Who is fantastic!!! Another great game is rat a tat cat. It is a card game. Really really great for little ones and we still play it! And I hightly recommend another card game... sleeping Queens.
Don't feel bad, I totally get the burnout but with some better games for both kids and parents like these, you will be SO MUCH HAPPIER!!! Good Luck! But Definately go wtih Cranium!!!!