Simply Secen earns from qualifying purchases. This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, we may receive a commission at no extra cost to you
Eric and I have always loved game nights. The Game of Life is our favorite game; the older versions are the best. Cards Against Humanity is a fun adult game and we enjoy really any type of card game. We continue to have game nights as a family with some toddler friendly games; and of course, popcorn!
Graham picks up games quickly and seems to really enjoy them. His favorite game is Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel and he loves Slap Jack.
Here are some of the games we play together at home:
Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel
This was the first game that we got Graham. I was nervous it would be too hard for him, but it’s’ super simple for young kids.
The box itself is the game board. It also comes with a spinner (it has colors, the number 1 and 2, and action pictures), colored acorns, log pieces to place your acorns in, and a squirrel you use to pick up the acorns. You spin the spinner to determine the color acorn to pick. The person who fills their log first wins! If it lands on a color, you pick up the matching acorn, it if lands on a number you can pick which color you need, if it lands on a squirrel, you could lose a turn or get the chance to steal an acorn from someone else. Watch out for the wind! Graham used to get angry when the wind “blew his acorns away”, but now he understands that it is part of the game.
This game is perfect to teach color recognition and matching. It also helps young kids practice their fine motor skills, sharing, and taking turns.
Matching Games
I’m sure growing up; everyone has played a matching game at least once. You set pairs of cards out face down and turn two over at a time hoping to find matches. There are many different versions with different characters/pictures and different amounts of cards.
We have a Marvel Matching Game which comes with over 70 cards! That is a lot of a 3.5-year-old, so I typically grab out just a few pairs and play with 10 – 20 cards instead. Sometimes we will play with all the cards, but that takes a LOOONNNGG time! A suggestion in the directions for our game, is to allow younger children to flip over 4 cards during their turn instead of 2.
Matching games are great for practicing focus and memory
Scavenger Hunt Cards
We have the At Home Scavenger Hunt cards. It is a ring with different cards on it. Each card includes a different object to find around the house and then a question or action associated with each card. One example is find a hat, and the prompt says to put it on. The company also has other Scavenger Hunt cards for other locations, and for animals.
These cards help to increase communication skills and vocabulary.
Pound a Mole
Each mole lights up and you use the hammer to hit them as they light up. You can take turns to see who gets the most points. This game is hard for Graham, but he does enjoy whacking them with the hammer even though he isn’t fast enough to keep up with the lights.
Great for hand eye coordination.
Yeti In My Spaghetti
This is one game that we all really enjoy. It comes with a giant red bowl, plastic noodles, and a plastic Yeti. Once you lay the spaghetti across the bowl, you set the Yeti on top. Each person takes a turn removing pasta. The goal is to not let the Yeti hit the bottom of the bowl. The loser is the one who makes him fall.
Another great game to help kids work on fine motor skills and problem solving.
Card Games
Eric’s grandma bought this pack of card games online for Graham. She also got him a cool card holder that makes it so easy for him to fan out the cards in his hand. It contains Go Fish, Old Maid, Slap Jack, Matching, Memory, and Crazy Eights. Card games are still a little tricky for Graham…. he likes to cheat…and some of the directions are hard for him to understand. Memory is an easy one for him, because of his other memory game. Even though he looks at the cards before putting them down, he likes Slap Jack. With our help, he can play Go Fish too!
Kids can learn so much from card games; color and number recognition, matching, numbers and counting, making pairs and groups, and image identification.
Googly Tower
It is essentially a kid’s version of Jenga.
It comes with a die, and three different color blocks with cute little faces. Once you set the tower up, you roll the die to see what color block to take out. Once you take out the block, you move it to the top and keep building up the tower until it falls over.
This is also a great game for practicing color matching, and fine motor skills. It also promotes problem-solving and creativity as they need to figure out how to remove the blocks and build it up without falling!
If I remove the die, I will also let Audri play with the pieces, and they are light, smooth, and don’t have sharp sides.
The best thing about these different types of games, is they are a wonderful way to watch children grow and develop while having fun as a family.
Links to our Favorites
This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, we may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Toddler Scavenger Hunt Cards – At Home – similar to ours
Googly Tower – similar to ours
What are some of your favorite family friendly games?