3 yo games?

I love games but as S and O are our first kids I haven't really gotten them any yet. Which games are good for first-timers? Or are they a little too young to be able to play them?

 

Candy land. Hi ho cherry oh. The duck game(no clue on name). We've done basic card games-just matching the numbers or colors basically. They enjoy them.

 

Memory (play face up at first), shoots and ladders, cootie, caribou (love this game..though it has some small parts), and I think it's called cranium where they listen to the music and stop on the shape..., also elefun, basic go fish games, memory sequence games, there is also barnyard bingo, and a game by fisher price that you use a fishing
Pole with..... You can also teach your kiddos to do a simple version of older games like twister.


My girls are only 2, but I'm a speech pathologist and work with early intervention...I use these games with 3 year olds all of the time and am teaching them to my 2 year olds..... it is taking a lot of patience, but you can adapt them to their skill level very easily...

 

We have played candy land, Thomas the Tank Engine chutes and ladders, Lucky Duck (that's the duck game Meaghan!), and Hi Ho Cherrio.

 

Snakes (chutes?) and ladders
Snap
Dominoes-you can get ones that are more pre-schooler friendly with pictures instead of dots
Matching pairs (memory?)-to make this easier for little ones I simply don't use all the cards. With two 3 year olds I'd put down not more than 16 cards, and would probably have only 4 pictures to start with (ie have two of each pair) to make it easier for them to find the match. I also make them have only one go each instead of following the rule that if you find a pair you get another turn.
Along the lines of memory Naomi and Luke had this game and they enjoyed playing it for a long time. I guess it is most similar to Lotto; you have a shopping cart with 8 spaces in it a shopping list with 8 items (the list shows the picture and word), then lots of little cards each with one of the items. All item cards are placed face down in the middle and you take it in turns to turn one over. If it's a thing on your list you put it in your cart, if not you turn it back over. First to fill their cart wins.

I'm sure there's more that we used to play that I've forgotten. If I can remember any I'll come back.

 

My boys received 'Sequence for Kids' and 'Go Fish' for their 3rd birthday. We've played both multiple times. They really get Go Fish. It's quite simple. You have to fish for fish cards that are the same color as your boat. The first one to fill his boat wins. I watch my one son pay attention as other players get the wrong color fish (you have to return the fish to "the sea" if it doesn't match your boat color) so he knows exactly where to fish for the cards he needs.
Sequence is higher level. You have to get four animals in a row to win (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal). They're catching on to that (you draw cards and put chips on the matching animals on the board), but they do not yet understand how to place their chips strategically to block other players and higher-level concepts like that. I believe the age range is 3-6, so I expect those other skills will come in the next few years.

I don't think you can go wrong beginning these games early when the kids have just minimal skills. They'll slowly grasp the concepts over time. I look forward to trying some of the games mentioned above.

 

Our favourite board games are
- a memory / matching pairs game (I also use about half the cards in the set)
- the Haba Orchard game where all the players work together picking fruit according to a colour coded dice to beat a raven who wants to steal the fruit; I like that it is not competitive among the kids (the all win or lose together against the raven), it teaches colours and counting, and it is beautifully crafted

 

Awesome thread... great Christmas ideas!!! My boys don't play any games!

 

One other one I haven't seen mentioned is Zingo. It is a matching bingo game. There are a couple of different versions and my kids really like them.

 

Hubby and I are gaming geeks. We REALLY can't wait for family game time to start.

We have a matching game that we've been working on. (As others mentioned, face up first, with only a few sets, etc)

We bought some lego/book sets that seem to be new, and make a game of matching the pieces up and then putting the little figure together to complete the story.
This blends well with: Castle Logix

They just recently got the fine motor skills for CooCoo the Rocking Clown - it's one of my favorites, but the small pieces make me nervous with a baby in the house. Blue Orange in general, though is a high quality company.

Elefun is OK, but doesn't truly teach game mechanics, I think. We have a few "on tap" right now for gifts at the end of the month (birthday) and Christmas.

Fishing Game
Hiss and Moose in the house for later on - Gamewright make the BEST games.

I'll dig up more later if I remember. Such an exciting time!!