Board games for 2-3 year olds????? Anyone?

[beatie]

My dd is 27 months. We play simple games of pairs and snap with her matching cards. It often entails lots of coaxing and me letting her win but she really enjoys the concept of taking turns and being involved in a group game.

She'll say "Mummy's go" "Daddy's go"

I was wondering if there were any games out there fro 2-3 year olds. Or else other card games, picture games we could make up.

Any ideas?

[bobbybob]

Tescos giant picture dominos - we play a cross between whist and snap with those,which I can describe if you want.

[Whizzz]

Snakes & ladders boards are good - part of the fun is colouring in the snakes & deciding where ladders should go ! Good for counting practice too.
Cariboo is a good bought game but probably for children a bit older (DS is 4 & loves it !)

[golds]

Build a Beetle by chad valley is good,(Woolies) but is probably aimed at 3+ years. One to buy for the future.

[beatie]

bobbyboo - I would love it if you could explain how you play those games with your child.

[LIZS]

Dominoes in various guises are good as are Memory games which you play like pairs turning over to look for matches. We've also done Orchard Toys' Spotty Dogs, the House that Bob Built,and ELC Shopping game successfully at that age. Puzzles where you have to match animals with their babies, things that go together and colours (we had some by Ravensburger but not sure if same are available in UK )and simple letter and number puzzles.

From there we've progressed to more traditional board games such as Frustration, Snakes and Ladders, Ludo etc but they have to have more patience and be prepared to lose !! Now aged 3 1/2 dd loves Mousetrap, Guess Who, Kerplunk and Labyrinth and so on - the benefit of having an elder brother who has them all !

[milliways]

Pop-Up-Pirates isn't a Board Game - but is fun for that age group.

[LIZS]

Oh had forgotten about pop up games - we have Pop Up Pooh ! and we also a have Pop It in the Post from ELC which is a dice/matching/turn taking game.

[piffle]

We have animal dominoes which she loves, but golly my dd sounds very slack compared to yours!!!!
Must rev her up a bit LOL

[beatie]

I guess I need a trip to a decent ELC. We have a small one in our Debenhams which I usually go to but it is evidently crap.

[hewlettsdaughter]

Orchard Toys' Insey Winsey Spider is good - we bought it for our ds when he was 3.

[Twiglett]

Snakes & Ladders

Ladybirds

Tummy Ache

ELC do alphabet cards for snap (and a wide range of quite good fun games, like manic martians .. oh I like manic martians .. you whack these martians with a plastic hammer really quickly whilst they bob up and down and if you time it right they stick to your hammer .. most stress-busting .. but not quite what you meant I'm sure)

all big winners in this house

[hewlettsdaughter]

ooh yes manic martians

[beatie]

I think I have seen Manic Martians and may just have to get it on your recommendation

[LIZS]

Oh and Jitterbugs (also ELC) is quite fun -fishing with magnets for the right coloured insects !

[Tommy]

My DS (3y2m) loves Shopping List which is like a lotto game where you have to pick up cards with shopping things on and match them to your list. Don't know if that makes sense but it's really good and he loves it.

[Hulababy]

2yo DD enjoys various domino games, and Snap. WE have some picture and letter lotto boards, and a number pairs game (latter two by DK). We have the big snakes and ladders game from ELc, with the large inflatable dice and counters - good fun And DD loves Pop Up Dragon (ELC) at nursery.

[ChocolateGirl]

Our two year old loves these:

Orchard Toys Colour Match Express - where you lay out your train and six different coloured carriages - then roll a colour dice and if you land on yellow you pick up yellow bear and put him in the yellow carriage, etc.

Orchard Toys Shopping List and Insey Winsey Spider as described above. Orchard Toys do really nice games and jigsaws.

It's not a board game but Woolies do a Chad Valley game, Pesky Pups, where you basically bang a lever to make the pups jump and grap the spinning washing on the line. Our ds1 (4) and ds (2) love that - and even the baby (11months) joins in!!

[Levanna]

Buckaroo! I know it's not a board game, but we love it (reliving my childhood with DD's!).
It's great for learning colours, numbers, co-ordination, taking turns, etc! Cheap and cheerful .

[bobbybob]

Okay the Domino/whist/snap game.

The dominos we have are from tesco and have animals on one side and dots on the other. We play with the animal side because ds is just 2.

Give out all the cards. Put down one card. Say it's a donkey and a rabbit. Next player has to leither a donkey or a rabbit. Then they play a rabbit and a sheep, so next player has to play either of those. Players are out when they can't play any more cards, and because everyones cards are always visible you can play tactically so your child wins more than loses!

[chocfreeclary]

yes, shopping list, ladybirds, colour match express all orchard toys (I esp like colour match as it includes colours and animals as well as taking turns).
Out nearly-2-yo LOVES a game called Picnic, the dice is huge so he can't possibly swallow it, you roll the dice to get an item for your picnic table (juice, apple, cake). It's totally fab and he really does takes turns well with it, we have to play it every day before school atm. (not his school I hasten to add!).
I bought it off Amazon as i've never seen it in a shop but I recommend it. The 5yo and 3yo still like it btw.

[bobbybob]

Yes, ds liked picnic too, but it was faulty and had to go back to the shop and it was the last one...

[Prufrock]

We like "old Macdonalds farm" from ELC - a sort of Bettle where you spin teh spiinner to get an animal, then fit it into your jigsaw puzzle. And not a board game as such, but my dd (2.10) absolutely adores playing Jenga, and is amazingly good at it.

[Ameriscot2005]

Board games with 2 and 3 year olds are a nightmare.

My 2 year old thinks she can play Monopoly...

More suitable are Snakes & Ladders and Candyland, but superlative levels of adult patience are required. Thank the Lord for Au Pairs

[oneofeach]

At 3 my ds loves Tumbling Monkeys, not a board game but good for taking turns and counting your straws at the end etc. He is also a big fan of a Thomas The Tank game called Round the Rails. It's the most boring game ever invented but I have to grit my teeth and get on with it. I usually suggest we play Manic Martians afterwards just for a bit of excitment!

[tarantula]

I made a fishing game with dss when he was about that age and he loved both making it and playing it. you need a tall box to put the fish in. then cut various types of fish (starfish octopus etc)out of card. I put numbers on the fish on one side and the same no. of dots on the other. Put a paperclip on each fish and us a magnet to fish for them. Whoever has the most points at the end wins.
Dss spent ages decorating the box etc too which was brilliant.