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Which games do you play with your 3-yr-old?

26 replies

Pruni · 18/04/2007 09:01

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OP posts:
MarsLady · 18/04/2007 09:03

You want to sit at a table with a wee boy?

Seriously though.... why not just be led by him? The board games winning/losing aren't hugely good at this age. Takes a lot of patience to deal with the fact that he's lost and is sulking.

I'd go with the imagination personally and let his imagination soar. The table games will come later.

(I too am better with teens.... don't you just love them?)

fennel · 18/04/2007 09:04

Jigsaws
Tumbling monkeys
Lotto
that Memory game where you have to remember where two cards the same are when all the cards are upside down.

aDad · 18/04/2007 09:08

we've got:

One called LOTO and along the same lines, greedy gorilla - same idea as bingo, where you each have cards with different items, and then try to fill up your card.

A fifi and the flowertots stacking game.

Also have a bee one a bit like the dragon one you describe, I think also from ELC.

Califrau · 18/04/2007 09:08

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Marne · 18/04/2007 09:12

Dd loves imaginative play, we have just got her a simple playhouse for the garden, she makes me get in it where she bakes cakes, eats dinner, puts me to bed and has friends over (all role play).
We play snap, she loves crafty things (painting, sticking and hama beads). We also make up stories and songs.
She loves playing shops and using the computer mouse to scan her shopping
I dont think she would sit still to play any table top games although she has got 'wac a mole' whgich she has played a few times.

clairemow · 18/04/2007 09:26

Ds1 is 2.11, and we've tried snap too - doesn't get it at all! But endless role play as well - "I'll be the daddy, you be the little brother and I'll give you some lunch" (DS2 is 7 months...), Fireman Xxxx stories with sound effects and lots of rescuing Mummy/the farmer/Daddy/the cat from the mud. etc. etc. I think it's lovely, and it'll last such a short time, I think you should try and make the most of it. In a year's time you'll be bored with snap...

The two things that do work at the table for us are "scissoring" - he has child's scissors and a piece of paper/ball of wool, and he spends ages snipping away. And play dough - recently we (i.e. I) made a Pingu and a Gruffalo, and then we acted out a couple of stories. We have also got magnetic fishing, which will keep him occupied for, ooh, 5 minutes.

Pruni · 18/04/2007 09:30

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OP posts:
nailpolish · 18/04/2007 09:32

just go with the cafe and farm

encourage him to get his teddies to sit at the cafe, you could make menus, OPEN signs, etc

does he have a teaset? they can spend HOURS with a teaset. Toys R Us have loads of different ones, not too expensive either

clairemow · 18/04/2007 09:32

The imagination is a wonderful thing. Went in to check on DS1 last night when I went to bed and he opened his eyes and said "Mummy, I think the troll's gone now". Eh? This morning he told me he "saw the troll behind his eyes when he shut them". I love it!

nailpolish · 18/04/2007 09:33

jigsaws are best board game sort of thing at this age though, imo, if you are looking for a sitty-down activity

also, find the pairs, and colouring-in

JodieG1 · 18/04/2007 09:40

Orchard toy games are quite good, we like rain or shine as dd (5.1) and ds1 (3.5) can both play. There are lots of orchard games too. Ds1 like snap and we've played snakes and ladders, jigsaws, he loves his blocks and builds all sorts from but mostly robots hehe. We have the megablocks. We've been chalking outside in the nice weather, drawing, painting, baking and lots more but can't think right now.

fennel · 18/04/2007 17:16

My 3 have all very much liked board and card games at this age and subsequently, I think it's worth trying a few. (and then you can find another child to pit them against and get back to your paper or novel while they play Improving Games in the background - or is that just me who has that as the motive for teaching them games?)

Mistymoo · 18/04/2007 17:21

You can play snake and ladders with a 3 yr old. My dd now recognises the numbers on the dice because of this and counts the spaces. It may take time but she does enjoy it. My ds was the same at that age.

Dottydot · 18/04/2007 20:11

Hmm. Pop up Pirate is a good one. He likes to play I Spy ('cos his big brother (5) plays it)but can't do it yet, drawing is his favourite thing and imaginative games - picnics, train/boat/rocket journies - all very exhausting..!

southeastastra · 18/04/2007 20:13

my son loved the shopping list game

Gobbledigook · 18/04/2007 20:22

Play a game at the table? Hmmm, nah.

I've tried that - lasts about 2 mins and they want to start running about again.

I think unless he asks to do it - just let him do what he wants.

Mistymoo · 18/04/2007 20:23

Dotty dot - we play I Spy but with colours instead of letters.

ChasingSquirrels · 18/04/2007 20:44

when ds1 was 3 we taught him snap with normal playing cards (on holiday when he had his 3rd birthday).
dominoes - we just got a normal cheap tesco set, not a kids one, he loved that and caught onto it quickly.
great game from elc, square wooden board with hedgehogs on it, and little wooden pegs, shake the dice and count the number of pegs into the holes on your hedgehog - 1st one to fill their hedgehog. It had a normal dice and a dice with just 1,2,3 on it, so you could start with the smaller one if they don't know their no's very well. You can then also progress to adding the two dice together.
orchard farm jigsaw train game - 6 carriages and a dice with colour spots and you had to get one of each colour to put the different animals into the carriages.

BUT ds1 has always had a very good concentration span and loves sitting playing these sort of games - NONE of his friends did and would get bored well before the game was anywhere near finished, so I am guessing that it is fairly unusual and tbh if your ds isn't interested I would go with what he IS interested in.

Cafe - I made a A4 menu with the names and pictures (clip art) of food and drink and prices (1-5p) and laminated it, and then printed a load of the menu's off with 4 to a page, cut the pages into 4 and stapled them together along the top and that gave him a little pad that he could take orders on (he just circled the items we wanted). He would then add them up on his till. He was a bit older when we did this, just 4yo I think - but the basic idea is still valid. I still have the template on Word if anyone wants it.

ChasingSquirrels · 18/04/2007 20:46

chairs in a row and soft toys on them all pretending to be a train is a great one, we made little 'destination' tickets with the names of local places. That was a real biggie when he was 3yo.

Jossiejump · 18/04/2007 21:35

Shopping list game, junior top trumps (Postman pat / Thamas the tank / Noddy)
ladybirds game (Orchard or Galt I think)

MadamePlatypus · 18/04/2007 21:44

Am very impressed by Chasing Squirrels.

We have snap and happy families. DS likes throwing the cards around, but doesn't get the concept of playing a game. We are still getting much more mileage out of imaginative play based around his big fluffy Ikea blanket.

Fillyjonk · 18/04/2007 21:45

kids play

mummy on MN researching parenting

god I can't be playing with my kids

MadamePlatypus · 18/04/2007 21:46

Is this the hedgehog game? game

mollymawk · 18/04/2007 21:50

I have to recommend a game called "Shh, Don't Wake Dad" which my ds1 got for Christmas (he is now 3.9). You have to move around a board and Daddy might sit up in bed, etc. Ds1 loves it. I now absolutely hate it, obviously.

ChasingSquirrels · 18/04/2007 21:53

yeah thats the hedgehog one, not crap plastic either, not that i really mind crap plastic, but the house is full of it.
Kerplunk is a good one - seemed to keep most of his friends occupied, but setting it up is a shag, the elc bumblebee one is the same.
guess who - but more of a 4yo game.
build a beetle he loved

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