Whether with family or friends —when children play, they call on a wide variety of skills. These can be social and emotional skills or motor skills and a good memory. Because children are always learning something, a variety of fun games can teach them new skills along the way. The first games should have simple rules and focus on casual play. Later, games for children can be more complex: more rules, game material and players. There is a large selection of suitable games for children, here are ten ideas.
A board game consists — the name gives it away — of a game board. Apart from that, there are a wide variety of games that are characterized by numerous accessories. A popular board game, regardless of age group, is “The Settlers of Catan”, the classic is also available in the “Junior Edition” for children from the age of six. The game principle of swapping and trading is intended to promote logical thinking in children.
Motor skills can be trained well with games for children. In the skill game “Kristallica” (suitable from three years), the little ones have to try to knock individual ice cubes out of a game board using a small hammer. This requires some finesse and patience.
“Master Mind” is a logical thinking game for children from the age of seven. The secret code of the other player must be determined with the help of colored pins. It is played in pairs. Combination skills and logical thinking are required.
In memory games, children have to use well-considered actions and tactics. Exciting memory and search games challenge and encourage the little ones at the same time. “Dragon Strong” is a memory game for children from the age of five. The game should demand both concentration and memory.
Like the junior version of “The Settlers of Catan”, the popular card game “Skip-Bo” also has an offshoot for younger players aged five and over. “Skip-Bo Junior” offers the opportunity to playfully introduce children to numbers and sequences of numbers. The cards must be placed in the correct order and whoever gets rid of all their cards first wins.
This educational game also shows that games for children are more than just a pastime. If you want to deepen the school material with children in a playful way, you have a large selection of different educational games. There are games to read or to learn arithmetic. The game “zahlendino” serves the latter category. Children from the age of three are slowly introduced to numbers.
Hardly any other dice game is known to so many generations, because “Kniffel” has been around since the 1950s. The more original form, dubbed the “Yahtzee,” was launched in the United States in 1956. Like the version for older players, “Kniffel Kids” consists of five dice, a dice cup and a block. It is suitable for children from the age of five.
Fast reactions require the reaction game “Dobble”. Families can play it well together, because even the little ones quickly understand the game principle. Pairs of images on two playing cards must be recognized as quickly as possible. Whoever switches the fastest and names the character wins the card and collects points.
Long journeys, especially monotonous car journeys, can quickly become boring for the youngsters. Travel games for children offer activity on the go and help to distract from the journey with entertaining games and puzzles. Compact “travel blocks” are ideal, because once a task has been solved, the finished game can be easily removed from the block.
It is important to create opportunities for movement in everyday life. This is not only healthy, but also a compensation for overheated children’s heads. Incorporating exercise in a playful way is particularly motivating and also enables family time together. This “tiptoi hands-on adventure” encourages children from the age of three to move more with stories, songs and rhymes.
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