Zingo
Amelia (6.5) and Emery (2.5) love to play this fast-paced Bingo style game with Ian and I. I have to admit, I thought Emery was a little young but she's really good at it. Each player has a card with simple pictures and words. One player pulls the dispenser forward to reveal 2 chips that have corresponding pictures and words. The first player to call out the name of the chip that matches a spot on his or her board gets to pick up that piece and put in on his or her board. The first person to get a "black-out" wins. The girls love to pull the dispenser and fill-up their card. It's still simple enough for Emery, but fun for Amelia. It can be a challenge to find a game both girls can play and this is one of them!
Qwirkle
Amelia loves this game that is sort of a cross between dominoes and Scrabble. This game is too complicated for Emery, but she enjoys sitting on my lap and "playing" with me. The objective is to build columns of matching shapes or colors, but you can only have 6 tiles in each column. You score based on how many tiles are in the column you are building. I don't know if there is any research behind this game, but it has to be good for beginning math and strategy skills. It seems complicated at first glance, but it worth the effort in figuring out the rules and playing the game.
Trash
All you need for this game is a set of playing cards! Each person gets dealt 10 cards. Each player builds 2 rows of 5 cards each face down. The spots represent 1 to 10 starting in the top left corner. Use an Ace as a one. The first player pulls a card off of the deck. He or she plays the card in the corresponding spot: for example if she draws a 5 she picks up the card in the 5 spot and replaces it with the 5 face up. Then she looks at the card she replaced and continues to play on her rows until she can't play anymore- uncovers a card that's already face up or has a trash card (Kings and Queens). Then she discards that card. The next player can pick up that card or draw off of the deck. Jacks are wild cards and can be moved around a player's rows as needed. First person to get all cards face up 1 to 10 wins. Again Amelia loves this game and even Emery can sort of play. She needs a little help, but it's helping her learn to count from 1 to 10 and recognize her numbers. She loves yelling "TRASH."
Guesstures
This is a throw back! We've had this game for at least 10 years. It says ages 12 and up but my nieces (ages 10 and 8), Amelia and I played this game a lot this summer and loved it. It's a game of fast paced charades and had us laughing a lot. If the girls didn't know a word they just drew another card and worked on that one. To play you have to get your team to guess all 4 words before they get "swallowed" by the game. It was hilarious to see them running around trying to beat the board and get points. This is a great adult game also.
If you are looking for more awesome games I recommend MindWare. This website is AWESOME! It's packed with fun and educational toys, games, crafts, etc. Yes, it's perfect for a nerdy geek mom like me.
What games does your family love to play? I'd love to hear about them, I'm starting to make my Christmas lists :)
2 comments:
i LOVE zingo. a dear friend who is also a grandma bought this for my kids last year for christmas.
best gift ever!
finally, a kids game that isn't completely annoying. i no longer have to cringe when my kids want to play shoots and ladders. i just counter with zingo and everyone is happy!
We have been playing Mancala recently. It's a fun and strategy game that Reagan really loves and Erik and I like to play, too.
But Qwirkle looks great. I think that's going on the list for the girls this year.
Post a Comment