Last summer I mentioned that my husband & I love board games, and now we are trying our best to get our tot interested also. When buying games for her I try and pick up things from my childhood, like Hungry Hippo & The Fishing Game. And now that she's older it's time to move on to actual board games. Again, I thought back to my childhood and the games I played with pleasure and two popped to mind, Chutes & Ladders and Candy Land. Enthusiastically I hopped online and tried to order them here in The Netherlands. It was more effort than I realized, I ended up ordering one through the UK and the other from the US! Waiting for the deliveries it turned out I was way more excited than her, but to be fair she had no idea what was ahead. The first game to arrive was Chutes & Ladders. Of course she won first round within minutes, but the next rounds took longer. I found that the fact we kept constantly landing on the chutes (slides) and getting sent back made the game last longer than her patience. Plus the new design of the board is so busy that it's hard for a 3yr old to actually understand where the chutes or ladders start. But with time and repetition she'll figure it out and appreciate it. I have fond memories of playing this game with my grandma. When Candy Land arrived she was fascinated with the board design, and loved the candy theme. And since it's basically just one trail it was easy for her to follow. Plus she won again quite fast, which obviously keeps her interest. So far it's been the big hit! Chutes & Ladders relies on numbers and Candy Land on pictures which is obviously easier for a toddler. It's also simple enough for us to explain to her Dutch friends, so now they can all play together. Do you have any recommendations for toddler board games?
I, too, love games. My husband doesn't, so when it's just the two of us it's hard. But when we stayed in AZ for the winter, we played a lot of dominoes. That was fun.
ReplyDeleteI wished that I had kept all the games my kids had when they were little. Now that my granddaughter is getting old enough to play with them (4), we are noticing that the games aren't made as well as back when! I always check garage sales for older models!
Another good game is Hi-Ho Cherry O!
I too thought about buying vintage models, but they're harder to find here in the NL! :) Danica
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