Board Games for non[yet]-readers

The Game Room
1

Hey, guys-- I haven’t been around in a while, because I’ve been busy, and haven’t been online much at all. But I need some advice, and I can’t think of a better place.

I’m being asked to start a “specials” program for the pre-school where I work. It will have the kids doing different activities each day that in some way stretch there thinking skills with open-ended problems, creative activities, critical thinking exercises, and other things that give them a break from textbook curriculum, and their classroom teachers a break so they get lunch.

The oldest group is 4 & 5-year-olds, and for them, I thought I’d collect some board games, and other kinds of table-top games, that don’t require reading. Also, trying to avoid games like Jenga and Kerplunk that focus on manual dexterity, although luck games that requires skills like matching, and involve suspense and anticipation like Candyland are OK.

Vintage games are fine-- games you liked as a child that I may have to go to eBay for are great because they are less likely to have them at home. Number matching is fine, but requiring counting past 10 isn’t a good idea.

Here’s my list so far:

Checkers
Candyland
Chutes and Ladders
Hi-Ho Cherrio!
Diggin’ Dogs
Connect 4
Dominoes
Memory Match
Go Fish
Colorama
Tic-Tac-Toe (I have a board version)
Sequence for kids
Spot It, Jr.

I know that’s a lot, but I’m not going to use them all. I want a long list, so I can choose the best-- and greatest variety, and this will probably be a weekly activity.

New games, games from your childhood, and classic like checkers-- all are welcome.

2

@RivkahChaya , welcome back. It is great to see you back on the boards!

As for games, one that my sister and I used to play when we were children, was Concentration. All it requires is a deck of cards.

Shuffle a deck of 52 cards. (Kids, with small hands, as we had, might just prefer to spill all the cards on the table or floor, face down, swish them all up, then reassemble the deck.) Then deal them out into four rows of 13 cards each, so the backs are visible.

Then, the game works much like it did on the Concentration TV game show: the idea is to match cards. If you do, you take the cards off, and put them in your pile. For example, if I turn over a 5 (suits don’t matter), and my next turnover is a 5, I get to take the cards off the table and add them to my pile and I get another turn. If the next card is a king or anything other than a 5, we turn the cards back over and they stay on the table, and it is Sis’s turn. At the end of the game, you add up the cards in your pile, and whoever has the most cards wins.

We didn’t have the rebus at the end of the game, as on TV, but we had fun. More importantly, the game taught us memory skills (“Where was that Queen that Sis found two turns ago?”), and number skills (“That looks like a seven, and this one looks like a seven, so … I matched a seven! Yay me!”). Plus simple counting and addition, since your are counting the cards in your pile at the end of the game.

Sis and I had a lot of fun with this game. Perhaps the children that you’re looking after will too.

3

There’s a small genre of ‘bluffing’ games that might suit, especially if you get a kids themed one such as Eat Me If You Can:

Which I’ve played with my kids for years. There is score counting but it’s not necessary to keep score to enjoy it - the best bit is outbluffing your opponent!

4

If the child takes to checkers, chess is an option. Quite a few of us learned to play chess before learning to read. I was 4 when my older sister taught me.

5

Mancala is a great easy-to-learn game that young children like.

6

I thought about this, because I used to live in Moscow, where chess is taught in all the preschools-- my brother attended one. I learned to play chess there myself, although I was 10, in the 4th grade, and at the embassy school.

I’m just not sure I won’t get pushback from admin or parents; even while every parent thinks their kid is a gifted genius, they still might not like them being “pressured”-- in spite of all the other pressures they are under. But that’s another thread.

7

Definitely checking out this one! Thanks.

8

Check out Orchard Toys. They have a lot of great games for young kids, and despite “educational” showing up on many of the web pages there, most of the games are just games. We had Knights and Dragons, Little Bus Lotto, and Build a Beetle, and the kids loved them from ages, say, 2 to 5.

9

4-5 years old is pretty young… A little bit older and I might suggest Hive, because it’s indestructible, but it might be too complicated (similar to chess).

Zendo would work, if you make the “rule” simple enough, every time.

My First Carcasonne might be a good option. You should check this search:

10

Mancala is a good one. I used to play that with my niece when she was little.

11

Crossing is a great one, a firm family favourite including with the youngest, who was in preschool when we started playing. Officially it’s 6+, but I’ve played with multiple 5 y.o.s, no problem (aside from sulkiness in the losers, which is a problem for any competitive game, IME, and not just for kids :).)

Also, kids really like the “real” gems used, as opposed to cards or wooden tokens.