Get the Best Family Activities
Great Games for Each Stage
Chutes and Ladders
Kids love spinning the spinner and watching their parents go down the chute. Check out the cute retro edition (great birthday present).
Candyland
This colorful classic is a sure way to teach kids how to take a turn, and learn their colors to boot.
Preschool
"Bingo with a zing." Matching skills set the stage for later games of sequencing, and it's fun to call out "Zingo!" when your card gets filled up with various shoes, bugs, and smiling suns.
Balloon Lagoon
At nearly $50, this is a pricey game. But it's heavenly for motor skills development. You flip frogs into a pond, go fishing with a magnetic fishing pole in "letter lake" (which encourages pre-reading skills), and roll handfuls of dice to match snacks at the "snack shack."
Little fingers work very hard to pile beans into a bucket that threatens to spill them if they get off balance.
Kindergarten and Beyond
Don't underestimate the Game of Kings - it's more challenging than you might recall. Kids can cut their competitive teeth on this old favorite. King me!
Seems that kids learn this if their parents play... for some reason it's harder for adults to learn than it is for wee ones. So if you enjoy the game, give it a whirl with your 5- or 6-year-old. Their brains are sponges and they'll have you castling in fear in no time.
Also see: Ask the Experts: How to Raise Self-Confident Children