Besides helping to acquaint your child with “life lessons” and to practice valuable social skills, most good children’s games also afford preschoolers the opportunity to sharpen certain academic skills. Most board games for preschoolers involve either counting or color matching, for instance. Similarly, most card games for preschoolers involve matching suits or numbers (Concentration, Go Fish, Old Maid, and Crazy Eights) or comparing numbers (War). Games like picture lotto can help expand your preschooler’s vocabulary and give her practice at analyzing and matching pictures. In introducing board and card games to your preschooler, choose the simplest ones first. If your child has to master a complicated set of rules before even playing the game, she—or you—will soon lose patience with it. Games that involve moving pieces around a board in a race to the finish, spinning a spinner or throwing dice, and counting up as high as six provide the perfect introduction to board games. Some classics include: Similarly, when you deal the cards to your child, start with simple games that involve matching pictures rather than skipping straight to Contract Bridge or even Hearts.
