B is currently 29 months old.
(Note: This post is the second in a series on adapting games
to play with a toddler. Find the first post here.)
Before I get started on the main point of this post, I wanted to throw the idea out there for a weekly link-up on games. I would love to see reviews of games, ideas for using commercial board/card/dice/etc. games in learning, adaptations of games, homemade games . . . you get the picture. What do you think? Does a link-up on this topic already exist? If not, would you be, well, um . . . game?
One game B chose to play with me this week was The Farming Game Kids. All of my kids (okay, except for Baby P!) have had fun with this one, which already comes with instructions for three different levels of play. The beginning level (Level 1) is geared toward ages 3+, but I found that B was interested in playing this way for at least a little while.
Basically, you roll a die (that only goes up to 3), move the appropriate number of spaces, and collect a card that matches the space you land on. If you find yourself on a school bus or playground, you don't get a card. (Driving home the message, as my mother used to put it, "No workee, no eatee!") The object of the game at this level is to collect the highest number of produce cards.
B was interested in playing this way for about five turns each, then he was done. Even for this short time, though, it was good practice for him in several areas, including:
- basic skills of board game play, such as turn-taking and rolling dice to determine moves
- number recognition for numerals 1-3
- counting (both spaces to move and cards)
- one-to-one correspondence (moving the same number of spaces as the number rolled)
- matching (spaces to cards and cards to each other)
Some other ways I thought of to use this game equipment with B:
- sort cards into stacks
- use the cards to make patterns (e.g. apples, watermelon, apples, watermelon, etc.)
- pick a card and move to the next matching space
- roll the die and take that number of cards
I'm sure there are tons more things to do with this game. I'd love to hear your ideas!
(For a look at what others are doing with their tots this week, be sure to check out Carisa's blog.)
3 comments:
Oh, I like the looks of that game! We were working with a number die today that goes up to 6, and he was a bit overwhelmed. (If throwing the foam die across the kitchen is an indication of overwhelemed, yikes!) This sounds much easier. I wish I could get it for our J is for John Deere/farm unit next week. Maybe I'll save it until we get back to the letter F for farm week...
My Alex is just 26 months, and a bit young for most games I've thought of trying with him. As he gets bigger, I think a weekly game link could be fun!
This looks like a game Pufferfish would like! She's not quite three yet, but she's played games like Chutes And Ladders and Don't Wake Daddy, so I thik she could get the hang of it! Thanks for the recommendation!
I love the idea of adapting games for younger children. Mine are both still little - 8 months and 2 - but I can already see the "how do we make this work for different ages?" question on the horizon. I'd like to make a post about toys that have been good for different ages, or read others' ideas about this type of thing!
Oh, and unfortunately the puzzle was brought back from my mom's trip to England, so I'm not sure where/if you could get it elsewhere.
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