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18+ Months | Ages 2+ | Ages 3+ | Ages 4+ | Ages 5+
- Roll and Play
Ages: 18+ months
Learning areas:
gross motor, color recognition, language, numbers, creativity, and emotions
About:
A plush cube with 48 game cards; Play Advances Language Award, Oppenheim Platinum Award, and more
LeadKid tips: Include more (custom) learning activities by creating your own game cards with colored construction paper or cardstock
- Monkey Around
Ages: 2+ years
Learning areas:
gross motor, hand-eye coordination, imitation, creativity, and social-emotional skills
About:
A game board with 1 bean bag banana and 40 movement cards that prompt players to do movements together; Oppenheim Platinum Award, and Parents' Choice Silver Award
LeadKid tips: Similar concept to the "Roll and Play" game
- First Orchard
Ages: 2+ years
Learning areas:
color recognition, shape recognition, counting, strategic thinking, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About:
A cooperative game to win as a team when harvesting all the fruit before the raven reaches the orchard; Imagination Gaming Young Einsteins Gold Award
LeadKid tips: Encourage the child to set up the board (as a color sorting activity); encourage the child to talk about their thoughts/strategy on which fruit to pick when the die shows a fruit basket
- Q-bitz Jr.
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas:
visual discrimination, pattern matching, spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and hand-eye coordination
About:
Players try to recreate the pattern card with their set of cubes; Tillywig Brain Child Award
LeadKid tips:
The child can play alone or with others; refer to the Parent Guide for additional activities
- I Never Forget a Face Memory Matching
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas:
visual discrimination, memory, matching skills, diversity, and world culture
About:
24 pairs of cards to match, featuring faces of kids from around the world (the back cover identifies each child’s home country); Oppenheim Gold Award
LeadKid tips:
Start as a picture matching game and then a memory game;
start with fewer pairs and then increase the number of cards;
incorporate the cards into cultural and geography studies
- Head to Toe Floor Dominoes
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas:
visual discrimination, and matching skills
About:
Match 28 tiles head to toe to create a animal parade; Oppenheim Gold Award
LeadKid tips:
Can be used as an extension to Montessori part-whole matching pre-reading activity
- Snug as a Bug in a Rug
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas:
color recognition, shape recognition, big and little, matching, numbers, counting, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About:
A cooperative and matching game; Oppenheim Platinum Award, and Dr. Toy Top 10 Game Award
LeadKid tips:
Encourage working together and helping each other
- Count Your Chickens
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas:
visual recognition, counting, number sets, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About:
A cooperative counting game; Oppenheim Platinum Award
LeadKid tips:
Show your child that working together and counting are fun
- Tiny Polka Dot
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas:
counting, arithmetic, and logic
About:
16 number games that grow with your child; Tillywig Brain Child Award, NAPPA Gold Award, and more; recommended by American Mensa
LeadKid tips:
Many levels of play that suit children of different ages and math abilities; you can also create new games with the deck of cards
- Orchard
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas:
fine motor, color recognition, shape recognition, counting, strategic thinking, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About:
The original "Orchard" cooperative game to win as a team when harvesting all the fruit before the raven puzzle is finished; Dr. Toys Best Classic Toys Award
LeadKid tips:
Compared to the First Orchard, this original large version has more and smaller pieces of fruit to collect and also a large raven puzzle in the middle
- Hoot Owl Hoot
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas:
color recognition, strategic thinking, planning, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About:
A cooperative game to help owls fly back to their nest before sun rises; Oppenheim Platinum Award, Parents’ Choice Silver Award, and more
LeadKid tips:
Encourage discussions on strategies to succeed as a team, especially which color card to play to maximize the chance of winning
- Dinosaur Escape
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas:
counting, memory, problem-solving, strategy, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About:
A cooperative game to use your memory and strategy to rescue dinosaurs; NAPPA Gold Award, Oppenheim Gold Award, and more
LeadKid tips:
Encourage helping each other remember what tokens are flipped over
- Yoga Garden
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas:
yoga (balance, coordination, strength, motor), taking turns, cooperation, and imagination
About:
A cooperative game to help children play and learn yoga; Parent's Choice Award
LeadKid tips:
Enjon work together and exercise together
- Pengoloo
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas:
fine motor, hand-eye coordination, color recognition, memory, matching skills, strategic thinking, and taking turns
About:
All wooden color matching memory game; Oppenheim Gold Award, NAPPA Gold Award, and more
LeadKid tips:
A fun twist on memory matching card games;
depending on your child's age, you can make the game competitive or not
- Robot Face Race
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas:
visual discrimination (pre-reading skill), and concentration
About:
Scan 120 images of robot heads to find one that matches the Robot Randomizer; recommended by American Mensa, Årets Spil (Denmark) Best Children's Game
LeadKid tips:
Can be played cooperatively for younger children
- Happy Hats Beginning Reading
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas:
early reading, counting, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About:
A begining reading game with characters from Bob Books to learn letters and short words; Tillywig Brain Child Award
LeadKid tips:
Can be used as an extension to Bob Books Set 1, reinforcing CVC words (consonant- vowel- consonant)
- Charades for Kids
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas:
motor skills, early reading, and creativity
About:
Read and act out a card, and have others try to guess the charade
LeadKid tips:
You can also create your own charade cards for kids as a fun reading activity
- Wildcraft
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas:
botany, problem solving, cooperation, and kindness
About:
A cooperative herbal adventure game to learn about healing herbs; Best Natural Toy by Mothering magazine
LeadKid tips:
Encourage teamwork and appreciation of the nature
- My First Carcassonne
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas:
strategic thinking, and taking turns
About:
Junior version of the popular Carcassonne game; Netherlands Game of the Year (Age 3-6), Boardgames Australia Awards Best Children's Game, and more
LeadKid tips:
Can be played cooperatively for younger children - how to place titles as a team so pawns of all the colors can be placed on the board before using up all the tiles
- Outfoxed
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas:
visual discrimination, reading names, memory, counting, logic, reasoning, strategic thinking, taking turns, and cooperation
About:
A cooperative whodunit game to identify the thief with clues; Oppenheim Platinum Award, and NAPPA Silver Award
LeadKid tips:
Encourage discussing ideas, sharing strategies, and making decisions as a team
- The Secret Door
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas:
memory, logic, strategic thinking, taking turns, and cooperation
About:
A cooperative game to figure out the mystery with clues; Parents’ Choice Gold Award
LeadKid tips:
Encourage discussing ideas and sharing strategies
- Rush Hour Jr.
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas:
visual discrimination, logical reasoning, planning, and problem solving
About:
Junior version of the Rush Hour game with 40 challenges from easy to super hard; slide vehicles to create a path for the ice cream truck to exit; Parents' Choice Gold Award, and NAPPA Honors Award
LeadKid tips:
Setting up the board is a good excerise for visual discrimination; offer hints when needed; celebrating both the child's effort of trying hard and solving challenges
- Sum Swamp
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas:
math (addition, subtraction, even and odd numbers)
About:
A mental math game to practice addition and subtraction; Oppenheim Gold Award, NAPPA Honors Award, and more
LeadKid tips:
For children who are advanced in math, consider using higher number dice to make the game more challenging
- Math Dice Jr.
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas:
math (addition and subtraction)
About:
A mental math game for adding and subtracting up to the number twelve; Toy of the Year Nominee
LeadKid tips:
For children who are advanced in math, consider Math Dice which practices addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and powers
- Stone Soup
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas:
memory, cooperation, kindness, taking turns, and social development
About:
A cooperative memory matching game - players work together to "cook" a soup by making matches of ingredients; Major Fun Award, and Family Review Center Editor's Choice Award
LeadKid tips:
Encourage cooperation and helping others
- Race to the Treasure
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas:
strategy, math-grid concepts, shared decision-making, emotional and social development, taking turns, and cooperation
About:
A cooperative strategy game - build a path as a team and collect 3 keys on a race to beat ogre to the treasure; Oppenheim Platinum Award, PAL Award, and Major Fun Award
LeadKid tips:
Encourage discussing ideas, sharing strategies, and making decisions as a team
- Gobblet Gobblers
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas:
fine motor, memory, spatial awareness, strategic thinking, analysis, focus & attention, and taking turns
About:
A strategy and memory game, like tic-tac-toe but with a catch - players can gobble up their opponent’s pieces to take their place; Oppenheim Gold Award, Dr. Toy 10 Best Games, and NAPPA Gold Award
LeadKid tips:
Encourage discussions on strategies
- Qwirkle
Ages: 6+ years
Learning areas:
color recognition, shape recognition, math, strategic thinking, problem-solving, and taking turns
About:
Building rows and columns of wood tiles that are either all the same color or all the same shape, without creating duplicates; Major Fun Award, Mensa Select Award, Parents' Choice Gold Award, and more
LeadKid tips:
For younger children, start with a small number of tiles and later include more tiles in the game
- Catan Junior
Ages: 6+ years
Learning areas:
fine motor, strategic thinking, and taking turns
About:
Junior version of the popular Settlers of Catan game; Boardgames Australia Awards Best Children's Game
LeadKid tips:
Can be played cooperatively for younger children - how to help all the players build seven pirate hideouts
- Chinese Checkers
Ages: 6+ years
Learning areas:
fine motor, strategic thinking, and taking turns
About:
Classic Chinese Checkers with the objective of moving ten pegs across the board to the opposite triangle
LeadKid tips:
For younger children, consider pegs instead of traditional marbles to keep them from rolling all over if the board is accidentally bumped
Ages: 18+ months
Learning areas: gross motor, color recognition, language, numbers, creativity, and emotions
About: A plush cube with 48 game cards; Play Advances Language Award, Oppenheim Platinum Award, and more
LeadKid tips: Include more (custom) learning activities by creating your own game cards with colored construction paper or cardstock
Ages: 2+ years
Learning areas: gross motor, hand-eye coordination, imitation, creativity, and social-emotional skills
About: A game board with 1 bean bag banana and 40 movement cards that prompt players to do movements together; Oppenheim Platinum Award, and Parents' Choice Silver Award
LeadKid tips: Similar concept to the "Roll and Play" game
Ages: 2+ years
Learning areas: color recognition, shape recognition, counting, strategic thinking, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About: A cooperative game to win as a team when harvesting all the fruit before the raven reaches the orchard; Imagination Gaming Young Einsteins Gold Award
LeadKid tips: Encourage the child to set up the board (as a color sorting activity); encourage the child to talk about their thoughts/strategy on which fruit to pick when the die shows a fruit basket
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas: visual discrimination, pattern matching, spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and hand-eye coordination
About: Players try to recreate the pattern card with their set of cubes; Tillywig Brain Child Award
LeadKid tips: The child can play alone or with others; refer to the Parent Guide for additional activities
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas: visual discrimination, memory, matching skills, diversity, and world culture
About: 24 pairs of cards to match, featuring faces of kids from around the world (the back cover identifies each child’s home country); Oppenheim Gold Award
LeadKid tips: Start as a picture matching game and then a memory game; start with fewer pairs and then increase the number of cards; incorporate the cards into cultural and geography studies
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas: visual discrimination, and matching skills
About: Match 28 tiles head to toe to create a animal parade; Oppenheim Gold Award
LeadKid tips: Can be used as an extension to Montessori part-whole matching pre-reading activity
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas: color recognition, shape recognition, big and little, matching, numbers, counting, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About: A cooperative and matching game; Oppenheim Platinum Award, and Dr. Toy Top 10 Game Award
LeadKid tips: Encourage working together and helping each other
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas: visual recognition, counting, number sets, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About: A cooperative counting game; Oppenheim Platinum Award
LeadKid tips: Show your child that working together and counting are fun
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas: counting, arithmetic, and logic
About: 16 number games that grow with your child; Tillywig Brain Child Award, NAPPA Gold Award, and more; recommended by American Mensa
LeadKid tips: Many levels of play that suit children of different ages and math abilities; you can also create new games with the deck of cards
Ages: 3+ years
Learning areas: fine motor, color recognition, shape recognition, counting, strategic thinking, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About: The original "Orchard" cooperative game to win as a team when harvesting all the fruit before the raven puzzle is finished; Dr. Toys Best Classic Toys Award
LeadKid tips: Compared to the First Orchard, this original large version has more and smaller pieces of fruit to collect and also a large raven puzzle in the middle
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas: color recognition, strategic thinking, planning, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About: A cooperative game to help owls fly back to their nest before sun rises; Oppenheim Platinum Award, Parents’ Choice Silver Award, and more
LeadKid tips: Encourage discussions on strategies to succeed as a team, especially which color card to play to maximize the chance of winning
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas: counting, memory, problem-solving, strategy, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About: A cooperative game to use your memory and strategy to rescue dinosaurs; NAPPA Gold Award, Oppenheim Gold Award, and more
LeadKid tips: Encourage helping each other remember what tokens are flipped over
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas: yoga (balance, coordination, strength, motor), taking turns, cooperation, and imagination
About: A cooperative game to help children play and learn yoga; Parent's Choice Award
LeadKid tips: Enjon work together and exercise together
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas: fine motor, hand-eye coordination, color recognition, memory, matching skills, strategic thinking, and taking turns
About: All wooden color matching memory game; Oppenheim Gold Award, NAPPA Gold Award, and more
LeadKid tips: A fun twist on memory matching card games; depending on your child's age, you can make the game competitive or not
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas: visual discrimination (pre-reading skill), and concentration
About: Scan 120 images of robot heads to find one that matches the Robot Randomizer; recommended by American Mensa, Årets Spil (Denmark) Best Children's Game
LeadKid tips: Can be played cooperatively for younger children
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas: early reading, counting, taking turns, cooperation, and social skills
About: A begining reading game with characters from Bob Books to learn letters and short words; Tillywig Brain Child Award
LeadKid tips: Can be used as an extension to Bob Books Set 1, reinforcing CVC words (consonant- vowel- consonant)
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas: motor skills, early reading, and creativity
About: Read and act out a card, and have others try to guess the charade
LeadKid tips: You can also create your own charade cards for kids as a fun reading activity
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas: botany, problem solving, cooperation, and kindness
About: A cooperative herbal adventure game to learn about healing herbs; Best Natural Toy by Mothering magazine
LeadKid tips: Encourage teamwork and appreciation of the nature
Ages: 4+ years
Learning areas: strategic thinking, and taking turns
About: Junior version of the popular Carcassonne game; Netherlands Game of the Year (Age 3-6), Boardgames Australia Awards Best Children's Game, and more
LeadKid tips: Can be played cooperatively for younger children - how to place titles as a team so pawns of all the colors can be placed on the board before using up all the tiles
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas: visual discrimination, reading names, memory, counting, logic, reasoning, strategic thinking, taking turns, and cooperation
About: A cooperative whodunit game to identify the thief with clues; Oppenheim Platinum Award, and NAPPA Silver Award
LeadKid tips: Encourage discussing ideas, sharing strategies, and making decisions as a team
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas: memory, logic, strategic thinking, taking turns, and cooperation
About: A cooperative game to figure out the mystery with clues; Parents’ Choice Gold Award
LeadKid tips: Encourage discussing ideas and sharing strategies
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas: visual discrimination, logical reasoning, planning, and problem solving
About: Junior version of the Rush Hour game with 40 challenges from easy to super hard; slide vehicles to create a path for the ice cream truck to exit; Parents' Choice Gold Award, and NAPPA Honors Award
LeadKid tips: Setting up the board is a good excerise for visual discrimination; offer hints when needed; celebrating both the child's effort of trying hard and solving challenges
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas: math (addition, subtraction, even and odd numbers)
About: A mental math game to practice addition and subtraction; Oppenheim Gold Award, NAPPA Honors Award, and more
LeadKid tips: For children who are advanced in math, consider using higher number dice to make the game more challenging
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas: math (addition and subtraction)
About: A mental math game for adding and subtracting up to the number twelve; Toy of the Year Nominee
LeadKid tips: For children who are advanced in math, consider Math Dice which practices addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and powers
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas: memory, cooperation, kindness, taking turns, and social development
About: A cooperative memory matching game - players work together to "cook" a soup by making matches of ingredients; Major Fun Award, and Family Review Center Editor's Choice Award
LeadKid tips: Encourage cooperation and helping others
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas: strategy, math-grid concepts, shared decision-making, emotional and social development, taking turns, and cooperation
About: A cooperative strategy game - build a path as a team and collect 3 keys on a race to beat ogre to the treasure; Oppenheim Platinum Award, PAL Award, and Major Fun Award
LeadKid tips: Encourage discussing ideas, sharing strategies, and making decisions as a team
Ages: 5+ years
Learning areas: fine motor, memory, spatial awareness, strategic thinking, analysis, focus & attention, and taking turns
About: A strategy and memory game, like tic-tac-toe but with a catch - players can gobble up their opponent’s pieces to take their place; Oppenheim Gold Award, Dr. Toy 10 Best Games, and NAPPA Gold Award
LeadKid tips: Encourage discussions on strategies
Ages: 6+ years
Learning areas: color recognition, shape recognition, math, strategic thinking, problem-solving, and taking turns
About: Building rows and columns of wood tiles that are either all the same color or all the same shape, without creating duplicates; Major Fun Award, Mensa Select Award, Parents' Choice Gold Award, and more
LeadKid tips: For younger children, start with a small number of tiles and later include more tiles in the game
Ages: 6+ years
Learning areas: fine motor, strategic thinking, and taking turns
About: Junior version of the popular Settlers of Catan game; Boardgames Australia Awards Best Children's Game
LeadKid tips: Can be played cooperatively for younger children - how to help all the players build seven pirate hideouts
Ages: 6+ years
Learning areas: fine motor, strategic thinking, and taking turns
About: Classic Chinese Checkers with the objective of moving ten pegs across the board to the opposite triangle
LeadKid tips: For younger children, consider pegs instead of traditional marbles to keep them from rolling all over if the board is accidentally bumped
