The kids in question (my partner’s niece and nephew) already own a copy of Loopin’ Louie we gave them. Other than that… it’s whatever random game their parents found. They are 5 and 3 years old.
As I don’t have kids of my own and our friends’ kids are growing up quickly, I am quite out of touch what games to recommend.
Obviously, they need to be available right now. Games that can’t be found anywhere are hard to recommend. Also the parents aren’t hobbyist gamers. They casually play some games sometimes.
I’d rather future-proof the little one I don’t think he is actually ready to sit down for a game besides Looping Louie. But he might be around Christmas time…
Their mom just told me that they were at an outlet center and she just bought up whatever games she saw there and obviously I said: why didn’t you ask me for recs
It’s a HABA game, but I’d specifically call out My Very First Games: Building Site. I gave it to my now-six-year-old two years ago, and they loved it. They pulled out the pieces to play with their 19-month-old cousin this week. (Obviously their cousin didn’t play it, but they drove the truck around and did some stacking.)
Is it a great game? No. But it has rules and a victory condition, it’s cooperative, and it’s very tactile.
Another call for HABA Games. They make great games for kids that are often pretty fun for adults.
I’ll also echo the worry about the 3-year-old. There are HABA games that cover that age, and I’d recommend them, but chances are good the adults will find them a little boring. That stated, I have played a bunch of 4+ year-old HABA games and some are really good.
Games I Have Played and Enjoyed:
Rhino Hero, Rhino Hero Super Battle, Go Cucko (which might be a different publisher now, but it’s great), Monza, and Unicorn Glitterluck (which is co-op!).
Games I Haven’t Played But Had Good Recommendations from Customers:
Inspector Mouse, My First Orchard, Valley of the Vikings, and the line of My Very First Games (MVFG), although they are aimed very young.
I hear you. I don’t think he’s ready for games either. But his sister is. And the parents are starting to buy games, which I was rather surprised to hear. So I’d rather give them some good recs for the 5yo and recommend Haba for the little one with the named caveats.
Two games my daughter really liked at 5 and 6 were ‘Cat Crimes’, and ‘Kittin’. (There’s totally not a theme there…) They’re both relatively inexpensive and small.
Cat Crimes is a solo or co-op logic game, using the clues on the card to place the cats on the board and figure out which cat is guilty. She did the easy puzzles on her own, and I provided some direction on harder ones (mostly by helping double check the solution before flipping the card over to see the answer).
Kittin is a dexterity game where you use small plastic pieces (choking hazard!) to assemble a cat into the shape on the card that got turned over. First to do it wins the round. She’d play it solo when she couldn’t get a parent to play with her.
I am eagerly following this thread for suggestions to get to play with the 5 year old (turning 6 in 3 weeks) we have welcomed to our home on a long-term foster care placement. Thanks all!
Cascadia should work for an almost 6 yo. you can scale up the rules bit by bit. generally tile laying feels like it should work in some capacity as you build something up…
I don’t think he is actually ready to sit down for a game besides Looping Louie. But he might be around Christmas time…