Favorite Games at 4 Years Old.

When Eva gets home from half-day preschool, she washes her hands, has a quick lunch and then… wants one-on-one time with me! When I was pregnant, this meant snuggling on the couch and “relaxing” while watching some of her favorite shows. Now, that I’m more mobile (though now I tend to have a newborn in my arms…) — she wants to be active. Enter: our game cabinet.

I actually preferred our previous cabinet — it was from Ikea and was kept in the playroom. Once we did away with our playroom, Sean pointed out how ugly the cabinet was and then I couldn’t unsee it! So, it now lives in the basement and I bought this new cabinet from Wayfair. It’s nice and does match our style a bit more, however, it’s a wardrobe. This means one side has a pole for hanging clothes and not shelves. It makes the left side sort of unusable for our purposes. But we’re making do and I’ve added a cart on the left side to make it a bit easier for the kids to grab stuff without too much digging. The left side has puzzles and art projects and the right side has all our games.

We’ve been playing around with where this cabinet should “live”. At first, it was in our new office (former playroom) but the problem with that is when Sean’s working we don’t have access to it. So it’s now in the living room and the jury’s still out! I’m not sure if it’ll move it again.

When I organized it, I tried to keep the games Eva loves towards the bottom to help her choose boxes independently and safely. The middle shelf houses games that take longer to play (so kids need more of an attention span) and the top shelf has mostly games that are too old for her — plus Hungry Hippos because that game is so loud and I don’t want her to have access to it during the day. ha! As for the games she does play (nearly every day!), here goes:

ZINGO: Zingo is similar to Bingo and helps pre-readers practice reading skills. It comes with a bunch of boards so you can switch them out and the game typically feels fresh and non-repetitive.

UNO: Uno is by far her favorite card game. It’s great for identifying numbers and colors, taking turns, being flexible (like when you lose a turn, or get a “pick up 4” card).

DON’T BREAK THE ICE: This is a bit of a loud game, too, but it doesn’t bother me as much because it’s a bit nostalgic. This game takes some planning and forethought and she loves using the hammer. 🙂

PETE THE CAT, I LOVE MY BUTTONS: This game is cute; you spin the wheel and have to use tongs to pick up buttons and fill up Pete’s shirt. It’s great for fine motor skills and identifying shapes, but there’s also a focus on being cooperative, sharing the buttons with your opponents, compromising, and winning (and losing) gracefully.

POP THE PIG: In this game, you roll a dice and depending on what you land on you have to feed the pig. Each piece of pig food has a number on one side and that’s how many times you have to push down on the pig’s head. As you push the head down, the pig’s belly grows and grows until it eventually pops. It’s great for counting, growing both patience and anticipation and it’s really fun!

Here’s a few more games Eva’s loving at four years old!