If you are looking for a younger spin on a well-known family game, check out the CandyLand Castle Game by Hasbro Games. The game simply involves placing multi-colored shapes within a castle and pulling a candy cane lever to remove the pieces. Children take turns removing a shape to see if they have a place for the corresponding shape on their individual card. Whoever fills their individual card first wins.
This is a fantastic game for 2 ½ to 4 year olds who are working on visual discrimination and figure ground skills to look at their piece and scan their individual card to see if they have the corresponding shape on their card. It promotes color and shape recognition. Fine motor skills are required to rotate the piece into the formboard and the game challenges children to follow multi-step directions.
I have personally found this to be a great game for children who are learning to take turns with siblings, peers or adults. However, don’t feel that you have to have a group to play, many children enjoy playing this game individually, removing the pieces from the game and utilizing up to all four of the cards at the same time to match the pieces on a larger scale.
Don’t forget to think about the position you are playing this game, why not have the entire family lie on their stomach on the living room rug to work on trunk and upper body strength? You can also incorporate the game pieces into an obstacle course for extra motor input on a rainy day where the child removes a piece from the castle, crawls over couch cushions, jumps on two feet four times in a row and does a log roll, before finding where the corresponding piece fits in the formboard.