Age/Stage

Indoor Game

Outdoor Game

1 – 3 years / Toddlers

In this age and stage bracket falls the categories of solitary plays, spectator plays, parallel plays and associative plays. If we look closely, we can find that no cooperation’s are being found during these stages.

• Playing with play cards
• Creative plays like playing with clay and dough
• Shape hunt like children are asked to find objects that are round in shape inside the classroom or home

• I spy with my little eye something that is green – children will look around the objects or things that are green in color for instance when taken in a park, zoo etc.
• We can take the kids to the beach and have a sand castle competition.
• Having a water table in the backyard and having a competition among the kids that whoever finds first 5 yellow fishes in the box will win.

4 – 5 years / Pre-schoolers

They like to share and take turns but requires help.

• Hand clap games like Patty Cake song, Miss Susie etc.
• Picture Charade games
• Board Games like Snakes & Ladders, Hungry hungry hippos, Candyland etc.

• Hide & Seek game in which one player closes his or her eyes for a brief period while the other players hide. The seeker then opens his eyes and tries to find the hiders; the first one found is the next seeker, and the last is the winner of the round.

• Ring a Ring a Roses; is a nursery rhyme plus one of the oldest outdoor games that involves singing. Children hold hands and go around in circles singing the rhyme. Fall down when they sing ‘fall down!’

5 - 6 years / Pre-schoolers

Children of this age range cooperate in group plays but not yet ready for team games

• Board games like The Floor is lava! is a game where players must imagine the floor is molten hot lava while spinning the color wheel to jump to the right foam pieces to reach safety.
• Red Light, Green Light; One person is chosen to be 'It' and one stands a good distance away from the other players with his back to them. The other players stand in a line facing it. When it calls Green Light, the other players move towards him until he spins around, calling Red Light.

• Cat & Mouse game; 2 players volunteer to play the cat and the mouse. The other players should form a circle and hold hands. The player who is the mouse should stand inside the circle and the cat should stand outside the circle. The aim of the game is for the mouse to get outside the circle and avoid being caught by the cat.
• Jump Rope; the turners swing the rope forward toward the line, then away. As they do so, the first player must run under the rope and back without touching the rope or letting it touch him. After one pass, the second person in line joins in and both players run under the rope. Then three runners go together, and so on.

6 – 8 years / Middle Childhood

These children tend to play games with rules.

• Card games like Shake & Score
• Name, Place, Animal & Thing starting with an alphabet A and scoring points with all correct answers.
• Musical chairs; Walk around the chairs when the music starts. Find a chair to sit in when the music stops. Leave the game, if you're left without a chair. Remove one more chair and play again. Continue playing rounds until there is one person left.

• Tug of War; teams will pull on a rope until one of the teams or players succeeds at pulling the majority of the rope over to one side.
• Duck, duck & goose;Allthe players, except the first person who is It, sit in a circle. It walks around the circle, tapping each player on the head, saying “duck” each time until he decides to tap someone and say “goose.” That person becomes the goose and runs after it, trying to tag him before it can take his seat.

8 – 12 years / Middle Childhood

These children enjoy playing and inventing games with rules.

• Board games like Monopoly,
• Charade games
• Freeze dance; the person who is "It" chases the other kids to try to tag them. When she successfully tags a player, that player must freeze and remain frozen until another player, who has not been tagged, tags them to unfreeze them. The game continues until all runners have been frozen, and then a new person becomes "It."
• Telephone game; the first person in the line or circle whispers a word or phrase into the ear of the person sitting or standing to their right. The Game Continues. Players whisper the phrase to their neighbors until it reaches the last player in line.

• Spud; a game for children and adults, where players try to eliminate each other by catching and throwing an inflated and generally soft ball. It is related to "call ball" and "ball tag".
• Cricket
• Hula Hoop; Divide the class into 2 teams. Each team holds hands and gets into a line that begins at the goal line and extends towards the center line. A hula hoop starts at the front of the line and each person must go through the hula hoop to pass it down the line.

Age/Stage

Tabletop Game

Review

18 months - 3 years / Early Childhood

Little Bus Jigsaw Puzzle by Orchard Toys

(Puzzles)

Lovely little jigsaw. The pieces are quite thick and having a picture on both sides is like having 2 puzzle in one. The pictures are quite detailed, so there is plenty to talk about which helps in speech and as well as in eye co-ordination. On the packaging, it says 3+ years but 2+ years children can go for it as my niece loves solving it. Good quality and nice chunky pieces. Really worth buying it.

3 - 5 years / Middle childhood

Penguin Pairs Mini Game by Orchard Toys

(Card Games)

It's a great little game to put in your bag to play when you're out and about. The cardboard is very sturdy & strong, with just enough thickness to make them easy to pick up. Game itself as well as educational it is extremely addictive, it alongside a similar toy soon became the most popular to play with at the birthday parties.

5 - 12 years / Late Childhood

Match and Spell Next Steps by Orchard Toys

(Board Games)

Excellent product. What makes this product excellent is that it combines learning and having fun at the same time. Great learning aid to improve phonetics skills and blending of letter sounds. I highly recommend this product.