The BEST Fun & Educational Games For Preschool Kids

We love games!  We are definitely a several night a week, family game night crew.  But I’ll tell ya, it is definitely not an easy feat, you know, to find games that appeal to the majority of us, considering the fact that we range in age from 39-14 months!!  Then add the fact that I’m a homeschool momma and I like to find education in EVERYTHING (drives my kids crazy), and the majority of educational games are not only blah, but geared toward a certain age group and certainly don’t run the gamut of say 4-20.

But hold the phone, I have actually come across a whole bunch of games that are not only educational, but really really fun (and challenging) too!!!  I KNOW!  Shut the Front Door!  This is really incredible news, because as much as I like Monopoly and as much as I think it has real educational value, I’m sick to death of it.  I’m tired of winning all the time. Really.  It’s overrated.  I have 4 hotels on each of my property’s and you know, Elly (3) and Coby (1) have like no houses even.  Boring!

So, I literally went out and Googled forever until I found some games that sounded intriguing, challenging, logic based and like, fun!  For all ages.  So I decided to do a blog series on what I’ve found.  Let’s start with the littlest babes, the 4+ squad … Part I!!

Behold, all you weary-eyed moms who are sick of Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, to you I present … [amazon text=The Little Firefighters&asin=B00FKD1J7A]!  The Little Firefighters is an adorable game whereby 3 little firefighters battle a housefire, together!  The premise of the game is that a fire has started and players must hurry to save the house before it’s engulfed in the flames.  It’s a sweet cooperative game where we all work together, cheering each other on, to reach the house before the fire does.  If you do, you all win, if you don’t, well then, the fire wins!

I was surprised when I opened the box because the quality was above and beyond.  I mean the game pieces were made of wood, not plastic and not cardboard, real honest to goodness wood.  And the gameboard, solid as a rock. This was my first clue that we would be strong Foxmind fans.  For our family, of which about 11 are little destruct-o’s, excellent quality means the game will have staying power, it will last and will be enjoyed for an extended period of time!  This is golden in my book!!  And equally as awesome, each game piece has a super cute picture, one little firefighter girl, two little firefighter boys and a really cute little flame!

The game comes with a gazillion tiles with pictures of ladders, fireman suits, fire hydrants, cats, etc. and these tiles are what the players pick up to tell them how many spaces a particular piece moves.  The tiles will either move a little firefighter or the blasted flame!

As a mommy, I love this game for a lot of reasons. First it was fun to watch the animated faces and gestures when they had to move the flame, the “Oh no”’s with the hands over the face were adorable.  And then the excitement when one of them got to the house and could counteract the movement of the flame, was priceless.  They weren’t worried about themselves getting to the house, just someone, anyone.  It was really wonderful. They worked together and were so excited when they conquered it, together.  Second, it’s educational in that it teaches counting, the various equipment used in firefighting, and the art of taking turns and teamwork and, of course, cheer!

My 3 year old and 4 year old ask constantly to play this game, which is a clear indicator to me that it is age appropriate and extremely fun.  Bonus:  The game can be played solo!!!  What are some of your favorite kid games??