Olive is 4 1/2 and learned how to play Uno a couple months ago. She is hooked and we call her the Uno Queen because she almost always wins! We play Uno or cards almost every day in our home, and I can see the many positive impacts it has had on both kids. Charlie has been doing well in math lately, and I think a big part of that has to do with the interest in numbers playing cards has sparked in him!
Card games teach many skills including:
- counting/math/matching/pattern recognition
- taking turns/patience/listening/watching
- strategy
- winning/losing/good sportsmanship (your kids will probably struggle with losing in the beginning!)
- memory
- following rules
- family bonding/social skills
- fine motor skills (holding and shuffling cards)
- hand-eye coordination & imagination (building houses)
Plus they’re inexpensive, portable, and good old-fashioned fun. When we travel, the only entertainment we take for the kids now are markers, paper, Uno and a deck of cards (and ok, sometimes an iPad too!).
Card games really promote family bonding as it’s something people of all ages can play and enjoy. I love that we can teach the kids increasingly complex games as they get older like Rummy, Poker and Bridge and even card tricks. We’ll be able to play cards together even in our old age.
Years ago I bought one of those kiddie card sets that included specific decks for each game like Go Fish or Old Maid, but I think it’s easiest to stick to a plain old deck of cards because you’ll inevitably lose some cards. It’s difficult for little hands to hold a lot of cards, so we have these kid card holders which were awesome when the kids were younger. But they’re seasoned card players now and don’t need them anymore.
Do you play cards with your kids? What are their favorite games?
guest
Our kids (6 and 4) also love Sleeping Queens. If you’ve never heard of it, you should check it out – our kids love it, and I find it a lot more bearable as an adult because there is actually some strategy involved, and not just pure luck.
honeydew / 7488 posts
We love UNO, and also SET is a great game!
nectarine / 2054 posts
We just played our first card game with DS, who is 3.5, the other weekend – Go Fish. It was amazing, he wanted to play for hours! We’ll definitely look into getting more.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
I have to introduce formal rules for UNO, i played it a ton as a kid.
Right now my son is into grouping, so we play card games that we make up around that with a deck of regular cards.
apricot / 453 posts
We play a lot of games at our house – but card games are my favorite. UNO, Buck Buck Moose, War, Old Maid, Go Fish, and Eye Found It (the card game not the board game) are what we play often. I’ve got SkipBo Jr in my Amazon cart – I loved playing regular SkipBo with my Grandma growing up so I can’t wait to play it with my own kids.