Board games for toddlers and reception age

There are so many to choose from but I think that the old ones are the best. My grandkids enjoyed snakes and ladders and ludo.

You can't go wrong with good old Snakes and Ladders.
Our 4 year old is into that now. We even made our own board one day when a nice-sized piece of cardboard packaging fell out of something, which she really enjoyed.

Not sure about the younger one, though. They are not all ready for board games at that age.

Buck-a-roo, Pop up Pirate & Guess Who are good for little ones.

Orchard make a nice range of games my granddaughter particularly like their shopping trolly game

We also made our own snakes and ladders this summer. DGD (5) coloured in the snakes then I covered it with clear Fablon. It's had lots of use and came with us to USA to play with our other DGC.
The 5yo also likes ludo and dominoes. Her 3yo brother isn't ready to follow rules so the board games are for after he's in bed.
We also have a game invented and made in patchwork by my sister. It involves dice and moving animals around a track but with various hazards and forfeits.

My GS likes dominoes. We have the traditional ones and you can also get them in various forms ie farm animals. We’ve got a Thomas the tank version.
Currently his other favourite is matching pair games. We’ve got that in a dinosaur and Dear Zoo options.

Good for children are the “frustration” type games. Basically lodo with a pop-dice in a dome. No chucking the dice under the sofa. The works has several varieties.

Our DGC absolutely loved "Candyland". This is a board game but without a dice. You just turn over cards. It's American but is available in the UK, although appears to cost over £25. (Maybe a "used" one might be bought?)

I’d second Orchard Games. Shopping List is a favourite and also Tummy Ache - our 2 year old loves seeing Grandad end up with a bug infested fruit salad for his pudding.

Our grandchildren like snakes and ladders, ludo and dobble ( great pre reading skills), also dominos. Look in a charity shop or two often lots of matching games. 7 & 8 year old like scrabble, sevens and snap

Another vote for Orchard who do a whole range of fun games for different ages, and they don't take ages to complete.

Orchard games get my vote, too.

There are usually different ways to play the same game, depending on skill, some parts are interchangeable, and you can buy spares, too.

They're also sturdy and well made.

Ask for advice in your bookshop or toyshop. There are loads of games out there for 2 year olds, at least there are here in Germany. Children don't start school here until 7, and any attempt to teach them letters or numbers before then will result in a scathing from the kindergarten teachers. At least, that was what it was like when my boys were little.

So they have to be occupied somehow.

The Ravensberger Games also have instructions in English so you can probably get them in the UK.

Don't expect a 2 or 3 year old to play the game as it should be played - they make up their own rules. You have to improvise and go along with that. The dice in these games for 2 year olds have an dot in a different colour on each side or a similar system, maybe a picture on each side to go with the theme of the game.

As long as they are learning to throw the dice or pick a single card and that this means they can move something on the board, that is enough for the time being.

A game may be "over" for them after 5 minutes, and of course, they will have won. Then they can help tidy the pieces away and be shown how to treat the games with respect.

There are very simple games if pelmanism available for pre school ages, or you can make your own. For example, if you can't draw you could take photos of six or 8 everyday objects and print out two of each, or just draw simple shapes in different colours. Here they might not understand the game at first, but it is fairly intuitive even for toddlers. Just play along and guide them gently.

There are also a couple of games which don't have a winner, but these are for the older children. Until they are about 7, losing can cause tears and tantrums (tell me about it!). So these games, where everyone plays against a mutual enemy, are ideal.

We have two, one where you all have to catch a thief, and another where you all have fire engines and have to out out a fire.

If you haven't got much time, a game of noughts and crosses will help them learn strategies (maybe about age 5 onwards), or for older ones what we used to call "boxes" where you draw lines of dots and take turns to join them up until you start making boxes by joining 4 sides of a square.

Cat and Dog Bingo, noughts and crosses, dominoes, snacks and ladders

Yet another vote for Orchard, my grandson enjoyed Farmyard Heads & Tails from an early age.

With pre-school g'chn we made a snakes and ladder that had just 30 squares and lots of short snakes and ladders - seemed to keep them happy.

We also played snap but with one suit of red cards and another of black, so just diamonds and spades eg. We started just with cards 1-6 of each and gradually built up

Two dice - you roll one, child rolls the other - bigger number wins a point. First to ten wins. Later on there's a great game called shut-the box from Tiger.

Spillikins for fine motor skills.
Have fun!

Ludo, snakes and ladders, Chinese chequers, Whot?, any pelmanism/memory games.

To avoid spending lots of time picking up the dice from the floor, we put it in a small glass jar with a lid. Then we turned the jar upside down to shake. We could easily see the dice.

Ours all love basic Happy Families together with Snap and Dominoes.

I also rate Orchard games for little ones. We also used to have a game called Snail Race which is great for little ones as the players don't win or lose, but each child decides which snail they think might win, so the snail wins or loses. That way, no one gets upset.

Another vore for Orchard. Surely we should get freebies for this amount of advertising.
Their shopping basket game goes down really well.

Yet another vote for Orchard - Shopping List, Three Little Pigs
Ravensburger.
Galt: I kept my children’s; my DGC a now play with them.

There’s a card game called Dobble. It’s sold in retail and on libel. It’s a small tin with cards inside. You deal the cards, can play with 2 or a few. The cards have symbols on, eg a snow flake, star, carrot - all easily identified and yiu shout dobble if the card you turn over has a match. Ours love it

Ah, I used to play most of these games with one of "my" ladies.
I liked the shopping one best.