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Games for Children 3-10

When selecting games for your children ages 3 to 10, consider their likes and dislikes, personalities and, most importantly, their attention spans. Choose group games and activities for children who play well together, but to avoid conflict, consider providing individual, age-appropriate games and crafts. Whether you make up your own games or purchase them, children's games should be entertaining, educational and enhance developmental skills.

Arts and Crafts
- Choose activities for ages 3 to 10 that stir the imagination and promote the development of thinking and motor skills. Arts and crafts accomplish these goals. Provide crayons and paper or coloring books for children ages 3 to 5 and paints, colored pencils and coloring books or construction paper, safety scissors and glue for children ages 5 to 10. Construction toys, like Lego, provide hours of fun for children and are packaged according to the children's ages. Give each child his own batch of Play Doh and suggest they make miniature statues of their favorite pets, zoo animals, birds, doll figures, or objects, such as stars, bells or balls. Once the children get started, they will begin challenging one another with novel ideas of their own.
Puzzles
- Children enjoy independent fun while developing cognitive and motor skills playing with age-appropriate puzzles. Keep a variety of puzzles on hand that provide depictions of the children's favorite cartoon characters, animals, trucks, cars, boats, airplanes or other items of interest.
Stacking Games
- Every child loves to build something up and then knock it down. Provide children ages 3 to 4 with blocks, plastic containers or bowls. Provide hours of fun for your 5-to 10-year-olds by giving them dominoes to line up and decks of cards to build card houses.
Group Play
- Children of all ages enjoy playing Hide and Seek. Besides being an excellent form of exercise, dancing to their favorite songs or music provides children with the opportunity for enjoyable self-expression while teaching coordination and balance. Dress up is another fun game for children of all ages to play alone or as a group. A bunch of adult clothing, including shoes, hats and accessories placed close to a mirror is all children need to stimulate their imaginations with role-playing.
Board Games
- Children ages 8 and older enjoy board games, such as Monopoly, Scrabble and Checkers. Board games for children ages 3 and up include Chutes and Ladders, Candyland and Trouble. Older children can play these games with their younger siblings, however, because of their shorter attention spans, 3-year-olds quickly lose interest in following game rules and prefer the freedom of just playing with game pieces.

Kids Games