What Old-School Activities Can I Do With My Preschooler?

Playing old-school games with toddlers and pre-schoolers can be so much fun. They may be games they’ve never played before in this age of modern technology and everything being made of plastic. We can show the kids that there is enjoyment in having the simplest of items like chalk and fun games can come from it. Games such as hopscotch, Snap and noughts and crosses bring competitiveness and sometimes strategy into their lives.

Play Hopscotch

Draw the outline of hopscotch with numbers in the boxes onto some pavement.

Demonstrate how to jump in the boxes. This outdoor activity is great for practising number recognition as well as gross motor skills. You could add in throwing a stone into one of the boxes and then saying the number and having to jump around that box.

Play Board Games

Games like Ludo or Snakes and Ladders are great, simple old-school board games that preschoolers can pick up quickly. They involve turn-taking, fine motor practice when picking up the counters or dice and rolling it.

I wrote an article about the advantages of playing board games with toddlers recently, which you can find here.

Play Dominoes

Dominoes is a great game for number recognition, counting and even subitising (which is a skill where someone can recognise a number of objects or in this case dots without having to count them). It also practises turn-taking too.

Have An Egg And Spoon Race

I only remembered about egg and spoon races recently when we visited a National Trust property for their Easter trail and the egg and spoon race was one of the activities. It’s so much fun, even as an adult. This activity practises gross motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination and has a competitive element to it.

Play Noughts And Crosses

This is a simple two-player game that can have different outcomes depending on where you start. The aim is to get three of your symbols in a row. Players take turns to place their symbol on the board. This game can be fun for adults too as it’s hilarious seeing where toddlers pick to place their symbol as logic doesn’t always apply!

Play Hide And Seek

Such a fun game that children will want to play anywhere – even when there’s absolutely nowhere to hide! Kids are funny! One person closes their eyes and counts to a set number – say 10 or 20 so your toddler could give this a try, and the others hide. Once the first player has finished counting, they go in search of all the other players. The last one found is the winner.

Draw Pictures on a Chalkboard

This is really old-school as schools these days use whiteboards and pens and some children won’t even have seen chalk before they go to school.

It’s fun to draw on a board but chalk can also be used on the pavement and is great when used wet or dry.

Take a look at my blog post all about providing mark-making experience to your children.

Play Connect Four

Our preschooler loves Connect Four. We have a little travel set which we get out every now and again. It’s entertaining as there are so many different ways to win. It’s a two-player game using red and yellow counters to try to get four in a row without your opponent stopping you or them getting their own four in a row first.

Play Snap

This is a game that can be played from early on. The aim is to spot the same image twice and shout “Snap!” as you slam your hand on the cards. This is a fun first game to get toddlers used to turn-taking and recognising pictures.

Summary

There are so many old-school games which are still played today and are still fun. I believe tablets and electronics have their place but getting back to the basics of taking turns, chatting with your family and spending quality time together is definitely a great thing in our household. Have fun!