Remember the Guess Who game? Was it one of your favorites as a kid too?
This was the one game that Dad and I played so much we barely needed 3 guesses to figure out the other person’s card! I wanted to share the same fun of this classic with my little guy but knew he wasn’t quite ready for the “Ages 6 and Up” challenge.
So we upgraded the Guess Who game with a toddler twist:
Recognize these faces? Not unless you were at my last family reunion! To make this game more toddler-friendly, we printed photos of our family members, cut out their heads, and taped them to the original game cards. (No, I don’t have time for crafts these days either, I did it while catching up on the DVR!)
Now the game is focused around finding people he recognizes, along with learning new vocabulary and family relationships. “Can you find Nonna? She is Grandpa’s mommy.” The family tree concept may still be over his head, but he loves repeating, “Here’s Nonna, she’s Grandpa’s mommy.” He loves finding people he knows and knocking them down!
And of course, it’s a game our whole family can play.
Cat is the best at knocking everything down! We love taking turns naming someone in our family to find next. Sometimes he will say, “Can you find Uncle Matthew?” and let me knock it down. (Sometimes, he really likes that part!) When he wants to play with someone that doesn’t know all of the names, the game is turned into more of a hide-a-seek version. The adult will hold up the card from the deck and he will search to find the matching photo to knock down.
One thing I realized is how much fine motor skills are needed to gently lift each person up individually as well as the caution needed to gently tap one person at a time. This is not only a great challenge of their fingers but of their self-control too!
Some things are worth staying up a little late with scissors to create something he loves to play over and over again. Maybe it’s making a matching game by taping two of the same photos to an old deck of cards.
Whatever you do, make sure you make time to make memories with them each day. Hope you have fun playing this Guess Who game with your little one today!
This article was originally published in May 2018.
