I'm a big Cranium fan for kids' games. In all honesty, the reason I'm a big Cranium fan is because I actually like playing these games! My favorites are:
Cariboo for ages 2-1/2 to 5 years
Hullabaloo for ages 3 to 7 years
Balloon Lagoon for ages 4 to 7 years
(all ages are my opinion)
Cariboo assists toddlers in learning their colors, numbers, and letters. A key is used to open doors to see if a ball is behind that door. Once all the balls are found and placed in the tunnel, a treasure pops up as a little surprise. The concept is easy to learn and the children always love seeing the treasure appear.
Hullabaloo is a great tool for listening and following directions. There are lots of little colored mats that have objects on them like instruments, food, and animals. The electronic speaker gives directions, "hop to a triangle," or "crawl to a food." After a series of these directions, the speaker ends the round by saying, "if you're on the Ice Cream, you win! Winner do a funky monkey dance." But since everyone is usually a winner in tot games, everyone chimes in and performs their own funky dance!
Balloon Lagoon is possibly the most creative game I've seen. It is set up as a carnival, with 4 main carnival games. "Players take turns fishing for letters to spell words, collecting matching snacks at the Snack Hut, pressing levers to spin wheels to unscramble pictures, or flipping frogs back into their pond. Players keep score by collecting little plastic balloons." Thanks to Amazon for the quote, I couldn't figure out how to concisely describe the game!
