The old ones are the best. Board games with hard to please granddaughter

Glad you've had such a lovely day with your granddaughter! I play a memory game with mine (she's got the Frozen one) and beats me every time - she's also 4!) I thought I'd have to let her win at this age but that's definitely not the case.

I bought a Ludo Game in TK Maxx for a £1. It's been the best buy ever. It's played by DH, myself, dgs 5 and dgd 8. There are 4 counters per person, if we want a shorter game we use 3 counters, or 2.

Our GS has always loved ludo and snakes and ladders (but stay away from three dimensional snakes and ladders - it's a real pain). We bought a wooden snakes and ladders jigsaw puzzle when he was about four; he enjoyed putting that together as much as playing the game - double the pleasure! Card games like Donkey and Happy Families are good too.

When I'm with my four year old gd, we play dominoes, happy families and memory games ( she beats me too!) She also loves jigsaws, and I'm always trawling the charity shops. So much fun for so little money.

There is always blow football which my three yr old DGs wants to play when I go. He does dribble an awful lot over the tablecloth though and cheats a bit.
It's Nanan's indulgence.

I play Enchanted Forest a lot with my 7 year old GS - he always wins, because it is based on remembering where things are - I don't stand a chance!

We still have this early version of Sorry which our children loved and GS1 also loved. (GS2 and GD are still too young for it, but it's in the cupboard waiting )

Another all time favourite was Frustration, which was really very similar to Ludo, but with a fun plastic bubble in the middle that you pressed to bounce the dice instead of just shaking them.

Sorry used to be the game guaranteed to have my nieces arguing and crying and throwing the board up in the air - my sister hated it, and put me off buying it for my lot. Frustration is a great game though - I spent many a happy hour with DS by the swimming pool playing that when his sisters were having their swimming lessons. my DGS are very keen on Jitterbugs, Frog Frenzy and Rockin' Robots - all ELC games bought for a quid or so at the local charity shops.

I learnt that lesson maggiemaybe the snakes and ladders are one child plus adults only games. Last weekend ended in tears when I tried to play with the two older siblings and her. I have vague memories of my youngest being a very very bad looser.....still is, so I've heard. The pairs doesn't seem to bring the competitiveness out as much and is comparatively safe for all the family. The hilarity and noise when we all play is wonderful. I'll keep an eye out for the others mentioned.

My GD is Such a Cheat at Snakes !!!

Beetle only requires pencil and paper as well as a dice. It causes great hilarity in our house. We are cat lovers so we usually draw cats instead of beetles.

Beat you neighbours out of doors is good......(..I hate the hysteria of snap.)
You have half the pack each and take it in turns to go. You have to pay if you put down a colour card. 4 for an Ace. 3 for a King 2 for McQueen and one for a Jack. The person who looses all their cards is out. Hope that makes sense. We used to play it for hours and hours with my old granny.

Boxes is fun where you draw a matrix of dots and have to draw a line each in turn. If you make a 4 sided box you put your initial in the box.

But you can't beat Pairs for little ones in all honesty.

Beat your neighbour ou of doors, we call Strip Jack naked. Yes we have alway loved that. Good way to learn about cards.

My GS (4) favourites are Monkey Business, Dotty Dinosaurs, dominos and any jigsaws. All bought in charity shops or from friends whose children have grown out of them.