My toddler can't count so that excludes him from many board games. But he can recognise and identify shapes and colours!! He doesn't always wait his turn but he's learning and a cooperative or non-competitive game is always a good place to start. 

Caspar (11yrs) and Otis (8yrs) still have a week before school goes back. This week Caspar is at Hockey Camp so Otis and Otto (23 months) have a lot of time to play together. They have been loving Colorama. Have you tried it before?? It's a fantastic first board game for toddlers. 

We've had Colorama in our home for many years, Otis loved it as a toddler too. It has small parts so direct supervision is required. There are a few ways you can play. As a first board game, we simply take turns picking a shape from the basket and finding the corresponding spot for it on the board. Otto loves this!! It's just like doing a puzzle and there is satisfaction in finding the right spot for each piece. 

When the child gets older you can play with dice. There are two die included in the game and you can use one or both. There is a shape die and a colour die. You can roll the dice and then find a shape matching the shape or colour on the dice, this a cooperative game, with no winner, the game is complete when the board has been filled. 

"Colorama is an early learning, no-reading game designed to introduce preschoolers to basic board game rules, such as turn-taking, patience, dice-rolling and piece movement as well as colors and shapes. The game includes four different play variations, allowing children of all ages and abilities to recognize and discover different shapes, such as circle, square, triangle, hexagon, and trapezoid and basic colors in a playful environment. Young preschoolers practice matching skills, hand-eye coordination, deductive reasoning and identification." - Ravensburger.

This is fantastic for colour and shape recognition. It is also so good for language development, coordination, concentration and, social skills (like waiting and turn taking).

Otto is learning the names of the colours and the names of the shapes. When he first started playing Otis would show him where each piece went. Then in only a couple of turns Otto understood how to play and matched the colours and shapes correctly himself. It is an easy game for the toddler to understand and to follow!!

You can see below he struggles a little with the placement of the hexagons, it's cute to watch. 

Colorama is by one of our favourite puzzle brands, Ravensburger and as the board is cardboard it has minimal plastic, the shapes can also be used later for matching or patterning. 

The toddler can also play it by themselves! 

Let me know if you have any other 'first' or easy board games for the young toddler. 

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