life with the tsengs

If you know me, I love practical gifts. Gifts that keep on giving. Things that bring the greatest bang for your buck! I love gifting games because I truly feel like it is a gift that keeps on giving! Games can be such a fun way to spend time as a family, keep kids occupied and engaged and also a great tool for learning (have you heard of “gameschooling”? A pretty neat idea!) For that reason, I love to give my kids games for their birthday/holidays. Since my kids were babies, I began collecting games – whether it was for cheap/free on FB marketplace or requesting them for gifts from friends and family who ask for a wishlist. By now, we have collected quite a few – and have already purchased a few more to gift to our kids this year!

With Black Friday sales and Christmas approaching, I thought I would share a gift guide full of some of our family favorites. (Not sure if this will be a one post or three post series, but stay tuned…lol) Hope these will give you some ideas for Christmas gifts this year – whether it be for your own family or friends – and that these games would serve to create many opportunities for quality time spent together!

Now, without further ado – I present…

(I know that there are a lot! So I will break it down and elaborate a bit!) Keep in mind, our kids are currently 3 and almost 5 and these are games that we have all played (or at least started playing) and enjoyed this year! (Please note, this post contains affiliated links. For more information, you can read our disclosures page. Thank you for your kind support!)

* : our top 5 faves
**: Asher’s personal faves

Jenga: Not much explanation needed for this one, since it’s a classic! But a fun, suspense-filled family favorite. I also love that it’s multi-use in the sense that you can reuse these blocks for open-ended play (i.e. building roads, towers, etc)
Acorn Soup*: THIS ONE IS DEFINITELY ONE OF OUR FAVES! Geared toward 2-3 year olds but our almost-5 year old still enjoys playing this game! Comes with recipe cards, ingredients for “acorn soup” including flowers, different kinds of nuts, leaves, and a mixing spoon. A great learning toy for toddlers and kids! Also a great game to enhance and encourage open-ended play. We often bust out some real bowls and spoons and they make tons of different kinds of soups for us!
Mancala – This was one of my favorites when i was a kid! (choking hazard due to small marbles, so please exercise caution!)
Break the Ice** – We got this for our kids last Christmas and we love playing this as a family! There have also been many groups of adults who have thoroughly enjoyed playing this game at our home. Another fun, suspense-filled game!
Guess Who* – Another classic that I loved to play as a kid so it’s neat to be able to share with my own kids now! We just introduced this game to Asher a few months ago, and he absolutely loves playing with it! A great learning game where the kids will be encouraged to make observation, practice critical thinking (5-year old level haha) and use descriptive language!
Imagination Generation Classic Card Game set with 2-card holders* – Buying this card game set last year was really what turned our family into a game-playing family because…CARD HOLDERS. I feel like the hardest part of playing card games for kids is keeping the cards together (read: frustration, tantrums etc) These card holders are amazing and this set is a great deal because it comes with 4 different card games! The games are really great for the littler kiddos – Asher’s favorite is Crazy Eight, Avery likes the Alphabet one and Eugene and I love the Old Maid game!
Hi-Ho Cherrio** – This is a super popular one (many adults have grown up playing this!) and honestly I dont really like this game because the pieces are SO tiny (*choking hazard alert) and Eugene actually ended up secretly throwing it away because he got annoyed of the little cherries everywhere (#REALITY) but Asher insisted that I include it on the list so here it is. He says its really fun (LOL)
Spot It!* A really fun game that our friends Helen & Dean introduced Asher to, but as stated on the website, it is great for “developing focus, visual perception skills, speech-language skills, and fine motor skills.” AGREED!
Three Little Piggies** Someone got this for Asher for one of his birthdays and he has LOVED this game since he was 3. It is a brain game, and more of a puzzle type game than anything else. It includes a little booklet with 48 “challenges” where you place the pigs and the wolf in a specific location and you use puzzle pieces to put each pig safely into a house! Super fun and definitely one of Asher’s faves to this day.
Let’s Go Fishing – Another classic! Great for kids to practice hand-eye coordination! Also a great open-ended toy..we have cooked many “fish” stews in our home…..
Candy Land – More classics! This is a great learning one for colors and counting! Geared toward 3+ and great for littles because it requires no reading! And who doesn’t love candy?!
Shark Bite – another fun fishing type game where each person takes turn “fishing” and the shark, at random, will come up to BITE you! A fun game gifted to us by our beloved housemate/adopted family member Samantha last Christmas! We love this game!! Though it may be a little frightening for the smaller ones…but fun!
Connect 4 – A fun strategy game that challenges littles to think ahead and use critical thinking!
Zingo* – A super fun game that I scored for $1 on a mom-to-mom FB page! It’s a great game for pre-K/preschool aged kids who are starting to learn how to read. A fun bingo-type game that develops critical skills – builds language and matching skills.They have a great sight word one too!
Uno** Asher’s current favorite game (though..I’m not sure if we are playing it correctly LOL) A great game to help with number and color recognition! Our 3-year old is able to play it too, with a little bit of help!

Happy gaming! Cheers to many family game nights!