Doodle Dice

Doodle Dice is a cool game for parents and kids that can work to develop critical thinking skills in children.  My 5 year old and I played this the other day when my house was filled with a bunch of 9 year old Girl Scouts.  My older daughter was holding a Girl Scout event at our house.  My 5 year old and I decided we needed a break from the insanity and hid in a bedroom playing board games.  Doodle Dice was one of those games.

The goal of the game is to be the first player to collect one of each of the five colored cards.  To collect a card, you must roll a set of dice that matches the image shown on the card.  Some card colors are easier, others are harder.  The critical thinking comes in when decided which card to go after and which difficulty of card one should go after.  The dice are random, but there is strategy to be used when choosing which cards to go after.  

As we played the game, my 5 year old and I talked about which cards each of us should go after based on the first of three dice rolls per turn.  She won the game fair and square.  I did not let her win!  Trust me, I was trying to win!

We had a great time and I was able to use this as a learning experience without her recognizing it as a learning experience.  To her we were simply having fun and that is when the best learning takes place!