Candyland

For generations, boys and girls have enjoyed Candyland as their first board game. The color-themed game requires no reading on the part of the players and is easy for even the youngest of children to follow. Players move their primary-colored gingerbread people around the rainbow path, moving through the Peppermint Stick Forest by matching the color spaces to the colors on the pick deck. The player who reaches the Candy Castle first wins. Playing cards thoughtfully designed for non-readers are coded with colorful squares matching the jeweled stepping-stone path or an occasional token matching one of the characters' symbols: draw a blue card, move to the nearest blue stepping-stone; draw a snowflake and earn a visit to Queen Frostine's iceberg. There are occasional pitfalls, too: land on the wrong square and you might be stuck in Molasses Swamp until a red card is drawn. With all these enticing, sugarcoated images (and King Kandy plainly visible at path's end), children can't help but be delighted by Candyland. It's delicious! This game is suitable to two to four players, children and adult and children can even play it alone. As a primary learning game, Candy Land fosters a child's exposure to following directions, taking turns, color recognition and count skills. The game promotes thinking as well as patience in the form of waiting one's turn to play. By playing games with others, children are encouraged to socially interact in a more controlled manner, which helps develop character for future endeavors. For 2 - 4 players, ages 3 and up.