Green Treehouse

My preschooler has recently become fascinated by board games. Preschoolers love the challenge and entertainment board games provide. Plus, they love playing with others, especially when that person is mom, dad, or a special friend!

Whether you’re looking for a game to entertain your preschooler for hours, thinking ahead to when your baby is ready to play board games, or need a gift for a preschooler, here are five board games that are sure to please:

1. Candy Land. This classic game never goes out of style. One of the reasons Candy Land is a great game for preschoolers is because no reading is required. There’s also a DVD version.

2. Chutes and Ladders. Preschoolers and grown-ups love this game!

3. Hi Ho! Cherry-O. A great game for developing counting skills!

4. Word Chase. An eco-friendly board game that helps children get ready to read!

5. Memory. The classic matching game that children love to play for hours on end.

My preschooler and I have completely different worries when it comes to public toilets.

He worries about automatic flushers (which by the way, covering a sensor with a paper towel or post-it-note can help). I worry about germs, unlike my preschooler: “Germs, what germs? I can’t see them, mom.”

Here’s a classy, eco-friendly and purse (or diaper bag) compatible compromise:

Green Treehouse moms and dads, it’s your turn. What have you done to help your preschooler overcome public bathroom anxieties?

Please share your tips and advice here! We’d love to hear from you–and our reader parents and caregivers will surely appreciate your ideas. I know I will.

When my preschooler came home from preschool and announced, “I don’t like boys.  They don’t listen to the teacher when she reads at circle time,” I instantly imagined a chaotic preschool classroom scene–envisioning a room overflowing with four year old boy energy.  After reading about preschoolers behaving badly in the classroom and the rising number of preschool expulsions, I couldn’t help but feel relieved knowing that the only apparent behavioral issue in my preschooler’s classroom involves boys who like to pretend they are dinosaurs rather than listen quietly to a book about ones long extinct.

Rude and dangerous behavior–tantrums, biting, kicking, yelling–among preschoolers is sweeping across the country.  A Yale Study has found that some preschools are resorting to student expulsion as a solution.  Apparently, behavioral problems are increasingly plaguing both public and private programs.

Have you had to deal with aggressive behavior in your child’s preschool?  What advice do you have for new parents considering a preschool program for their child?