a homemade card game for preschoolers

It's nearly impossible for me to believe that one of George's best friends just turned four, but turned four he has, and soon another bestie does, and then my very own eldest child will be firmly in preschooler territory.

When I asked George what birthday gift we should give his friend, he came up with a wonderful idea for a homemade game inspired by the (apparently out of production) family favorite Too Many Teddies. It was entirely manageable, something that he came up with on his own that I could refine slightly for logistical reasons, and easily/cheaply made: the perfect birthday project for us. While I usually try to involve the kids in the making or buying of presents for their friends and family, this was the first time that George was able to meaningfully participate, and his pride in the finished product was evident and adorable. 

This idea is easy to replicate with any object your kids like -- animals, shapes, cars like George chose -- as long as it can be drawn easily in four different colors. 

Materials:

Markers, about 41 pieces of cardstock (plus a couple of pieces of plain white paper), a printer or access to a copy center, a box (a bag or other container would work as well), access to a laminator if you want your cards to be laminated (we did, for durability and the baby brother factor). Total cost: around $22

First, George chose the colors he wanted to use for the cars: orange, blue, red and green. He drew them, we cut them out and pasted them four-up on a sheet of paper for easier copying. If you have ink in your home printer, this will be even cheaper than $22, and you won't have to bother with the cutting/pasting step if you can simply scan and print. George wrote the word Rules and we decided on the rules together; it's basically Go Fish, with cars and the allowance for anyone to offer up a car to a fellow player in need of a particular color. 

We took the copy-ready stuff to Office Max and made ten copies of the cars onto cardstock (for 40 total cars -- 10 of each color). If you're doing this for a kid with no mouthy babies in the house, cardstock alone (as opposed to lamination, as we did) is probably just fine, and certainly less expensive. We decided to cut around the cars, but rectangular cards might be better for older children who are hip to things like the subtle differences in shapes. We designed our game to be cooperative, so that doesn't matter. George made a cover for the game, and we copied that as well as the rules onto cardstock, too. 

After copying and cutting, we returned to Office Max and had the cars, rules and cover laminated. They let us load the pouches ourselves so we were able to maximize the space, and we used 8 sheets (at $1.10 per). 

We found a bright, nice sized plastic box at the dollar store and attached the cover with superglue. The lamination means the cover will pop off if they ever want to re-use the container but it's durable and big enough for little hands to easily open and close. Altogether, $22 is not too shabby for a one of a kind, homemade gift that will last! I can't wait to see George and his best dude play it, and I hope said dude finds lots of different ways to enjoy his gift. What have you and your preschooler made together lately?