by Sabrina Garibian posted in Products

At 5 years old, my son is fairly good at playing chess. See, we were at my husband's fancy college reunion a full year ago when we spotted kids younger our son playing full chess games on their iPads. Intrigued, I stopped the moms to ask how their tiny little preschoolers knew how to play chess.
"Oh, that" They have a chess program at preschool," one of the moms said nonchalantly.
In those two silly sentences I felt like I had failed as a mom. Not only does my child not speak Mandarin or play piano, but he still didn't know how to play chess. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but I hadn't even realized my kids were old enough to learn games.
Luckily for me, my son sat with one of the kids and fell in love with this fantastic iPad app called Dino Chess. In about a week he learned to play chess and now sets up the game to play any time he can. There are several classic games that we've now taught our children that all of us enjoy playing, both onscreen and off. A child of 4 can play any of these games.

Here they are:

Chess: Chess is great for teaching a child how to strategize, which is great for problem solving and sports. Our son learned how to play at 4 through the Dino Chess app, which teaches children about all the pieces in a fun and interactive way.
Tic-Tac-Toe: This game has saved us during long restaurant waits and helped us through many doctor's appointments. I let my kids win half the time and use opportunities to teac...