A childhood favorite game just got an upgrade!

I spent hours and hours playing matching games when I was growing up. Actually I can really claim that many of my study skills were learned through matching games as I tend to use the same strategy now for studying as I did for solving these puzzle games, as strange as that sounds.

The Friendly Animals matching game by EeBoo is exactly how I remember matching games to be with one major difference, unlike those flimsy primary colored cards I played with as a child, the cards are illustrated in stunningly gorgeous pastel illustrations and the cards are on a very heavy stock which barring someone attempting to eat one (aka Connor) they should easily last us till the grandkids come along.

Connor is not nearly old enough yet to play a matching game but we do really enjoy looking at the pictures. Currently I am using them as sort of an animal flash card set and we talk about each of the animals on cards. My older testers though really enjoyed the memory card game and the funny animal faces provoked a giggle or two.
On the other hand if you have a toddler or preschooler the EeBoo Animal Sounds puzzle pairs is a great learning tool and game for the younger crowd. The set comes in two piece puzzles with the mother animal on one side and her baby on the other, its your job to find which baby goes with what mother. Though each of the cards is labeled reading is certainly not a requirement to play with the puzzle! I absolutely love this set as its a fun way to teach toddlers and young children to associate baby animals with their bigger counterparts, its also a great way for readers to learn the correct names for each baby animal as a baby horse is a foal (not a pony for all of the guys out there that seem to have missed the boat on that one!! heh).

Eeboo actually makes several versions of these games all of which I had a really difficult time choosing between. I especially love the Simple Words puzzle pairs which matches simple words to their picture counterparts a great tool for toddlers just learning to read! I also had a really rough time picking my favorite matching game, I ended up choosing the friendly animals only because I knew Connor would have some associations already to the animal pictures but I really was tempted to go with the Robots or Once Upon a Time, as well both are pretty cool! There are also a larger card set made especially for preschoolers including a Colors and Animals preschool matching games!

Go check out Eeboo's full selection of games and paper goods. I know I have quite a few of their items on our wish list including the tray puzzles, Tell Me a Story cards and the great collection of classic card games (prettier than you have ever seen them!).