Most people play by the rules of games…and I must admit that SimplyFun makes it easy to do this by giving you quick rules so that you can get started right away and then figure out the more intricate rules as you go along. But, when you have boys ages 2 and 4, the rules go pretty much right out the window from the start. I always joke when I’m talking about SimplyFun games that I don’t know the actual rules of the games…just the 4 yr old version because we make up the rules to most of the games to fit the kids.
For example, Let’s Jet, which is currently my 4 yr old’s favorite game. This is a game with a 3 ft board that’s a map of the world. There are cities around the world and you’re supposed to fly your airplane to the different cities and collect points when you have the matching card. When you’re a 4 yr old boy who is obsessed with animals though, it’s way more fun to take your little Schleich animals and put them in their correct habitat. He can put the panda in China and the kangaroo in Australia. He knows that the polar bears live in 
the Arctic and the penguins live in the Antarctic, but that the seals swim back and forth between them. He’s learned the names of the continents, the oceans and some countries. So I’m going to say that this game, although meant for ages 8 and up, has served him well (he started playing it at 3 and will be playing it until he’s an adult).
So the moral of the story is this: Just because the box says ages 8 & up, don’t assume that you can’t modify the game a bit for younger kids. This makes the games much more fun and much more valuable to your family because you will be able to play the games as they grow!
If you need any suggestions on how to modify a game to fit younger…or older kids (I have some ideas on that too), just let me know….I’m happy to share!