Games - Overview

Most of the games that I have posted can be used with anything you want to teach - letters, sounds, words, colors, shapes etc. I have also listed where I received the game idea from. Most of the books that I got ideas from are out of print, but I'm sure you want still find them on ebay or the library. There are over 35 different games listed under Games - Explanations, so make sure that you click "older posts" when you get to the bottom of a page, so you don't miss any games.

Review of Games

Click on the link above for a quick review of most of the games that I played with my boys. Any new games that I played with Hannah are covered on the blog.

Here are some notes from when I was teaching my son to read:

• I would never criticize Takeshi. If he got one wrong I would simply say the correct answer. He would or wouldn’t repeat it, either way I would say “great job” or “very good”.

• Sometimes he would say a word/letter/sound that I didn’t think he knew and I would say, “How did you know that ____?” Takeshi would just smile, he thought it was so fun to trick me :)
  
  
• A lot of times Takeshi would say, “I’m the mama.” And you’re “Kakeshi”. I would still get him to write or say it himself by saying “Mama, can you show me how…” or “Mama, what is this?” Takeshi would be more than happy to help me.
  

Games - Shapes and Colors "Memory Match"

Memory Match

I bought these "Memory Match" cards at Lakeshore Learning, but we never played Memory with them. I laminated them for durability and made up our own game. I would pick 2 of every color and spread them on the floor like so...

Then I would say "I'm going to get the purple card first!" (or purple heart, or yellow, or square). Hannah would jump at the chance to get it first! If she wasn't sure of a color and/or shape I would actually get to the card and the she would quickly "snach" it out of my fingers.

This game game with tons of cards so we would never use all of them in one game.

Here's a closeup of the cards... this is a great set!

Games - Shapes

Here is some a cute set of shapes that I bought at Lakeshore Learning. I put magnets on the backs and then put the big shapes on the Dry Erase Board (or floor) and then gave Hannah the small circle/oval/square/etc. and say "Find the BIG red square on the board." "Can you find it?" "Great job!!"

After she knew what the color names were I would say "Find the square!" "Great job!!" "You are so smart!"

This is also a dual purpose game, since the shapes are all different colors too :)

Games - Colors

Here is some simple colors that I bought at Lakeshore Learning. I put magnets on the backs and then put the big colors on the Dry Erase Board (or floor) and then gave Hannah the small blue/green/red/etc. crayon and say "Find the BIG blue crayon on the board." "Can you find it?" "Great job!!"

After she knew what the color names were I would say "Find the blue crayon!" "Great job!!" "You are so smart!" I would also make a point of saying the colors all around us. Like...

"Here's your red shirt"
"Look at the green grass"
"What a pretty purple flower!"

Games - Little Mouse, Little Mouse

This game is called "Little Mouse, Little Mouse" You hide the little mouse under one of the houses (ok, they are barns... but at the time, I couldn't find clipart for a house that I liked). After you hide the mouse then your child can look.

Me: "Little Mouse, Little Mouse are you hiding in the... what color?... "
Hannah: "Blue house!"
Me: looking under the blue house "No, he's not in the blue house..."
Me: "Little Mouse, Little Mouse are you hiding in the.... what color?... ".

and repeat, and repeat until the mouse if found.

We played this at our library storytime and Hannah loved it. Of course, when we played it at home she had to be the mommy and I was the child finding the mouse. You could also play it with shapes too, or letters....

House Clipart - (from this site)
 Mouse Clipart - (from this site)
Barn Clipart - (don't have the original site I downloaded it from, sorry!)

Here is a video of us playing "Little Mouse, Little Mouse"

Just make one mouse and as many house colors as you could like. You can use paper (colored and laminated) like we did, or you can use colored felt and a felt board. Since we don't have a felt board, I just put magnets on the back of my laminated paper houses and used my dry erase board.