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 :)

Books - Homemade (Shapes)

This is our shapes book. It has all the "standard" shapes. Octagon, Circle, Diamond, Rectangle, Crescent, Star, Oval, Heart, Square & Triangle. It has the shape "word" on one page and the next page has a picture of that shape (and so on). There are no pictures on the pages that have words. That way I knew she was reading the words and just not guessing by looking at the pictures.

I glued these flashcards into the book for all the pictures.