My daughter started reading recently; she’s grasping the basics slowly but surely. In the meanwhile, as part of her kindergarten homework, she has to do sight words. Her sight words are as simple as I, can, like, am, and more of the same. It’s important to make learning fun for our kids. So for those of you who enjoy playing games with your children, here are a few suggestions for pen and paper games that just need the two of you and some light to play.
Hangman
We played our first round of this on Friday. It’s hard to remember when this game was so entertaining for us as adults, but then what is the show Wheel of Fortune but a variant on hangman? Start with simple, straightforward words that you know your child knows. For example: their name, mommy, daddy, house, cat, dog and more of the same. It can take a few minutes for them to get the hang of it, but it won’t take long before they are playing like pros and wanting to set it up for themselves so you have to guess the letters.
Grocery Store Bingo
You can do this one of two ways. You can create a bingo card with common items that you’ll purchase at the store. You can cut out pictures from the sale paper for the store and then write in the name of the item. Your child has to identify an item when it’s added to the grocery cart and blot it on their card. When they get a BINGO – you can reward them with something small.
Letter Swap
When my daughter was learning to rhyme, I taught her how to spell a lot of words based on one set of sounds. For example, cat, hat, bat, mat, sat, etc. This game is a variant on that you and your child can take turns. You start by writing down one word and then the next person changes just one letter in it to create a new word, so forth and so on.
For example:
- Mat
- Cat
- Can
- Man
- Men
- Ten
- Den
- Dan
- Dam
- Sam
- Sat
- Etc. Etc. Etc
You can do variants on this game with your older children. You can do it using word relationships such as colors:
- Orange
- Fruit
- Sweet
- Candy
- Chocolate
- Milk
- Etc
These are games that can be played in the car and on the move and help teach your child free form thinking along with rational relationships. What word type games do you play with your child?