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Educational Game Ideas

When you are teaching your children at home or in a classroom, you can create educational games to teach them in an enjoyable way. Hands-on games allow the children a chance to have fun while learning at the same time. Games also build fine motor skills and coordination and improve thinking. Adjust the games to easy or difficult depending on the ages of the children. Entice the children to try their best by awarding small prizes to all game winners.

Memory Games
- Play a basic memory game by printing pictures of animals, cartoon characters or shoes (two of each picture). Place the picture face down on a table, and have the children play a game of memory. If a child finds a match, she can go again. The child with the most matches wins the game. Add fewer cards to make the game easier and more cards to make the game more difficult. For another memory game, place several random items on a tray. Tell the children to look at the items, and then take the tray out of the room. Remove an item and bring the tray back in the room. The first player to tell you the item that is missing wins the game.
Number Games
- Place 10 jars, labeled 1 through 10, on a table, along with several items like coins, marbles, candy pieces and small blocks. Have young children place the correct amount of items in each jar. For example, they must place one marble in the jar labeled "1" and 10 coins in the jar labeled "10." You can print worksheets, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, for older children. Allow the children time to practice. After the children practice, give each player a sheet. The first child to complete all the math problems in the fastest amount of time wins the game.
Letter Games
- Make letter recognition games easy with a package of refrigerator magnets. For young children, simply call out a letter and have them find the correct letter. You can also call out a word and have them spell out the word, using the letters on a chalkboard. For a harder game, have two children at a time stand at the chalkboard, each with a box of magnetic letters. Say "two-letter," "three-letter" or "four-letter word." The children will have to spell out a two-, three- or four-letter word using the magnets. The child who does this the fastest wins the game.
Money Games
- Create bags of money, using play money. Have the children practice counting the exact amount of money in each bag. For young children, give them a few coins to count. Older children can have a bag of bills and coins to count. Make a game by having the children compete to see who can correctly count their bags of money in the fastest amount of time.

Kids Games