DIY Memory Game: Fun with the Kids. Part 1.

My new found family position as a work from home mama has stretched my creativity with making sure the kids get the appropriate learning time. Balancing structured activities versus independent play versus cleaning versus writing versus editing versus cooking versus....well, you get the idea.

One of the kids favorite games is numerous rounds of Memory. You know, the classic card matching game? Yep, that one! If allowed, the kids would go on for hours. And it gets serious! Samuel yells at Trinity that it's not her turn. And Sophia is heard loud and clear when someone attempts to skip her.

The kids are getting VERY good at remembering the pictures on the cards as well as their positions on the respective board. So today I had an epiphany. Why not take it a bit further? A game of memory that includes items needing to help them academically: shapes, colors, letters, numbers and words. Word! Further, I decided to make the cards myself...PERECT!

For the #DIY Memory Game you'll need the following items:

• Paper of your preferred kind. I used construction paper because this is what I had on-hand and I wanted to get started right away. I bought the construction paper a few weeks ago from my local Dollar General Store @ roughly $2.
• Scissors. I used the kid's scissors, a little small for my hands, but usable. Again, purchased at Dollar General for about $2.
• Something to write with. Recommended: Use pencil for easy clean-up if you make mistakes.

First, on construction paper, I traced the outline of one of the current memory cards we have. This is optional. It was time-consuming but I was so excited about this idea that I took the time to do it anyway.

 

 

 

 

Next, I cut out the shapes I previously traced.

 

 



 

After cutting, the stack of cards looked like this.

 

 

 

My daughter is 5, in kindergarten and my step-son is right behind her at 4. We've been working on phonics, letter recognition and my daughter is consistently reading 3 to 4 letter words. However, she struggles with being consistent at those words. I decided to put her "snap words" from her class (words her teacher says they should know in a "snap" by the end of the school year) along with Dolch words on the cards. The repetition of seeing the words will be a great exercise in memorizing the words. Words I used include:

• the
• at
• with
• am
• in
• it
• this
• that

Of course the kids were interested in what I was doing and wanted to help. I used this as an opportunity to test them on the words, sound them out and spell them. This step is optional. Their penmanship and punctuation weren't the best but this is always something I can work with them on in the future. Further, they can look back on these cards a few months from now and see their progress.

 

Because I used construction paper, the cards were a bit flimsy. Tomorrow I'll show you part 2 of the finished product! I plan to go to Kinko's to get the cards laminated in order to make them more durable over time and ready for play!

Stay tuned!