Fun learning games your child will love

Looking for simple learning games your child will love? The best thing about playing games with your child is that you’re helping them learn valuable milestones without them even realising they’re developing their listening and memory skills, vocabulary, and counting ability in the process.  

Here are 10 top learning games that will help to nurture your child’s imagination and give them a sense of adventure:  

Nursery rhyme favourites

To play this listening game, recite a nursery rhyme or song that your child knows, but change one line and see if your child catches the error. For example: “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great ball.” This one is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser if you belt out the lyrics to her favourite song and pretend that you don’t know that you’ve made a mistake.

Mix-and-match

First, encourage your child to collect objects such as rocks, shells, or leaves and ask her to help you sort them into big and small piles. Then ask her to sort them without telling you how, and when she’s done, try to guess what her process was. The game helps kids recognise patterns and develop pre-math skills.

Let’s imagine

Both players close their eyes, and one person chooses a location, such as the jungle, Mars, or the bottom of the ocean. Then, both of you open your eyes and take turns saying what you see or feel and what you are doing.  This is ideal for the early morning when your child is awake, but you’re not quite there yet. It helps to develop skills for reading like imagination, vocabulary, and narrative skills.

Name that theme

Name five related things and ask your child what they have in common. For example, fridge, oven, sink, dishes, and food are all things you find in the kitchen. Take turns, giving the clues, and guessing. This game helps develop listening skills, the concept of categorisation, and memory.

Memory games

To play this memory game, start with four objects and put them on a tray. Let your child look at it for a minute, and then have him close his eyes. Remove one object. Tell him to open his eyes again and to determine what is missing. With each round, swap out some of the objects for different ones.

What’s in the box?

Cut two fist-sized holes into opposite sides of a cardboard box. On your side, put an object into the box (like a ball or a banana), and then have your child put her hand through the hole on her side and guess what she’s touching. Pre-school children tend to be more visual, and this game helps them understand their sense of touch.

Flipping coins

Each player lines up five to 10 coins, face-up. After someone says, “Go!” the first person to turn over all her coins wins. This game builds the finger strength and pincer grip needed for writing. However, it is not suitable for kids under three as coins are a choking hazard.

The highest dice

Using the kind with dots (and not numbers), see who throws the highest number. Playing with dice helps kids learn the number of dots without counting them, an important maths skill. You can also play this game by drawing one to six circles on index cards and shuffling the deck. Have your child choose a card and then put down that many crayons, cars, or other small toys next to it. This version helps children understand that numbers represent a quantity and can correspond with objects.

Looking for shapes

To play this game, which builds both visual and attention skills, ask your child to walk around your house looking for circles. See who can find various them like the biggest one, the smallest one, a red one, and so on. Move on to other shapes like squares and triangles.

Leaping frogs

Challenge your child to jump from one spot to another in a certain number of steps. For example, across the hall in three jumps, or by jumping on five pillows to get across the living room without touching the floor. The game boosts listening skills and helps kids practice counting.