| The Game Page! |
| Infant Games-- playing games with an infant can be very simple, lots of touching and talking is all you need to do. Infants are easy to please, as long as you are touching them and talking to them, they love the game! Examples: Touch their eye, say eye, touch their ear, say ear, touch their nose, say nose, touch their cheek, say cheek, touch their mouth, say mouth, touch their chin, say chin, then tickle them under their chin! They will love this game. The great thing about this game, the infants are learning body parts while they are playing! Use your imagination, go with any type of game from pat a cake, to body parts, move their legs, touch their belly's, do piggy wiggy on their toes. They just love the contact and the talking! |
| Toddler Games-- Memory games with cards might be hard to play with a toddler, they still put lots of things in their mouth at this age. So the memory cards would probably get chewed on. But toddlers love to play the memory game. To adjust to this, you can use anything around your house that comes in pairs or two items alike. For example, a pair of socks, two spoons, two blocks, a pair of shoes, mittens, two balls, etc. Spread this items on the floor, mixed up so everything is not with its mate. Now cover each item up with a washcloth or small piece of material. Toddlers love this game, it has hands on learning, they can touch the item, and they love the surprise of uncovering the match to the item they have in their hand. Another game we like to play with the toddlers is the matching game. Again we just use regular stuff we have around the house. Like a plastic plate and a spoon, a sock and a shoe, a blanket and a pillow, a coat and mittens, paper and crayon, etc. You get the picture, items that go together. Now spread all the items on a low table or on the floor. Have each toddler take a turn to see if they can find anything that goes together. This is also a popular game at my daycare. |
| More Toddler Games-- This is the color game, we place different items of the one color on a low table. We add a couple of items of a different color. The toddlers have to pick out the color we have picked. For example: on the table we have a red truck, a red crayon, a red book, a red ball, a red dress, a red mitten, and a red shoe. We also placed a blue ball, blue truck, and a green ball and a green tractor on the table. The teacher instructs the toddler to pick up the red colored items. If they pick up the wrong colored item, she asks them are you for sure that is red? |
| Preschoolers- The games are unlimited for this age group. They like to be active, and they are wanting to learn about everything! Some of our favorite games, we do the memory game like the toddlers do but we use more items, we also do the matching game but again the items to match are a little harder. Another game we like to play is sequencing. Before you can play this game, you have to do an activity or craft. As you go through the steps, take pictures. Print out the pictures or have them developed. Laminate them or paste them on cardboard backs. Lay out the pictures and have the children place them in the correct order. The preschool children love this game, because they are the stars! You can make pictures of many different activities, like getting ready for lunch, putting on outer wear, coats, mittens, boots, etc. Also baking a cake, painting a picture, just about any activity that has more than three steps will work. Dress up games- do a beauty shop, have actual hair dryers, curling irons, (make sure you cut off the cords first) combs, clips, a cape, (beauty shops will usually donate you their old capes that have become torn or have bleach spots), a tub for the sink, towels, etc. Have the children fix each other's hair, have them fix your hair! Fireman! This game also helps in teaching the children the importance of fire drills. Fireman hats, (lots of fire departments have plastic hats they give away), big boots, raincoats, a couple of big cardboard drawings of flames, let the children use their imagination, and be firemen, and save everyone! The list is endless for the preschool child, do not just give them board games or video games to play. Let them use their imagination, like saving a bunch of cardboard boxes that cereal, and crackers come in. Give them some blank paper and have them make pictures of the different buildings in their town, then glue the papers onto the cardboard boxes. Now they can "play" with their cars and trucks in their own town! Between their imagination and yours the games are endless! |
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Continue scrolling down for infant, toddler and preschool games! Also check out our new "NEWS" page to see what exciting game we are going play against the parents! |
| To help toddlers develop hand and eye coordination. Place many small objects in a bowl, then have the children transfer the objects by color, shape, etc, into muffin tins. Then back again. Rainy day, the children got the blahs? Bring out some sheets or blankets, and drape them around the furniture. Now they can have caves, hidden hide ways, let their imagination go wild. They can play to their hearts content! |
It does not take a lot of money to be a good parent, it does not take a lot of material items, like game boys, TV, videos, computers, etc., to be a good parent. All any child really wants, no matter what the age --- is just to spend some quality time with you, the parent. You can do this, many ways --- going for walks/hikes in local parks reading a book together, board games are great fun! Even walking through the mall, just window shopping can be special. Take a few moments out of every day, and spend with your child, and the key here is --- (drum roll please) LISTEN to your child, I mean really LISTEN. Not just with half an ear, and come on be honest, we all have done it. Spend some quality time and take this time to listen, you might just be surprised to find out how interesting your child really is! |