There are lots of great preschool games that children play each day. Many times they’ll play with other children at preschool, or just with one good friend. Sometimes they might even play their favorite games just by themselves. And there’s no reasons why you can’t play some of those games at home, either.
Preschool games have two main intentions:
- First, to let your child have fun and just be a kid;
- Second, to allow them to learn;
That’s right, games can be fun and educational, and children often won’t know the difference. Listed below are several great games that you can play with your child at home, and that they’ll want to bring to preschool next time they go.
Flashcard Games
There are lots of flashcard games that will help your young preschool-aged child learn letters, numbers, words, shapes, sizes, math, you name it really! If there’s something to learn, there’s a flashcard for it. Try out some of these fun preschool flashcard games:
- Run & Touch: Probably one of the simplest games is Run & Touch. All you have to do is lay down several flashcards and let your child run and touch them, saying the name as they do so. To make it a little more interesting try it in a big room, in multiple rooms, or even outside.
- Timed Race: One of the best times we had in my preschool classes was doing flashcard games that were timed. We’d usually have a small group of 5 to 10 students and I’d lay out about 10 flashcards with words or pictures on them. They’d have to touch each one, say it correctly, and then move on to the next one. The person that was the fastest won. Let me tell you; they loved it!
- Ball Battle: Kids love throwing balls, no question about that. Why not take their love for that and join it with fun and educational preschool flashcards? Simply line up a bunch of flashcards in a row and let them throw away. Thing is, they have to say the name each time they throw. To make it more fun put them higher up, around the room, or even hidden outside.
Your Child’s Interaction in Games
When your child is playing games they’ll often be interacting with other kids around them. They’ll have to play be a predetermined set of rules that everyone’s agreed on. They’ll have to cooperate and share, plan and execute.
It doesn’t matter what game your child is playing at preschool with other kids, the point is that they’ll be engaging in a group activity that increases their social skills while at the same time stimulating their problem solving. And don’t forget that it’s fun!
Children that play games with their peers in preschool will do so much better when they get to kindergarten. Preschool allows kids to develop more fully in social settings, something that will be required from them on day 1 of kindergarten. The more they learn rules, teamwork, sharing, collaboration, problem solving, and creative thinking, the better they’ll be in the future.
And Preschool games allow children to learn all of those things and more. So give your child a leg up on learning today; get them into a preschool with awesome games!