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After all of this game schooling, it’s time to review and strengthen our memories to be able to hold on to all of our new skills! Keeping those little minds sharp and practicing some of our new found knowledge is easy with game schooling using memory games.
Memory games are probably the easiest to set up and the variety is unending. We enjoy this Dr. Seuss memory game, but they literally make them with nearly every character and theme you can think of. We also have a Minion’s themed one and a Frozen themed one.
Benefits of memory games
The most obvious benefit of memory games is that they strengthen memory! Our Dr. Seuss game has 72 tiles so that’s quite a few combinations to remember.
Aside from strengthening memory, these games foster patience. At first Little Dude really struggled with only being able to turn over two tiles at a time, but with practice and encouragement he started to understand the purpose of the game. He was so excited when he made his first match and had no problem sticking to the rules after that.
Taking turns and staying organized are a few more skills strengthened through memory games. Keeping all those tiles in order and in their original spots (so you can find the match later) is actually a lot to ask of a five and three year old.
Using memory games to reinforce new concepts:
While Dr. Seuss characters and Minions are cute they aren’t exactly educational in and of themselves. I wanted a memory game we could use to practice alphabet, math, shapes, and other topics we were working on. To buy a memory game with each of those themes though was not in my budget and frankly, where would I keep them all?! So I deiced to make my own!
DIY chalkboard memory game:
Here’s what you’ll need to make your own chalkboard memory game:
That’s it! Super simple. Of course you could always use chalkboard paint instead of stickers, but the stickers were a huge time saver for me, and work just as well. I went with these natural wood rounds for an added sensory benefit, but you could also use these smooth wood rounds too for a more uniform look.
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I love that I can do a review of so many different subjects with these. Here are a few examples:
- Match uppercase letters
- Match lowercase letters
- Uppercase to lowercase
- Shapes
- Numbers
- Sight words
- Match simple addition/subtraction sums (ex: 3+4=7 matches 9-2=7)
- Match colors (just use colored chalk or color chalk markers)
- Draw clock faces and match times
This can easily be adapted as your child grows too. Try matching state and capital names, or presidents with the years they were in office.There are so many possibilities! And it’s all erasable so it’s like having all of these memory games in one.
I look forward to sharing my last two game schooling subjects with you. Next we’re looking at games for fine and gross motor practice.
Visit my Game Schooling Series page here!
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