Four Fun Kindergarten Educational Games

When children are between the ages of about three and six, one of the most important things you can do for them is to integrate their play with learning. Your child may think that he or she is playing a "game," when in fact they are learning a variety of skills, such as cooperative skills and social norms, as well as learning how to be a good friend, citizen, and human being. The real key is to find kindergarten learning games that are interactive and interesting for your child.

Here are a few educational games for kindergarteners that have proven to be fun for children while teaching them fundamental skills they will need later in life:

1. Read to a Toy or Doll - Young children love to read, and they also love to play with their toys and dolls. Put them in the role of a parent and have them read to their toy or doll just like their parents read to them. Reading out loud provides an excellent opportunity for your child to gain self-confidence in his or her reading skills and also enables you to see what words they need to work on. Many children will pretend to read before they're able to actually recognize written words. Either way, reading aloud helps children prepare for a life full of literacy.


2. Grow a Plant - Almost everyone can remember back to when they were in school and they grew their first bean plant. It is an easy way to teach young children about the power of the sun, the need for water, and most of all - patience. It can take several weeks before the bean plant breaks through the ground, but once it does, it is another opportunity to teach your child about responsibility and care. In fact, learning to take care of a plant is a good stepping stone to taking care of a pet.


3. Create an Orchestra - There are many kindergarten educational games that involve making music, and one way that you can foster a child's imagination is to set them loose in the kitchen or any other room of the house and have them figure out ways to make noise. Then, bring all the "instruments" together to play along to one of their favorite songs. Whether it is a shampoo bottle, a pot, some glasses, or just a couple of pencils pounding on cardboard, they will learn about rhythm, sound, and how to be imaginative.


4. Counting Games - Create a worksheet with numbers from 1 to 10 and then ask your child to go around the home and find something of which there is only one item (maybe the refrigerator), something of which there is only two items (sinks?), etc. As the numbers get higher, they will have a harder time, so they will really have to work at not only being creative but also learning to count over and over again.

By combining play time with loosely structured kindergarten learning games, you enable your child to learn and help prepare them for a successful future in the first years of school.