Teaching Preschool Color and Shapes with Family Games

Sometimes we all take a break in the middle of the day and play a game together. Most of the time, I just make sure we play games so that we all have fun together. I can get so caught up in things that I'll go from one task to the next and forget to have a little fun.

Today, after several pleas from my kids, I got out the Uno cards. Today I would be playing with six-year-old Ryan and three-year-old Maegan. In the past, Maegan would sit on my lap and help me with my cards; but today, she wanted to be her "own team".

Not feeling sure how things would go, I dealt seven cards to each of us. Maegan picked up her cards and held them in her hand.

I flipped over the first card and asked Maegan to go first. "Do you have a yellow card to put down?"

"Yep," she answered and put down a yellow card on top of the pile.

Round and round we went, with Maegan putting down the correct color on her turn all by herself. Then finally a turn came that she didn't have the right color.

"Do you have a card," I asked, pointing to the large symbol in the middle of the card, "that has a circle like this one?"

While I still had my finger next to the symbol, she went through each card, one a time. She carefully checked to see if she had a "match" - and when she found one, she put it down on top of the pile.

The game was a great success--especially since she won the first round!

"That's one point for the team 'My Little Pony' (as she had named her team)," I congratulated her. She beamed with pride. She had won and she had done it all by herself.

As I sat there admiring her accomplishment, I realized how easy it is to miss opportunities like this that are educational in nature. This game taught her taking turns, sorting, colors, and shapes.

It's always a great asset as a home school parent to have one more way to help our kids learn and practice what they've been learning. So, "Uno away"!!