A plethora of websites offer free online educational games geared toward kids. Kaboose Funschool and Learning Games for Kids are just two examples. Kaboose offers games delving into Math, Language Arts, Science, Geography, History, Sports, Art and Music subjects; activities are suitable for preschool and elementary students. An example game is called "Dr. Brain's Robot," which involves players practicing math facts to power a robot in Dr. Brain's laboratory. Learning Games for Kids also offers activities for major subject areas as well as healthy eating, space, rhyming and typing-themed games. Preschoolers can play a matching game to learn the alphabet, and elementary students will enjoy "Birds Word-o-Rama," an entertaining trivia game show.
Organize a scavenger hunt for your kids inside the house or outside if the weather is fine. For younger kids who are early readers, make a list of different colors by writing each word in its corresponding color. You can also make a list of shapes, by drawing the shape and writing its name. Challenge youngsters to find an object of each color or shape. Older children can reinforce vocabulary and learn new words by trying to find one object that begins with every letter of the alphabet. FunScavengerHunts.net recommends organizing an alphabet hunt that focuses on food, which you can facilitate at the local grocery store.
All you need for this mathematical game is a deck of cards, a pencil and paper. Players take turns flipping over two cards and performing an operation to ultimately reach a point goal. Each turn, players get to decide which operation they will perform. For older children, an end goal of 150 points may be appropriate. If these players are capable of dividing, multiplying, adding and subtracting the two numbers, you can explain that the winner must reach exactly 150 points. For younger children, who might only add or subtract two numbers, an end goal of 30, 40 or 50 points may be appropriate. Encourage early learners to write down each equation.
Dictionary Deception can be a fun game for the whole family. Just grab a dictionary, a pad of paper and pencils for each player. The first player finds an obscure word in the dictionary. The other players write down the word and what they think the word means. The first player who picked the word reads all the definitions out loud. Each player votes for what she thinks is the correct definition. If someone wrote down the correct definition, he gets a point. If someone's definition was voted for, even if incorrect, she gets a point. The game proceeds with players taking turns picking unknown words out of the dictionary.