My daughter Emma was super busy the other day lining up her flash cards in long rows. I noticed when she ran upstairs that she was up to something. She came down the stairs with a few Matchbox cars.

“What are you up to?” I asked her. She proceeded to show me her game that she made up and asked me to play.

I just had to ask her if I could share it with you guys because it was so fun! Of course she said yes and is excited to see her own ideas on the blog

Easy Learn to Read Activity

Do you have any first words flash cards? They are really easy to make yourself. You can see how I make them or print off some free ABC flash cards here. Combine them with this game idea and you’ll have an easy go to learn to read activity!

To play the game, line up your flash cards for each person who is playing and grab a car as your playing piece. Pick a starting line and then take turns reading a card. If you get it right drive your car along the ‘road’ if you are wrong stay put.

Help your children with the word or letter if they get it wrong so they can get it right the next time. You don’t want this to be a negative experience, just a fun game for review.

Introduce a dice to combine counting and reading and make the game a little more interesting for older children.

If your children aren’t motivated by competition, make it a cooperative game by having just 1 car and flash card road for everyone and see how fast you can make it to the finish line. You could also keep adding cards to make the road longer and see how long you can make it.

Emma wants to know if you liked the game, so please leave a comment and I’ll let her know!

The post Learn to Read Activity: Flash Card Races first appeared on True Aim.

Children can learn very quickly from reviewing material constantly.  To get them excited about review, I introduce simple games that are quick and fun.  Then, I reward their efforts with Popsicle sticks.  Here’s how we played flash card mountain.

Lego Duplo Flash Card Game

First, we built our mountain.  We made a pyramid which gave me a chance to review shapes too.  You can build anything with recognizable “spaces” that your place markers can move along.  It could be stairs, or a maze, or “rocks in a pond” (individual squares placed on a board).  I like to help spark the children’s imagination by helping them come up with a story about the mountain.  This makes our game even more exciting.

Next, choose your place markers.  We used Lego Duplo people, but we have also used plastic animal toys.  You’ll also need some flash cards of course!

The object of the game is to get to the top of the mountain first!  Maybe your children will be the first to save their baby (like my daughters pretend) or the first to slay the dragon!  Whatever you make your game to be, play goes like this:

Do a flash card.

If you get it right you get to move ahead.  I give my children a reward too.  If you don’t get it right you have to stay where you are.  I usually save that card so my children can try again on their next turn.

Don’t forget to tease and have lots of fun!  “Oh no Mom, I fell down the mountain on my head!  Bonk Bonk!  Lol.”

Check out my top 10 flash card games, get some free flash cards and turn review time into play time!

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The post Lego Duplo Learning Game: Flash Card Mountain! first appeared on True Aim.

To make your own flash cards you will need :

• Flash Card (Buisness card) Printable Template
• Printer
• Cardstock
• Printable Business Cards (optional) *affiliate link
• Laminator (optional) *affiliate link

I use these flash cards to do TONS of fun learning activities.  You can teach your children letter recognition, letter sounds, sight words, number recognition, addition, subtraction, shape recognition, color recognition and more.  Just download a business card template and start typing in what you want on your cards.  Printing the cards on printable business cards ensures that they are all the same size and it saves a lot of time.  But you can also print them on card stock.  You might want to laminate them so they last.

Free Printable Flash Cards

Don’t have time to make your own cards?  Here are some freebies:

Free Addition Flash Cards

Free Music Note Flash Cards

Free Alphabet Flash Cards

10+ Free Printable Flash Cards

208 Free Printable Flash Cards

Top 10 Flash Card Games

You can make learning with flash cards fun with these games.   My children love the hands on learning experiences and the games really work!  They increase knowledge, improve memory like nootropics from modafinilnet.com, and motor skills.  You may never go back to plain old flash cards!

Flash Card Musical Chairs

Reading Road

Cups and Card

I Can Read More Than You

Flash Card Hide and Seek

Play Board Games with Flash Cards

Flash Card Pop!

Flash Cards in a Box!

Flash Card Buried Treasure!

Lego Flash Card Math

Lego Flash Card Mountain Game

Check out even more Flash Card Resources on my Flash Card Pinterest Board.

These activities go great with my learning eBooks for kids!

Part of the School’s Out series from KBN!

The post Top 10 Flash Card Games and DIY Flash Cards first appeared on True Aim.

Games are universal learning tools!  They are effective for all ages, and cultures because they turn learning into entertainment.  And there’s no need to spend extra money on learning games for your kids when you probably have a ginormous game closet already!  Simply use a little creativity to alter the game and turn math, reading, and writing into an experience your children will never forget.

How to Turn Any Board Game into a Learning Game

Board games can be educational by themselves.  But if you want to tailor the game to fit your lesson, just add flash cards.

Here are some of the games we altered and played:

Risk

1. Find your man.  Pass out 5-7 soldiers (or use small toys) to your children and have them place 1 soldier in a country space.  Tell them that their men are lost and they must complete all the missions to save all of them.  Have them read a flash card (missions), numbers or letters, to be able to retrieve one man.  There can be multiple winners in this game or you can make it a cooperative game and have everyone help save the soldiers.

2.  Conquerors.  Play the same way as above except, instead of saving the soldiers, you can take another player’s soldiers away.

3.  Country Find.  Use the risk country cards to play a matching game.  Pass out the cards to your children and see how fast they can match their soldiers with their country card.

Monopoly

1.  Counting skills.  Use the original rules minus the money.  Roll the dice, count the dots and move your piece, seeing who can collect the most properties.  If you land on the property first you get it!

2.  Sight Word Practice.  Again, play without using money.  Place flashcards on all of the spaces and see who can read the most!

3.  Matching Game.  Deal some of the property cards to your children and see who can match their cards to the right properties on the board first.

Candy Land

This game isn’t an adult game, but my kids love it!  I, on the other hand, would throw it out if I didn’t see a post about using it to practice sight words.  The Blogger has some special cards you can buy, and I did!  But then I realized that I didn’t need the special cards and could use the flash cards I already have and the color cards that already come in the game.  Face palm!

1. Secret Pass Word.  Simply tell your children that in order to get a color card and move their piece they have to figure out what the secret pass word is.  The beauty of doing it this way is that you can use any kind of flash cards or even just ask them questions to make it a math, history, even a geography game!

2. Memory Game.  You can use the color cards to play a simple memory game.

There are so many other possibilities!  Have you changed your adult board games to play with your children?  How did you do it?  I would love to read your comments!

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The post Turn Any Board Game into a Learning Game first appeared on True Aim.

To play, you only need a box and things to hide.  We made a box out of our Lego Duplos, but you can use anything you have around the house.  Then one person picks an object to hide in the box and the other person guesses what it is by using their sense of touch.

For older children, have them ask questions to see if they can guess what the object is without touching it.  You can make cards with questions, like “What color is it,” “What room in the house is it from” or “Can you eat it?”

If you have elementary level children, you can incorporate math, reading, even history questions into the game.  Simply hide a flash card in the box and give them clues to help them guess.  For example, hide a 7+3 flash card in the box and give them a clue, “The answer to this addition equation is 10.”

For younger children, show them a handful of objects that you will pick from to hide in the box so they have some choices to guess from.

If your preschooler is struggling, use descriptive words to ask them what they feel and help them guess.  “Is it hard like a rock?”  “Is it soft like a blanket?”  “Is it smooth like the slide?”  Comparing the word to an object they are familiar with will help them understand the vocabulary even if they are unfamiliar with the word.

You can also use the box to teach your babies and toddlers new vocabulary.  Simply show your child a new object and tell him it’s name.  Place it in the box and ask, “Where is the bread?”  When they find it, praise them, “Good job! You found the bread!”  They will love it, just like my Colton.  Be prepared!  They will want to do it over and over again.

The next time you need a great learning game to play with your kids, I hope you will try this simple guessing game.

Thanks for reading!

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The post Learning Game for Kids: What’s Inside? first appeared on True Aim.

Opps, Audrey caught me reading the card wrong!

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The post Educational Carnival Games: Buried Treasure first appeared on True Aim.

Is your child a pirate searching for buried treasure?
Is she a fairy gathering magic jewels?  

To play this flashcard game, choose your treasure flashcards.  They could be numbers, shapes, words, and even sentences.  Have your pirates children go into the other room while you hide them.  You could also enlist a First Mate helper to hide them for you.

Tell them when you are ready and let the mad scramble begin!

After they find them, have them each take a turn telling you what is on their flashcards.

“What does “T” say, Emma?”

Whoever finds and reads the most can take a turn hiding them.  I like to reward my pirates children with Popsicle Sticks.  However, the reward can be as simple as getting a turn to hide the flashcards.
Keep the game fresh and exciting by creating new scenarios.
Have fun!

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The post Flashcard Hide and Seek first appeared on True Aim.

Do your kids need to get their wiggles out?

Put a new twist on an old game.  Help your children learn and burn off some energy by playing Flash Card Musical Chairs.  This game is so simple, but the kids love it.  I watch a 1st grader sometimes and he begs me to play this game.

Just like in the regular musical chairs I start the music and the kids run around the chairs. Sometimes I have them jump like a bunny or take big Goliath steps.  Occasionally I really get them going by reaching out and pretending to grab them.  When the music stops everyone sits down as fast as they can.  The first person who sits down gets to do a flash card first.  I like to give everyone a turn to do a card and then I reward them with a Popsicle Stick.

You could adjust play so whoever sits down last doesn’t get to do a card, but I like to give everyone a chance as long as they are playing the game right.  I don’t use one less chair and I don’t take away chairs.  Obviously, you can play any way you want.

I love this game because kids of all ages can play, but I can still challenge them individually by selecting flash cards according to their individual abilities.  Plus, the game helps the blood flow and makes it easier for them to remember the material.  I know that they will never forget playing this flash card game!

Next time your kids need to burn off some energy, don’t just make them drop and give you 20.  Wear them out and teach them something at the same time.

Have Fun!

And try my other great Flash Card Games

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Play a Simple Reading Game

For your trip you will need:

Flash Cards with letters and words

Rewards or Treats

A Car or Toy (Optional)

Tell your child they are going on a trip down the reading road.  Their destination?  Will it be the buried  treasure, the candy store, outer space?  You must decide.

Next, set up a little story for your kids like, “Emma, you must drive on the road to find the candy store, but you have to find the secret word to get in and get a treat.”  Place the letters that spell the word in a row and then place the reward or treat at the end.

Have your children find the secret word by saying each letter sound and then sounding out the  whole word at the end.

Like Audrey, your child can use a toy to travel down the road as she reads each card.  Audrey likes to imagine that the dinosaur is going to the store to get her candy.

Mission Complete!

This game is perfect for preschoolers.  It helps separate the individual sounds so children can hear each one.  Try taking a turn yourself so your children can hear how you blend the letter sounds.

Although sounding words out is frustrating for some young children, this game will help develop a love for blending letter sounds.  That makes it easier for children to read sentences!  Beware.  They may start begging you to play!

How do you practice reading words with your preschooler?  Please leave a comment!

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The post Preschool Learning: The Reading Road first appeared on True Aim.