Matching Helps Kids Learn

by Jennie on February 21, 2012

I am always looking for new ways to teach Cody while having fun at the same time. I don’t ever want to push him to learn new things unless he is ready and he is having fun at the same time. Lindsay at Crunchy Savings has such great ideas for teaching kids and she shared a great matching game she does with the kids. I knew I had to do this with Cody because he LOVES matching games.

Head to the dollar store and get your letters and numbers. Get two of each. They have an entire teacher section and each item is only $1! The hubs has a work laminator I used. You don’t have to laminate, but your letters/numbers will last longer if laminated.

Start with a small amount of letters or numbers so the child isn’t overwhelmed. Call out a letter and have them find one and then match it to its partner. Cody has so much fun when we play this and he is learning at the same time!

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Here, I used the letters we got from $1 store and other letters we had from Leap Frog and played the matching game, talked about colors and practiced our math….which letter is smaller, which letter is bigger?

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Here we matched magnet numbers and talked about colors as well. Lot’s of learning and fun too!!!

You can get more ideas for learning on Crunchy Savings Teaching Tuesday’s, our Pinterest board, and our parenting resources page. I would love to hear some of your favorite learning games you play with the kiddos!

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Amanda February 21, 2012 at 11:14 am

WOW! Great Idea! I am going to do this with Austin. He is a pro at the Toy Story Matching game we have on the iPad it amazes me! Bonus: no clean up with the iPad matching game which is always a plus. However, I love the letters idea and the one with the Leap Frog Magnets and the foam tub ones b/c they are different but yet the same letter. Good one!

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Jennie February 21, 2012 at 12:29 pm

Yes, there are some great games on the IPad. I try and limit his exposure to electronics, but love to pull out the apps every now and again! I will give that one a try. Another great learning tool we use a lot now are board games. Cody loves them and very educational! -Jen

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