Let's Play!

Are you looking for a fun way to interact with your kids? Something that doesn't involve controllers? I bet you already have these marvelous tools collecting dust in your closet! Can you guess what they are? The answer is game boards! 

You might be scratching your head and thinking that you have a ton of board games and your kids never play with them. Most often, kids won't play with them because they may feel that they are not as stimulating as video games. The action, movement and sounds produced by video games engages children's interests for hours. The key to getting your kids interested in playing board games starts with you! You need to make the board game exciting, interactive and engaging so your kids will be interested. Typically, that requires time on your part to play with them. Your children wants to spend time with you doing fun things. If you're having fun, they will have fun!

 Believe me, the conversations will flow! In addition, game time is also a great time to focus on enriching skills like grammar, vocabulary, speech sounds, spelling, math facts, etc. While you are taking turns in the game, have your child make a sentence or say a math fact. Board games make learning fun! 

 I work with elementary children everyday who love playing games. Believe it or not, even my video gamers love playing board games! The best part is that they don't realize they're learning a variety of language enriching skills while they play! The conversations are fun, their enthusiasm addictive, but their giggles are priceless! 

 I have a lot of board games! Games of all shapes and sizes. Plus, I'm always looking to find new games that will engage my students, address their goals, and that are just plain fun! Here is where I will be listing games that I love! I will provide you with ideas of how to enrich language using these amazing tools! Check back here often to see new game board posts. 
~Mindy


       Zingo! By Think Fun                         

Skill(s) Enriched: 
Sentence structure (grammar), vocabulary, object descriptions, visual memory, turn-taking, cooperation, disappointment, speech sound production, rhyme, phoneme isolation, basic concepts. 

 What I Like: I love the hands on, manipulation of this game. Children are excited about sliding the Zingo Machine to get their tiled picture cards. The picture cards are made of plastic so they are sturdy for little hands ( Not recommended for children under 3 years old). The children really enjoy clicking the picture cards into the Zingo machine. 

How To Enrich Speech and Language. Playing the game with your child teaches them turn taking skills and how to wait. Naming and repeating the pictures is great for vocabulary development. You can expand or model mature sentences as they retrieve a tile. For example,  "The owl flew into the tree." Help your child learn to describe the objects functions and features. This is a critical skill for both verbal and written language (e.g., "It's a fruit, that grows on a tree and it's red and round" ). Have your child repeat the words to practice their speech sounds (e.g., "C-AT"). 


Planning and Organizing: To assist your child with organization and planning, have your child be part of "planning," "set up" and "clean up" of the game.  Have them plan what they need for the game, set up the pieces and then follow through with the clean up of the game. For example, ask them questions. "Who is playing? How many boards do we need? Who will go first? Can you set up the game? We are all done, please clean up and put the pieces of the game away."

Price: Approximately $19.00

Where to purchase: