Literacy learning should continue all summer!

Check out our five favorite literacy games that can keep your child engaged and learning all summer long!

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Summer has officially begun, and we love to add some educational summer games to the mix to keep our literacy skills sharp while having fun!

To celebrate the end of school each year, I gift my kids several new games we can play together throughout the summer. Because I am a big believer in choice, we take a trip to our local toy store and browse the options available. After some time browsing through the options at the store, I help my kids narrow down the choices by setting some parameters for our purchases.

1) The toy or game should have some reading, writing, or math involved.

2) The toy or game should be something we can play with multiple times (this eliminates a few craft ideas because they are often one and done). I want something that we can use multiple times, so they can practice skills and strategies and so that we can use them for longer. (Not to mention we already have a ton of craft supplies we could use since I try to keep these on hand)

3) The toy or game should be something we can do together. While I believe in letting kids have unstructured play time and having time by themselves, I also believe in having some structured activities we can pull off the shelf and do together.

This year, I let my kids each pick out a game and I picked out two. My daughter chose a National Geographic Wildlife Wow interactive dolphin toy where she could use her iPad to learn more about dolphins and explore their habitat (click the title to learn more about this interactive game and to see the many animals available). My three-year-old chose a puzzle (while this didn’t have reading, writing, or math explicitly, there are so many ways that puzzles boost a child’s understanding of shapes and patterns which are very important in reading, writing, and math).

I chose several decks from the Super Genius Series and the eeboo Fairytale Spinner Game. When my daughter saw my selections, she wasn’t thrilled because it wasn’t a game about cupcakes or kittens, however, these have turned out to be our favorite purchases this summer. We have spent hours playing these new games. My three-year-old will even sit for several rounds of each game which shows how well they can hold a child’s attention.

I love the literacy components of both of these games and they are at the top of our summer favorites list.

Having games ready (with no preparation required) can be a lifesaver when your kids are bored or when they’ve gotten a little too rowdy and need something quieter to do.

Participating in fun literacy games can keep kids physically active, engage their minds, and improve their literacy skills all summer long!

Here are Our 5 Favorite Literacy Games

1. Super Genius Card Games

The Super Genius Reading game offers multiple ways to engage players in matching images and words. The deck comes with two types of cards- one that has only words and one that has only images. The deck of cards can be played six different ways with each of the games offering slightly different strategies and approaches.

Some of the things I absolutely love about this set of cards:

* The games are great fluency builders. For each play, you are reading through multiple words to find a match. The repetition of reading words over and over helps kids become familiar with the terms (which also helps expand their vocabulary for early readers) and helps them become more confident as they can read the words faster and faster.

* The words appear different on different cards challenging the player to look closely at each word. For example, garden may be written in green in one font on one card and it is written in red in a different font and is shown in a different size on another card. This way kids are forced to read the word and not look for a particular font and color.

*There are also some words that are similar that challenge a player to look at all parts of the word. For example, the game includes house and horse. It also includes bell and ball.

We have had so much fun with these that we also purchased the math versions (addition and multiplication). I love that the games are consistent so once your child knows the way the games are played, they can try out their skills with other topics like addition and multiplication.

You can purchase these fun, engaging, and educational games by clicking on their title below:

Super Genius Alphabet

Super Genius First Words

Super Genius Reading 1

Super Genius Reading 2

Super Genius Compound Words

Super Genius Addition

Super Genius Multiplication

You can also purchase three in a set:

Super Genius set

(First Words, Addition, and Multiplication)

The other game I selected was the Eeboo Fairytale Spinner game

2. Eeboo Fairytale Spinner Game

This game has been a tremendous hit with both my six-year-old and three-year-old. The object of the game is to take turns collecting fairytale elements resulting in a chance for kids to share their own fairytale. I really like that the game teaches kids about common fairytale elements and it encourages their creativity.

To play, each player spins the illustrated spinner to determine which element they get to choose. Throughout the game, they will choose a place, a hero/heroine, a magical item, a helper, a rival, transportation, and a treasure. They can only choose one in each of these categories and there is often a little competition for their favorites. When they make their selection, they place that part on their story board (which is also the setting for their story). At our house, once all the players have most of the elements we can share our stories. We take turns sharing our stories and these have been AMAZING! I encourage my kids to touch each element as they tell their story so they incorporate everything. Their stories get better each time we play. My kids have wanted to play the game several times in a row each time we have played it. They love being able to have choices that help them create their very own fairytales!

Click on this link to purchase your Fairytale Spinner Game and get your kids started on making their own creative fairytales.

Here are a few other of our favorite literacy games

3. Hedbanz

Hedbanz is fantastic at vocabulary development. My kids love putting on the headband with a secret word and matching image and racing against the timer to figure out what the word is. This game is fun and kids are learning about

categories,
similarities and differences,
asking questions,
how to describe things

If you don’t have this hilarious game yet, get yours by clicking here.

4. Charades for Kids

Charades for Kids offers the classic game in a kids version. The game offers several adaptations for the age/reading skills of your child. Younger kids can look at the colorful picture cards and older kids can read the simple words and phrases. My kids have loved the objects and actions they have acted out while playing this game. They have acted out things like cat, playing a guitar, hula hoop, and many other fun and kid-friendly things. This game is so beneficial for kids vocabulary development. Charades for Kids could also improve their writing as children have to think through how to show an object or action in a descriptive way. The process of thinking through how they would demonstrate the item on the card is similar to the process they would use to describe objects and actions in their writing. This is such a fun game our whole family enjoys. We hope your family does too!

5. Zingo

We love playing Zingo. We started with Zingo numbers and had so much fun we have expanded our Zingo collection. We love bingo but this is even more fun with the neat slider that reveals the tiles to match to the bingo boards. Each game offers two levels of play which is great for kids at different levels or to provide different kinds of challenges. For example the two variations in Zingo Numbers, encourages players to read the number words on one side and quickly figure out equations with only pictures representing the numbers. Both are so much fun!

The original Zingo (click here) is one of ThinkFun’s most popular best-selling games, and it is the winner of an Oppenheim Gold Award and Parents’ Choice Award. Our family totally understands why it is an award winner.