You don’t have to spend a lot of money on a great literacy game.
The wonderful literacy website Reading Rockets offers ideas for six fun literacy-based games you can make yourself.
And they’re easy-peasy. And the rules are simple. And they’re cheap.
(And if the child you’re encouraging to read has an older sibling … well, there’s a great craft idea for him or her, as well!)
The great thing about these games is that you can customize them to your child. Use words that mean something to your kid. Like her own name, for instance (the first word many kids recognize and can spell). The names of siblings or parents. Use pictures of her own pets, or things around her. Making those connections with familiar things is an important literacy concept known as “text-to-real-life connections,” but I call it “a fun way to learn to read.”
A few of the games listed in Reading Rockets’ blog post are ones you already know, but may not have thought about. “Oh yeah, I used to love playing Concentration with playing cards when I was little!” And a few of them will be new: “Monopoly with literacy?”
Check them out, and the next time you’re at the dollar store, pick up a deck of index cards.
Here are the six reading games you can make yourself: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/six-games-reading.
