Aahh, games!
We love them in our house, and have quite a collection- both of store-bought and homemade versions...I have actually found that Alex will often 'invent' her own versions of her favorites. One recent example:: she loves sorting things, and I bought ten small plain cardboard boxes. I make huge stacks of hand-written vocabulary words, both new and old, and she 'sorts' them into the boxes by parts of speech. This usually involves a race and setting the pile of words to be sorted across the room from the boxes so that she runs back and forth to also burn off some energy
The other day she had our enormous box of plastic animal replicas out and was tearing about the room throwing them into boxes. I actually thought it was random, but she informed me she was sorting them according to 'their name'! She had separate piles for mammals, birds, insects, amphibians, reptiles, and 'I don't know'
(this is a version of a game we play at the zoo where,)
So! Board games and card games...
Before I forget, Alex holds her cards in a homemade version of the card-holders available for purchase, and I have made a few in different sizes for different games: extremely simple to do! Use 2 plastic lids, say the tops of butter tubs...put them together, make a small hole in the center and push a brad through. Voila, ready to play! (I usually put a small piece of tape over the brad as she seems to want to play with it constantly!) BTW, we originally bought one and it doesn't work nearly as well as the homemade version...
Now: Our absolute favorite is a game called Sum Swamp. So many skills packed in! You roll three dice, two with numbers and one plus/minus. This sets up an equation to tell you how many spaces to move. Also, spaces on the board are marked odd and even: you then roll a numbered die. You can't go until you roll either an odd or even number, depending on your location. Plus a whole lot more math skills. We have extended this game by purchasing polyhedral dice and using an operational die we found with all four major operations...
http://www.amazon.com/Sum-Swamp-Addition-Subtraction-Game/dp/B00004TDLD/ref=pd_sim_t_10War! You can invent almost any version to focus on skills.
Go Fish! Of, course... We actually use a set of colorful Go Fish cards.
We really like S'MATH as well!
Jenga requires quite a bit of concentration and fine motor skills.
Where in the World?
http://www.amazon.com/Talicor-Where-In-The-World/dp/B0006ZJPF0/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1350462653&sr=1-1&keywords=where+in+the+worldDominoes and about a million variations
Alphabet Soup
Our homemade RightStart-inspired Skittles game. We bought the set of ten skittles, and I painted five yellow and five blue. She keeps a running score to 100 on the RS abacus.
Speaking of RightStart, whilst not strictly a game, she uses the RS balance to play games, including how many combinations can you find to 'balance' (equal) a ten on the other side...variations of this provide hours of fun, practice, and mastery of math fact to ten.
http://store.rightstartmath.com/mathbalance.aspxOoh! The game called Muggins! ( actually a game called Knockout is on the back as well) rules can be modified for even toddlers if you use only addition/subtraction) we also supplement a math games with the RS Abacus so that if she doesn't know an answer she can figure it out...
http://www.amazon.com/Muggins-Knock-Out-Wooden-Math-Games/dp/B001HTBOSK/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1350462222&sr=1-1&keywords=muggins+mathChutes and Ladders
Blokus
http://www.amazon.com/Mattel-R1983-Blokus-Classics-Game/dp/B001P06GX4/ref=pd_sim_t_5The Scrambled States game. (Read the book first!)
http://www.amazon.com/Gamewright-5505-Scrambled-States/dp/B0009XBY1W/ref=pd_sim_t_4Sequence Rummy
Various memory games.
Head full of Numbers:
http://www.amazon.com/Head-Full-Numbers-Math-Game/dp/B000EG6F0E/ref=pd_sbs_op_4BINGO of every variation imaginable! Some purchased, but I made a blank BINGO board, laminated it, and we write in new vocab words, play 'I am thinking of a synonym/ antonym for...',
(On the IPad there are two awesome apps, Sight Word BINGO and Math BINGO, that she adores!) we have done variations of this, States/capitals BINGO, you name it...
Hhmm, I know I am missing some, so tomorrow I will take a look and see which of the better ones I am forgetting!
Okay! I am going to post this so it isn't lost, and will edit in links for you
Digg
