Finding the educational benefits of almost any game

July 1, 1:27 AMNY Homeschooling ExaminerKristina Daniele

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I don't follow a traditional curriculum for educating my daughter. I don't “teach” for a set time period every day, and oftentimes what I call homeschooling is more like unschooling in that I am more concerned with learning than I am with actually following a structured format. I find that every opportunity can facilitate learning even if it looks very much unlike school and to do so I rely in large part on games and playing.

My daughter and I play “Go Fish” quite often. She loves to hold the playing cards and loves telling me to “Go Fish” as loudly as possible. I love that it is a great way to teach numbers, colors, shapes, taking turns, and matching and pairing. It's not so much about winning as it is about the experience.

Another game that we love playing is “Hide and Seek,” which definitely teaches patience and problem solving. It also allows her to practice counting. When we first started playing the game she could only count to five. As she learned more number we made her count higher and higher. She is now counting to 15 before coming to seek us.

We also allow her to play the Build-A-Bear Workshop adventure game for the Nintendo Wii console. There are several mini-games that she can play in isolation as well as a actual adventure with goals to reach. There are the obvious benefits- completing tasks, problem solving, and hand-eye coordination. But there are the ones that are not as obvious. She learns to listen to and follow instructions, respecting animals, technological skills, and more.

Here are a few other games and the skills children can learn while playing them:

Hopscotch: coordination, counting
Treasure Hunt (hide things around the house and give your child hints to find them): problem solving
Memory: recognition, memory, pairing
Shadow Puppets: shape recognition, animal recognition, enhances imagination
Rhyme Time (say words that rhyme even if they are made up): phonics, sound recognition 

Kristina also writes for TravelingMom.com where you can read about more educational trips throughout the US. She can also be found at Mom on the Rise and Moms of Hue.