Fun and Educational Games for School Age Children

Once your child enters school, they are able to learn even more than you have started to teach them at home. Don’t let that learning stop at school. Here are some great ideas for fun and educational games that you can play with your school age children to reinforce what they learn in school.

Kids are older now so the games can be more advanced. At this age, most kids love to play outdoors. Why not grab your sneakers and head outdoors with them!

When I was seven or eight, we used to play hopscotch outside. With sidewalk chalk, we would draw our hopscotch squares. The squares alternate between one square on top of two squares on top of one square. The pattern continues until you have ten squares. Each square is numbered.

Using a marble, you throw it so that it lands on one of the numbered squares. You have to jump to that square and pick up the marble. There can only be one foot in a square so you have to balance on one foot while you pick up the marble to throw again. You are the person to beat if you can make it successfully down and back without falling off a square or stepping two feet in one square.

Now that the kids have been reading for a couple of years or more, they can have some fun in the kitchen. Kitchen activities can be educational. Start with something easy like a cookie recipe for them to decipher. Let the kids read the recipe and help to assemble the ingredients. Give them a variety of measuring cups and spoons to work with.

They have to figure out the recipe measurements from the utensils that you have given to them. You may end up with flour all over the counter but it is a good learning experience for them. Besides, you’ll get some sweet treats out of the deal!

If kids like to read and act, let them put on a skit. Each child must choose a favorite scene from their favorite book. Using puppets that they make themselves, they must act out the scene. The rest of the family will try to guess what the name of the book is. The skit can be as long as they need it to be. Designate a parent to help with the crafts and stay out of the guessing.

Stargazing is a fun way to spend an evening. Many kids have heard that the moon is made of green cheese. This is one way to prove that it isn’t. Through a telescope they can see stars, constellations, the moon, and meteor showers up close and personal. As they become more accomplished at it, they can read star charts to find where in the sky certain stars exist.

As your kids age, you can play more and more games to increase their knowledge. Try card games, board games and other outdoor games that use the skills they are learning in school. The key to a love of learning is to take the pressure off by making it a fun thing to do.

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Horton .... likes to read!

Okay, so that's not quite a very Suessical title, but if your little guy is feeling the Horton hoopla with the new movie being in theaters than why not pick up the Horton books too and get him reading.

Horton Hears a Who
Surely among the most lovable of all Dr. Seuss creations, Horton the Elephant represents kindness, trustworthiness, and perseverance--all wrapped up, thank goodness, in a comical and even absurd package. Horton hears a cry for help from a speck of dust, and spends much of the book trying to protect the infinitesimal creatures who live on it from the derision and trickery of other animals, who think their elephant friend has gone quite nutty. But worse is in store: an eagle carries away the clover in which Horton has placed the life-bearing speck, and "let that small clover drop somewhere inside / of a great patch of clovers a hundred miles wide!" Horton wins in the end, after persuading the "Who's" to make as much noise as possible and prove their existence. This classic is not only fun, but a great way to introduce thoughtful children to essentially philosophical questions. How, after all, are we so sure there aren't invisible civilizations floating by on every mote?

Horton Hatches the Egg!
Poor Horton. Dr. Seuss's kindly elephant is persuaded to sit on an egg while its mother, the good-for-nothing bird lazy Maysie, takes a break. Little does Horton know that Maysie is setting off for a permanent vacation in Palm Springs. He waits, and waits, never leaving his precarious branch, even through a freezing winter and a spring that's punctuated by the insults of his friends. ("They taunted. They teased him. They yelled 'How Absurd! Old Horton the Elephant thinks he's a bird!'") Further indignities await, but Horton has the patience of Job--from whose story this one clearly derives--and he is rewarded in the end by the surprise birth of... an elephant-bird. Horton Hatches the Egg contains some of Theodor Geisel's most inspired verse and some of his best-ever illustrations, the dated style of which only accentuates their power and charm. A book no childhood should be without.

Martian Matter Alien Playset

Ewwwww. The boys have been bugging me to get them this. We have the gooey bug maker, and I'm guessing this is pretty much the same concept. I get tired of seeing the same toy reinvented over and over again. It's not really that new or different and they all take lightbulbs and batteries and they make a mess if you spill the goop!

Get ready for some creative fun that’s totally out of this world! Pop open this alien spaceship to discover all sorts of alien-making technologies, including LUNAR LAVA gel and reusable METEOR MUD compound, which are used to create alien forms! Mix and match the 14 different half-molds to create more than 90 different wacky alien combinations! Place your finished alien creations in the spaceship’s pods to “fly” the aliens home! Or use the tools to flatten or dissect your alien creatures! Dream up endless adventures and experiments for your aliens and creative fun that’s completely cosmic! Spaceship playset comes with 14 alien half-molds, plastic knife, roller, tweezers, cutter, 3 two-ounce bottles of LUNAR LAVA gel and 3 two-ounce cans of METEOR MUD compound.

Get your guy a Martian Matter Alien Maker Playset today!

Science of Revolting Things

* The perfect present for the tween-aged child that is hard to shop for!
* Learn how to grow friendly molds and bacteria in petri dishes
* Discover what creatures live on YOU!
* Learn the scientific reason of what causes passing gas and stinky feet
* This unusual kit makes science FUN!

Grow your own friendly germs and fuzzy molds. Mix up a batch of coagulating fake blood. Even make a stinky intestine. Learn the science behind unmentionable bodily functions while doing some truly NASTY experiments.

What's grosser than gross' Disgusting Science is the grossest, gooiest, most revolting science kit out there. Grow your own friendly germs and fuzzy molds. Mix up a batch of coagulating fake blood. Even make a stinky intestine model.

Learn the science behind sticky and icky bodily functions while doing some truly nasty experiments. Your little scientist will love this disgusting twist on regular science kits. All experiments are safe and kid-friendly.

Get your hard to shop for medium sized guy Scientific Explorer's Disgusting Science - A Kit for Studying the Science of Revolting Things today!

Little Tikes Walkie Talkies

What's more fun than calling out on your walkie talkie from under the blankets at night?

Get your little guy a set of Little Tikes Walkie Talkies and relive the memories of your first walkie set.

Contact aliens on another planet, or the kid next door, or your brother in the next room....