We have several new parents in our family this year, as new parents they are always looking for fun games and activities to do with their kids that will help them learn new skills. I know what it's like to be a new parent, you're busy taking care of everything and the time you set aside to spend with your kids is absolutely priceless. Sometimes. you just don't have the extra time to try to find something new to do. So I thought what a great gift idea to give them a list of different types of activities they may not have been thinking of to try! I researched to find some of these ideas and pulled many from my own parenting experiences to create this list of 72 Easy Learning Toddler Preschooler Game Activities To Play.
I focused on activities that do not cost money by using things they likely already have at home, and to make it even easier I put multiple activities on each card so they can just select the one they want to try. So easy to play, the parent decides when they have time to play, pulls a card and selects an activity on the list. Some cards have the child selecting from the list of games helping to teach them important social concepts such as: taking turns, letting someone else chose, getting your own turn to chose, etc. I wrote the words in large block print to help reinforce the beginning stages of learning letters, numbers and reading so they could read the cards along with their kids. I also broke out the activities by indoor vs outdoor sections making it easier for parents to use the game based on weather and location. If the parent doesn't wish to play an item they just won't select it. Knowing how toddlers love to play grown up and do what their parents are doing every day I added some super easy toddler friendly recipes for fun kitchen play time. There are also a few blank cards so they can write in other games, activities and recipes. Each card is a standard 4x6 index size so it will fit into a regular recipe card holder. I used my Cricut to print and cut out the cards but have set up the option below for anyone to print these on a home printer and cut them with scissors. I also cut out section dividers and created a print then cut sticker for the plastic recipe card holder I selected to house the game. The game was a hit with the parents giving them lots of new ideas on ways to enjoy parent child play time!
Here is how you can create it with either a standard computer & printer and/or if you have Cricut Access a link to the template and instructions are below. Enjoy!
Time: 2 hours
Difficulty: Beginner
Supplies for the Printer Version:
Cardstock that will go through your color printer in white, (8 1/2 x 11 inch sized paper, 65 lb cardstock like this brand will go through many home printers but you need to refer to your printer's manual to verify what paper weights it can print on)! Decide on how many cards you want to print from the attached images below to know how many sheets of cardstock you need. Images are colored to separate the sections.
Scissors to cut the dividers and cards
Recipe holder to house the game, I used this index card case
Sticker for the outside of the game (optional and the images I used are below if you want to use one of them)
Supplies for the Cricut Version:
80lb Cardstock 12x12 in a light color for the 4x6 cards (you can rotate to get 3 cards on each sheet of cardstock) and 3 sheets in another color for the dividers
Cricut pen or compatible pen to write on the cards, I used black so that it would show well against the paper color.
Cricut Explore or Maker, standard blade, standard green mat
Instructions for the Printer Version:
Print your Cards: Scroll down to the images attached, click each two card image to print it. Test print the first one on copy paper to make sure that the cards print out at 4x6 inches; if it does not adjust your printer scale up or down from the original 100% until it is 4x6. Then I recommend printing one at a time on standard 8 1/2 x 11 size 65 lb cardstock. Using your scissors cut along the box lines. Do the same with the dividers.
Design your game cover: Avery has free online software here that you can use to design a sticker, follow the instructions on their website and print your sticker. If you are printing on sticker paper you can cut it out with scissors and apply. If you are using regular paper you can adhere it to your game with permanent scrapbook tape.
Instructions for Cricut Access Template version:
Click on the links to the Game Sticker & also to the Game Cards templates, click on the project and click "Customize".
Sticker: Once you are in the Cricut Access template save it with a new name, then adjust the size to fit the holder you plan to use, modify the sticker design as desired so that it is appealing to the family you are giving the game to. If they love sports do a sports theme, if they love farm animals you can do a farm theme etc. Following the Cricut Access Design software instructions print and then cut your sticker.
Game Cards: Once you are in the Cricut Access template you should save it with a new name, then you can either click to 'make it' as is, or you can decide to make any changes you want. When you first click to make it Cricut sets up 23 pages, you can reduce this to 16 pages by rearranging cards to cut 3 cards on each page.
To rearrange the images on the Cricut Access screen mat follow these instructions:
Once your project is designed in Cricut Design Space, click “make it”. You will then be taken to your mats section to edit and rearrange mats before making the cuts. Click on the image you want to move, click the 3 dots and select “move to another mat” and then choose which mat you want to move the item to. In the project I moved the items off the bottom pages within each paper color. The paper colors are there to separate the sections (indoor, outdoor and recipes) for easier packaging of the game activities within the dividers. Once you are done arranging the images click on the first mat at the top and follow the onscreen instructions to begin, put your cardstock on a standard grip Green mat, insert and Cricut it will ask you to place a Cricut .4 Pen in the holder to draw the words, and Cricut will also cut the cards. Cutting this many sheets will take a while, usually I start doing other things around the home and just return to the machine every so often to swap out the mats.
Printable Cards PDF File: double click to download/open the PDF file, test the size by printing 1 page on copy paper at 100% size and measuring the boxes, they should be 4 inches X 6 inches. If they are not adjust your printer size within the software to either greater than 100%, or less than 100% to get close to the size without going over so it will fit into a standard index card holder. If you are printing on cardstock be sure to check your printer's manual first to see what the heaviest weight of paper it can print on is before buying or feeding it through!
Note some links are affiliate links, they do not cost you more to use them however pay a few pennies to help me with the cost of running this blog.
Comments