Memory Game – beach stones

I’ve been seeing some ideas for DIY memory games floating around some of my favorite blogs and decided to give it a whirl.  M loves puzzles.  And in the last month or so, she’s started to “match” her hair clips to her outfit in the mornings (not guilty for teaching her this, I promise!).  Taken together, I think she’s ready for a little challenge.

Our first game is very simple.

We collected some smooth, white stones at the beach one morning.  Then, we painted the underside of the stones – 2 red, 2 yellow & 2 green.  They dried over night…and that’s it!

I introduced this game by laying out the stones color sides up and we took turns making matching pairs.  After all, M is only a toddler!  Albeit simple, this allowed for lots of good practice with color words, matching and waiting for a turn.  I’ve just started to lay out the stones color sides down and M has done remarkably well.  We’re still working on the rules of the game, like only turning two stones per turn, not ALL the stones per turn!  While this version is geared toward younger children, “memory” is still great for older kids for lots of reasons.  Older kiddos can create most (if not all) of this game themselves from start to finish.  Add lots more stones to increase the difficulty.  With more stones add shapes, numbers, etc. for matching.  Take it even further – grab a color wheel and mix colors to make new colors for your stones.

I’ve already got another memory game up my sleeve, so stay tuned!