Fun Kids Games for All Ages – Top 15 List

Fun Games for Kids

Kids, kids, kids… they’re everywhere.  Running around having fun but most importantly – learning and growing.  Us adults are not entertainment machines, but we can sure have fun with our kids and our kids’ friends with the following learning games for kids:

1. Play rock, scissors and paper for a while.  Then when they get bored of that, change it into rain, fire and wind.  Start cheating by adding in a sponge, let the kids figure out who should win.
2. Paint or draw figurines on their fingers and have a thumb wrestle tournament.  Let them win sometimes but don’t make it too obvious!
3. Guess what I’m thinking game can be a great kids game done with letters, numbers, animals, fruits, methods of transport and so on.  If the child cannot guess then this can turn into charades.
4. Have a fancy dress, find a different way to wear your clothing, does it look better or worse? Is there another way to tie your laces?Let your kids try out your clothes or jewelry, does it fit or look funny?
5. Have a sock puppet theatrical performance is a fun game for kids. Get the characters to act out what you did today or what your day is going to be like tomorrow.  Try to remember a children’s story without looking at the book and try to re-enact it.
6. Play word games.  Set up two simple syllables, for example “good” and “bye” then say them one after the other.  You could use a word your child needs work on improving the pronunciation of, or a foreign word.  The idea is to get faster or faster until someone doesn’t say it properly or says the wrong syllable.  This can be done with longer words with more syllables or with sentences or even to memorize a story.  Variate between shouting and whispering.
7. Do a treasure hunt.  Bring me 2 things that are green, 3 things that are hard, 4 things that smell good.  Use all the senses and if needed, try to get your children to count out the items if they need work with math.  You can even pre-hide items and do a kind of guess what I have hidden game and guess where it is.
8. Play 20 questions.  Another variation is to play 10 Whys.  10 Whys is a good get back for parents because kids are always asking why.  The game basically goes like this: you ask a question to the child and he or she gives you an answer, you then ask why and they have to keep coming up with an answer until they have passed the 10 whys level.
9. Tap a beat out on the table.  See if they can match it.  Get more complicated and use other items that you pick up and put down.  You can even include patty cake style clapping with each other.  The idea is for them to pick up beats and musical patterns which sould be a pretty natural and fun game for kids!  This can end up in a big round of clapping games all round.
10. Eye spy is a classic kids game.  For those of you that don’t know it.  You say, I spy with my little eye something beginning with X.  Replace the letter X with the letter of something you can currently see.  It is your child’s responsibility to figure out what you have seen by guessing words that start with the letter X.  You can alter the rules based on how old your kids are, for example, I look in one direction and say “ok, finished!” my child then has to go near the area I was looking and touch what I was thinking of.  You can do this all over the house going from room to room.  Don’t forget to try, I hear with my little ear and I smell with my little bell.
11. If you are using any of these games to improve the skills of kids while having fun and being active then you may want to include an encouragement or merit system.
12. Make a snake with coins.  Get your kids familiar with money and counting money. Coins can be used to make a tumbling line, a snake or a jenga style tower.
13. Go through all your old photo albums and play guess who.  While you are looking at a photo you should describe the person by saying, who am I? I have a big nose.  Each clue they try to guess who it is, the quickest guess with the least amount of clues wins.
14. Staring, laughing or winking competitions are always fun.  See how long you can stare at each other, the first person to blink loses.  If your kid beats you in that game too much, try the laughing one by making faces.  One thing that always makes me laugh is jibbreish talk.  You can also play this game seeing who can go the longest without talking.
15. Make your own secret code language, do it on paper and write secret messages to each other.  To make it even more interesting, have people that don’t know the code deliver the message for you.

We hope you find this list useful, please leave your comments below and let us know what you think of these kids games.  If you find these useful and see that learning is happening, you may wish to use a sticker chart to record progress or prepare some prizes.