How Good Is Your Memory
I remember playing concentration with my mother when I was a little girl and then playing it again with my own children as they grew up. Little did I know at that time, the game of concentration helps build important remembering and recognizing skills. You can buy all kinds of memory game cards at Target, Walmart and even the Dollar Store to play with your children. There are even several great memory games to play.
But if your goal is just too quickly practice this skill due to lack of time or lack of child interest, you don’t need to buy any cards or games. Put a few small items out in your house. (I used a little car, eraser, pencil and penny to start with my grandson). Place the four items under a little box or towel. Tell your child you are going to show them the items under the box but only for a few seconds and after you recover the items you are going to take one away. I usually count to myself to 20 before I cover them up again. I the secretly take one items away and then show the items under the box to the child again. I then ask them to tell me what is missing. The goal before they start kindergarten is to remember 5 or more of 7 items you have placed in the box without having to look a second time.
Other ways you can work on remembering details include:
- Have your child retell you stories you are reading to them. The more language they use that is directly from the story (especially repeated sentences) the better.
- Have them tell you the order of places you went on a day of errands. Or what order you will go about your errands with them.
- Talk about their day at daycare or preschool. Make sure they try to put things in order by when they did them beginning with the first thing of the day.
- And play memory games with the as much as possible. They love to play games and building how many things they can remember in a row is a very important skill
Happy Tuesday and enjoy playing with your little one today.