25 Fun Learning Games for Kids

Teach your kids math and language skills with fun learning games that engage their brain but also entertain! In fact, one of the most effective ways children learn is through play. This should come as no surprise as our little ones are hard-wired to do just that. Learning games challenge children to discover the solutions but present the teachable moment in a no-stress way.

You might be looking for fun learning games that you can use to entertain your child when they’re bored or just as activities to do on a rainy day. There’s no right or wrong time to bust these games out, just when the moment feels right, you can spare a couple of minutes to help your child learn in new and exciting ways. We have discovered a number of learning games that parents and educators suggest and we’d love to share them with you in the hopes that you will share them with your babies. Let’s get learning!

Share These Fun Learning Games with Your Children!

Personal Sequels

Chances are that your child has a handful of favorite books that you read to her on a nightly or weekly basis. These stories are educational on their own, but you can challenge your child even more by asking them to create a sequel to the story. Ask them to draw new illustrations to go along with their personalized story. It’s one of the fun learning games that allows children to get in touch with their creative side.

Synonyms for Days

Here’s one of the fun learning games that requires no supplies and can be played virtually anywhere. Think of a word that’s rather general and ask your child to come up with as many synonyms as possible. For instance, you can say the word “happy” and ask them to brainstorm other words with the same meaning. They should return to you with words like cheerful, joyful, merry, etc.

How Many Feet?

With leftover cardboard, draw an outline of your child’s foot. Cut the outline out and hand it over to your child. Ask her to measure how many “feet” she is. How many “feet” her bed is. You can make a list of things for her to measure and ask her to complete the list for a treat. Or not! It should be pretty exciting no matter what!

Silly Stories

With your child, pick three random words. Once you have decided on three completely unrelated words, ask your child to build a story with them. Think of words like furball, castle, and caterpillar. It will be a challenge for your child to string them together, but it’s one of the fun learning games that gets the creative juices flowing!

Spell It Out

This classic game involves you turning your back to your child and asking them to draw a letter on it for you to guess. This is great for young children who are learning to write. For older kids, have them spell entire words for you to decipher. Swap places for even more fun!

Rhyming Fun

One of the fun learning games for kids that can be played anywhere, involves you asking them to find a rhyming word but instead of telling you the word they have chosen outright, encourage them to answer with a definition. For instance, you can say, “I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with time.” Then, your child should answer you with something like “a green citrus fruit that is very sour.” Then, you’ll know they have chosen the rhyming word, lime.

Add It Up

One of the fun learning games to play in the car or when you’re waiting in a parking lot with your child involves you looking at license plate numbers. Point out a license plate and ask your kid to add up all the numbers on the plate and deliver a sum to you. For younger children who are just learning their numbers, ask them to identify each one they see on a plate.

Make a Note of It

A sweet game for kids who are learning to read and write involves the simple task of passing notes. Write your child a note that is in line with their comprehension level and leave it underneath his pillow. You can add a clue for where the next note can be found. You can turn this into a scavenger hunt of sorts or ask for replies to your note. Get creative and be sure to remind your little one how smart he is!

Words from Signs

Another one of the fun learning games for kids to play when you’re in the car is a type of scramble. Find a sign and ask your child to form other words from the letters on it. For instance, it could be a STOP sign. Your child should return words to you like TOPS and POTS. Find more challenging signs with words like “restaurant” for even more fun!

At-Home Shopping

Go to your pantry and pull out a variety of items. Using tape or stickers, make price tags for the various items. Plan to use loose change or monopoly money and price the items accordingly. You can teach your kids about budgeting by letting them shop, add up the totals, etc.

Detect the Words

Before you read a book to your child, pick a word you know that you’ll encounter a number of times in it. Think words like “you” or “the” or “in.” Spell the word out with your child and make sure that they know what they should be looking for. Now, turn to the first page and ask your child to find the word you have chosen. You can give hints if needed by sharing which page the word can be found or how many times it occurs.

Visualizing Letters

This is one of the fun learning games for kids who are learning the alphabet and how to write. Describe the shape of a letter and ask your child to guess it. For instance, you can say, “this letter looks like a doughnut.” They should recognize that you’re describing the letter “O.”

The Rhyme Game

One of the very fun learning games for kids that you will likely enjoy too is a simple game of find rhyming words. Start the game by saying something you see like, “I see a bug.” Then ask your child to reply with a word that rhymes with bug. “Bug rhymes with mug.” Your child might say. Then, it’s your turn to think of another word that rhymes with bug. Keep going until you both run out of words!

Reading Fingers

Do your best to form a letter with your finger and ask your kid to identify it. Once they have correctly guessed the right letter, ask them to name a word that begins with it. It’s one of the most basic fun learning games that helps kids learn their letters and spelling.

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Get Scripting

If you’ve got some old magazines or newspapers handy, this is one of the fun learning games that you can use them for! Simply find images of people and then using a marker, draw text bubbles like you see in comic books. Ask your child to “script” what the people in the photo might say. If they can write, ask your child to write it out. If not, you can write the text for them.

Weight Differences

Ask your child to stand on a scale and teach him to read his weight. Once he’s figured this out, hand him objects that vary in weight. Help your child understand how much things weigh and if they’ve started adding and subtracting, ask him to subtract his weight to discover how much the object he holds weighs. You can do this with everyday objects or even your pets!

Sing Your Child’s Name

Create a special song with your child to teach her how to spell her name. You can make one up entirely or find a catchy tune like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to spell your baby’s name. The important thing is to spell her name out to the tune so that she can learn it more easily. So if her name is Charlie, C-H-A-R-L-I-Eeee, C-H-A-R-L-I-Eeee.

How Tall Are We?

One of the fun learning games for kids that can get the whole family engaged involves measuring folks or asking for their heights. Ask your child to collect the heights of every member of your family. Have her record them in inches and then add them all up to see how tall all of you would be stacked on top of one another. There are many ways to break down the data with your child for even more learning fun!

20 Questions

We’ve all played this fun game on road trips but it’s actually a very good way to exercise your child’s reasoning skills. Choose an object and keep it in your mind. Your kid then has 20 questions for which you respond “yes” or “no” to discover the answer.

Alphabetical Memory

One of the fun learning games for kids that practices the alphabet and works on memory is a simple one you can play anywhere. The first player chooses something that starts with A, the next person then must repeat the already chosen word and then share their own word with the letter B. Example: “Apple” “Apple, Banana,” “Apple, Banana, Cat.” Continue on until you reach the letter Z with the final player naming every object that has been chosen.

Alphabetical Name Game

This game is simply a variation on the last but with an emphasis on animals! One person chooses an animal and says it aloud. Then each person (or simply take turns if it’s just the two of you) in order has to name another creature that starts with the last letter of the previous animal named. For instance, “Tiger,” “Raccoon,” “Newt,” “Toucan,” etc. You can adapt this format to a number of topics like movies, or even geography, for even more fun learning games.

Guess That Color

Choose a color and keep it in your mind. Begin listing items that are generally the color you’ve chosen. For instance, if you chose the color red, say “firetrucks, apples, ladybugs, etc.” Keep naming items until your child correctly guesses the color you’ve chosen.

Choose a Category

Here’s a very fun one to play with younger children. Choose a category that’s accessible for your child. Think of something like farm animals. Now, the two of you must take turns naming farm animals until you run out of animals to name. You can do this with other categories like shapes, fruits, etc. for a variety of fun learning games.

Places, Places, Places

One of the fun learning games to play if you have more than one child is the geography game. One person starts by stating the name of a country or state or any other geography category. If you choose states, you might start with New York, then the next person has to name a state the begins with the last letter of the state that was named. So, for New York, they should name a state that starts with K such as Kansas. Keep it going until someone gets stumped!

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Map It

Now, most of us don’t have physical maps anymore but if you do, you should bust it out for your kids to play with. They can learn all about how to read a map and create routes to certain destinations. One of the fun learning games to play with a map is to say something you see on it and ask your kid to locate it on the map!

There you go! Did you discover some fun learning games to play with your child? We certainly hope we presented you with some ideas that feel accessible and enjoyable for your kids. While getting a child to focus is not the easiest thing in the world, these fun learning games certainly help by presenting a challenging question with fun ways to go about discovering the solution!