This is a very simple thing I came up with when I first started homeschooling. I didn’t have much money but I knew what I wanted my youngest to be homeschooled and I didn’t want her to miss out because of something like money. I came up with a lot of ways to teach her and things I could make to teach what is needed for little to no money. One of the very first things I made was the name/word recognition game pictured. It’s very easy and crazy cheap! It’s just pictures we had around the house and a few I printed from vacations and family. I let her choose things she likes that we wouldn’t find on typical cards, and which family members she wanted to start out so she learned to spell and read their names as well as her own. Then I used the flash cards to write the words/names on them. It’s not fancy and my handwriting isn’t the best but it worked out better than I could have imagined. I wish I had thought of it sooner for my other children, it’s honestly the fastest way any of them learned this subject.
We use this a few different ways but each one has the same goal, match the right flash card to the right picture! The first way we use them is the most obvious I think, just lay them out and match them up or lay them out as you match. The second, another simple obvious way, is to hold one deck give the other to the child and ask for specific matches. The youngest learned pretty fast with those 2 methods so we started timing her and she would try to beat her fastest time matching! She was matching them up in no time and needed more of a challenge to keep from becoming board. I added quite a bit more cards (I think we have 50 now) and came up with the 3rd way, the favorite for all of the kids, we call it the go fish way. It’s pretty close to the classic game just with 2 personal decks. We each get 7 out of our deck to start and we take turns asking for the mate. If we have to “go fish” we choose from the opposite deck that’s spread out in front of who ever is using it and only keep the card if it matches something in our hand. For every match we get we draw 2 more cards from our spread out deck. Whoever gets the most matches wins.
The youngest because she loves to learn so she enjoys pretty much everything I make her, but the older 2 enjoy this game as well. It’s a lesson they can teach, it allows them to act as a teacher for the youngest. Hope this helps some of y’all and maybe inspires you to make a recognition game of your own! ENJOY!
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