Matching games?

howleyshell

My understanding is that 4 is a good age for matching games.

 

 But Dylan really doesn't seem to "get it."  He just wants to play with the cards!

Any tips for helping the light bulb go on! 

yellalakes

The first couple of times we played matching games that's all ds wanted to do but now he's getting really good at it. We just had to work on it. He's up to 16 cards now.

momofolivia

Olivia has two matching games - Mickey and Dora.  She was really into them (and did well!) for about the first 10 times we played.  She would only make it about 8-12 matches in before the boredom hit.

We haven't played in awhile. 

I wasn't much help was i?

howleyshell

yellalakes:

He's up to 16 cards now.

Maybe we need to be working with fewer cards to start?

 

MrsAmers

I would start with fewer cards and don't worry to much about the rules (unless he can do that with other games).  DD can make matches, but the whole taking turns and just turn up two cards at a time thing doesn't align with her level of patience.  She doesn't follow the rules for Candyland or Chutes and Ladders either, so we just have fun with the game pieces and I figure she'll follow the game rules someday...

metisca

We started with 8-10 cards (4-5 matches) and she got the concept right away, then gradually increased to more cards.  She still doesn't do all that many, maybe 12-16 cards.  We have the "Memory" game and it's one of her favorite things to do!  If you try less cards, maybe he'll think, "oh I can do this!" and be really into it! 

AshlynsMom

Ashlyn LOVES to play Memory.  We started with playing it with the cards face up so she could just match them.  And we wouldn't use all of them at once because I thought it would be overwhelming.  We called it "finding the same-rs"  Now she's some kind of Memory idiot savant or something. 

I don't really know how much of a tip this is, though...

What if you used stuff instead of cards?  Like salt and paper shakers, two forks, two spoons, two bottles, etc.  Would that be more interesting?

Halo79RN

ditto the others ... start with fewer cards.  I play with ds ( 2 1/2) with the cards facing up....  or I'll lay 4 down and hold one up so he has to pick the one that matches....  dd is up to playing it with them face down and taking turns. she has fun with it.  we started with  3 or 4 matches when starting with them facing down.  

yellalakes

Probably. We literally started with 4 cards and worked our way up. I tried starting out with a whole bunch and he just got frustrated right away and didn't want to play anymore.

brightning

Fewer cards to start, for sure.

And find something that he likes. You can make your own matching game with stickers of his favorite thing stuck onto poker chips.

We have a big set of matching cookies from Oriental Trading that DD really likes, but I definitely have to break it into a smaller set.