Preschool Uno

Cayman has discovered an "awesome" new game. (That's what he says.) Uno! He loves playing with us some nights after Charis has gone to bed. If he takes a nap during the day, his treat is that he gets to stay up a little later than Charis for some special alone time with Mom and Dad. He and I have also played during school time. I have noticed a DRASTIC difference with how well he can recognize numbers. I'm thinking that I may need to create/find a similar game that uses letters instead of numbers because of how well it has helped him.

Here are our modified preschool Uno rules. 

1. The stack of cards is modified. It only contains numbers 0,1,2,3,4,5,7, and 8 -- none of the special cards and no 6 or 9. (Except for the picture directly above - Ian forgot to take out the 6 and 9.) Those two numbers can be a little confusing right now, so we're just sticking with the easier ones for the time being!

2. Each player gets five cards, and then we flip them all over in front of us. (Obviously we're not going for strategic wins here...)

3. Flip the top card over on the stack, and then player 1 either matches by color or number (just like real Uno.) 

4. When you find a match from your hand, you have to say "I'm going to play my red number 5" so that the color and number are spoken aloud. 

5. If you don't have a match either by color or number, you have to draw one card. If the card you drew matches, you can play it immediately. (I've noticed that Cayman gets a little overwhelmed and bored if we just keep drawing instead of matching. But it also teaches him to play by the rules, so that's good.)

6. The first player to get rid of all of their cards wins! 

We have fun spending time with our boy, and I'm glad we've found something educational that he loves to do and that's also fun for mom and dad too! :)