Our new friend, Jen, posted a wonderful idea over on her blog, the write start, on what to do with seashells. As you all know, Jo is constantly looking for new ways to use seashells so she was thrilled when she saw this post about making them into a game. Jo immediately tried this one with her daughter and making the game was just as big of a hit with her as playing it! Enjoy reading Jen’s idea and be sure and visit her site!

More shells put to good use: we turned these into a memory game.

All that was needed were two packages of sea-life inspired stickers from the scrapbooking section of the craft store. My son pressed a sticker inside each shell, which was a good fine motor activity in and of itself. And that’s it! A cool and beachy memory game that has found it’s home on our back deck.

We have actually made many memory games around here because they are so super-easy to create. Sometimes I’ll whip them up using clip art from the computer or some digital pictures. All you have to do is print a double set of anything, cut it out, and start playing! Or use stickers, like we did here, on the back of a bunch of similar objects like bottle caps, yogurt lids, wood pieces — you name it!

I like the game of memory for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s just where Jack is at right now developmentally. It’s a game he really gets and is successful at. Second of all, it’s one of the few games where adults and kids are somewhat evenly matched. I mean, unless you have X-ray vision, your guess is as good as theirs when you are playing memory. So you can honestly win some and loose some, which is what playing games is all about.

What are some of your favorite games at the moment?