To make the situation more enjoyable for our daughter, we decided to invent and play a new game every day. This was part of a larger plan that included maintaining a daily routine, sticking to an exercise program, and learning something new about a different subject each day.
We’ll share some of our games with you as often as we can.
Here’s one game our daughter loves and plays frequently. We drew inspiration from Code-a-Pillar.
DIY Coding Game for Kids
Supplies needed:
- Bottle caps (we used a lot of water bottle caps)
- Sticker paper (we chose various colors: yellow, green, and pink), or plain paper and glue
- Small stickers for kids (we used paw print stickers from the book Eyelike Stickers: Baby Animals, but you can use any stickers that fit on the bottle caps)
- A set of playing cards (we used a pack of Montessori cards with cats and dogs)
Instructions:
Cut arrows out of your sticker sheets. You’ll need three types of arrows:
- 25 straight arrows
- 8 left-turn arrows
- 8 right-turn arrows
Make sure to cut more straight arrows than turning arrows.
Stick each arrow onto a bottle cap. Alternatively, you can paint the arrows or glue plain paper arrows onto the bottle caps.
Place small stickers with an illustration of your choice on some of the bottle caps. We used stickers with animal paws.
How to Play Our DIY Coding Game for Kids:
- Lay your Montessori or playing cards face down on the ground to create a route. Turn some of the cards face up – these will act as obstacles along the path.
- Your child must navigate the entire route by placing the appropriate arrow cap on each face-down card. To get past an obstacle (a face-up card), they must use a small sticker cap.
We have a lot of fun with this game. Our daughter enjoys creating her own routes and loves that the path is never the same twice.
