6 Games to Boost Your Preschooler’s Best Behavior

Your preschoolers and toddlers are at their best behavior when they’re having fun. And the best way to start teaching your kids the basics of proper social conduct is through games they’ll enjoy playing over and over again. Try these classic games with a twist to help boost your preschooler’s best behavior. These are group games, so either you can do it with your child’s siblings or her neighborhood playmates or schoolmates. 

 

 

Game 1: The Silent Squeeze

Behavioral Goal: Cooperation or Teamwork

How to Play:

1. Set the only places where kids can hide (say "only within our backyard" or "only inside the house, except the kitchen"). One child is “It,” and is guided by the adult as she hides.
2. The players then split up to search independently for the “It.” When a seeker finds the “It,” he or she joins “It” in the hiding place; and as others find the “It’s” hiding place, they crowd in silently. The silent squeeze becomes tighter—and sillier, hence, the name of the game.
3. When the last person finds the hiding place, the game's over, and play resumes with the last person as “It.”

Lesson learned:  Everyone works toward a common goal, and will see the importance of patience and working together. It’s also a way to practice keeping quiet and still while waiting.

 

Game 2: Positive Story Circle

Behavioral Goal: Optimism

How to play:

1. Seated in a circle, begin by telling a story in which a bad thing happens (“One morning, Nate was crying because he lost his favorite toy in the playground.”).
2. Then ask the next child to add a positive turn of events to your negative beginning (“ The good thing was, his friend Jeremy offered to help him look around the place”). Then the next child introduces another negative event to the plot, which the next child will answer with a positive idea.
3. The story ends at your signal.

Lesson learned: This game helps tots develop a more positive view of life to help them deal and cope with real frustrations and problems.

 

Click here to see more games to boost your preschooler's behavior.

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See more games to boost your preschooler's behavior.

 

Game 3: Picto-Treasure Hunt

Behavioral Goal: Tidying up

 

How to play:

1. All clues leading to the treasure should be clear and simple pictures (photograph, magazine cut- outs, or illustrations). The drawings or photos must be of all the places you want the kids to go to and the things they need to collect.
2. Each child should have a paper bag or box in hand where they can put the items in. Post the first clue on a door.
3. Each clue directs the kids to the next, until they find the final “treasure,” which can be a snack or a mommy-made certificate for a job well done.

Lesson learned: While kids have fun picking up toys and packing away their mess, they will also realize that they are capable of cleaning up. They’ll also see how much easier it is when everyone lends a hand.

 

Game 4: Hear Me Out!

Behavioral Goal: Stop whining.

How to Play:

1. Read aloud five to eight sentences from a favorite storybook, and record it into a tape recorder or an MP3 player. Vary the tone of your voice as you read different lines: pleasant, very sad, whiny, angry, etc.
2. Play back the recording and ask your kids to listen carefully. Tell them to raise their hands whenever they hear a pleasant tone of voice. Talk about tone of voice and clarity while listening.
3. Then let them record their voices while reading the story. Ask them to do so in a whiny voice, a pleasant voice, an angry voice, and so on.

Lesson learned: Kids will learn to take cues from a person’s tone of voice and understand that how you say something is important in communicating your thoughts and feelings effectively.

 

 

Click here to see more games to boost your preschooler's behavior.

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See more games to boost your preschooler's behavior.

 

Game 5: Go Figure!

Behavioral Goal: Problem solving

How to Play:

1. Create an obstacle course that will include “problems” for your preschooler to overcome on her own. Use everyday objects on every station, and ask the child to think of at least three uses for it. There is no right or wrong answer.
2. Begin with four obstacles then work your number up as you play the game over again. Give a time limit (30 seconds, for example) for thinking up a use for the object to make it more exciting.

Lesson learned: Problem-solving is a skill that children need to acquire and stand to benefit from

for a lifetime. They will learn that coming up with solutions on their own is fun and not difficult to do.

 

Game 6: The Waiting Game

Behavioral Goal: Learn to wait. Don’t interrupt.

How to Play:

1. Choose an event or occasion in the recent past to recall (birthday party, family picnic, etc).
2. Use a “My Turn Stick”. Only the family member holding the stick is allowed to recall and retell all the details of the chosen event. The “storyteller” is free to twist the events or add details that did not actually happen (even making it ridiculous). However, no one is allowed to interrupt. You can only express your disagreement once you’re holding the stick.
3. Each person is allowed to speak for a specified amount of time only (say, 30 seconds), after which the stick is passed on to the next family member.

Lesson learned: This game teaches kids not to disrupt adult conversations or when you’re busy attending to house chores.

These games that boost your preschooler’s behavior are easy to play and they don’t need any expensive purchases. Feel free to modify them further or make up your own games that will fuel your child’s imagination and sense of fun.

 

Photography by Ocs Alvarez

 

SOURCES:

● Websites: wondertime.go.com; parents.com; life.familyeducation.com