Tactile matching game

The idea for this easy-to-do game came from the book, Montessori on a Shoestring, which I purchased directly from Mrs. Erickson two years ago at the St. Louis Catholic Homeschool Conference.  It is a terrific resource, although I still salivate over the products on Montessori websites.

First, find or make a drawstring bag.  In truth, anything of appropriate size will do.  I used a paper lunch sack before this morning, but the drawstring bag adds to the charm of it and is better for storage.

I won't give you a tutorial on making the bag.  Mine always turn out a bit wonky.  This one has the drawstring to the inside rather than the outside of the bag.  Oh well, the kids don't care.

Now comes the fun part::  start looking around for pairs of objects.  Dice, marbles, plastic animals, blocks, bottle caps--whatever.  Most of these things are probably in the order of choking hazards, so don't leave the bag around the under-three set.

The child playing reaches into the bag and pulls out an object.  Then he puts his hand back in again and feels around, trying to locate the matching object.  You can play it with two kids as well.  If one child pulls out a second object that is not a match, it is returned to the bag, and the second child attempts to find the matching object.  The child with the most pairs wins.

You can make an even more challenging version of this game using matching swatches of fabric.  If the matching is to be visual, you can use just about anything, but to make it tactile, make sure that your choices of fabric feel very different.  You can use leather, fleece, corduroy, velvet, denim, felt, flannel, terry cloth, lace and even things like bubble wrap.