Games for Gifted Children

Choosing Games for Your Gifted Child

When you choose educational games for your gifted child, you will need to create stimulating games that are also age-appropriate. Gifted children tend to lose interest quickly in educational games that are too easy for them, so you must find games that are fun, challenging and will expand their current knowledge. At the same time, gifted children want to have fun and learn just as much as any other child, so the games must be engaging and interesting.

Creative Recycling

This game will have your gifted child use her creativity and help keep the planet clean. Get an aluminum soda can, a plastic soda bottle and an empty milk carton. Challenge your child to brainstorm different ways to use these items (either individually or together). For example, the soda can could be cut in half and become a candleholder, or the soda bottle can be filled with dry rice and become a rattle for a baby. After her list is complete, challenge her to actually create a few items from her list.

Definition Picking

This game will challenge your gifted child's vocabulary skills. Give your child a dictionary and have him find a word that he believes you will not know the definition of. Next, have him write the word and definition down on a piece of paper. He should also make up two other definitions for that word. He will then tell you the word and the three definitions (the actual one and the two that are made up). You must then guess the correct definition.

If you guess correctly, you get a point. If you do not guess the actual definition, then he gets a point. It is then your turn to find a word and make up two definitions along with the correct definition. Play for about four rounds. The person with the most points is the winner.

Taste Test

This game will use your gifted child's senses and memory. Beforehand, put 10-15 different types of food on plates (e.g., cheese crackers, grated cheese, pears, yogurt and more). Tell her that the objective of the game is to remember the name and the order of the foods on the plate without her sense of sight. Put her blindfold on and give her three minutes to smell, touch and taste the food. Then, cover the foods with a blanket and take her blindfold off.

Next, give her another three minutes to write down the name and order of the foods that she tasted. She will receive a point for every food that she recognized and a bonus point if her list is in the correct order.