Play Smart - Game of the Week: Candyland Colors and in Spanish

During the holiday break my kids broke out the board games en mass, which I was totally cool with other than the fact that they never seem to get all of the pieces back in the right containers.  I hate having to hunt for dice and raid Yatzee every time the kids ask to play Monopoly, and then there is the using a button as a place marker for the lost pieces of Sorry.  So annoying!!

...But I digress.  I love board games because they so often facilitate learning opportunities, and the kids are having so much fun that they don't even notice.  The game idea we are featuring this week is that classic game you play a million times with the littles,

Candyland!

This is a sweet game (pun intended;) for teaching your youngest children colors and counting, but this week we are switching it up to make it a little more educational for the older kids as well.  Here's what you do... for the kids who have mastered their colors, play Candyland in Spanish, no English allowed (at least for the color and counting words.)  The visual of seeing the colors and saying the Spanish word for the color is a great combination to help them quickly memorize a bit of foreign vocabulary and may even spark their excitement to explore the language more.

Here is a list of some the the words that you might need for this game:

Red: Rojo (ro ho)

Blue: Azul (azool)

Orange: Naranja (naran ha)

Green: Verde

Yellow: Amarillo (amari yo)

Purple: Pupura (pu pura)

Good luck and ...  Divertirse!!