Let's Play A Game of Memory

As the family sat down to Skype with me, Dee (4) wanted to play a game.  It can be difficult to play games over Skype and to keep the attention of young children.  I got out my Sesame Street memory cards and began to lay them out.  Dee wasn't very enthusiastic about this idea, but I decided to give it a try anyway.

I picked 5 of his favorite characters and laid them out so he could see all the matches.  Like this.

Then I turned them over and mixed them up and put a letter on each of them.  I was careful to pick letter's that Dee knows since he is just learning these.

Then I had him pick two letters, for example, "F" and "S", then we turned them over and he had a match!  From that point on,  he was excited and involved in the game.  His little sister, who knows many, if not all. of the letters also watched with wide opened eyes the whole game.

After Dee's extra turn (which he got because he found a match) I took a turn and picked two letters myself. It was fun and interesting.  The game would work the other way also. Dee and his Mom or Dad could have picked out some cards for us to match and lay them out on their side.  The trick is to pick some way for us all to identify them from the back.

This activity has an educational component.  Is it important to you as a Grandmother, Mother, Aunt or other long distance relative to incorporate education into the activities you do with your young internet friends, or is the activity, by itself, enough?