Veronika and I are working on the concept of making a “match”, so here was a new way to turn the idea into a game!

To start, I cut images from magazines that could be sorted into pairs. These weren’t exact copies of each other, although you could make them so if you have a double copy of one magazine. Our pictures included: 2 shoes, 2 houses, 2 chairs, 2 images of flowers, and so forth.

Glue all these images onto index cards. For a more durable version of this game, you can try a few suggestions from The Toddler’s Busy Book. One option is to cover the cards with contact paper. To take it a step further, glue each image to a round metal lid, as from a frozen juice can, before covering with contact paper.

I kept things simple with the index cards, though, and set them out in a scrambled pile in front of Veronika. Her job was to make each match! When she picked up one shoe picture, I asked, “Can you find it’s match?” She quickly did so, showing that she’s grasped the concept.

Once the cards were all sorted, she had fun simply playing with them and looking at the images for a while. Next time, I might add magnetic strips to the back of the index cards so she can move them around like magnets on the fridge.