Use the appeal of the common road sign to your advantage by creating a game with hidden learning opportunities.

With nothing more than a flat open space and some lively kids, you can reinforce key concepts of punctuation while having lots of healthy laughs.

Play hopscotch with numbers, but also with letters, to get kids ready for reading.

Play a phonics scavenger hunt no matter where you are. This game will have your child sounding out words and finding letter sounds in the objects around them.

This slightly tweaked version of "Hide and Go Seek" hones listening: a key skill for kindergarten.

This scavenger hunt game is simple, but it's fun, and it will arm your children with the directional vocabulary they should master in time for kindergarten.

Tell your child you want to work on kindergarten readiness skills and she's not likely to jump up and clap. But turn it into a game and it's a different story.

This version of the carnival game where you try to toss chips into a cup, to win a fabulous prize, gives kids a boost in early writing and reading.