You don't need to spend big bucks to buy a pre-boxed version of a matching game at the store. You can make your own easily. Here's how:

Make a mixed up animal collage and help your preschooler build her visual arts and math skills along the way.

This engaging, fun, pattern resist painting is inspired by your little one's love of shapes.

Using a fruit cereal and yarn, help your preschooler create crunchy, edible patterns.

Have fun with the kids by "shaping up" your standard chocolate chip cookie recipe, and teach kids about sorting and shapes while you're at it.

Try this fun and interactive collage activity with your preschooler to teach her the "building blocks" of math and architecture.

Play with shapes, like triangles and circles, to help your child review the different kinds and create a new picture!

This copying game is like a hopped up version of Simon Says, but it lets kids use their bodies to practice patterning, a key skill in early math.

Help your preschooler or preschooler with shape recognition, math, and matching by creating your own personal shapes cards, good for home or car.

Create clear sound shakers so your preschooler can observe and compare the different sounds that objects make!

Help your preschooler create ice cube bead necklaces to cool off while practicing gross motor skills and sequencing, and discussing states of matter.

Sponges are easy to handle and fun to play with, and your child will love putting these simple, three-piece puzzles together.

Take the spookiness out of spiders with this web-making activity! Your child will practice talking about and creating shapes in this Halloween craft, and learn about spiders along the way.

Help your preschooler practice counting, matching, and learning colors with this fun game!

Help your little builder move up in the world with this recycled cardboard castle that's just the right size for a young king and his loyal stuffed subjects.

This activity will help your child build his early math skills by practicing shape recognition.

Disguise a lesson focused on shape recognition as a Santa collage, and your pre-kindergartener won't even realize she's learning!

Cornucopia still life painting is a great activity for your young artist to look at light and shadow, textures and composition in creating art at Thanksgiving!

Challenge your preschooler to a game of shape match-up--an entertaining way to boost her observational ability.

Your child will practice her counting and number recognition as she matches printed numbers to the same number of repetitions of a simple design.

Here's a Halloween, math activity: have your preschooler or pre-kindergartener carve shapes into a Jack-O-Lantern face and boost her shape recognition skills.

This imaginative art activity will help your child to better understand symmetry and explore color and shape.

Boost shape recognition with this matching game where your child will pair up sticks to create simple shapes.

Here's Twist 'N Turn: let your preschooler or pre-kindergartener be outside and active while learning about shapes, colors, directions, and word recognition.

When your child is itching for a game, consider ditching Hide and Seek in favor of Shape and Seek. Here's how it works:

Build your child's vocabulary by exploring and discussing spatial relationships during everyday activities such as building, rearranging, and ordering.

Bring the classic game of "Red Rover" up to date with color and shape recognition skills for your child.

Boost your preschooler's math and verbal skills by having her participate in simple, fun activities that teach her how to sort, count, and categorize objects.

Want to add a little craftiness to preschool math? Break out the glue gun and create a button board!

Building a rocket ship is a great way for kids to learn about measuring and construction. It'll fuel their creative side too!