Memory Games for Kids: 20 Free Games to Play at Home

Good memory games for kids are simple: show or say something, take it away, and ask your child to recall it. You can play most of them for free at home with a few objects, a deck of cards or nothing at all. Start easy, make each round a little harder, and stop while your child is still having fun.

Below are 20 memory games sorted by type, with clear rules, suggested ages and ways to make them harder. At the end you’ll find printable and online options and an honest look at what memory games can and can’t do.

How memory games work

Most memory games stretch one of two things:

• Short-term and working memory: holding a few things in mind for a moment, and sometimes doing something with them, like repeating numbers backwards.
• Recall: pulling something back out of memory after a short delay, like listing the objects you saw on a tray.

Working memory grows a lot during childhood. A study of children aged 4 to 15 by Susan Gathercole and colleagues found that performance on working memory tasks rose steadily across this age range, and that the main parts of working memory were already in place by about age 6. In everyday terms: a 10-year-old can usually hold and juggle more than a 6-year-old, so pick the starting level by your child, not by a chart.

Tip: Start at a level where your child gets most rounds right. Increase the challenge by one step (one more object, one more number) after two or three successes in a row.

Visual memory games

1. Kim’s game (the tray game)

Put 8 to 15 small objects on a tray. Your child looks for one minute, then you cover the tray. How many can they name? Variation: take one object away secretly and ask what’s missing.

This classic gets its name from Rudyard Kipling’s 1901 novel Kim, in which the hero trains his memory with a similar game using jewels. Scouts adopted it early on, and it is still played in scout groups today. Ages 5+.

2. Matching pairs

Lay cards face down in a grid. Players take turns flipping two cards. A match is kept and the player goes again; otherwise both cards are turned back. Use a regular deck (match by number and color) or homemade picture cards. Start with 6 pairs for young children and work up to 20 or more. Ages 4+.

3. What changed?

Your child studies a room or a shelf, then leaves. You change three things: move a cushion, turn a photo, remove a book. Can they find all three? Ages 5+.

4. Picture flash

Show a busy picture from a book for 20 seconds, then close the book. Ask questions: “How many birds were there? What color was the girl’s hat?” Ages 5+.

5. Draw it from memory

Show a simple drawing (a house, a robot made of shapes) for 10 seconds. Your child draws it from memory. Compare, then try a harder one. Ages 6+.

6. Grid positions

Draw a 4 by 4 grid. Place 3 coins in some squares, let your child look for 5 seconds, then remove them. Your child puts the coins back in the right squares. Add a coin each time they succeed. Ages 6+.

Listening memory games

7. I went to the market

The first player says, “I went to the market and bought apples.” The next repeats it and adds an item: “…apples and a balloon.” Keep going until someone forgets. Alphabetical items (apples, balloon, cat…) make it easier for younger kids. Ages 5+.

8. Repeat after me (numbers)

Say three numbers slowly, about one per second. Your child repeats them. Add one each round. For older kids, try repeating them backwards: that is harder, because it uses working memory, not just short-term memory. Ages 6+.

9. Silly instructions

Give a chain of instructions: “Touch your nose, jump twice, then bring me a spoon.” Start with two steps and work up. This one also helps with the real-life skill of following directions. Ages 4+.

10. Story questions

Read a short story aloud, then ask five questions about it. Mix easy ones (“What was the dog’s name?”) with order questions (“What happened after the storm?”). Ages 5+.

11. Clap patterns

Clap a short rhythm; your child copies it. Make the pattern longer each round, or mix claps with knee pats and finger snaps. Ages 4+.

12. Word pairs

Say five word pairs: “dog and moon, cup and tree…” Then say the first word of each pair and ask for the second. Silly pictures in your head help: a dog howling at the moon. Ages 7+.

Sequence and order games

13. Simon says the order

Point to three objects in the room in a set order. Your child touches them in the same order. Add one each round. Ages 5+.

14. Card order

Show four cards in a row for 10 seconds, turn them over, then mix up a second identical set. Your child arranges the second set in the original order. Ages 6+.

15. Daily replay

At bedtime, ask your child to tell you their day in order, from waking up to now. Ask for one detail per part: what they ate, who they sat next to. Ages 4+.

16. Routine detective

Your child watches you do a short task, such as making a sandwich in five steps. Then they tell you the steps in order, or do it themselves. Ages 5+.

Memory games with words and numbers

17. Shopping list challenge

Before a trip to the store, your child reads a list of five items and then hands it to you. In the store, they remember the items. Add one item per trip. Ages 6+.

18. Phone number chunks

Show a 6-digit number as two chunks: 415 926. Your child repeats it after a short delay. Then try 9 digits in three chunks. This teaches chunking, a memory trick that works for phone numbers, passwords and math facts. Ages 7+.

19. Spelling flash

Show a spelling word for 5 seconds, hide it, and ask your child to write it. Check together. Ages 6+.

20. Memory story chain

Give your child a list of 6 unrelated words (rocket, sandwich, cat, umbrella, drum, snow). They make up a silly story that links them in order, then retell the story to recall the list. Ages 7+.

Best memory games for kids by age

Age	Good starting games	Starting level
4–5	Matching pairs, clap patterns, silly instructions	6 pairs, 2-step instructions
6–7	Kim’s game, I went to the market, repeat after me	8 objects, 3–4 numbers
8–9	Grid positions, card order, word pairs	4 coins, 5 numbers
10–12	Numbers backwards, memory story chain, phone number chunks	4 numbers backwards, 9-digit chunks

These levels are suggestions to start from, not norms. Your child may start higher or lower, and that is fine.

Memory games for kids printable and online

Printable: You can make most printable memory games yourself in minutes.

• Matching cards: draw or print 10 to 20 pairs of simple pictures, or use this week’s spelling words (word on one card, picture on the other).
• Picture study sheets: a page of 12 small drawings to study for one minute, then a blank sheet to list what your child remembers.
• Grid sheets: a few empty 4 by 4 grids for the coin game.

Online: Online memory games for kids are handy for short sessions. Look for games with quick rounds, levels that adjust to your child, and few ads. Be cautious of anything promising higher IQ or better grades. For a short online attention exercise, try our free Schulte table, where your child finds numbers in order as fast as they can.

What memory games can and can’t do

Memory games are fun, cheap and a good reason to sit down together. Your child will almost certainly get better at the games with practice.

The research is less encouraging about anything beyond that. A 2016 meta-analysis by Monica Melby-Lervåg and colleagues found that working memory training improved the trained skills, but did not convincingly carry over to things like reading or math in studies with a proper comparison group. A 2020 meta-analysis by Giovanni Sala and Fernand Gobet, looking only at typically developing children, reached a similar conclusion. A 2016 review led by Daniel Simons of the evidence cited by brain-training companies found much the same: people improve on what they practice, with little evidence of benefits for distant tasks or everyday thinking.

What this means for you:

• Play memory games for fun and focus, not as a homework substitute.
• To help your child remember schoolwork, use memory techniques on the schoolwork itself: quizzing from memory and spreading review over several days. Our guide on how to improve memory in kids explains how.
• If your child struggles with memory far more than classmates, both at home and at school, for months, talk to their teacher and then to your pediatrician or family doctor.

A structured option

Our Brain Training for Kids program is an English edition of Developing the Brain by educator Shamil Ahmadullin, already taught in Russian. It covers attention, memory and thinking, along with reading, writing and mental arithmetic. In the current Russian edition, lessons run 40–45 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 11 weeks, with three progress check-ups. The English edition is in development, and you can join the waitlist on the program page.

Sources

• Gathercole et al. (2004), The structure of working memory from 4 to 15 years of age, Developmental Psychology (PubMed)
• Gathercole et al. (2004), White Rose repository copy
• Gathercole (2004), Working memory and learning during the school years, Proceedings of the British Academy
• Kim’s Game, Wikipedia
• The Scouts (UK): Play Kim’s game
• Guides Queensland: Kim’s Game notebook page
• Melby-Lervåg, Redick & Hulme (2016), Working memory training does not improve far transfer
• Sala & Gobet (2020), Working memory training in typically developing children
• Sala & Gobet (2019), Cognitive training does not enhance general cognition
• Association for Psychological Science: Brain training claims not backed by science (Simons et al., 2016)
• Simons et al. (2016), Do “brain-training” programs work?