Good Behavior Games for Preschoolers

Tired of nagging your child to do the right thing? Skip the lecture! Instead, add these super-fun ways to teach honesty, responsibility, compassion, patience, and more to your parenthood playbook. (We promise she won't even notice the lesson.)

By Jacqueline Burt Wang and Megan Tucker

Heather Weston

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Build-a-Train

How to play: You'll need several cardboard boxes large enough for a kid to sit inside. Put out a variety of art supplies -- markers, stickers, construction paper, glue -- and tell each child to turn his or her box into a train car. Once they've decorated the outside of their box with wheels, windows, and whatever else they can think of, help them arrange the cars one behind the other, then hop aboard for an imaginary choo-choo ride.

What it teaches: Perseverance. Games that require team prep work give kids a sense of accomplishment, says clinical psychologist Sandra McLeod Humphrey, author of Hot Issues, Cool Choices: Facing Bullies, Peer Pressure, Popularity, and Put-Downs. The positive payoff introduces children to the good feeling they get when they achieve their hard-earned goals.

Parent tip: Be prepared to hang on to those boxes; the kids will want to get together and hit the track again and again.

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