3 Easy Ways to Teach Kids Phone Numbers

A few months ago, I shared a project to help teach children their address. It ended up being a fun and creative way to get my 5 year old to memorize the specifics about where we live. Because the hands-on activity was enjoyable for him, he caught on quick and I thought it would be a great strategy to implement similarly when teaching him other life skills, like learning important phone numbers!

These days we’re likely to just tap on a name in our phone without needing to remember any numbers, but theres no denying that learning and memorizing important phone numbers is a great life skill to have. By teaching your child important phone numbers, you are helping them to be self-sufficient and confident – and it could possibly be life-saving.

Here are 3 easy ways you can teach kids important phone numbers

1. Make a bracelet!

This simple project was a hit with my son! Wearing a bracelet with an important phone number is a great reminder for you child and they’ll easily be able to recognize and recite it after repeatedly seeing it. Additionally, wearing a bracelet with an important phone number can be a smart safety plan for family outings, such as an amusement park and (god forbid) you were to get separated.

Creating the bracelet is simple: Just use an assortment of bead colors, number beads and some elastic string. If you want your child to learn multiple phone numbers, you can even use alphabet beads to include the persons name in the bracelet. Besides being a helpful learning activity, creating the phone number bracelet strengthens fine motor skills as well.

2. Play a match game

With two common household items, you can create this craft stick phone number activity. Using a popsicle stick, write your important phone number down and write numbers 0-9 on clothespins. Play a matching game and see if you child can match up the numbers. If you have multiple numbers you would like them to practice learning, label the popsicle sticks on the opposite side (i.e. “Mimi’s Phone,” “Police,” etc). You can even test your child, like flash cards, to see if they can match the contact to the phone number.

3. Practice dialing important numbers (free worksheets below)

Practice makes perfect – and we created a free worksheet bundle that you can use with your child to encourage phone number memorization. The worksheets are a great visual for your child to see what exact numbers in sequence they need to plug in and includes a pretend phone sheet to practice dialing those numbers.