Every goal. Every hit. One word read out loud.
Reading practice at home can turn into a fight. So Home Team Smarts makes printable reading board games for kids 5 to 11 who love hockey and baseball. Print one at home, grab some bingo chips and play at the kitchen table, no screen needed. The rule is simple: no read, no score.
Kids won’t sit for flashcards. They’ll play to win. So we hid the reading inside the game. Each one plays like the real sport, mixed with board game moves your family already knows: draw a card, play an Action Card, move your piece, pass the turn. Each child reads from their own deck, at their own level, so siblings can play together.
Reading isn’t a break from the game. It’s the move.
Every goal, hit and big play starts with a word read out loud. Reading is the move.
You hold up the word, check the answer on the back and call the play. The hard rules stay with you.
Missed words go on the Rebound tab or the TRY AGAIN pile. You read them together for two minutes after the game.
Four decks per game, from first short-vowel words to big words. Pick by how your child reads, not by age.
Each child reads from their own deck, at their own level, in the same game.
of Ontario Grade 3 students aren’t meeting the provincial reading standard.
EQAO, 2024–25of US Grade 4 students read below the basic level, the most since 2002.
Nation’s Report Card, 2024more screen time a day before age 8 was linked to a 9–10% lower chance of top reading and math scores later.
SickKids and EQAO, 2025It doesn’t have to be this way. With sound-it-out teaching and early help, only about 1 in 20 kids would fall behind, Ontario’s Right to Read inquiry found. CBC News, 2022
The front of each card shows only the word, so kids sound it out instead of guessing from a picture. The back shows the picture and the sound boxes, so the grown-up can check the answer and point to each sound.
Each game has four decks, from first short-vowel words to big words with prefixes and suffixes. Pick the deck by how your child reads, not by age or grade.
The decks are matched to Ontario’s Language Foundations Continuum (2026) and the Common Core reading standards. Each game’s site shows the deck-by-deck details.
The decks practice CVC words, digraphs, silent e and heart words, in phonics order, so they work as first grade reading games and beyond. Every deck has blank cards for this week’s class words, and each kit includes a note families can send to their child’s teacher. The games work in literacy stations for kindergarten and grade 1.
Home Team Smarts isn’t reviewed or endorsed by any ministry, school board or standards group.
Each game is a set of print files you download and print at home on letter paper. Both are free during the playtest. When the shop opens, you’ll buy them right here.
Hockey reading game · ages 5–11
Baseball reading game · ages 5–11
They give kids a reason to keep reading. In our games a child reads a word out loud to make every move, so a game of about 12 minutes is a lot of reading practice, without flashcards.
Tie it to something they already love. If your kid lives for hockey or baseball, every word they read here scores a goal or gets a hit.
Both. Most words are sound-it-out phonics words, from short CVC words to digraphs and silent e, with some heart words (high frequency sight words) mixed in. Pick the deck where your child reads about 4 out of 5 words right.
Make reading the way they win at something they already love. In these games reading is the move: read a word to score a goal or get a hit. A game takes about 12 minutes, so stop while it’s still fun and play again tomorrow.
Short consonant-vowel-consonant words, like cat and pig. They’re often the first words kids learn to sound out. The early decks in both games include CVC words.
Kids 5 to 11, from kindergarten and grade 1 up. You pick the deck by how your child reads, not by age.
A printer, letter paper, scissors and bingo chips or coins. Everything prints with low ink. Stick Tap Words also uses a die, and the kit includes one you can fold up.
Yes. Every deck has blank cards for this week’s class words, and each kit includes a note families can send to their child’s teacher. The games work in literacy stations for kindergarten and grade 1. Beginner decks include common sight words (heart words), the short everyday words kids learn by sight. Words build in a step-by-step phonics order (CVC words, blends and digraphs, silent e, vowel teams, longer words), similar to the order used in structured literacy programs.
Play free. Tell us what worked. Families are playing both games now. Join a playtest to get the print-at-home game free. In return, I’d ask for your honest notes: what your kid loved and where they got stuck.
I spent nearly 10 years working in post-secondary education. Then I watched my own son struggle with the usual ways kids are taught to read. He loves sports and board games, so I put the two together.
Sven, a dad and the founder of Home Team Smarts