Today's Games

Instead of typing a list of learning games, I've decided to write short entries here and there about the games or activities we do on certain days and categorize them under "Learning Games" (see sidebar). Most of these will be be very simple, maybe even silly, but I guess my kids like silly!

Today:

Quirky Questions

For Bible, I had the kids take turn answering the review questions. If they knew the answer they could do a short goofy activity such as... 5-10 jumping jacks, running down and up the stairs once, patting head and rubbing tummy, hoedowns (a short ttapp exercise involving both right and left brain; see sidebar if you are curious about ttapp), singing a short segment of a song, somersault, etc. If they didn't know the answer, they looked it up in the Bible instead of doing an activity.


Run to the Answer

For spelling, I spread out phonogram cards all over the floor. I called out a phonogram and the kids ran to it. The first child to touch the card could keep it. I made a rule about no grabbing or shoving. I reserved a few of the cards for the 5 year old to race to by herself. This game could be used for math facts with number cards. Call out a problem and the kids run to the answer.


If you'd like to share a learning game, feel free to post it in the comments section!

Games

I try to use a variety of games while teaching my kids to spice up the learning process. Today we've played three different games.

Tic-Tac-Toe

Instead of just having the kids take turns answering the Bible review questions, I divided them into teams. Evan was a team unto himself, being the oldest, while Matthew and Sophie were allowed to collaborate. They played tic-tac-toe, earning the right to make their mark on the white-board grid if they answered a question correctly. If neither team could answer the question from memory, I allowed the team which first had the question to look up the answer in the Bible. Today the game ended in a draw; the best way to end tic-tac-toe.

Place Value Game

During math time, the boys were learning about place value up to the thousandth place as well as comparing number values. The Singapore Home Instructor Guide (sold by Sonlight) provided a fun game which the boys enjoyed. They each had a sheet of scrap paper with 4 lines representing place value. Each boy got to take a turn rolling the dice and writing the number wherever they liked on the lines (once placed, the numeral could not be moved). When all the lines were filled, the boys read their numbers to each other, and at first the boy with the highest number (later I changed it to whoever had the smallest number) won the round. In the first round, the boys placed the numbers indiscriminately on the lines, one of them losing the game due to poor placement. They caught onto the strategy by the next round. This method was certainly more interesting than just going over the text.

Musical Facts

During spelling, we made two circles of phonograms on the floor: single-letters for Sophie and multi-letter phonograms for the boys. I sang goofy songs while they walked around the letters. When I stopped singing, they had to stop and take turns saying the phonogram beside which they stopped. THAT game was more fun for the kids than for me, because they got too silly and weren't listening!