Hello
Everyone!
As the cooler temps have seemed to arrive overnight, visions of how I may apply last nights lesson at our monthly AAHA meeting excite me. Gaming and Home Schooling - genius. What kid doesn't like to play games? Last night Nick Grenier presented Gaming and Home Schooling.
It is quite freeing thinking that we might be able to pull our children away from the digital world of gaming and introduce them to board and card games of every kind that reinforce skills like following instructions, encouraging social skill building, good sportsmanship, decision making, strategy planning. Does your child know the difference between probability and luck?
Playing games can support our unit studies or any thing else our children are interested in learning. It seems there is a game for everything! You can use games to reinforce a theme and at the same time personify the experience through role playing. Some games can provide context (like a food chain game where you must visualize survival). However fun and engaging games are, we found out that it is always important as the teacher/parent to make it a meaningful experience by reinforcing the theme covered in the game at the end and review what was learned with your children.
Some Tips:
1. Always familiarize yourself with a new game before attempting to play it with your children.
2. Treat the game like a lesson itself. This will help the child understand that this is learning time too and not only time for play. And again, review the themes after the game is over.
Some favorite Grenier Family games that we discussed in great length and sampled:
1. Fluxx - Rules constantly change in this game so you are constantly in Flux, thus the name.
2. Settler of Gatan - Build your colony by understanding resources and win!
3. Founding Fathers - A constitution game!
4. Chrononauts - If you don't know american history, you will by the end of this game!
5. 7 Wonders - Explore the Wonders of the World.
6. TIcket to Ride - Plan a railroad!
7. Pandemic - Cooperate as a team to fight a Pandemic while learning about the world.
8. Dixit - Visualy stimulating storytelling game.
9. Nano Fictionary - Creating mini stories.
10 . Gurps - Basically your Role Playing manual. Making anything a Role Playing game from your history lesson to household chores (ask Nadia about that if you are curious)!
11. Civilization - A computer based game where you nurture your Civilization until the space age. Built in encyclopedia.
Thank you to Nick and Nadia who obviously put a lot of thought and planning into this inspiring, engaging, and fun presentation.
The next Accokeek Area Home School Association Meeting is Monday, October 15th, 7-8:30 at the Accokeek Library. It will be a planning meeting where we decide what monthly "teach the teacher" sessions we will have. Presenters wanted! We hope to see all of you there. This is a very important meeting as we would like to build community for Home Schooling parents in our area. It is also an important time to visit with your peers. We look forward to seeing you next month! As usual, Anne Ramsey, Manager of the Accokeek Library, specially selects topic specific resources for our parents to check out that evening. What a bonus! Children always welcome.
Best to you and have a great year! See you soon.
Katharine Vincent and Monica Reynolds, Founders
As the cooler temps have seemed to arrive overnight, visions of how I may apply last nights lesson at our monthly AAHA meeting excite me. Gaming and Home Schooling - genius. What kid doesn't like to play games? Last night Nick Grenier presented Gaming and Home Schooling.
It is quite freeing thinking that we might be able to pull our children away from the digital world of gaming and introduce them to board and card games of every kind that reinforce skills like following instructions, encouraging social skill building, good sportsmanship, decision making, strategy planning. Does your child know the difference between probability and luck?
Playing games can support our unit studies or any thing else our children are interested in learning. It seems there is a game for everything! You can use games to reinforce a theme and at the same time personify the experience through role playing. Some games can provide context (like a food chain game where you must visualize survival). However fun and engaging games are, we found out that it is always important as the teacher/parent to make it a meaningful experience by reinforcing the theme covered in the game at the end and review what was learned with your children.
Some Tips:
1. Always familiarize yourself with a new game before attempting to play it with your children.
2. Treat the game like a lesson itself. This will help the child understand that this is learning time too and not only time for play. And again, review the themes after the game is over.
Some favorite Grenier Family games that we discussed in great length and sampled:
1. Fluxx - Rules constantly change in this game so you are constantly in Flux, thus the name.
2. Settler of Gatan - Build your colony by understanding resources and win!
3. Founding Fathers - A constitution game!
4. Chrononauts - If you don't know american history, you will by the end of this game!
5. 7 Wonders - Explore the Wonders of the World.
6. TIcket to Ride - Plan a railroad!
7. Pandemic - Cooperate as a team to fight a Pandemic while learning about the world.
8. Dixit - Visualy stimulating storytelling game.
9. Nano Fictionary - Creating mini stories.
10 . Gurps - Basically your Role Playing manual. Making anything a Role Playing game from your history lesson to household chores (ask Nadia about that if you are curious)!
11. Civilization - A computer based game where you nurture your Civilization until the space age. Built in encyclopedia.
Thank you to Nick and Nadia who obviously put a lot of thought and planning into this inspiring, engaging, and fun presentation.
The next Accokeek Area Home School Association Meeting is Monday, October 15th, 7-8:30 at the Accokeek Library. It will be a planning meeting where we decide what monthly "teach the teacher" sessions we will have. Presenters wanted! We hope to see all of you there. This is a very important meeting as we would like to build community for Home Schooling parents in our area. It is also an important time to visit with your peers. We look forward to seeing you next month! As usual, Anne Ramsey, Manager of the Accokeek Library, specially selects topic specific resources for our parents to check out that evening. What a bonus! Children always welcome.
Best to you and have a great year! See you soon.
Katharine Vincent and Monica Reynolds, Founders
