Games are Brilliant

Charlotte Mason knew how much young children love games and that they are a great educational tool. Before I realized this, I made teaching academics too complicated. My son shut down and refused to try. I worried about his lack of interest until I read more about Charlotte’s ideas and a modern book called “Better Late than Early” by Raymond and Dorothy Moore.  Here is a good article related to the book. I also like this quote from page 88:

“Schools do not serve children or society effectively when they expect children to learn the basic skills before they are ready. Children who are successful and happy in a school situation experience satisfaction from, and are challenged by, learning. This excitement about learning is a natural result of being ready to learn. As Arnold Gesell and Frances Ilg (50) of the Gesell Institute have suggested: ‘ When the school child was a baby the adult attitudes tended to be more reasonable. One did not say he should walk at this or that age. Feeling confident that he would walk at the most seasonable time, one was more interested to observe the stage and degree of his preliminary development. If reading readiness and walking readiness are appraised on similar grounds, more justice is done to the child.’”

We have a few inexpensive workbooks for math and kindergarten level language arts but, honestly, we don’t use them. My children like games better. Our boys are motivated to play games, so learning academics happens naturally. I can give them plenty of help without feeling like I’m giving them all answers. The more help I give, the more they say, “I can do it myself!”

I can see their strengths and weaknesses without putting them on the spot to do a workbook page. I think workbooks are great if the kids enjoy them and ask to do them but my kids like the variation and unpredictability found in games. For teacher Mom, a gentle nudge during a game is a good challenge. With workbooks, that same gentle nudge makes me feel like a task master. It’s easy to forget the educational value of game because they are so much fun.

I read this article and the boost to the IQ surprises me. Compared to curriculum, games are cheap! I’m all for spending the money if the more expensive product works better for a specific skill. We use Headsprout, which is also a game, and it’s the best $100 we’ve spent on homeschooling because of the confidence it gives Hunter for reading. The software showed him how words go together in a way that I could not and he is learning the basic sight words. If he makes mistakes, the software is intuitive and starts repeating the sounds or words.

For additional reading practice, we play games with the flashcards instead of drilling. He reads the books he “earns” through Headsprout, one or two each night before bed, and we use the Language Experience Approach as described in a previous post.

After a few Headsprout “episodes” or lessons, Hunter thought he could magically read any book. He ran upstairs and tried to read The Nutcracker. His excitement faded to disappointment. He came down the stairs to report his failure, quite upset. I explained to him that it takes time to learn to read just like it takes time to learn to walk. He likes babies and pays attention to them, so now he understands how long it can take to learn.

With games, he can focus on the goal of getting to the end of the game and having fun instead of bigger goals like reading a big book or completing a big workbook.  In the case of The Nutcracker, I realize these larger goals are implied and understood by my child whether I state them or not.

Here are the games we like the best for math, language arts and good times as a family.

Serpentine Game from “The Charlotte Mason Companion” by Karen Andreola. She wrote,  “The cards were placed face up in a serpentine path on the carpet.  A die was rolled, and as the tiny dolls or tokens landed on the cards in sequence, green words were sounded out and red words were ‘said’ until the path was completed and the treasure uncovered.”  We use flash cards that we printed from Headsprout onto perforated business card paper.  Hunter sounds out the words if he likes. I also take a turn.  If I get too near the finish line for his liking, then he has a chance to “steal” the treasure by saying every word between my game piece and the treasure.  If two children are playing, this rule could be modified or eliminated based on the abilities of the children.  The “treasure” can be anything small, just for fun or to keep.

Treasure Hunt – Draw about ten different “stick” pictures of furniture found in your home (or glue pictures from a magazine) on scraps of paper. Write the word “chair” under a chair, etc. Fold or roll up each piece of paper. Write a word familiar to your child on the outside or attach a flashcard. Then hide a small treasure at the end location and hide the clues in reverse order. Hand your child the first clue. They must “decode” it by saying the word to open the clue. Difficulty can increase with harder words to decode or hiding clues in several rooms of the house. Any hiding spot that can be easily drawn will work. It is also fun to play this game outdoors.  If a hiding spot is not easy to draw, I use a digital camera and print the picture for clues.  There is a little bit of prep work but it is worth it.  The clues can be used many times with new words added to “decode.” 

Reading Charades from “The Charlotte Mason Companion” by Karen Andreola.  She wrote,  “Here is an activity that was played on sunny days in our back garden.  I wrote on scraps of paper phonetic words with green pen and sight words with red.  All of the short phrases featured verbs, and they became secret messages for Sophia to act out.  The scraps were folded up and placed in a hat (of course).  She reached in and chose a message and quietly figured it out in secret.  Then she acted out the suggested activity for me to guess.  You’d be surprised  at how many phonetic verbs can be mixed with a few sight words.  For example:  hop on one leg, clap your hands, kick the ball, pick up the stick, feel the grass, smell a flower, swing high, swing low, do a jig, climb the tree, take three steps, etc.  Her actions were living proof that she understood the message, and her smile showed that she was happy that words have meaning.”

Nursery Rhyme Scramble by Charlotte Mason –Write the words of a favorite nursery rhyme on small cards. One word to each card. Then scramble the cards and help the child put together the rhyme. It helps if the child knows the rhyme by heart and can say it aloud as they put the words in the correct order.

Math War – Each player solves the problem and the person with the larger end result wins the pair. In the case of a tie, repeat, and the winner of the tie-breaker gets all four cards. 

Traditional Bingo — We got this game at Walgreens for $10.00. Hunter (6) likes to crank the handle and call the numbers, then he finds the correct spot on the board for the little ball. He has to work at it, but he likes doing it. He will say, “Oh, six, seven” and I will softly repeat “Oh, sixty-seven.” I usually see him whisper it to himself “sixty-seven” after I say it or sometimes he will ask me to stop because it distracts him. I go with what works for him.

Math Bingo – We have these Bingo cards with single digit numbers. It comes with stack of cards with math problems but I usually make up the problem myself so they can place tokens more quickly. I can also adjust it to their abilities or concentration level. We use small rocks or marshmallows. The kids *love* playing marshmallow bingo because they get to eat them after we play the game.

We also love the following store-bought games, Hi Ho Cherrio, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Dominos, Ladybug Game, Slamwich, Tumbling Monkeys, and Sorry.   As I am linking these games, Chandler (3) is sitting next me to saying “Whoa, I like that game!” as each ones comes up.  He does pretty well with these games but needs extra help on some of them.

I like these ideas from Simply Charlotte Mason for teaching a child to read.

And this is what Charlotte Mason says about games and learning to read in Part V of Volume 1:

“Let the child alone, and he will learn the alphabet for himself: but few mothers can resist the pleasure of teaching it; and there is no reason why they should, for this kind of learning is no more than play to the child, and if the alphabet be taught to the little student, his appreciation of both form

vol 1 pg 202

and sound will be cultivated. When should he begin? Whenever his box of letters begins to interest him. The baby of two will often be able to name half a dozen letters; and there is nothing against it so long as the finding and naming of letters is a game to him. But he must not be urged, required to show off, teased to find letters when his heart is set on other play.

Word-making. The first exercises in the making of words will be just as pleasant to the child. Exercises treated as a game, which yet teach the powers of the letters, will be better to begin with than actual sentences. Take up two of his letters and make the syllable ‘at’: tell him it is the word we use when we say ‘at home,’ ‘at school.’ Then put b to ‘at’–– bat; c to ‘at’––cat; fat, hat, mat, sat, rat, and so on. First, let the child say what the word becomes with each initial consonant to ‘at,’ in order to make hat, pat, cat. Let the syllables all be actual words which he knows. Set the words in a row, and let him read them off. Do this with the short vowel sounds in combination with each of the consonants, and the child will learn to read off dozens of words of three letters, and will master the short-vowel sounds with initial and final consonants without effort. Before long he will do the lesson for himself. ‘How many words can you make with “en” and another letter, with “od” and another letter?’ etc. Do not hurry him.”