Tricking the kids into learning

Ok, I know, it's not nice to trick people; but I hope in this case perhaps you will excuse me and that the ends justify the means.  Our newest addition comes to our family with many issues: one of which I call lack of cultural knowledge.  By cultural knowledge, I don't mean and understanding of different cultures, but just a general understanding of knowledge that would be expected of another person of the same age. So I have set about a plan to slowly break some of this down.  Unfortunately, DS2 is a typical child who thinks all learning is dumb and boring (Boy, did he get thrown into the wrong family - we are not likely to perpetuate this belief long). So despite not quite knowing what is going on or understanding quite what we are talking about half the time, he still insists on watching mindless cartoons and trying to avoid anything that seems to have any possibility of learning involved.  While somewhat jealous that the other two kids don't go to school, he is happy not to have "lessons" of his own or so he thinks. . .

During his school vacation this week, I started by playing Borderline card game with him.







  I just played it up as a new game that I wanted to try out.  We could try a few hands before we went on to Skip-bo.  Did you know by the way that Columbia is that capital of South Carolina AND also the name of another country?  Did you also know that West Virginia was an actual state and not just a directional portion of Virginia itself?  Do you know how small Rhode Island really is?

Then another day, I connivingly took out the Odyssey III talking globe







and played a round. Quickly, it wasn't my turn any more and he took right over.  You can only imagine the shocking information that this globe possessed: Equatorial New Guinea was near the Equator, Argentina was in South America, and Ireland was near England.



Finally, I tucked in some Brain Quest cards in the backseat of the car.






He is quizzing me non-stop.

Hmmmm! Do you think I should tell him that he's learning?

PS If you have any more games to recommend, I'd love to hear about them.  I figure this kind of learning is equivalent to when my mother used to put my medicine in jam:  it was too sweat to be something good for you.

Phase 10 - a great way to spend an afternoon

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we spent the weekend in a cabin in Maine, one without electronics. While we enjoyed the out of doors, there were sometimes when we could not venture out due to rain and so we broke out two games: Boggle and Phase 10.




Boggle is always a favorite at our house. I love word games. Phase 10 though is a newer one for us. My father-in-law and his girlfriend enjoy the game but we have always pacified them by playing but never really got into it. This weekend though, the game got very serious. Even though DH kept calling it a stupid game, we all enjoyed it. DS actually stayed up with the adults to play until 1:30 am. Phase 10 is played in multiple rounds (a minimum of 10 rounds, but could be extended to many, many more depending on the luck of the draw). One of our games took over 3 hours, so do make sure that you have time to play. During each hand, you are trying to create a specific type of hand i.e. a run of seven cards. As you meet each set, you are allowed to move onto the next phase. Winning the game is a combination of getting through the last phase and having the lowest score (points are accumulated by adding up the cards in your hand when a player goes out).

DS was so enthralled with this game that he had to get it the next time we went to the store. It wasn't very expensive. I think less than $6.0o and makes a great stocking stuffer for those of you thinking of Christmas. Best of all, it is one of those games that require family time - something you can never have enough of.

Pokemon with PokeMOM

Have you been introduced to the Pokemon nation? DS loves all things Pokemon. He collects cards and plays it online. He begs for later and later bedtimes so that he can see Pokemon shows and movies.

Each character has a name. They are all very strange: Mantyke, Croagunk, Skorupi, Hippopotas. And then some “evolve” into more advanced characters:

Munchlax - - -Snorlax
Gible - - -Gabite - - -Garchomp
Happiny - - - Chansey - - -Blissey
Mime Jr. - - -Mr. Mime
Bonsly - - -Sudowoodo

It is more complicated than I can possibly understand. Some are rare. Each character has HP (health), attack, defense, special attack, special defense, speed. You can even find out their height and weight, type and ability. All this information tells you how they combat each other. I could not explain this if I tried, but it got me thinking that there may be pokemon in my very own home. I know that I have seen a DOGUSHAIRIUS, who can evolve into a UNNYBUSTY if not battle quickly enough and maybe into a TUMBYEEDS. They are very, very dangerous and multiply easily. They can only be combated by SUCKELETROSIS or OOBROOM. I’ve also seen a UNA OKSOC evolve to a NAUDRYL and to its most fearsome form MONTS Y MONTS.

Sometimes it seems there is only one super rare POKEMOM that can save us all. She does have the ability to have babies that can assist her in the battles, but sometimes the hatchlings cause the evolution of the evil that she battles. Without these tiny BABIBS, the evil ones can be kept in control, but with them sometimes the dangers spiral and grow beyond reason.

I think I am really getting this game down.

Well, I think I better throw my Pokeball, “NOCHELEEP SI!” If I’m lucky he’ll get the kids ready for bed and tucked in. He’ll gain such power from his battle that he’ll evolve to WALKI CANINI to walk the dogs and then in his final evolution OUTOUSE LOCSED. He’ll spin his way through the house finishing up the chores so that PokeMOM can retire to her Pokeball.

If this inspires you, let me know about any PokeMOM villains that you encounter in your home.

Losing Game

Ok, it is official I am old. For the first time, my daughter (13) let me win a game. How pathetic is that?

As I mentioned on my Homeschool with Heart blog, my daughter has been going to theater camp. While there, she has learned how to play a card game named “Spit”. Don’t worry I didn’t know what it was either. This was the first hint that I was beginning to edge over the proverbial hill. She begged me to play tonight and I relented. As it was over 90 degrees, we set up the cards in my bedroom. We tried it first directly on the bed, then on a pillow, and finally set up a laundry basket upside down. (This is not the optimum playing area as laundry baskets are slick and move around when placed on the bed, but when it was as hot as it was today, you are willing to sacrifice for relief.)

She started trying to explain the game to me. Of course the first cards she put out had pictures on them and were not marked with the original six hearts or seven spades. Strike one against me. I could barely read the cards: my eyes aren’t what they used to be. I had to insist that we change decks. I should have given up then. She carefully reviewed the rules. It quickly became very apparent that my older reflexes were not up to the contest with a 13 year old who has been playing this game every day for two weeks. She started slowly for me and then it became very apparent that she was giving me clear benefits. She was purposely hitting the wrong pile; she was delaying her play when she saw that I had a move to make. . . She was throwing the game. It was like when she was little and we were playing Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders. She wasn’t overtly loosing. She was carefully controlling her play so that I had every advantage and therefore would begin to win and continue to want to play. This was the ultimate insult to my pride. Even after a couple rounds and learning that I needed to use both hands, I couldn’t overtake her. Her youth was clearly her advantage: her eyesight, her reflexes, her speedy thought processing.

I know it is pathetic to be competitive with a thirteen year old and I wouldn’t care if she beat me, but I really care that I couldn’t beat her. Is this the beginning of the end? When we finished the game, even she admitted it. “Mom, when we play tomorrow, I’m not going to go so easy on you.” I’ll have to let you know how it turns out.