by Lorinda K.F. Newton
Frequently called the hardest month to slog through each school year, February brings the late-winter doldrums. In the Seattle area, where I live, months of clouds and rain leads to cabin fever. School time quickly loses its appeal, and kinetic learners get wiggly.
Highly kinetic when young, both of my children loved games. To channel that energy, we would sometimes play games for school. Add variety to your school day with one of the games listed below.
English
Title: Phonogram Fun Packet
Publisher: Beall’s Learning Games
Cost: $29.95
Ages: 5-9
This packet contains several games that coordinate with Spell to Write and Read and other Spalding method English programs. We frequently played the two-sided board game, bingo, Crazy Egg, and Go Fish with the phonogram cards during first grade. Later, we used the spelling rule cards and our homemade spelling-word cards with this board game. This type of drill helped both of my kids to master their phonograms.
To play the board game, a player rolls the die, moves around the board, and does whatever the square he lands on tells him. At the end of each turn, the child draws a phonogram card or a spelling card (or card of any subject the parent wants to drill. The publisher offers cards for other school subjects). If the child can say the phonogram (or whatever is on the card), he keeps it. If he misses, he doesn’t get it. The one with the most cards wins.
Instructions for other games include Take the Chip, Who Knows?, Match It, Brain Search I & II, and Phono-grummy.
History and Geography
Our favorite history and geography games, unfortunately, are now out of print. See Rainbow Resource Center for a selection of games such as the following:
Title: GeoCards USA and GeoCards World
Publisher: GeoToys
Cost: $10.95 each
Ages: PreK to adult
This appears similar to the out-of-print Borderline geography card games that we enjoyed playing. In addition to matching bordering states or nations, the card set suggests other games to play with the cards: solitaire, name the capitals, war, and 20 questions.
Science
Title: Somebody
Publisher: Aristoplay
Cost: $18.50
Ages: 6-10
As a first grader, my son couldn’t get enough of this game when we studied the human body. The first one to construct his “body” on a playing board wins. Each player draws cards from the pile to collect his body parts. Then he must build his body in the right order. The thin, plastic game pieces stick to the board like window clings. The instructions offer five ways to play.
Economics
Title: CashFlow
Publisher: RichDad
Cost: $79.99
Ages: 14 and up. (CashFlow for Kids also available for ages 7-14).
When my son took Academy Northwest’s required Life Practicum course his senior year, he was thrilled that he could report on 10 hours of playing this game instead of writing one book report.
To win, a player must be the first person to earn enough money from investments in stocks, properties, and businesses to escape the “rat race” and meet his financial goal.
When we played our first two games, I was hit by so many economic misfortunes that I became bankrupt early in the game. Because my son needed to get in 10 hours, I pushed on. After that, we had more success.
During the game, each player must track his expenses and income on a paper tally sheet, which comes with the game. This board game doesn’t come with paper money like most games. Maintaining this finance sheet can be tedious. Rich Dad has an Android app available to track a player’s financial records, but I found it difficult to use when I needed to correct a mistake. My software engineer husband made his own spreadsheet that we now all use. My husband loves this game.
English
Title: English from the Roots Up Vol. 1 & 2 Word Cards
Publisher: Literacy Unlimited
Cost: $14.95 each set
These Latin- and Greek-root flash cards lend themselves to games of Concentration and Go Fish. My daughter and I spent the three years of middle school working through both volumes of the English from the Roots Up. About three times a week, we played a game to drill the current week’s roots and to review past ones. The sturdy cards can handle hours of play.
Multiple Subjects
As described above, any set of flashcards, homemade or store-bought, can be used for these simple card games. Another game that can used in place of flash cards is Checkers.
My son never liked drilling with flash cards but loved to play checkers. To practice reading his spelling words, I wrote them on small sticky notes and placed them on the checkerboard. If he wanted to move to a particular square, he had to read the word first. If he couldn’t immediately read it, he couldn’t move there. If he could, we took the word off the board. Try this for reviewing vocabulary in other subjects.
Title: Author Playing Cards
Publisher: US Game Systems
Cost: $4.95
Ages: all
This standard deck of 54 cards (two jokers included) displays a different famous author and three of his works on each card. Thus, while playing Rummy or Crazy 8s, children can read about the authors as well. Expose them to other famous people from history with these other decks: composers, scientists, explorers, and inventors.
The Classics
In addition to educational games, many favorite board games offer educational qualities.
- Chess builds thinking skills.
- Clue builds deductive skills.
- Chutes and Ladders teaches the consequences of virtue and vice.
- Life provides math practice, an introduction to economics, and exposes kids to some of the responsibilities of life.
- Monopoly reinforces math skills and provides an introduction to economics.
- Mouse Trap introduces basic engineering skills.
- Risk teaches some geography and knowledge of war.
- Scrabble and Boggle strengthen spelling and vocabulary.
To brighten a dull school day, pull out a game and play for an hour.
Lorinda K.F. Newton began homeschooling her children in 2004, and her family joined Academy Northwest in 2014. Her family lives on beautiful Whidbey Island north of Seattle, Washington. She writes about the intersection of faith and culture at Lorinda’s Ponderings (lorindasponderings.wordpress.com) and Lorinda’s Ponderings on Facebook.
