Hannah came up to me yesterday and said, “If all you had left was a piece of pie and a book, which one would you choose?”
Being a passionate bibliophile, I said, “The book, of course.”
“Yes,” my six-year-old self-taught logic student stated with authority, “you could do that, but without the pie, you’d die and then you wouldn’t be able to read your book!”
Many parents figure out pretty quickly that their children don’t want to sit at a desk all day and do worksheets. Yet, how are you supposed to teach beginning counting and reading skills without using a worksheet or textbook? One of the best ways is to use educational toys and games.
In my last article, I talked about great toys that encourage imagination, learning, fine motor skills and fun. Today I wanted to mention some of the best educational games on the market. You can learn as much – sometimes MORE – from games as you can from any formal preschool or kindergarten curriculum.
Educational games encourage early reading skills, math skills (numbers, counting, skipping, etc.), and other skills. Children often learn or reinforce colors, shape and sequencing skills. They also encourage children to practice teamwork, taking turns, and learning to lose (and win) graciously.
Here are some great games for preschool / kindergarten age children:
– Hullabaloo (One neat thing about this game is that it can be played alone. This game makes a great gift and a wonderful game for ALL families.)
– Memory Match
– Candy Land
– Hungry Hungry Hippos
– Mr. Potato Head
– Hot Potato
– Cariboo
– Let’s Go Fishing (I even like this one!)
– Sorry
– Chutes and Ladders
– Hi Ho Cherry-O!
– Checkers
– Chess
– Two by Two Matching Game (Christian resource / game)
– In a Manger Matching Game (Christian resource / game)
– Alphabet Nesting and Stacking Blocks
– Dominoes (You don’t have to play the game!! Just play with the Dominoes. J Children can learn to count the dots (math), match squares that are alike (math), make Domino trains (fine motor skills), etc.)
– Wooden Puzzles
– Puzzles in general
– Wooden maps of the United States and the World (My youngest son was always fascinated with the United States map and could completely put together a US wooden map in about three minutes when he was four years old.)
– Pattern blocks
– Bean Bag Toss
If your child likes to write, I would also encourage maze books. There are some really good ones from the following publishers:
– KUMON books (These are fabulous – our favorite by far! They have maze books on all sorts of topics.)
– Carson-Dellosa Publishing
– Dover Publications (They have little maze books that are VERY simple for even the youngest child.)
I’d also recommend the I Spy books to help young children develop visual acuity. These aren’t really games, but they’re kind of like game books.
Also, I don’t normally recommend electronic materials for young children, but if you really want to introduce electronic games to your preschool / kindergarten age child, you can’t go wrong with Leap Frog and Leap Pad products, including Leapsters. These are quite educational, but like with any electronic materials, it’s probably best to use them as rewards for good behavior.
Finally, remember that even if something is “educational,” it can be used as a reward for children. It’s all perspective. Young children in particular don’t need to know that most children are forced to do educational activities. If you train your child that games, books, and even electronic toys are rewards, then that’s what they will think. Soon, they’ll be asking to “play” math every day!
Sonya Haskins
The American Revolution was not something that people just suddenly decided should happen. There were social, economic and political changes taking place in our country for decades that changed the relationship between the colonists and the King / the colonies and the country of England. Finally, the colonists decided that they would live under tyranny no longer and they began to revolt.
When a group of colonists were so frustrated by the Tea Act because it violated their right to taxation through elected representatives, they boarded ships and dumped the tea into the Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. Most of us understand their actions and no one dares to claim that this was “manufactured anger.”
Finally, war came in 1775 and the Declaration of Independence was written in 1776. Colonists wanted freedom to choose their own representatives, create their own taxes, and reap the benefit of their hard labor and difficult lives in a new land. No one doubted their sincerity.
When a few women called a meeting in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848, their Declaration of Sentiments began a struggle that argued equal treatment for women. This movement eventually led to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. This amendment provided the right to vote, regardless of one’s gender. No one would challenge that the women who held rallies, marches, and went to jail for this cause were dedicated to the cause.
In the late 1850s and early 1860s, slave-owning settlers became nervous about a centralized government with too much power – so much power that they could declare what the states could and could not do. A huge issue was slavery and while I am adamantly against slavery in any form, I can understand the desire for states to make choices without interference from a federal government. Today, we can see how the Southern states were certainly correct about the growth of the Federal government. Once it starts, it becomes a huge monster.
Before, during and after the Civil War, however, regardless of where you live or which side you would have fought for, no one would say that the deadliest war in American history was caused by “manufactured anger.” Nope. People on both sides were doggone mad and ready to fight for what they believed to be their undeniable rights.
When Malcolm X advocated “black power” in the early 1960s, he captured the attention of the media and the government – and both declared that this amazing man was exercising his right to freedom of speech.
He called white people “devils” and said:
“The day that the black man takes an uncompromising step and realizes that he’s within his rights, when his own freedom is being jeopardized, to use any means necessary to bring about his freedom or put a halt to that injustice, I don’t think he’ll be by himself.”
No one said his anger was just “part of the Civil Rights Movement” and we should ignore him or report him to the White House terrorism office because he was advising the use of “any means necessary” to bring about reform.
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, no one said she was just doing what she was told as a leading member of the local NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons). While I admire Ms. Parks for her refusal to give up the seat, do we not think for a minute that this was a “planned” and “organized” protest against segregation?
While Martin Luther King, Jr. advocated non-violent protest, he nonetheless stirred up some of the African American population to riots and revolts. No one claimed that this was “manufactured anger.”
When protestors took to the streets and called for abortion rights, eyebrows were raised, but no one claimed that those people weren’t sincere about what they believed.
When people protested the Vietnam War, Korean War or the Gulf War, no one accused protestors of faking their anger. And the protests received more coverage than the rallies supporting our troops or the funerals of our American soldiers who came home in coffins.
When gays and lesbians take to the streets and demand equal rights – including gay marriage, which would give equal treatment under the law (i.e. – YOUR tax dollars would go to support the gay partner under insurance plans, etc.) – NO ONE has said, “Gee, they’re just doing what they’re told as part of that left-wing liberal agenda.”
When you see photos of the riots, rallies, and marches or when you consider the fact that the LGBT community has DEMANDED a repeal of Proposition 8 – something that was voted on legally according to our Constitution and passed to deny homosexual marriage in California – NO ONE says, “Boy, they sure are SORE LOSERS!” Nope. They don’t say that. They say, “The vote was unduly influenced by a high turnout of a population of voters who normally don’t vote so that’s really not fair to them….”
Yet, the media has suddenly decided that the millions of people protesting the suggested reforms to health care are exhibiting “manufactured anger.” Not only is this insulting, but I can assure you – all of you liberal media, reporters, bloggers, lobbyists, congressmen, and you, Mr. President – that the anger we are experiencing is a lot of things, but it is not fake.
Our disgust with the health care package and the other things we see going on in Washington is quite sincere. The problem is not that the “right” is promoting anger amongst the people.
The problem is that you are in trouble because citizens have started to wake up and smell the stench coming out of Washington – the reek of wasteful spending, spoiled congressmen, laws stained with the blood of unborn children, and odors of something worse around the corner.
Sonya Haskins, author of The Homeschooler’s Book of Lists (Bethany House, 2007)
If your family enjoys bird watching or if your child is particularly interested in animals, you might enjoy this article from Cornell University. It’s an older article, but it’s about the Forest Owlet that was thought to be extinct and then was rediscovered in 1997. There was theft, fraud, and international espionage involved. It’s a pretty cool story – for adults or children. It would make a great addition to any textbook or unit study of birds.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Publications/LivingBird/spring98/OwletSp98.htm
Sonya Haskins
When I was teaching Spanish at a local co-op, it seemed that I was always forgetting something – pens, dry erase markers, paper, etc. There was one young man in the class who always came prepared. No matter what I needed, he always had it, whether it was a pencil or a Kleenex. One day I said, “You always have everything I need. That’s just amazing!” He replied, “I’m an Eagle Scout, ma’am. That’s our motto – be prepared.”
This week we have been trying to shrink the size of our flock of roosters. It’s like we have our own little “hood” of roosters here! The only problem is that we’re having a TERRIBLE time rounding up these little free range creatures.
The other day we were trying to catch some and Sarah went to get one of the hens. I said, “Sarah, we don’t need the hens. We’re trying to catch roosters.” She said, “I know. Just watch.”
She sat the little hen down on the ground and suddenly all the roosters came running over.
Sarah said, “She’s their favorite hen and they jump on her all the time so I figured we’d catch them that way.”
I told her that was kind of cruel to use the little hen as bait and wait in ambush for the roosters, but it sure worked! And to be truthful about it, I was quietly impressed with her resourcefulness. 🙂
Whether it’s my child doing it or someone else’s, I love hearing these sorts of things. It helps remind me of the rewards of homeschooling on those days when I need to open my “happy folder” and go to my “happy place.” 🙂
Sonya
Sarah said our dryer smelled funny tonight so I opened the door to see if there was a problem. I didn’t see anything or really smell anything, but the back of the dryer has an area with little holes all in it and I thought, “Hmmm, that’s neat. I wonder what that is.” I didn’t even THINK about the fact that the dryer had been running so I reached in and touched the holes and burned the dickens out of four fingers on my right hand (not my thumb). Boy does it hurt!
Homeschool kids are so curious and many of them do chores – including laundry. I thought some of you might want to show your children the area and warn them that the back of the inside of the dryer is hot, hot, hot! I’d hate for them to learn the lesson the way I did – with blistered fingertips.
I guess tomorrow our lesson will be about how dryers work and first aid for burns. 🙂
Sonya
I know a lot of parents worry about the places their children visit online. Many parents don’t have time to search the Internet for appropriate, child-friendly websites so the kids and I have listed their favorites below. They are allowed to go to these websites ONLY. I recommend having the parent type in the address one time and save it in your favorites, then teach the children how to pull up the site they want from there. That way you avoid them typing in the wrong address, which might pull up a site completely different than you intended…
Enjoy!
Sonya Haskins (and children)
www.whitsend.org – listen to episodes online
www.poptropica.com – lots of online games for children
www.jonathanpark.com – really cool website! You can listen to the latest episode of Jonathan Park (creation science adventures), find lessons that relate episodes to history and other subjects, read behind the scenes info, etc.
www.playmobil.com – has online games with little Playmobil people
www.pbskids.com – even young children can play the games and enjoy activities here
www.pbskids.com/go – games, etc., more for older kids
www.lego.com – has online games with little Lego people (I’ve never seen anything bad on here and I do let the children go on alone, BUT they are NOT allowed to go into any of the discussion groups or chat. These are well-monitored, but still a chance of something bad coming through so I wouldn’t chance it. Stick with the Lego game area.)
This Blessed Life 