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| Rainbow Fish. The horror. |
He has a play date at the soft play tomorrow, while the weather is briefly better, too.
The week has been very focused on Youtube, board games--and through that, maths and motor /pre-writing skills.
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| Pokemon maths in action |
Today I think I'll add representing data on simple charts to the game, by adding his penguin maths manipulables and making charts of the pokemon of different types, colours--whatever he chooses to model.
The penguins are still a big success. We've made up several games with them, and Cai has been really eager to learn place value using them as a "trick" to count fast. I showed him once, and he demanded we do it together every turn after that. They've been a really good buy.
We've also been playing Pop to the Shops. It's great in terms of money maths, but what always impresses me when I play with Cai is the amount of imagination and roleplaying he brings to the game. The "shoppers" interact together, lend each other money, try out their goods, discuss with the shopkeepers the other things in the shop, and how much they have been saving... A game takes a good while, but it is kind of amazing just how much he puts into (and gets out of) it.
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Shopping List has come out of the games pile, too, and he spent his pocket money on an expansion to add more fruit and vegetables. Guess Who has been a huge hit lately, and he's been working hard on learning the right kind of questions to ask, logic and categorization.
New to our games rotation is Rainbow Fish. I'll admit it, despite the beautiful components, I loathe this boring pointless game. (I hated the book, too.) But Cai adores it so much he will tell me stories about it, imagining dice rolls and results. I comfort myself with the fact that it is good for learning decision making and subitizing--and, as always, creating narratives. Besides, no matter how boring the actual game, I have fun with him.
As to all these new games, I had a big haul of games and cards from Savers, and among them was Boggle Slam. Old, battered packet--sealed, unused cards inside. It's been another hit. We played it once properly, and then he made up his own rules based on the video game Letterquest, in which we make words to defeat monsters. I've been secretly using it to teach him about word families by swapping letters around.
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| Defeating bad guys with the power of words |
My kid sits on the floor happily creating words from letters. How good is that?
I'm slowly bringing out games and cards from the haul, but I'm particularly pleased by a Cars set of maths cards, which will come in useful for some Maths games from junior primary maths books I borrowed from my mother, and Footprints, an amazing--and clearly unused--game made by the Science Teachers Association of Australia to teach about carbon footprints and the environment.
Games have been awesome for motor skills, too. Cai's aunty and uncle gave him Kerplunk, which he is mad on, and he spent pocket money from his UK grandparents on Operation, which is kind of amazing at working on pincer grip and fine motor skills while he has fun.
Australian grandparents gave him these awesome magnetic toys. He plays and plays with them--and I have so many plans for teaching geometry through them. ;)
I did a lot of reading on OT blogs about prewriting and children who suffer with sensory difficulties delaying writing, and learned that tweezers are perfect for pincer grip and hand strength. So... he made art from lentils, chickpeas and macaroni. He loved it, and I'm going to make it a regular activity.
I also read about using a sock with two holes to force proper pencil grip, something I have really struggled with teaching him. I came up with a writing "challenge" using a cute toy sock with two holes in it.
Wow. Magic. It forces correct grip, and Cai can do this for ages. To get his interest, the first time I put tiny money prizes at the end, but after that he picked out tiny toys he already earned to award himself as prizes each time. I'm going to keep this up daily for a few weeks, and then see how he improved from his first attempt. He was already showing improvement at the end of the first session!
He remains committed to his Youtube channel, and I think it's an awesome way for him to work on communication and presentation skills, especially as he is explaining how to play things. I'm also sneakily incorporating a teaching typing game into it. ;)
Otherwise, lots of reading, with us and with Skoolbo. He always chooses maths, science and geography. He also watches the Skoolbo money management lessons over and over, funny little thing. Playing with magnetic tiles to make shapes. Measuring while cooking. Lots of creating his own levels and games on video games. Just... life and learning.
On Sunday he turns five, and on Monday school goes back, so...
...I guess we are officially homeschooling as of next week!
I have no doubts. Cai is learning so much, making real friends, and as far as he's concerned, it's all play. He will say "I want to homeschool!" and mean board games, or baking, or Zombie Maths on my phone, or Skoolbo, and it's all sheer delight to him. But he's learning every minute.
I just wish it wasn't about to get really really hot again.
