We are Science Fiction and Video Game geeks, and I've found that we do a lot more learning if I incorporate it into our lessons. Here are a few tips and tricks for using a love of gaming in your homeschooling experience:
Favorite Homeschooling Tip: Experience Points instead of Grades
First, if you've ever played an MMORPG like World of Warcraft, Everquest, etc. then you know that you earn "XP" or experience points to level up.
Now what if you applied XP to learning? 10 Points for practicing math facts through games on the iPad, 20 points for doing a craft project and using what you make as math manipulatives. 15 points for learning to do a new chore or make a new recipe and 5 points each time they do it after that. After all, as homeschoolers, we are using life experience to create lifelong learners and getting our kids excited about "leveling up" (moving to a new grade level in a subject, mastering skills, becoming more independent). This is a wonderful way to keep your kid learning (and helping out around the house) and a great alternative to grades. It's proven psychology that advertisers and game companies use to keep you coming back for more and that's what we want our kids to do!
PlayStation 3 and Little Big Planet 2
When my husband asked for a BluRay player a couple of years ago, I was very reluctant to spend a lot for a single use device. Then I found the
PS3
! I knew that even if I never used it as a gaming system it would be worth it for the easy access to Netflix Streaming, downloading movies, watching our favorite educational videos from the internet and replacing our DVD player (it of course plays Blu Ray, DVD, and downloaded content). It's also great for using the internet on your TV to share things with your kids. One of my favorite features is the parental controls that allow me to choose what content Geekling can see or play without having to ask me to put in a password.
The
PlayStation 3 game "
Little Big Planet 2
" has been amazing for
geometry, math, art, science, and story telling. It's actually the easiest way to get my son interested in subjects that he probably wouldn't like if I put a textbook or worksheet in front of him. It's especially great for days when I have nothing planned. Geekling retains more knowledge and gets a very thorough understanding of what we're learning when I introduce concepts this way and he sticks with it a lot longer. It's the perfect solution for kids with ADHD and gifted kids that are bored with the status quo.
So how do I use it? Well in
LBP2 you build levels for you character (and are able to upload and share them with others). You choose different materials, can change the "gravity" to see how different objects and materials behave with high or low gravity, see whether or not objects float (depending on material) when you fill the level with water, and even learn some basic programming concepts (no prior knowledge needed).
It's wonderful for sequencing skills, following direction, paying attention to detail, spatial relation, cause and effect and so much more. To incorporate geometry we make different shapes and see which kind of triangle is good for a slide (obtuse) and which is better for a ramp (acute). We build shapes and then take chunks out of them to see how it changes and it's easy to turn and manipulate the different shapes to get a better feel for them.
It's also wonderful for story telling. When you and your child are building a level, you can help them understand the parts of a story, keeping your audience interested, and creating a satisfying conclusion. It also brings up some wonderful discussions about perspective, complimentary and contrasting colors, optical illusion, and choosing the right angles and velocity to make your character bounce in the direction you want and end up where you want him to (you add little bounce pads and then adjust it's properties). Once you've played with it a bit you'll have a million ideas for using
Little Big Planet 2 for learning.
Creating Your Own Games
- Have your kids make their own board games! You can either do this with a printer and some paper or you can buy blank board game kits. They can find their own trivia, make dice with paper cutting and folding (great for measurement, geometry, and following directions), come up with logical rules, and do some wonderful art projects. You can incorporate writing by having them write a story as an introduction to the game and creating the rules and instruction manual.
This is especially fun if they love Star Wars, Doctor Who, comic books, etc. Why not make Super Hero Monopoly? Or some formal rules for "Who would win Superman or Spiderman" situations. They can search for fun ways to drop their character into different historical situations (wouldn't Batman have been handy in the Lewis & Clark expedition?).
You can also
buy pre-made blank game boards
for the kids to decorate if you think that would be a bigger motivator. Or use an old game that has missing pieces and just glue cardstock, index cards, pictures you've printed from the computer, etc. to it. A checker or chess board can be repurposed by making new pieces (and even new rules for the way those piecces can move) with modeling clay,
Shrinky Dinks
, beads, or pictures cut out of magazines that can be glued to a cut up index card.
If you or a friend have ever played a game like Dungeons & Dragons, it would be even easier to create your own games with a lot of story telling potential. A stack of index cards can become your own version of Pokemon, Magic, or Bakugan with plenty of potential for months of art projects, math skills, and writing practice. Not to mention the computer skills older kids could learn creating their own graphics, making a .PDF instruction book, and so much more. You're only limited by your imagination.
Testing the games the kids have created are wonderful opportunities for socialization and cooperative learning!
iPad and Android Tablets
Finally, there's the iPad or Android tablet. The number of educational apps available is stunning and my son is a lot more willing to work on his creative writing skills if he's able to take a picture with the iPad and then caption it (pictures of Lego creations he's built, action figures, nature, etc.). There are great tools for telling stories with music and animation that a child can figure out without any help from an adult (they'll be teaching you in no time). They can even "write reports" by clipping pictures from the internet to illustrate their point and then writing a description of what's happening below. It's an incredible tool for reluctant writers. They can also create their own comic strips! Who said writing had to be a chore?
My son is a lot more excited about reading, writing, practicing cursive (yes, there's an app for that), learning to type, and practice his spelling and math facts when he's able to do it on the iPad 2. We can even create our own digital flash cards.
With a tablet you don't have to choose Kindle or Nook, there are apps for both! Note: Some children's books for Nooks will not work on the App, that's why most of our library is through Amazon. The books will also work on your smartphone and laptop so you can have more than one child reading the same e-book at once. There is so much available for free with e-books! Poetry collections, classic books, short stories, and more. You can even borrow e-books and audiobooks from the library to read or listen to on your iPad!
It takes a lot less planning when books are available digitally and no trip to the library or store are required! It's wonderful for car learning too. You can create your own PDF files and load them onto your tablet for the kids to use while travelling or running errands.
This is one of my favorite topics so I'll be writing more later and uploading links to some of our favorite apps!
"The Tale of Despereaux" by Kate DiCamillo is now our family's favorite book of all time. We had so much fun reading it the first time, I'm collecting resources to do a "Tale of Despereaux" unit study. Geekling's vocabulary soared as we read the book, and he was so interested in the story that he chose read aloud time over screen time. Here are a few things I wish we had done before and during reading and links and ideas to that I'll be doing when we reread, use it to create your own Tale of Despereaux activities...
Finding great books that will capture a reluctant reader's interest without overwhelming them can be difficult. I spend a lot of time searching for books that will make Geekling want to read without being asked. Here are some of the best books and reading lists for 6 to 10 year old boys that I've found.
