Games and learning

Probably the best reason for making games part of the homeschool curriculum is that it's something the kids might actually want to do together. If they can play peacefully, for 20 minutes, without adult supervision, it's already a major accomplishment.

The fact is, almost any game that is interesting enough to kids to merit sustained play has more opportunities for cognitive and affective development than most curricula would dare to mandate. The other fact is that the skills that are developed during game play are, for the most part, far outside the scope of anything that could be direcly related to the three Rs.

Here are Jane and Johnny playing checkers together. Neither is very good at math. But both are demonstrating mastery of highly complex reasoning skills, complex and relevant - maybe not to the curriculum, but to living in the real world.

I think this tells us more about the nature of schooling in this country than maybe we want to know. As long as games like Scrabble and checkers and charades are considered extra-curricular, the relevance of the curriculum itself needs to be questioned.

There are many commercial recreational games that seem more obviously relevant. For example, one of my favorite games, "A to Z" (from Fundex). It's a knowledge or trivia game where players race to fill their boards (with spaces labeled from A to, as you might surmize, Z), with examples that fit a randomly drawn category, such as: trees, animals, States. By preselecting the categories, you can emphasize almost any area of the cirriculum, without in any way diminishing the fun or challenge of the game. But the game tests more than knowledge. It also tests social skills like fairness and turn taking; as well as personal mastery like dealing with success and failure. For the players, this part of the game is the real point of play - and in it lies the deepest challenge. For their personal devlopment, these challenges are clearly more central than mastery over the names of, for example, US presidents.

In sum, there are many, many games (many of which can be found on the Dr. Toy website and on my Major Fun award pages which I would strongly endorse for children and for classroom use. And though they might reinforce the cirriculum in some way, their real contribution is sadly far outside the scope of the S.A.T.

Baby Play

As I advance into the joyous challenges of grandparenthood, I find myself evermore intrigued by questions like: "Does anyone know any good games to play with a six-month old baby?"

This very question was asked in the discussion section of one of my favorite weblogs, Metafilter - a "community weblog" listed in my blogroll with contributions by just about anybody with something to say, and one of the most successful examples of what some call "Participatory Journalism."

I was delighted to discover how many intelligent, practical responses that question elicited. A clear favorite response came from someone called "Raedyn." Here it is in its entirety:

"Imitate him. The faces he is making to you - make them back at him. If he is holding a block and bangs it on the floor, bang your block on the floor, too. Then try leading instead of following. Try banging on the floor twice instead of only once. This can encourage him to start imitating more. It'll surprise you how young he is when he bangs the block twice after you model it.

"Blow bubbles so he can watch them.

"Make sure when you interact with him, that you are at his level. Put him in a seat on the kitchen table with you sitting at a chair so you are face to face, or lay on your tummy on the floor beside him.

"Put on a puppet show for him. (use you socks or his teddy bears, or make paper bag puppets)

"Let him experience different textures. Take him to a park and sit in the grass with him. Go to a play ground and dig in the sand together. Go for walks outside together (him in the stroller or a snugli), tell him about everything you're seeing. Tell him the names of things, describe the colours, explain why things are like they are. Tell him about your memories.

"Take him places he's never been before. That's almost everywhere! Take him to a music festival and dance together. Go to the mall and go people watching. To a petting zoo and help him pet the animals.

"Grab one of your baby's toys that squeak. Hide it under a blanket while he's watching. Encourage your baby to find the toy. You can give the toy a squeak under the blanket to help him find it."

Several helpful posts mentioned using "Baby Signing." My granddaughter Lily knows how. Only she's three now. Luckily, further research opportunities abound. Grandson Zev is six months now. A good candidate. I'll be having another grandbaby to test it on in about 8-and-a-half months. And so it goes. And so do I.