February 8, 2025 • 51 mins
Unlock the secrets of making education a fun and engaging journey with this episode of the Homeschool How To podcast. Join Cheryl as she hosts Chloe from Ontario, Canada, who shares her transformative approach to homeschooling through the power of gameschooling. Discover Chloe's captivating insights into how hands-on, interactive games can teach children essential skills like math, strategy, and logic, all while fostering a love for learning.
Explore the vast world of educational board games that Chloe introduces, which seamlessly integrate subjects such as science, vocabulary, and storytelling. From Wingspan's exploration of bird species to the chemistry-based intrigue of Valence, these games not only entertain but educate. Chloe enlightens us on the benefits of cooperative games that promote teamwork, emphasizing the joy of learning alongside family and friends. Cheryl and Chloe also discuss ways to nurture a love for reading and the importance of personalized learning experiences to build a strong educational foundation.
Prepare to be inspired by Chloe's personal journey into homeschooling and her innovative use of gameschooling to enrich her children's education. With valuable insights on flexible homeschooling strategies, this episode is packed with practical advice for anyone seeking to elevate their homeschooling experience. Tune in and be part of an exciting conversation that celebrates creativity in education and empowers you to craft a fulfilling learning environment for your children.
https://my-little-poppies.com/gameschooling/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool
How-To.
I'm Cheryl and I invite you tojoin me on my quest to find out
why are people homeschooling,how do you do it, how does it
differ from region to region,and should I homeschool my kids?
Stick with me as I interviewhomeschooling families across
the country to unfold theanswers to each of these
(00:26):
questions week by week.
Welcome, and with us today Ihave Chloe from Ontario, canada.
Welcome, chloe.
Hi Cheryl, thank you, thanksfor being here.
I'm really excited about todaybecause I have been in search of
a game schooling family.
I heard of this concept maybe ayear ago as I was interviewing
(00:50):
homeschooling families on mypodcast and someone mentioned
game schooling and my son at thetime was five and kind of
getting into games and I'd neverheard of it.
So I've been looking forsomeone that could come on the
show and tell me what gameschooling is, because I think my
son will just have a blast withthis.
Let's start off with how manykids do you have and what are
their ages?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I have two, so they're eight and ten.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, those are great ages for games.
What sparked your interest intogame schooling?
Where did you first hear aboutit?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I don't know when I first heard the term game
schooling, but we early on.
Well, one of the first methodsof homeschooling that attracted
me was Montessori, and therewere a lot of games involved
with that.
If you know anything aboutMontessori, it's, like you know,
very, very hands on for thekids.
So we we never dove too deeplyinto Montessori curriculum.
(01:45):
It was just a little bit toooverwhelming for me.
There's a lot of like materialsto purchase like that take up a
lot of room.
But one thing that we didretain was a lot of the games,
and even before we had kids, myhusband and I both met a family
that was really big into games.
They were a large family andthey played tons of games and we
(02:05):
just loved it.
So I think we just naturallywanted to incorporate that into
our homeschool.
We don't have video games hereat the house, so we try to do a
lot of tabletop games with thekids and you know, like anything
, it kind of ebbs and flows.
Sometimes there's a season whenyou're doing it a lot and then
maybe not as much, but it'ssomething that we enjoy doing as
(02:26):
a family.
I probably heard of gameschooling because I was just
well probably.
You know my Facebook algorithmhad stuff to do with board games
and, looking for reviews,onboard games came across like a
game schooling group.
I'm thinking that's how ithappened and like, oh, ok, like
people intentionally do this aspart of their homeschooling and,
(02:47):
yeah, just kind of went fromthere.
That's so cool.
So actually do have quite a fewgames incorporated.
So when I went looking for amath curriculum, one of the
(03:10):
things that I was looking forwas something that was like very
, that had a lot ofmanipulatives in it, so very
like hands-on and tactile.
So we went with right startmath, which was created by a
Montessori professional, andthere's a ton of games involved,
like card games, all kinds ofgames throughout, and then Logic
of English has a lot of gamesin there too, card games
(03:33):
throughout.
So I would say, in that way wedo use them as part of our
curriculum.
But the actual games, liketabletop games that we own, I
don't use them so much forparticular subjects.
We mostly just find ones thatwe enjoy and we play them
because there's so much learningthat goes on with any game, and
I've found that sometimes gamesthat are intentionally
(03:56):
educational are a bit boring.
They just we, they justsometimes fall flat.
Some of them are okay, but ifit's a game where it's, like you
know, to learn a specific topic, I just haven't found them
super interesting.
Now there's some that are like.
I know there's like an um, anational parks game.
I think that goes along withthe U S like national parks.
(04:19):
I think so in that way, likeyou're learning about those, but
that's not necessarily why youbuy the game.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So yeah, I grew up you know knowing about, like
Monopoly and checkers.
I don't know if they didn'treally have that many games that
existed back in the 80s and 90s.
There's definitely a lot morenow.
So it's kind of funny likeresearching into like well, what
games do you get?
And when you look it up thereare so many from games from
(04:48):
Monopoly, or even you knowMonopoly Junior you know those
are still around and guess who.
But all the way to like thereare games that are almost like
Dungeons and Dragons kind ofthings and like that really get,
I assume, are much bigger thanjust the like 10 or 20 minutes
it takes to play the game.
So can you kind of elaborateinto what games you've used and
(05:11):
how you've used them Right?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
So well, almost any game I would say that we play
with the children is going touse math right, and most often I
find the math skill that you'reprobably practicing most, that
you know that you can call it.
How do I say this?
Well, most scoring, scoringdevices are going to be
multiplication, you know,because it's like OK, you get
three points for every X of this.
So you're going to, you'regoing to be multiplying.
(05:35):
So if they're not quite readyfor that, we take out our abacus
that we have with right startmath and then we get them to do
it that way.
So, and if the games are maybea little too old for the child,
we'll do teams, and so even theadult games maybe it says like
10 and up or 14 and up they canpretty much play all of them if
(05:55):
you're playing on teams.
So they all have strategy, theyall have.
You know you're learning totake turns, you're learning
logic.
There's so many pro-socialskills involved with playing a
game.
You know learning how to wingracefully and lose gracefully,
all those things, teamwork,following direction.
(06:17):
Well, even sometimes overcominghomeschool resistance I like I
know sometimes with my son,especially like sitting down and
doing book work, might not begoing that well, but he's pretty
much always down for a game andit's fun, especially if you
have a kid that is resistant inthat way like pull out a game.
So yeah, I don't know, we do.
(06:38):
We have some games that aremaybe a bit role playing, like
you're talking about Dungeonsand Dragons.
Those are fun because they'reso creative, like you're
creating a story as you go.
We haven't gotten too much intothose ones.
We have, yeah, logic gamesmaybe that are single player,
where you have to use logic anddeduction to figure out the
(07:00):
answer.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I don't know what would be an example of like a
game like that, like a name ofone of the games one that I can
see it on my shelf over there.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
It's called cat crime .
So there's seven characters,there's seven cats, and at the
beginning it will tell you a catspilt a water jug, like, and so
who figure out which cat did it?
So it'll say you know this catwas sitting across from this cat
, and so so you know if this catwas sitting across from this
cat.
And so so you know if this catwas beside this cat but across
from this cat, and then so youhave to, using logic, like,
(07:30):
figure out which one it wouldhave been, which one was closest
to the to the thing that wasknocked over or spilt or
whatever.
So those all little problemslike that, yeah, so that's just
one example my daughterespecially really likes.
Have you heard of escape roomsbefore?
Yeah, yeah, so there's somereally great escape room games.
We've tried a few differentones and some are, like, better
(07:52):
quality than others.
We really like the unlock kids,and so they work just like an
escape room.
There's clues and you go alongoften like there there might be
a bunch of tiles and you have toget, you have to solve one
thing before you can get thenext clue, and it goes along
that way, just like an escaperoom would, and those are
(08:13):
awesome because she can do themon her own and get really into
it, and some of them, you knowthey could take over an hour
maybe.
So you really get that focus,and I think that's something
that board games really offertoo is a chance to develop your
attention span, because you canget really involved in that way.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, we were just playing a game the other day
called Double Shutter, which isa super fun game.
It's kind of like a Yahtzee,but you're rolling the dice and
there's two of them and you'vegot two rows that look almost
like dominoes and it goes onethrough nine on the first row
and then behind it nine throughone.
So you roll, say, a six, so youcan put down the six, or you
(08:58):
can put down a three and a three, or a five and a one, and you
want to get that first row downbecause all those points double
if they're up at the end of thegame.
And once you know, once youhave the at least the first you
know whatever is down in thefront row, you can use the
number behind it to.
Then the point is to get allyour numbers down so that you
(09:19):
have the lowest score.
And you go, you keep rollinguntil you can't roll anymore.
So if you come up with a sixand all you have is a seven and
a nine left, you have to addseven and nine together and
that's your score.
So that one's been really fundoing with my son because he's
six years old and it was likeokay, now get out the calculator
(09:42):
.
Let's talk about how to use acalculator.
And you're doing logic becauseyou're thinking, okay, I only
have you know if I did roll, ifI rolled a five, and I only have
a one, two, a three and a fourup, what are the different
combinations I could use to getto that?
And so that's been a really funone, where you know you think
these games have to be like solong and involved, but really
(10:04):
you could just in 10 minutesplay a fun little game, which is
a great way.
Like you were saying, if yourchild's giving you pushback
towards doing some of the bookwork, this is a great way to say
, okay, let's just change thepace and, you know, do something
fun.
Yeah, especially in New Yorkright now it's cold.
You know it's not so easy toget all the gear on and go
(10:25):
outside and get some fresh air.
So it's like, well, let's playa game, and I really love that.
I love the different concepts.
Do they have games for, like,I'm thinking, a lot of math, but
they you mentioned NationalPark, so they have games that
involve science and reading andstory, like you were mentioning.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I just ordered one that I haven't played it yet.
It's called blah blah blah byMrs Wordsmith and I'm hoping
that's going to help with morelike vocabulary.
So I think there's a bit ofstorytelling with it.
But working on, yeah, justincreasing our vocabulary.
I haven't played the parks onebefore, but I have a friend that
(11:05):
just bought it, so I'minterested to hear how that one
went.
I have another park that anothergame, that's called Baron Park.
That it is about parks but notabout real parks in the world.
But I know there's a reallypopular one called Wingspan,
where I know you're learning alot about different birds, like.
So you know they're usingactual bird species and learning
(11:25):
about what their habitat anddiet, et cetera, et cetera,
would be.
There's one I've been lookingat that is called Valence,
because we're looking at gettinga little bit more into
chemistry, so it's a periodictable-based game called Valence.
So that looks kind ofinteresting.
Yeah, what else I don't know.
There's so many.
Well, so that looks kind ofinteresting.
Yeah, what else I don't know?
(11:46):
There's so many.
Well, this is funny, but I'veowned it for years and years
prior to COVID, but it's calledpandemic and there's so many
different versions of it now.
Yeah, I think I've owned thatsince like 1998 or something.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
So what's what does that game involve?
Everybody put on a mask.
Whoever doesn't pass out wins.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
You know what?
There's no masks in that game,which is kind of fun.
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Speaker 2 (12:50):
This is another.
Actually a good thing to talkabout is that it's a cooperative
game, so you are all on a team.
So basically there's a team.
You draw a character card atthe beginning of it, because
each character has a little bitof a special ability, but you're
all some sort of like scientistor researcher, whatever
bioengineer, and you're justworking together to um stamp,
(13:12):
like to, to cure and eradicatediseases around the um, around
the globe.
So as you draw cards like theywill, uh, little viruses will
pop up and you have to worktogether to kind of stamp them
out.
And if you, it's actually quitehard to win.
(13:33):
And if you, if you win, you winas a group, and if you lose
it's still pretty fun becauseeveryone's losing together.
We have there's some reallygreat cooperative games for
younger kids as well.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
That's so funny that there's no pre-programming with
that board game.
It probably came out by Pfizer.
Yeah, I'm looking at a gameright now.
It's called race to thetreasure, I think, and that's
probably what you're talkingabout this cooperative thing,
where I'd never thought about itbefore, but it's you and
whoever's playing, so me and myson playing it are on the same
team and we're racing the ogresto the treasure.
(14:12):
So you turn over the card.
I mean you have you roll thedice in the beginning of the
game and it tells youcoordinates and that's where
you're placing the keys.
I think you need three keys toget to the treasure and you're.
Then every card you turn over,it's either giving you a
position like an arrow pathway,and you're forming the path to
(14:32):
the treasure, but you have tohit each key that you've placed
down from the coordinates, andor you could be turning over an
ogre card.
So then you got a row for theogres and if you get, I don't
know, six or nine ogres in a row, they get to the treasure
before you.
Obviously, the ogre wins andyou and your teammate do not, or
(14:53):
you guys win.
I never thought about thatbeing a cooperative versus
player versus player.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
That reminds me of Castle Panic what you're talking
about with the ogres and orcsand it's similar where you're
having to defeat the ogrestogether and, if they, break
down your castle, then it's over.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
But so like, yeah, there is.
I mean, there are so many.
Do you even play the old stufflike Scrabble, or is it like
there's so many other things outthere?
Why would I waste my time withsomething from like the 70s?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, well, that's funny because I was just
thinking about the game you weretalking about, where you wanted
to have the lowest score,reminded me of a game that we
have called Rat-A-Tat Cat, whichis basically just a children's
version of the card game golf.
I don't know if you're familiarwith golf but, you have a
certain amount of cards out andanyway, the closest you are to
zero is is will get you a win.
But you have to memorize whatthe cards are.
(15:51):
You can't actually look at themall, so the cards are getting
traded and you're trying toconstantly get down.
But anyway, my point was thatthere are so many games like
that are um being released forit's like a children's version
of card games that we've beenplaying forever.
So like that one I go, oh wow,I just paid $25 for a game that
(16:14):
I could have played with a, youknow, a dollar deck of cards.
But the kids do like having thetheme, sometimes like I think
it helps.
But yeah, so there's a lot, ofa lot of that, which I think is
great.
That's okay, just making themmore accessible and with fun
themes that kids like.
But I'm starting to realizelike, oh for bang for my buck,
we should probably just printout a bunch of card rules you
(16:36):
know and learn.
All the different games likeeven crib is such a fantastic
game to learn math.
I've never been great at mentalmath, so I was always a little
bit scared of games like crib,where you have to count really
quickly, and even though it'snot difficult math.
I always kind of had a bit ofanxiety around math.
We're like counting quicklywith other people because I
(16:58):
always like struggled with mathas a child.
So I just have kind of grownwith a little bit of nervousness
around that.
But it's a great one to justget comfortable with counting
really quickly in your head.
Yeah, so we do that.
We do play backgammon reallyfun.
We do own Scrabble, but we'rejust kind of starting to get
into it.
The kids still occasionally dolike to play Monopoly.
(17:23):
I try to hide I don't likeplaying it too much.
It just goes on and on, but itI mean there's some couple times
a year maybe, or once a year Ican do it.
We have a really old version ofthe game of life and they love
it.
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, I kind of forgot about that game.
It was very popular when I wasa kid.
I know I had it, but I don'tremember the rules to it.
It's probably all backwards.
Whatever they tell you, therules are actually the opposite.
But yeah, yes, my son isobsessed with Monopoly as well,
but that has been fun becauseI've given it to the
grandparents, so now it's oh,whenever you go to your
(18:02):
grandparents house, that's whatyou play there, so they're stuck
with it.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, well, that's fun too, because I find my
parents are a little resistantto learning new games too.
But if it's one that they werefamiliar with for their from
their childhood, then it's nottoo much of a burden to learn
their rules, like they alreadykind of know it, and it is
something fun they can do.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yeah, that's a good point, because I haven't really
been a game Like.
I'm that person that when we'regetting together with friends
and they're like let's have agame night, I'm like, oh no,
like I can't we just gettogether and talk Like, do we
really need a game?
But you know, anytime I've doneit it does end up fun Well,
usually.
Sometimes it does end up whereit's like conversations trail
(18:45):
off and nothing ever.
Really you don't know the pointof it, nobody's listening to
the directions but, um, what arelike, are there resources that
somebody that wants to try gameschooling can you know, go look
up a website or see, or maybeit's something I can put
together too, if you haverecommendations like do you even
start with games?
(19:05):
I mean because there's just somany.
Would you go towards, like theage of your child or the
interest, or are there some thatare just like every kid loves?
These start here.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, there are a couple like websites by like
homeschooling parents and thensome Facebook groups that are
pretty good because everyone'sdifferent.
So I guess you kind of need toknow, like, how you want to do
it, because I'm pretty like Ican't call myself an unschooler
because we do use curriculum,but the way that I approach the
games is just like we do it,because it's fun and I know that
(19:39):
there's a ton of learning goingon with all the strategy and
teamwork and just all of thatthat.
I don't worry too much aboutthe subjects, except sometimes I
will choose, like I told youabout the language, one where
I'm hoping that it will, youknow, encourage some vocabulary
work.
But, um, there are people thatare a little more intentional
with, like history, science, andthey're looking for ones for a
(20:01):
particular subject and there'sdefinitely some websites and uh
and facebook groups that arelike there's just people to ask.
You know, like people have suchgreat recommendations.
I think it's called gameschooling with my little poppies
is her is her, is her name.
She has a website and I thinkshe might actually have some
(20:22):
offerings now where she has likelittle courses where she's
going to almost like tutor youto how to do game schooling so I
could share that I'll.
I would just have to look it upand then, uh, yeah, so for me I
don't.
Like I said, we just look as afamily at games that we think
would be fun.
So I'm not the best person toask, like games on science,
(20:43):
games on history, games on that,because we just kind of play it
all and just we.
Mostly I look for gamemechanics that I know my kids
like, like the style of game.
So it is it like a a carddrafting game or like is it so
for kids?
I think like a bit of strategyand a bit of luck, a bit of both
.
You know like some games areall strategy and no luck and I
find if you of both, you knowlike some games are all strategy
(21:04):
and no luck, and I find ifyou're just starting out, that
can be really frustrating, evenfor the adult.
Like everyone has preferencesbecause, especially if you're
working with different ages orkids that are like sensitive to
losing, or you know you wantthem to have fun and be
confident and not getdiscouraged with gaming, so
choosing games that areaccessible in that, way.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Okay, yeah, that's something I never thought about
too.
So when you play something likethe dice game, you know,
anytime you're rolling a dice orpicking up a card there's a bit
of luck.
So Candyland, that's all luck.
There's not really any strategyyou can bring to Candyland.
It's just kind of learningcolors and counting, but the
strategy there is no strategywith that.
(21:46):
Your luck is the card that youdraw.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, you learn taking turns.
Someone is going to win or loseand sometimes that's
frustrating for other kids, likewhere they might be competitive
, and it's frustrating to themthat they didn't win because
it's just pure luck and theyknow that if there was a bit
more strategy maybe they wouldwin.
So you just have to kind offigure out what you like.
(22:09):
But I have, uh, there's a.
You know there's a bit of lingothat goes along with it, so you
can look up like game mechanics, like what are they?
Is it like a worker placementgame?
Is it just like a card draftinggame?
Is it a?
You know there's a lot ofdifferent uh game lingo like
that and you can kind of look atwhat um.
Like there's a website calledboard game geek and you can
(22:31):
search in so many different waysand get recommendations for
that.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, I can link that in the show's description too,
along with the other uh accountthat you had mentioned.
That's cool.
So what even got you intohomeschooling?
Had you always wanted tohomeschool?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yes, actually, my husband and I, we both had like
early exposure to families thathomeschooled, like.
I ended up living with a womanwho was homeschooling her
children and I wasn't eventhinking of having a family yet,
I didn't have a partner, but itjust planted a seed, you know
cause I lived with her andadmired their lifestyle, and so
(23:08):
then later on it was, you know,like the seed was already
planted and I remembered thatand and just wanted to do it
before.
You know, even before wedecided to start a family, and
my husband too.
He was in school with a uh,with a man who homeschooled and
just thought the kids wereawesome and admired their
lifestyle, and so that was sucha blessing because we didn't
(23:31):
have to convince each other.
We were already on board, andin Ontario, where we live, full
day junior kindergarten startsat age four, so almost all kids
are doing a full day at age four, and some of them are still
three, depending on when theirbirthday is, and there was just
absolutely no way I was going tobe handing over my child that
(23:52):
young Like I couldn't do.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It Wasn't really a question are four years old, we
call it a preschool and, yeah,they're full day now, where
kindergarten wasn't full day forme, when I was young, but
preschool is now full day.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
It's basically daycare, right, so I get it and
like daycare is expensive.
So people when they can sendtheir child they're going to,
but it's unfortunate becausethey don't like they're not
allowed to nap or anything.
So I knew that my kids wouldstruggle with that.
It's just it's a long day and Idon't know.
Our main reason, I think, forhomeschooling was to have more
(24:33):
time as a family.
I would say that's the biggestreason for me and definitely it
afforded us that you don't haveto send your kid to school here
legally until age six.
I mean, you don't ever have to,but that's like junior
kindergarten and seniorkindergarten are considered
optional, but because it's thenorm if you don't, then when you
(24:56):
get to grade one you are alittle bit frustrating, I think,
probably for the child,depending on where they're at
and what your methods at homewere during those years, how it
compares to their same age peers, and so you know it just
becomes the norm and so that'swhat, what's expected, right.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah, well, it's funny you say that because we
just joined Boy Scouts a monthor two ago and last night was
their second meeting and theseare first graders, so they're
six years old.
I would imagine there couldeven be a five-year-old in there
if they had a late birthday.
And my son isn't reading yetbecause I just haven't pushed
making him do it Like have beendoing phonics and all that for a
(25:39):
couple of years now.
However, I'm just not.
I don't know, I don't spendthat much time a day on making
him read.
He just isn't there yet.
Uh, you know, I read to himmore so.
And it's funny when you're inthat sort of age range of six
years old where he, they wereall standing together and the
(25:59):
troop leader was saying, okay,let's read the scout pledge, and
she hands, she holds up the youknow the piece of paper with
all of the pledge, the wordswritten on it, and all the kids
are saying it and I don't knowif they're saying it out of
memory or they're actuallyreading, but I'm like I think
they're all reading.
Like, wow, if we had skipped,like you were saying, preschool
(26:21):
and kindergarten, here thesekids are already reading by
first grade.
He would have been alreadybehind at six.
I mean, that's crazy.
So, and there might I don't knowhow it would be if maybe at the
third or fourth or fifth gradelevel or in middle school or
high school, because I wouldimagine there's some point where
he will surpass the kids inschool because of just, you know
(26:44):
, I try to say to him if someonesays something to him about
like, oh, you can't read yet,I'm like, yeah, but ask them if
they know how to like change atire or change the oil in a car.
You know how to do all thatstuff.
You do it with your father allthe time, so that's just more
what he spends his day doing.
So it's funny, though, whenyou're actually placing your
child up to kids in the publicschool system and thinking, oh
(27:06):
wow, gee, am I falling short?
But you know you have to be, uh, trust yourself in your process
that you're setting up alifelong learner that's going to
love reading and loveresearching things where these
kids are just kind of getting itdrilled into them yeah, well,
that is part of the reason.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Literacy particularly , was something that I was a bit
fearful of starting so earlylike just reading research and
what's actually beneficial.
I know how hard they pushliteracy in JK and SK and
starting that early readingskills and I don't think it's
that beneficial in the long runand I really just want them to
(27:44):
enjoy reading and so I didn'twant them to be so.
We definitely like took it slow, same as you and my son's eight
now, and he's kind of juststarting to get a bit of fluency
.
And I'm not worried because,well, boys, I think, are
typically a little bit laterwith that too, and it's not a
not a concern.
I think most important is thatthey both enjoy books.
(28:07):
I just want them to have a loveof reading and you know, like my
son, or my son, my, mymother-in-law was telling me
recently that in grade four orfive, I think, the teachers
thought that my husband couldn'tread and so they sent him for
some sort of testing and theyfound that he could read, but he
was resistant to being forcedto read and he could read
(28:28):
anything, but he wasn'tinterested in reading books
until like late high school,maybe like early adulthood.
But he would read manuals, youknow like Nintendo manuals or
like whatever he needed to do.
But he's actually gifted and sothey just thought he couldn't
read and she didn't want to readwhatever they were asking him
(28:51):
to.
So, yeah, and my son has asimilar personality, like very
resistant to being coerced intoanything.
So my children both havedifferent personalities.
I think my daughter would havefared fine in public school, but
I think my son, his spirit,would have taken a hit for sure
(29:12):
and confidence fit on two handshow many books I read throughout
school.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Because if English class assigned us a book, I
think I made it more of my jobto be able to pass the exam or
write the summary, the bookreport, without reading the book
.
That was my task at hand.
How are you going to getthrough this without reading
this book?
And it's kind of sad nowbecause I'm like they probably
were good books but however theywere presented to us, there was
no context to it.
(29:50):
There was no way that it wasever going to like Fahrenheit
451.
I remember us talking about itin class, thinking, oh, sounds
like a pretty cool book, but Iain't going to sit and read it.
So, um, but it probably.
You know, I think things seemso far out, so fiction that you
know we didn't really talk aboutlike, hey, maybe maybe
(30:13):
something like this could happen.
Or, you know, let's talk abouthow we could relate this to real
life.
Um, it just seemed like, oh,here's the next book.
And, yeah, it's kind of sadbecause you know, even like To
Kill a Mockingbird, what a greatstory.
But as like I don't know, aseventh grader, I don't care,
it's something later in life.
I remember thinking like, oh,these books will be great when
(30:34):
I'm an adult and want to thinkabout this stuff.
But as a seventh grader Ididn't want to.
So, and I remember wanting toread a Goosebumps book in my
reading class and they told me,no, you cannot read this.
And which is sad, because it'slike, if that's what I enjoyed
reading, why squash it?
Because then I just sat therewith whatever book they were
making me read and I stared atthe wall.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Yeah, that's interesting.
I was at a library a coupleyears ago and I noticed an older
girl she probably was nine orten brought up a book of you
know those Little Miss or LittleMister was like Little Miss,
you know, they were likecircular characters and it was
like Little Miss, sassy andLittle Miss.
Do you remember those?
(31:15):
It was itself was very easy.
Her like that.
She couldn't take it outbecause she needed to pick out
something.
That was her her reading level,which I totally understand.
Like you want your kids tochallenge themselves, but it
just, um, it made me think ofjust trying to foster the joy of
(31:36):
reading and sometimes there issomething I think beneficial in
in reading something that's easy.
It's just, you know there'snothing wrong with that, because
that might just be.
She might enjoy the content.
Sometimes it's.
It can build your confidence ifyou are reading something easy
or reading the same thing overand over until you are super
(31:56):
comfortable with the material.
It doesn't always have to behard or a challenge, it can just
be enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Hey everyone, this is Cheryl.
I want to thank you so much forchecking out the podcast.
I'm going to keep this shortand sweet because I know your
time is valuable.
I want to ask you a seriousquestion Do your kids know what
to do to actually save theirlife in an emergency?
The most important thing we cantalk to our kids about is
knowing their first and lastname, knowing mom and dad's
first and last name, mom's phonenumber, dad's phone number,
(32:26):
their address, what to do ifthey get lost, what to do if
someone who's watching them hasa heart attack, a stroke, an
accident where they fall andyour child needs to get help.
We live in a world wherethere's no landline phones
anymore, basically, and cellphones lock.
Does your child know how tocall 911 from a locked cell
phone?
It is absolutely possible, andmy book demonstrates how to do
(32:49):
that, whether it's an Android,whether it's an iPhone and, most
importantly, it starts theconversation, because I was
going through homeschoolingcurriculum with my kids,
realizing that, gee, maybe theyskim over this stuff, but they
don't get into depth, so mychild's not going to remember
this should an accident occur,right?
I asked a couple of teacherswhat they do in school and they
(33:11):
said they really don't doanything either other than talk
about what to do in a fireduring the month of October fire
prevention month.
So I wrote a book because thisis near and dear to my heart.
I have had multiple friends thathave lost kids in tragedies and
I don't want to see it happenagain if it doesn't have to.
We were at the fair over thesummer and the first thing I
said to my son when we walkedthrough that gate was what's my
(33:33):
first and last name?
What is your first and lastname?
And what's my first and lastname?
What is your first and lastname and what is my phone number
?
And if you get lost, what areyou going to do?
You can get my book on Amazonand I will put the link in my
show's description Again.
It's called let's TalkEmergencies and I really hope
you'll check it out becausethere's just no need to be
scared when you can chooseprepared.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
So I thought that was interesting and I had heard
from some I don't know where Iread it just a literacy blog or
something about that.
It is beneficial to readsomething that's even below your
reading level because it buildsconfidence and just familiarity
with what you already know, andthat's totally fine.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
So I thought that was a great way to do that is to
have, like your older child,read to your younger child,
because you're kind of saying tothem, can you help her learn
how to read by reading this bookto her?
Or even you know, thehomeschooling groups generally
are all different ages, which isthe wonderful part about
(34:31):
homeschooling and the youngerkids kind of want to be like the
older kids and gravitatetowards them and the older kids
take on this leadership role.
So those are great places tooto have the older child.
Hey, could you teach her how toread?
Or could you teach her a wordtoday?
Or you know what a couple ofthe letters say, their sound.
So yeah, I hadn't reallythought about that before, but
(34:54):
as my son gets more comfortablewith reading, that will be maybe
a task I put on him, really forhim, but you know that he'll
feel confident at reading at thelower level but in also
teaching someone.
What are other strategies thatyou've kind of picked up along
the way in your homeschoolingadvice that you would give to
other homeschoolers?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
I don't want to call it advice because I'm kind of
nervous to give other peopleadvice necessarily.
But just one thing that's beenhelpful to me this year.
I'll share that.
I recently did a little coursewith Pam Barnhill.
She um, do you ever getfamiliar with her?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yep, she's been on the show before, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Okay, great.
So her I can't remember whatshe calls it if it's her
organizational course but in itshe gives different ways to
organize your homeschool andI've just found that loop
scheduling has been really greatfor us.
And actually, with gameschooling is, I think, this year
, keeping us more.
Keeping games in the loop, Iguess, because sometimes it is
(35:55):
easy to forget about them.
Keeping games in the loop, Iguess because sometimes it is
easy to forget about them and Ijust want to be more intentional
about making sure we at leasthave like one day a week where
we do a lot of them and they'realways kind of interspersed and
but just being intentional andmaking sure that they happen
regularly.
So I just wrote out all thecurriculums that we're using and
all the topics we want to studyand I just every day look kind
(36:18):
of what we did yesterday and gookay, like what's the next thing
in the loop, so that you knowyou always want to make sure,
like for us, we always want tomake sure we're hitting like our
math and our English languageresources, but some of those
other ones like games or artsometimes can get pushed aside
if you feel like you're notmaking progress with like your
(36:41):
big, you know your big pieceslike math and literacy.
So, um, yeah, it's just workingreally well for us because
we're prone to being spontaneousand easily distracted and
pulled in other directions.
So if I have, I can't do liketoday's math and tomorrow's
English.
It just doesn't work for usbecause we would just do the
same thing for a whole weekbecause we would be getting
(37:03):
distracted every time.
So at least we're just alwayscoming back in a loop and just
hitting everything.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
So how does that like , how does that look on written
down on paper, or how does thatlook in your life, this loop
that you've organized?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
So what I've been doing is I basically got a
notebook for each kid and in thefront of it I wrote all of the
curriculums we use and then anyof the extra things like our,
our kits that we get, like ifit's crunch labs or mal science.
I just kind of writteneverything that we do, including
Ford games, including, like bized, and I even just keep adding
(37:38):
things as I realize what we'redoing, even like audiobooks.
So I wrote those all down andthen every day.
I'm not very good atorganization, so this may not
make sense to other people, butthis is how I'm figuring it out
and I feel that I'm moreorganized this year than I have
been.
So I like I said, there's anotebook for each kid, so I'm
just writing the date and Istarted writing what we did that
(38:00):
day and then the next morning Ilooked at what we did the day
before and then went tobasically what's next in the
list, and then it's just goingon a loop and I'm just trying to
make sure that each subjectgets its attention.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Okay, so is math happening every day, or would
you skip it if you were onto thenext thing?
Speaker 2 (38:20):
We would skip it if it's onto the next thing.
Math is unique for us becausemy husband works out of town and
he does the math curriculum, sohe does that when he's here.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
And that seems to work.
Yes, you said it gave youanxiety, right?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Well, teaching Right Start doesn't Like I actually
was very excited to be teachingthe Right Start math curriculum
because it's easy and I waslearning too as we went Like
it's fantastic.
But because he has a mathdegree and that's his area and I
want him to be involved andthat's the you know the subject
that he chose, so I'm going tolet him do that.
(38:54):
Of course, and even though mathmight not even happen every
week or math curriculum, we domath in other ways, right, but
right start math might nothappen every single week, so
that one's a little bit unique.
But when it happens I write itdown and he knows where we are
and kind of where they should bein their, in their books, like
we use logic of English andessentials in writing, and that
(39:15):
might not happen every day likeweek.
We did a lot of that on Mondayand then yesterday, especially
because I thought we weremeeting yesterday, I got really
excited about board games, so wejust ended up doing just pretty
much board games all day andthat's fine.
So then then, after that, I'mlike, okay, we haven't done our
keyboarding, you know, sincelast week, so we're going to do
(39:36):
that tomorrow and I'm justtrying to like keep it going,
because I know that I can'tstick to a block schedule or
like any kind of schedule justdoesn't work for us at all.
So she, she sold thatorganization method as being
good for people who whoseschedule is irregular and and a
(39:58):
way to keep on track withinterruptions, and I would say
it's working well, yeah and Idefinitely have that sort of
lifestyle too, where I haveevery good intention of writing
down okay, we're gonna do 15minutes in our well.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
It says teach your child to read in 100 easy
lessons in 20 minutes a day.
But I don't know if they're alleasy and I don't know if they
all only take 20 minutes.
Some of them take a littlelonger if you go through every
single step.
But you know, so I'll start theweek out.
We're going to do that fivetimes this week.
We're going to do this year.
We're doing for math.
Matthew C.
We're going to do that for 20minutes or whatever, and read
(40:36):
for 20 minutes and there's ourhour and I'm not even adding in
extras.
But it's funny because, as youwere talking about writing down
the things that you do as theycome up, you know I really need
to start probably doing thatbecause as reporting comes, in
New York we have very strictreporting.
But for instance, yesterday andtoday he was working on STEM
science kits where he's puttingtogether like little remote
(40:59):
control cars or putting togetherI think there's like five
things in a kit and then so likea car, a plane, a forklift, you
know, and he's actually takingthe screws and putting them on
the board and you know screwingin the brackets and putting
together the thing that holdsthe battery in and putting the
wires in around.
You know screwing in thebrackets and putting together
the thing that holds the batteryin and putting the wires in
(41:21):
around.
You know that.
So it's a whole thing and I'msure there's science to it and
technology, and I probably wouldhave just gone by the wayside,
not even realizing that he'sdoing science as he's doing that
.
And even things like going fora hike with one of the
homeschool groups or going to aconcert, little things like that
(41:42):
that you don't really thinkabout.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Sorry, with the way that you have to do your
reporting, are you able to fitthose things in?
Speaker 1 (41:50):
So they give us a list of subjects that we are
required to do and an amount ofhours that they are required to
do and an amount of hours thatthey are required to be in quote
unquote school.
But you have the ability to sayhow much time you're spending
towards what.
I don't even think you have towrite down how many hours.
It's just what.
In the beginning of the year,what do you plan to achieve this
(42:11):
year?
And then every quarter, youhave to write in what you did
achieve.
And that's exactly how, when Iworked for government, our
reviews went, and when I, when Iwrote reviews for my employees,
it was the same thing.
This is what I expect you to doand this is what you did.
So it's kind of funny that itworks the same way.
I'm like, oh okay, the sameperson wasn't behind both of
those.
So, yeah, I, I pretty much justwrite we're going to do this
(42:35):
curriculum this year, and youknow.
And then you have to write likehow you achieved gym class, how
you achieved math, how youachieve, you know what you
achieved in it, you know.
So it's they.
They say it's very strictreporting and talking to some of
the other homeschoolers fromdifferent states or provinces.
It might be because some ofthem you don't have to report
(42:56):
anything, but I mean as long asyou're submitting it.
I think a lot of times I'vecome to realize with life it's
just like showing up, like justsubmit the things you have to
submit by the date and they knowyou're probably not beating or
starving your child and theydon't, so they don't care.
So that's what I think itreally comes down to.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah In our case in Ontario.
I think it really comes down toyeah In our case in Ontario,
despite Ontario being like asuper regulation heavy province
in so many different areas,there's absolutely no oversight
for homeschooling Nothing.
They don't know we exist, Idon't have to do anything,
nothing.
So theoretically there's a lotof room in there for neglect.
(43:34):
But it's great.
I love that because we canreally do whatever we want.
But in some ways I guess for me, like I have to work really
hard at being organized andthat's why I'm trying to like
record things more, like I saidis I don't have any sort of
tracking like to spur me on todo that.
I have to want to do that and Imight never have to send it
(43:58):
into anyone, but even for ourown records and just to keep us,
you know, just intentionalabout what we're doing, I'm
finding it helpful.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
But you know there will be that one Christmas that
your kid, you know, as a 40 yearold, says you never did
anything with me and you like, Ihave the notebook right.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Yeah, I'm not very good at like getting school
pictures done in an alternativeway or any like we have, so
that's why I always like pay fortheir sports pictures.
At least there's something likethere you got your professional
picture taken.
This year.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
That's funny because I had put all these pictures
from my son's kindergarten yearum into shutterfly, uh,
shutterflycom, and made thisalbum but there were too many
pictures.
It was going to be like $80.
I'm like, okay, we don't needall the pictures and I haven't
gone back in to take them out,just to make like a $20 yearbook
(44:51):
for him so that, oh, this wasyour kindergarten year and I was
planning to do that for everyyear and I've already at first
grade, I've already dropped theball.
But that is maybe that'ssomething he could do.
He could pick the pictures hewants, because I'm sure there's
some sort of learning in that.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
How to use the computer Totally.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Yeah, that's a great intention.
I'm not very good at stuff likethat, but but yeah, I just have
these plain notebooks that are,you know, those black and white
composition notebooks, becauseI can't even use a calendar
because I would.
I would just not use it, so Iwould skip days and then I would
.
I would probably get upset withmyself.
So there's some days thataren't in the composition book
(45:33):
because maybe I forgot.
But almost, just, you know,it's just a habit getting myself
to do every day what we did.
And yeah, I'm super thankful toPam for that course, because
that's really helped me Allright, awesome, I can link that
in the show's description too.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
That is very, very helpful, just to have other
options.
You know that there are thingsto assist us out there.
Just to have other options.
You know that there are thingsto assist us out there, chloe,
as we round out, is thereanything else you kind of had
been thinking about, that youwanted to you know, kind of let
homeschoolers know about?
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Trying to think of how I could bring it back to
gaming, to our gaming.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
How often do you do the games?
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Like, if you call yourself a game schooler, is it
an everyday or you're just kindof?
Like I said, it's sometimessporadic, but I think, with the
like, the scheduling method thatI'm like I said, is helpful to
make sure that that it's aregular thing.
So we'll see, we go in fits andspurts, and so do the kids, and
that's normal.
That's life, but I think it's areally great way, especially if
you have various ages in yourhomeschool.
It's a great way to get thekids working together.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah, or if they have a friend over, because I was.
You know, my son and his friendwere playing the other day and
you know they always get to apoint where they start like
yelling at each other andgetting kind of snotty with each
other.
So I was like, okay, listen,you guys are going to take five
minutes apart and then you'regoing to come back together and
play a game.
So that was a great justtransition for them, because
(47:05):
they were before that justrunning all over the place
shooting each other with gunsand yada, yada, this one's
getting hurt and that one pushedthat one.
So this was a nice way to likebring them together as something
.
And then my son was kind ofteaching him how to play the
game, so that he felt kind ofcool and confident.
So, and they were doing math.
So, yeah, games are huge.
(47:27):
We kind of just like forgetabout them.
We kind of, now that technologyis introduced into our lives,
it's so easy to forget aboutjust the fun, simple board game.
Yeah, which?
Speaker 2 (47:37):
one has been your favorite one so far, Well
yesterday we were playingDraftosaurus and I have to say
that's a really, really fun game.
I don't think I could tell youwhat my favorite game has been,
because it's kind of changing.
I say my first gateway gamethat I was introduced to that we
still come back to is probablyCarcassonne.
It's a great family game too.
I love that game.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
That was one when I looked up, maybe a year ago,
what is game schooling and Iwent to go like buy a game or
buy a couple on Amazon.
Uh, that game was I didn't knowhow to pronounce it so I forgot
about it and I didn't buy it,but that game was one of the
most like, high recommended forpeople getting into
(48:18):
homeschooling.
So can you just quickly, beforewe end, tell us a brief
synopsis of how to play thatgame or what it's about?
It's a tile placement game.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
So I think it's really um manable to like a wide
variety of ages, cause even ifa three-year-old's playing, they
can just place the tile andmaybe they're not scoring a ton
of points, but they can put twotiles together to make a little
river and they love that and youknow they can put a guy on it.
But you know you're you'replaying together, but okay, so
basically let's start over.
(48:47):
It's a tile placement game.
You're building cities, rivers,so you can either be in the
city or farm the land or be on aroad, you know, and at the end
of the game you're going to geta certain amount of points for
how many.
You know how big your city is,how long your road is, how big
your, how much land you'refarming, and so you have little
guys and you place them on.
(49:07):
So there's, you know,multiplication for sure, at the
end of the game there's strategyinvolved and you can definitely
get pretty intense into thestrategy.
But at the same time, like Ifind, little kids can play with
with way older children and allkind of have a good time.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
So yeah, because that is the hard part, I you know,
having the two children six andtwo, like the two year old it's,
you know I resort to justputting the TV on for her so I
can play a game with my son.
She doesn't always nap, orsometimes, when she naps, I'm
like trying to get somethingelse done or trying to get a
math lesson in.
So, yeah, it'll be really niceto have something that she can
(49:45):
participate in and he doesn'tget too annoyed that she's not
playing correctly.
So I will grab that one.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
Yeah, and that's something like you just have to
kind of that's, that's a good.
Learning to write is like I amsort of a person that you know,
if my game pieces are beingabused or whatever, I get a
little like, oh, and you have tokind of temper your own
reactions.
And if you're going to have atwo year old, you know, maybe
they're going to just want tohold the same tile for the whole
(50:12):
game and like there's 75 othertiles, so just let them have
that one for now.
It's whatever.
You can have a more seriousgame later, you know.
So true, Great advice.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Chloe, thank you so much for being here today and
letting us know about gameschooling and you know what got
you into homeschooling and justsharing your story with us.
Thanks for having me.
All right, I will linkeverything that I had mentioned
in the show's description, socheck that out.
Bye-bye, great Bye.
(50:52):
Or, if you'd rather, please usethe link in the description to
share this podcast with a friendor on your favorite homeschool
group Facebook page.
Any effort to help us keep thepodcast going is greatly
appreciated.
Thank you for tuning in and foryour love of the next
generation.
Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool
How-To.
I'm Cheryl and I invite you tojoin me on my quest to find out
why are people homeschooling,how do you do it, how does it
differ from region to region,and should I homeschool my kids?
Stick with me as I interviewhomeschooling families across
the country to unfold theanswers to each of these
(00:26):
questions week by week.
Welcome, and with us today Ihave Chloe from Ontario, canada.
Welcome, chloe.
Hi Cheryl, thank you, thanksfor being here.
I'm really excited about todaybecause I have been in search of
a game schooling family.
I heard of this concept maybe ayear ago as I was interviewing
(00:50):
homeschooling families on mypodcast and someone mentioned
game schooling and my son at thetime was five and kind of
getting into games and I'd neverheard of it.
So I've been looking forsomeone that could come on the
show and tell me what gameschooling is, because I think my
son will just have a blast withthis.
Let's start off with how manykids do you have and what are
their ages?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I have two, so they're eight and ten.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, those are great ages for games.
What sparked your interest intogame schooling?
Where did you first hear aboutit?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I don't know when I first heard the term game
schooling, but we early on.
Well, one of the first methodsof homeschooling that attracted
me was Montessori, and therewere a lot of games involved
with that.
If you know anything aboutMontessori, it's, like you know,
very, very hands on for thekids.
So we we never dove too deeplyinto Montessori curriculum.
(01:45):
It was just a little bit toooverwhelming for me.
There's a lot of like materialsto purchase like that take up a
lot of room.
But one thing that we didretain was a lot of the games,
and even before we had kids, myhusband and I both met a family
that was really big into games.
They were a large family andthey played tons of games and we
(02:05):
just loved it.
So I think we just naturallywanted to incorporate that into
our homeschool.
We don't have video games hereat the house, so we try to do a
lot of tabletop games with thekids and you know, like anything
, it kind of ebbs and flows.
Sometimes there's a season whenyou're doing it a lot and then
maybe not as much, but it'ssomething that we enjoy doing as
(02:26):
a family.
I probably heard of gameschooling because I was just
well probably.
You know my Facebook algorithmhad stuff to do with board games
and, looking for reviews,onboard games came across like a
game schooling group.
I'm thinking that's how ithappened and like, oh, ok, like
people intentionally do this aspart of their homeschooling and,
(02:47):
yeah, just kind of went fromthere.
That's so cool.
So actually do have quite a fewgames incorporated.
So when I went looking for amath curriculum, one of the
(03:10):
things that I was looking forwas something that was like very
, that had a lot ofmanipulatives in it, so very
like hands-on and tactile.
So we went with right startmath, which was created by a
Montessori professional, andthere's a ton of games involved,
like card games, all kinds ofgames throughout, and then Logic
of English has a lot of gamesin there too, card games
(03:33):
throughout.
So I would say, in that way wedo use them as part of our
curriculum.
But the actual games, liketabletop games that we own, I
don't use them so much forparticular subjects.
We mostly just find ones thatwe enjoy and we play them
because there's so much learningthat goes on with any game, and
I've found that sometimes gamesthat are intentionally
(03:56):
educational are a bit boring.
They just we, they justsometimes fall flat.
Some of them are okay, but ifit's a game where it's, like you
know, to learn a specific topic, I just haven't found them
super interesting.
Now there's some that are like.
I know there's like an um, anational parks game.
I think that goes along withthe U S like national parks.
(04:19):
I think so in that way, likeyou're learning about those, but
that's not necessarily why youbuy the game.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So yeah, I grew up you know knowing about, like
Monopoly and checkers.
I don't know if they didn'treally have that many games that
existed back in the 80s and 90s.
There's definitely a lot morenow.
So it's kind of funny likeresearching into like well, what
games do you get?
And when you look it up thereare so many from games from
(04:48):
Monopoly, or even you knowMonopoly Junior you know those
are still around and guess who.
But all the way to like thereare games that are almost like
Dungeons and Dragons kind ofthings and like that really get,
I assume, are much bigger thanjust the like 10 or 20 minutes
it takes to play the game.
So can you kind of elaborateinto what games you've used and
(05:11):
how you've used them Right?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
So well, almost any game I would say that we play
with the children is going touse math right, and most often I
find the math skill that you'reprobably practicing most, that
you know that you can call it.
How do I say this?
Well, most scoring, scoringdevices are going to be
multiplication, you know,because it's like OK, you get
three points for every X of this.
So you're going to, you'regoing to be multiplying.
(05:35):
So if they're not quite readyfor that, we take out our abacus
that we have with right startmath and then we get them to do
it that way.
So, and if the games are maybea little too old for the child,
we'll do teams, and so even theadult games maybe it says like
10 and up or 14 and up they canpretty much play all of them if
(05:55):
you're playing on teams.
So they all have strategy, theyall have.
You know you're learning totake turns, you're learning
logic.
There's so many pro-socialskills involved with playing a
game.
You know learning how to wingracefully and lose gracefully,
all those things, teamwork,following direction.
(06:17):
Well, even sometimes overcominghomeschool resistance I like I
know sometimes with my son,especially like sitting down and
doing book work, might not begoing that well, but he's pretty
much always down for a game andit's fun, especially if you
have a kid that is resistant inthat way like pull out a game.
So yeah, I don't know, we do.
(06:38):
We have some games that aremaybe a bit role playing, like
you're talking about Dungeonsand Dragons.
Those are fun because they'reso creative, like you're
creating a story as you go.
We haven't gotten too much intothose ones.
We have, yeah, logic gamesmaybe that are single player,
where you have to use logic anddeduction to figure out the
(07:00):
answer.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I don't know what would be an example of like a
game like that, like a name ofone of the games one that I can
see it on my shelf over there.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
It's called cat crime .
So there's seven characters,there's seven cats, and at the
beginning it will tell you a catspilt a water jug, like, and so
who figure out which cat did it?
So it'll say you know this catwas sitting across from this cat
, and so so you know if this catwas sitting across from this
cat.
And so so you know if this catwas beside this cat but across
from this cat, and then so youhave to, using logic, like,
(07:30):
figure out which one it wouldhave been, which one was closest
to the to the thing that wasknocked over or spilt or
whatever.
So those all little problemslike that, yeah, so that's just
one example my daughterespecially really likes.
Have you heard of escape roomsbefore?
Yeah, yeah, so there's somereally great escape room games.
We've tried a few differentones and some are, like, better
(07:52):
quality than others.
We really like the unlock kids,and so they work just like an
escape room.
There's clues and you go alongoften like there there might be
a bunch of tiles and you have toget, you have to solve one
thing before you can get thenext clue, and it goes along
that way, just like an escaperoom would, and those are
(08:13):
awesome because she can do themon her own and get really into
it, and some of them, you knowthey could take over an hour
maybe.
So you really get that focus,and I think that's something
that board games really offertoo is a chance to develop your
attention span, because you canget really involved in that way.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, we were just playing a game the other day
called Double Shutter, which isa super fun game.
It's kind of like a Yahtzee,but you're rolling the dice and
there's two of them and you'vegot two rows that look almost
like dominoes and it goes onethrough nine on the first row
and then behind it nine throughone.
So you roll, say, a six, so youcan put down the six, or you
(08:58):
can put down a three and a three, or a five and a one, and you
want to get that first row downbecause all those points double
if they're up at the end of thegame.
And once you know, once youhave the at least the first you
know whatever is down in thefront row, you can use the
number behind it to.
Then the point is to get allyour numbers down so that you
(09:19):
have the lowest score.
And you go, you keep rollinguntil you can't roll anymore.
So if you come up with a sixand all you have is a seven and
a nine left, you have to addseven and nine together and
that's your score.
So that one's been really fundoing with my son because he's
six years old and it was likeokay, now get out the calculator
(09:42):
.
Let's talk about how to use acalculator.
And you're doing logic becauseyou're thinking, okay, I only
have you know if I did roll, ifI rolled a five, and I only have
a one, two, a three and a fourup, what are the different
combinations I could use to getto that?
And so that's been a really funone, where you know you think
these games have to be like solong and involved, but really
(10:04):
you could just in 10 minutesplay a fun little game, which is
a great way.
Like you were saying, if yourchild's giving you pushback
towards doing some of the bookwork, this is a great way to say
, okay, let's just change thepace and, you know, do something
fun.
Yeah, especially in New Yorkright now it's cold.
You know it's not so easy toget all the gear on and go
(10:25):
outside and get some fresh air.
So it's like, well, let's playa game, and I really love that.
I love the different concepts.
Do they have games for, like,I'm thinking, a lot of math, but
they you mentioned NationalPark, so they have games that
involve science and reading andstory, like you were mentioning.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I just ordered one that I haven't played it yet.
It's called blah blah blah byMrs Wordsmith and I'm hoping
that's going to help with morelike vocabulary.
So I think there's a bit ofstorytelling with it.
But working on, yeah, justincreasing our vocabulary.
I haven't played the parks onebefore, but I have a friend that
(11:05):
just bought it, so I'minterested to hear how that one
went.
I have another park that anothergame, that's called Baron Park.
That it is about parks but notabout real parks in the world.
But I know there's a reallypopular one called Wingspan,
where I know you're learning alot about different birds, like.
So you know they're usingactual bird species and learning
(11:25):
about what their habitat anddiet, et cetera, et cetera,
would be.
There's one I've been lookingat that is called Valence,
because we're looking at gettinga little bit more into
chemistry, so it's a periodictable-based game called Valence.
So that looks kind ofinteresting.
Yeah, what else I don't know.
There's so many.
Well, so that looks kind ofinteresting.
Yeah, what else I don't know?
(11:46):
There's so many.
Well, this is funny, but I'veowned it for years and years
prior to COVID, but it's calledpandemic and there's so many
different versions of it now.
Yeah, I think I've owned thatsince like 1998 or something.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
So what's what does that game involve?
Everybody put on a mask.
Whoever doesn't pass out wins.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
You know what?
There's no masks in that game,which is kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
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Speaker 2 (12:50):
This is another.
Actually a good thing to talkabout is that it's a cooperative
game, so you are all on a team.
So basically there's a team.
You draw a character card atthe beginning of it, because
each character has a little bitof a special ability, but you're
all some sort of like scientistor researcher, whatever
bioengineer, and you're justworking together to um stamp,
(13:12):
like to, to cure and eradicatediseases around the um, around
the globe.
So as you draw cards like theywill, uh, little viruses will
pop up and you have to worktogether to kind of stamp them
out.
And if you, it's actually quitehard to win.
(13:33):
And if you, if you win, you winas a group, and if you lose
it's still pretty fun becauseeveryone's losing together.
We have there's some reallygreat cooperative games for
younger kids as well.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
That's so funny that there's no pre-programming with
that board game.
It probably came out by Pfizer.
Yeah, I'm looking at a gameright now.
It's called race to thetreasure, I think, and that's
probably what you're talkingabout this cooperative thing,
where I'd never thought about itbefore, but it's you and
whoever's playing, so me and myson playing it are on the same
team and we're racing the ogresto the treasure.
(14:12):
So you turn over the card.
I mean you have you roll thedice in the beginning of the
game and it tells youcoordinates and that's where
you're placing the keys.
I think you need three keys toget to the treasure and you're.
Then every card you turn over,it's either giving you a
position like an arrow pathway,and you're forming the path to
(14:32):
the treasure, but you have tohit each key that you've placed
down from the coordinates, andor you could be turning over an
ogre card.
So then you got a row for theogres and if you get, I don't
know, six or nine ogres in a row, they get to the treasure
before you.
Obviously, the ogre wins andyou and your teammate do not, or
(14:53):
you guys win.
I never thought about thatbeing a cooperative versus
player versus player.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
That reminds me of Castle Panic what you're talking
about with the ogres and orcsand it's similar where you're
having to defeat the ogrestogether and, if they, break
down your castle, then it's over.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
But so like, yeah, there is.
I mean, there are so many.
Do you even play the old stufflike Scrabble, or is it like
there's so many other things outthere?
Why would I waste my time withsomething from like the 70s?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, well, that's funny because I was just
thinking about the game you weretalking about, where you wanted
to have the lowest score,reminded me of a game that we
have called Rat-A-Tat Cat, whichis basically just a children's
version of the card game golf.
I don't know if you're familiarwith golf but, you have a
certain amount of cards out andanyway, the closest you are to
zero is is will get you a win.
But you have to memorize whatthe cards are.
(15:51):
You can't actually look at themall, so the cards are getting
traded and you're trying toconstantly get down.
But anyway, my point was thatthere are so many games like
that are um being released forit's like a children's version
of card games that we've beenplaying forever.
So like that one I go, oh wow,I just paid $25 for a game that
(16:14):
I could have played with a, youknow, a dollar deck of cards.
But the kids do like having thetheme, sometimes like I think
it helps.
But yeah, so there's a lot, ofa lot of that, which I think is
great.
That's okay, just making themmore accessible and with fun
themes that kids like.
But I'm starting to realizelike, oh for bang for my buck,
we should probably just printout a bunch of card rules you
(16:36):
know and learn.
All the different games likeeven crib is such a fantastic
game to learn math.
I've never been great at mentalmath, so I was always a little
bit scared of games like crib,where you have to count really
quickly, and even though it'snot difficult math.
I always kind of had a bit ofanxiety around math.
We're like counting quicklywith other people because I
(16:58):
always like struggled with mathas a child.
So I just have kind of grownwith a little bit of nervousness
around that.
But it's a great one to justget comfortable with counting
really quickly in your head.
Yeah, so we do that.
We do play backgammon reallyfun.
We do own Scrabble, but we'rejust kind of starting to get
into it.
The kids still occasionally dolike to play Monopoly.
(17:23):
I try to hide I don't likeplaying it too much.
It just goes on and on, but itI mean there's some couple times
a year maybe, or once a year Ican do it.
We have a really old version ofthe game of life and they love
it.
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, I kind of forgot about that game.
It was very popular when I wasa kid.
I know I had it, but I don'tremember the rules to it.
It's probably all backwards.
Whatever they tell you, therules are actually the opposite.
But yeah, yes, my son isobsessed with Monopoly as well,
but that has been fun becauseI've given it to the
grandparents, so now it's oh,whenever you go to your
(18:02):
grandparents house, that's whatyou play there, so they're stuck
with it.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, well, that's fun too, because I find my
parents are a little resistantto learning new games too.
But if it's one that they werefamiliar with for their from
their childhood, then it's nottoo much of a burden to learn
their rules, like they alreadykind of know it, and it is
something fun they can do.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yeah, that's a good point, because I haven't really
been a game Like.
I'm that person that when we'regetting together with friends
and they're like let's have agame night, I'm like, oh no,
like I can't we just gettogether and talk Like, do we
really need a game?
But you know, anytime I've doneit it does end up fun Well,
usually.
Sometimes it does end up whereit's like conversations trail
(18:45):
off and nothing ever.
Really you don't know the pointof it, nobody's listening to
the directions but, um, what arelike, are there resources that
somebody that wants to try gameschooling can you know, go look
up a website or see, or maybeit's something I can put
together too, if you haverecommendations like do you even
start with games?
(19:05):
I mean because there's just somany.
Would you go towards, like theage of your child or the
interest, or are there some thatare just like every kid loves?
These start here.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, there are a couple like websites by like
homeschooling parents and thensome Facebook groups that are
pretty good because everyone'sdifferent.
So I guess you kind of need toknow, like, how you want to do
it, because I'm pretty like Ican't call myself an unschooler
because we do use curriculum,but the way that I approach the
games is just like we do it,because it's fun and I know that
(19:39):
there's a ton of learning goingon with all the strategy and
teamwork and just all of thatthat.
I don't worry too much aboutthe subjects, except sometimes I
will choose, like I told youabout the language, one where
I'm hoping that it will, youknow, encourage some vocabulary
work.
But, um, there are people thatare a little more intentional
with, like history, science, andthey're looking for ones for a
(20:01):
particular subject and there'sdefinitely some websites and uh
and facebook groups that arelike there's just people to ask.
You know, like people have suchgreat recommendations.
I think it's called gameschooling with my little poppies
is her is her, is her name.
She has a website and I thinkshe might actually have some
(20:22):
offerings now where she has likelittle courses where she's
going to almost like tutor youto how to do game schooling so I
could share that I'll.
I would just have to look it upand then, uh, yeah, so for me I
don't.
Like I said, we just look as afamily at games that we think
would be fun.
So I'm not the best person toask, like games on science,
(20:43):
games on history, games on that,because we just kind of play it
all and just we.
Mostly I look for gamemechanics that I know my kids
like, like the style of game.
So it is it like a a carddrafting game or like is it so
for kids?
I think like a bit of strategyand a bit of luck, a bit of both
.
You know like some games areall strategy and no luck and I
find if you of both, you knowlike some games are all strategy
(21:04):
and no luck, and I find ifyou're just starting out, that
can be really frustrating, evenfor the adult.
Like everyone has preferencesbecause, especially if you're
working with different ages orkids that are like sensitive to
losing, or you know you wantthem to have fun and be
confident and not getdiscouraged with gaming, so
choosing games that areaccessible in that, way.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Okay, yeah, that's something I never thought about
too.
So when you play something likethe dice game, you know,
anytime you're rolling a dice orpicking up a card there's a bit
of luck.
So Candyland, that's all luck.
There's not really any strategyyou can bring to Candyland.
It's just kind of learningcolors and counting, but the
strategy there is no strategywith that.
(21:46):
Your luck is the card that youdraw.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, you learn taking turns.
Someone is going to win or loseand sometimes that's
frustrating for other kids, likewhere they might be competitive
, and it's frustrating to themthat they didn't win because
it's just pure luck and theyknow that if there was a bit
more strategy maybe they wouldwin.
So you just have to kind offigure out what you like.
(22:09):
But I have, uh, there's a.
You know there's a bit of lingothat goes along with it, so you
can look up like game mechanics, like what are they?
Is it like a worker placementgame?
Is it just like a card draftinggame?
Is it a?
You know there's a lot ofdifferent uh game lingo like
that and you can kind of look atwhat um.
Like there's a website calledboard game geek and you can
(22:31):
search in so many different waysand get recommendations for
that.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, I can link that in the show's description too,
along with the other uh accountthat you had mentioned.
That's cool.
So what even got you intohomeschooling?
Had you always wanted tohomeschool?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yes, actually, my husband and I, we both had like
early exposure to families thathomeschooled, like.
I ended up living with a womanwho was homeschooling her
children and I wasn't eventhinking of having a family yet,
I didn't have a partner, but itjust planted a seed, you know
cause I lived with her andadmired their lifestyle, and so
(23:08):
then later on it was, you know,like the seed was already
planted and I remembered thatand and just wanted to do it
before.
You know, even before wedecided to start a family, and
my husband too.
He was in school with a uh,with a man who homeschooled and
just thought the kids wereawesome and admired their
lifestyle, and so that was sucha blessing because we didn't
(23:31):
have to convince each other.
We were already on board, andin Ontario, where we live, full
day junior kindergarten startsat age four, so almost all kids
are doing a full day at age four, and some of them are still
three, depending on when theirbirthday is, and there was just
absolutely no way I was going tobe handing over my child that
(23:52):
young Like I couldn't do.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It Wasn't really a question are four years old, we
call it a preschool and, yeah,they're full day now, where
kindergarten wasn't full day forme, when I was young, but
preschool is now full day.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
It's basically daycare, right, so I get it and
like daycare is expensive.
So people when they can sendtheir child they're going to,
but it's unfortunate becausethey don't like they're not
allowed to nap or anything.
So I knew that my kids wouldstruggle with that.
It's just it's a long day and Idon't know.
Our main reason, I think, forhomeschooling was to have more
(24:33):
time as a family.
I would say that's the biggestreason for me and definitely it
afforded us that you don't haveto send your kid to school here
legally until age six.
I mean, you don't ever have to,but that's like junior
kindergarten and seniorkindergarten are considered
optional, but because it's thenorm if you don't, then when you
(24:56):
get to grade one you are alittle bit frustrating, I think,
probably for the child,depending on where they're at
and what your methods at homewere during those years, how it
compares to their same age peers, and so you know it just
becomes the norm and so that'swhat, what's expected, right.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah, well, it's funny you say that because we
just joined Boy Scouts a monthor two ago and last night was
their second meeting and theseare first graders, so they're
six years old.
I would imagine there couldeven be a five-year-old in there
if they had a late birthday.
And my son isn't reading yetbecause I just haven't pushed
making him do it Like have beendoing phonics and all that for a
(25:39):
couple of years now.
However, I'm just not.
I don't know, I don't spendthat much time a day on making
him read.
He just isn't there yet.
Uh, you know, I read to himmore so.
And it's funny when you're inthat sort of age range of six
years old where he, they wereall standing together and the
(25:59):
troop leader was saying, okay,let's read the scout pledge, and
she hands, she holds up the youknow the piece of paper with
all of the pledge, the wordswritten on it, and all the kids
are saying it and I don't knowif they're saying it out of
memory or they're actuallyreading, but I'm like I think
they're all reading.
Like, wow, if we had skipped,like you were saying, preschool
(26:21):
and kindergarten, here thesekids are already reading by
first grade.
He would have been alreadybehind at six.
I mean, that's crazy.
So, and there might I don't knowhow it would be if maybe at the
third or fourth or fifth gradelevel or in middle school or
high school, because I wouldimagine there's some point where
he will surpass the kids inschool because of just, you know
(26:44):
, I try to say to him if someonesays something to him about
like, oh, you can't read yet,I'm like, yeah, but ask them if
they know how to like change atire or change the oil in a car.
You know how to do all thatstuff.
You do it with your father allthe time, so that's just more
what he spends his day doing.
So it's funny, though, whenyou're actually placing your
child up to kids in the publicschool system and thinking, oh
(27:06):
wow, gee, am I falling short?
But you know you have to be, uh, trust yourself in your process
that you're setting up alifelong learner that's going to
love reading and loveresearching things where these
kids are just kind of getting itdrilled into them yeah, well,
that is part of the reason.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Literacy particularly , was something that I was a bit
fearful of starting so earlylike just reading research and
what's actually beneficial.
I know how hard they pushliteracy in JK and SK and
starting that early readingskills and I don't think it's
that beneficial in the long runand I really just want them to
(27:44):
enjoy reading and so I didn'twant them to be so.
We definitely like took it slow, same as you and my son's eight
now, and he's kind of juststarting to get a bit of fluency
.
And I'm not worried because,well, boys, I think, are
typically a little bit laterwith that too, and it's not a
not a concern.
I think most important is thatthey both enjoy books.
(28:07):
I just want them to have a loveof reading and you know, like my
son, or my son, my, mymother-in-law was telling me
recently that in grade four orfive, I think, the teachers
thought that my husband couldn'tread and so they sent him for
some sort of testing and theyfound that he could read, but he
was resistant to being forcedto read and he could read
(28:28):
anything, but he wasn'tinterested in reading books
until like late high school,maybe like early adulthood.
But he would read manuals, youknow like Nintendo manuals or
like whatever he needed to do.
But he's actually gifted and sothey just thought he couldn't
read and she didn't want to readwhatever they were asking him
(28:51):
to.
So, yeah, and my son has asimilar personality, like very
resistant to being coerced intoanything.
So my children both havedifferent personalities.
I think my daughter would havefared fine in public school, but
I think my son, his spirit,would have taken a hit for sure
(29:12):
and confidence fit on two handshow many books I read throughout
school.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Because if English class assigned us a book, I
think I made it more of my jobto be able to pass the exam or
write the summary, the bookreport, without reading the book
.
That was my task at hand.
How are you going to getthrough this without reading
this book?
And it's kind of sad nowbecause I'm like they probably
were good books but however theywere presented to us, there was
no context to it.
(29:50):
There was no way that it wasever going to like Fahrenheit
451.
I remember us talking about itin class, thinking, oh, sounds
like a pretty cool book, but Iain't going to sit and read it.
So, um, but it probably.
You know, I think things seemso far out, so fiction that you
know we didn't really talk aboutlike, hey, maybe maybe
(30:13):
something like this could happen.
Or, you know, let's talk abouthow we could relate this to real
life.
Um, it just seemed like, oh,here's the next book.
And, yeah, it's kind of sadbecause you know, even like To
Kill a Mockingbird, what a greatstory.
But as like I don't know, aseventh grader, I don't care,
it's something later in life.
I remember thinking like, oh,these books will be great when
(30:34):
I'm an adult and want to thinkabout this stuff.
But as a seventh grader Ididn't want to.
So, and I remember wanting toread a Goosebumps book in my
reading class and they told me,no, you cannot read this.
And which is sad, because it'slike, if that's what I enjoyed
reading, why squash it?
Because then I just sat therewith whatever book they were
making me read and I stared atthe wall.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Yeah, that's interesting.
I was at a library a coupleyears ago and I noticed an older
girl she probably was nine orten brought up a book of you
know those Little Miss or LittleMister was like Little Miss,
you know, they were likecircular characters and it was
like Little Miss, sassy andLittle Miss.
Do you remember those?
(31:15):
It was itself was very easy.
Her like that.
She couldn't take it outbecause she needed to pick out
something.
That was her her reading level,which I totally understand.
Like you want your kids tochallenge themselves, but it
just, um, it made me think ofjust trying to foster the joy of
(31:36):
reading and sometimes there issomething I think beneficial in
in reading something that's easy.
It's just, you know there'snothing wrong with that, because
that might just be.
She might enjoy the content.
Sometimes it's.
It can build your confidence ifyou are reading something easy
or reading the same thing overand over until you are super
(31:56):
comfortable with the material.
It doesn't always have to behard or a challenge, it can just
be enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Hey everyone, this is Cheryl.
I want to thank you so much forchecking out the podcast.
I'm going to keep this shortand sweet because I know your
time is valuable.
I want to ask you a seriousquestion Do your kids know what
to do to actually save theirlife in an emergency?
The most important thing we cantalk to our kids about is
knowing their first and lastname, knowing mom and dad's
first and last name, mom's phonenumber, dad's phone number,
(32:26):
their address, what to do ifthey get lost, what to do if
someone who's watching them hasa heart attack, a stroke, an
accident where they fall andyour child needs to get help.
We live in a world wherethere's no landline phones
anymore, basically, and cellphones lock.
Does your child know how tocall 911 from a locked cell
phone?
It is absolutely possible, andmy book demonstrates how to do
(32:49):
that, whether it's an Android,whether it's an iPhone and, most
importantly, it starts theconversation, because I was
going through homeschoolingcurriculum with my kids,
realizing that, gee, maybe theyskim over this stuff, but they
don't get into depth, so mychild's not going to remember
this should an accident occur,right?
I asked a couple of teacherswhat they do in school and they
(33:11):
said they really don't doanything either other than talk
about what to do in a fireduring the month of October fire
prevention month.
So I wrote a book because thisis near and dear to my heart.
I have had multiple friends thathave lost kids in tragedies and
I don't want to see it happenagain if it doesn't have to.
We were at the fair over thesummer and the first thing I
said to my son when we walkedthrough that gate was what's my
(33:33):
first and last name?
What is your first and lastname?
And what's my first and lastname?
What is your first and lastname and what is my phone number
?
And if you get lost, what areyou going to do?
You can get my book on Amazonand I will put the link in my
show's description Again.
It's called let's TalkEmergencies and I really hope
you'll check it out becausethere's just no need to be
scared when you can chooseprepared.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
So I thought that was interesting and I had heard
from some I don't know where Iread it just a literacy blog or
something about that.
It is beneficial to readsomething that's even below your
reading level because it buildsconfidence and just familiarity
with what you already know, andthat's totally fine.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
So I thought that was a great way to do that is to
have, like your older child,read to your younger child,
because you're kind of saying tothem, can you help her learn
how to read by reading this bookto her?
Or even you know, thehomeschooling groups generally
are all different ages, which isthe wonderful part about
(34:31):
homeschooling and the youngerkids kind of want to be like the
older kids and gravitatetowards them and the older kids
take on this leadership role.
So those are great places tooto have the older child.
Hey, could you teach her how toread?
Or could you teach her a wordtoday?
Or you know what a couple ofthe letters say, their sound.
So yeah, I hadn't reallythought about that before, but
(34:54):
as my son gets more comfortablewith reading, that will be maybe
a task I put on him, really forhim, but you know that he'll
feel confident at reading at thelower level but in also
teaching someone.
What are other strategies thatyou've kind of picked up along
the way in your homeschoolingadvice that you would give to
other homeschoolers?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
I don't want to call it advice because I'm kind of
nervous to give other peopleadvice necessarily.
But just one thing that's beenhelpful to me this year.
I'll share that.
I recently did a little coursewith Pam Barnhill.
She um, do you ever getfamiliar with her?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yep, she's been on the show before, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Okay, great.
So her I can't remember whatshe calls it if it's her
organizational course but in itshe gives different ways to
organize your homeschool andI've just found that loop
scheduling has been really greatfor us.
And actually, with gameschooling is, I think, this year
, keeping us more.
Keeping games in the loop, Iguess, because sometimes it is
(35:55):
easy to forget about them.
Keeping games in the loop, Iguess because sometimes it is
easy to forget about them and Ijust want to be more intentional
about making sure we at leasthave like one day a week where
we do a lot of them and they'realways kind of interspersed and
but just being intentional andmaking sure that they happen
regularly.
So I just wrote out all thecurriculums that we're using and
all the topics we want to studyand I just every day look kind
(36:18):
of what we did yesterday and gookay, like what's the next thing
in the loop, so that you knowyou always want to make sure,
like for us, we always want tomake sure we're hitting like our
math and our English languageresources, but some of those
other ones like games or artsometimes can get pushed aside
if you feel like you're notmaking progress with like your
(36:41):
big, you know your big pieceslike math and literacy.
So, um, yeah, it's just workingreally well for us because
we're prone to being spontaneousand easily distracted and
pulled in other directions.
So if I have, I can't do liketoday's math and tomorrow's
English.
It just doesn't work for usbecause we would just do the
same thing for a whole weekbecause we would be getting
(37:03):
distracted every time.
So at least we're just alwayscoming back in a loop and just
hitting everything.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
So how does that like , how does that look on written
down on paper, or how does thatlook in your life, this loop
that you've organized?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
So what I've been doing is I basically got a
notebook for each kid and in thefront of it I wrote all of the
curriculums we use and then anyof the extra things like our,
our kits that we get, like ifit's crunch labs or mal science.
I just kind of writteneverything that we do, including
Ford games, including, like bized, and I even just keep adding
(37:38):
things as I realize what we'redoing, even like audiobooks.
So I wrote those all down andthen every day.
I'm not very good atorganization, so this may not
make sense to other people, butthis is how I'm figuring it out
and I feel that I'm moreorganized this year than I have
been.
So I like I said, there's anotebook for each kid, so I'm
just writing the date and Istarted writing what we did that
(38:00):
day and then the next morning Ilooked at what we did the day
before and then went tobasically what's next in the
list, and then it's just goingon a loop and I'm just trying to
make sure that each subjectgets its attention.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Okay, so is math happening every day, or would
you skip it if you were onto thenext thing?
Speaker 2 (38:20):
We would skip it if it's onto the next thing.
Math is unique for us becausemy husband works out of town and
he does the math curriculum, sohe does that when he's here.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
And that seems to work.
Yes, you said it gave youanxiety, right?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Well, teaching Right Start doesn't Like I actually
was very excited to be teachingthe Right Start math curriculum
because it's easy and I waslearning too as we went Like
it's fantastic.
But because he has a mathdegree and that's his area and I
want him to be involved andthat's the you know the subject
that he chose, so I'm going tolet him do that.
(38:54):
Of course, and even though mathmight not even happen every
week or math curriculum, we domath in other ways, right, but
right start math might nothappen every single week, so
that one's a little bit unique.
But when it happens I write itdown and he knows where we are
and kind of where they should bein their, in their books, like
we use logic of English andessentials in writing, and that
(39:15):
might not happen every day likeweek.
We did a lot of that on Mondayand then yesterday, especially
because I thought we weremeeting yesterday, I got really
excited about board games, so wejust ended up doing just pretty
much board games all day andthat's fine.
So then then, after that, I'mlike, okay, we haven't done our
keyboarding, you know, sincelast week, so we're going to do
(39:36):
that tomorrow and I'm justtrying to like keep it going,
because I know that I can'tstick to a block schedule or
like any kind of schedule justdoesn't work for us at all.
So she, she sold thatorganization method as being
good for people who whoseschedule is irregular and and a
(39:58):
way to keep on track withinterruptions, and I would say
it's working well, yeah and Idefinitely have that sort of
lifestyle too, where I haveevery good intention of writing
down okay, we're gonna do 15minutes in our well.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
It says teach your child to read in 100 easy
lessons in 20 minutes a day.
But I don't know if they're alleasy and I don't know if they
all only take 20 minutes.
Some of them take a littlelonger if you go through every
single step.
But you know, so I'll start theweek out.
We're going to do that fivetimes this week.
We're going to do this year.
We're doing for math.
Matthew C.
We're going to do that for 20minutes or whatever, and read
(40:36):
for 20 minutes and there's ourhour and I'm not even adding in
extras.
But it's funny because, as youwere talking about writing down
the things that you do as theycome up, you know I really need
to start probably doing thatbecause as reporting comes, in
New York we have very strictreporting.
But for instance, yesterday andtoday he was working on STEM
science kits where he's puttingtogether like little remote
(40:59):
control cars or putting togetherI think there's like five
things in a kit and then so likea car, a plane, a forklift, you
know, and he's actually takingthe screws and putting them on
the board and you know screwingin the brackets and putting
together the thing that holdsthe battery in and putting the
wires in around.
You know screwing in thebrackets and putting together
the thing that holds the batteryin and putting the wires in
(41:21):
around.
You know that.
So it's a whole thing and I'msure there's science to it and
technology, and I probably wouldhave just gone by the wayside,
not even realizing that he'sdoing science as he's doing that
.
And even things like going fora hike with one of the
homeschool groups or going to aconcert, little things like that
(41:42):
that you don't really thinkabout.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Sorry, with the way that you have to do your
reporting, are you able to fitthose things in?
Speaker 1 (41:50):
So they give us a list of subjects that we are
required to do and an amount ofhours that they are required to
do and an amount of hours thatthey are required to be in quote
unquote school.
But you have the ability to sayhow much time you're spending
towards what.
I don't even think you have towrite down how many hours.
It's just what.
In the beginning of the year,what do you plan to achieve this
(42:11):
year?
And then every quarter, youhave to write in what you did
achieve.
And that's exactly how, when Iworked for government, our
reviews went, and when I, when Iwrote reviews for my employees,
it was the same thing.
This is what I expect you to doand this is what you did.
So it's kind of funny that itworks the same way.
I'm like, oh okay, the sameperson wasn't behind both of
those.
So, yeah, I, I pretty much justwrite we're going to do this
(42:35):
curriculum this year, and youknow.
And then you have to write likehow you achieved gym class, how
you achieved math, how youachieve, you know what you
achieved in it, you know.
So it's they.
They say it's very strictreporting and talking to some of
the other homeschoolers fromdifferent states or provinces.
It might be because some ofthem you don't have to report
(42:56):
anything, but I mean as long asyou're submitting it.
I think a lot of times I'vecome to realize with life it's
just like showing up, like justsubmit the things you have to
submit by the date and they knowyou're probably not beating or
starving your child and theydon't, so they don't care.
So that's what I think itreally comes down to.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah In our case in Ontario.
I think it really comes down toyeah In our case in Ontario,
despite Ontario being like asuper regulation heavy province
in so many different areas,there's absolutely no oversight
for homeschooling Nothing.
They don't know we exist, Idon't have to do anything,
nothing.
So theoretically there's a lotof room in there for neglect.
(43:34):
But it's great.
I love that because we canreally do whatever we want.
But in some ways I guess for me, like I have to work really
hard at being organized andthat's why I'm trying to like
record things more, like I saidis I don't have any sort of
tracking like to spur me on todo that.
I have to want to do that and Imight never have to send it
(43:58):
into anyone, but even for ourown records and just to keep us,
you know, just intentionalabout what we're doing, I'm
finding it helpful.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
But you know there will be that one Christmas that
your kid, you know, as a 40 yearold, says you never did
anything with me and you like, Ihave the notebook right.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Yeah, I'm not very good at like getting school
pictures done in an alternativeway or any like we have, so
that's why I always like pay fortheir sports pictures.
At least there's something likethere you got your professional
picture taken.
This year.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
That's funny because I had put all these pictures
from my son's kindergarten yearum into shutterfly, uh,
shutterflycom, and made thisalbum but there were too many
pictures.
It was going to be like $80.
I'm like, okay, we don't needall the pictures and I haven't
gone back in to take them out,just to make like a $20 yearbook
(44:51):
for him so that, oh, this wasyour kindergarten year and I was
planning to do that for everyyear and I've already at first
grade, I've already dropped theball.
But that is maybe that'ssomething he could do.
He could pick the pictures hewants, because I'm sure there's
some sort of learning in that.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
How to use the computer Totally.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Yeah, that's a great intention.
I'm not very good at stuff likethat, but but yeah, I just have
these plain notebooks that are,you know, those black and white
composition notebooks, becauseI can't even use a calendar
because I would.
I would just not use it, so Iwould skip days and then I would
.
I would probably get upset withmyself.
So there's some days thataren't in the composition book
(45:33):
because maybe I forgot.
But almost, just, you know,it's just a habit getting myself
to do every day what we did.
And yeah, I'm super thankful toPam for that course, because
that's really helped me Allright, awesome, I can link that
in the show's description too.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
That is very, very helpful, just to have other
options.
You know that there are thingsto assist us out there.
Just to have other options.
You know that there are thingsto assist us out there, chloe,
as we round out, is thereanything else you kind of had
been thinking about, that youwanted to you know, kind of let
homeschoolers know about?
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Trying to think of how I could bring it back to
gaming, to our gaming.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
How often do you do the games?
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Like, if you call yourself a game schooler, is it
an everyday or you're just kindof?
Like I said, it's sometimessporadic, but I think, with the
like, the scheduling method thatI'm like I said, is helpful to
make sure that that it's aregular thing.
So we'll see, we go in fits andspurts, and so do the kids, and
that's normal.
That's life, but I think it's areally great way, especially if
you have various ages in yourhomeschool.
It's a great way to get thekids working together.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah, or if they have a friend over, because I was.
You know, my son and his friendwere playing the other day and
you know they always get to apoint where they start like
yelling at each other andgetting kind of snotty with each
other.
So I was like, okay, listen,you guys are going to take five
minutes apart and then you'regoing to come back together and
play a game.
So that was a great justtransition for them, because
(47:05):
they were before that justrunning all over the place
shooting each other with gunsand yada, yada, this one's
getting hurt and that one pushedthat one.
So this was a nice way to likebring them together as something
.
And then my son was kind ofteaching him how to play the
game, so that he felt kind ofcool and confident.
So, and they were doing math.
So, yeah, games are huge.
(47:27):
We kind of just like forgetabout them.
We kind of, now that technologyis introduced into our lives,
it's so easy to forget aboutjust the fun, simple board game.
Yeah, which?
Speaker 2 (47:37):
one has been your favorite one so far, Well
yesterday we were playingDraftosaurus and I have to say
that's a really, really fun game.
I don't think I could tell youwhat my favorite game has been,
because it's kind of changing.
I say my first gateway gamethat I was introduced to that we
still come back to is probablyCarcassonne.
It's a great family game too.
I love that game.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
That was one when I looked up, maybe a year ago,
what is game schooling and Iwent to go like buy a game or
buy a couple on Amazon.
Uh, that game was I didn't knowhow to pronounce it so I forgot
about it and I didn't buy it,but that game was one of the
most like, high recommended forpeople getting into
(48:18):
homeschooling.
So can you just quickly, beforewe end, tell us a brief
synopsis of how to play thatgame or what it's about?
It's a tile placement game.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
So I think it's really um manable to like a wide
variety of ages, cause even ifa three-year-old's playing, they
can just place the tile andmaybe they're not scoring a ton
of points, but they can put twotiles together to make a little
river and they love that and youknow they can put a guy on it.
But you know you're you'replaying together, but okay, so
basically let's start over.
(48:47):
It's a tile placement game.
You're building cities, rivers,so you can either be in the
city or farm the land or be on aroad, you know, and at the end
of the game you're going to geta certain amount of points for
how many.
You know how big your city is,how long your road is, how big
your, how much land you'refarming, and so you have little
guys and you place them on.
(49:07):
So there's, you know,multiplication for sure, at the
end of the game there's strategyinvolved and you can definitely
get pretty intense into thestrategy.
But at the same time, like Ifind, little kids can play with
with way older children and allkind of have a good time.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
So yeah, because that is the hard part, I you know,
having the two children six andtwo, like the two year old it's,
you know I resort to justputting the TV on for her so I
can play a game with my son.
She doesn't always nap, orsometimes, when she naps, I'm
like trying to get somethingelse done or trying to get a
math lesson in.
So, yeah, it'll be really niceto have something that she can
(49:45):
participate in and he doesn'tget too annoyed that she's not
playing correctly.
So I will grab that one.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
Yeah, and that's something like you just have to
kind of that's, that's a good.
Learning to write is like I amsort of a person that you know,
if my game pieces are beingabused or whatever, I get a
little like, oh, and you have tokind of temper your own
reactions.
And if you're going to have atwo year old, you know, maybe
they're going to just want tohold the same tile for the whole
(50:12):
game and like there's 75 othertiles, so just let them have
that one for now.
It's whatever.
You can have a more seriousgame later, you know.
So true, Great advice.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Chloe, thank you so much for being here today and
letting us know about gameschooling and you know what got
you into homeschooling and justsharing your story with us.
Thanks for having me.
All right, I will linkeverything that I had mentioned
in the show's description, socheck that out.
Bye-bye, great Bye.
(50:52):
Or, if you'd rather, please usethe link in the description to
share this podcast with a friendor on your favorite homeschool
group Facebook page.
Any effort to help us keep thepodcast going is greatly
appreciated.
Thank you for tuning in and foryour love of the next
generation.
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