Tuesday 10 September 2013

Crazy visit time!

I've mentioned before that my children have a favourite uncle - Uncle N. 

Today Uncle N arrived for a 4 1/2 day visit - and the children are all very excited :)

Right now they are all next door trying to teach Uncle N to play a game on the PS2.  Only Uncle N and A are playing, but the other three are giving lots of instructions . . .

There are lots of plans for games, and we almost need a timetable to make sure we fit them all in.

Earlier Uncle N and A played Rock, Paper, Scissors, Bang! A cool game we picked up at UK games Expo earlier in the year.  You can download and print a version here

Later in the week we're expecting some Doctor Who roleplaying - run by Uncle N - with J taking a character for the first time.

M is also intending to run another Tales From the Wood game - he has been preparing and reading for about a week :)

I anticipate lots of other games sneaking in too, I'll let you know how it all goes . . .

So, how is this home educating?  This is the best kind of educating - living and learning intertwined, inseparable, indistinguishable from one another.

Uncle N is great -  but there is only one of him.  The children are learning to share his attention, to negotiate, to have fair turns doing things with him.  They are working on finding a common preference so they can all play together.  There are a lot of the "soft skills" coming into play there.

The games themselves have lots of opportunities to learn new skills or practise old ones - turn taking and social interaction are the two obvious ones, but basic maths and reading come into most games, as well as planning, lateral thinking, strategizing, negotiating, winning or loosing with good grace.

Sometimes it is stressful, often it's loud, but the learning sneaks in and things grow easier the more we play.  The lessons the children are learning in how to manage games well are applicable in so many areas of life, and I'm sure this is an easier arena to learn them in :)

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