ABC Game

I'm taking a Psychological Learning Theories class, and on Tuesday, one of my fellow students did a presentation on improving Americans' math performance. One of her main recommendations was to make homework into a game. She recommended several websites, including: 

http://pbskids.org/games/math.html

and

http://pbskids.org/games/letters.html

After class, I found myself thinking about playing computer games with my son so that it wouldn't be an isolated activity and so that I could make sure that he played educational games, but then it occurred to me that I could make games myself that the whole family could play together.

Here's my first attempt:

It is an ABC game. Here are the rules:

Place all game pieces on "Start." 

The person whose birthday comes next starts.

Roll one die and move your game piece the number of spaces shown on the die. If you land on a letter, say the name of the letter and the sound(s) it makes. For each letter name or sound recalled, move your game piece one space forward. For example, if you land on A, and you say "That's A, and it says aahh and A." Then you should move 3 spaces forward. Letters with two sounds allow for more movement than letters with just one sound. Now your turn is over, and the person to your left has a turn.

If you land on a "silly space," you should do what the space tells you to do (e.g., make a silly face, do a crazy dance, make an animal sound), and then your turn is over. The silly spaces are a lot of fun, and my kids insist on pausing to do them even if their die roll doesn't put them on one.

The first player to reach the Finish Line wins. In our family, everyone wins when they reach the Finish Line, so we keep playing until everyone is there.

ABC Video

My son is not at all motivated by memorizing letter names and sounds. It's such an abstract task that I think he doubts that it will ever lead to anything more interesting. To make practicing fun, I suggested that we make our own movie. He suggested a superhero theme, and then he drew a superhero for each letter. When he finished his drawings, we sat down and I used my video camera to record him saying the names of the letters and the sounds that they make. Then I used iMovie to edit my three-year-old and myself out of the video as much as possible. The result is far from professional, but we had fun making it, and it got my son excited about his letters for a few hours!

Introduction

I am the mother of two little boys, one who is three and one who just turned six. My six-year-old is in kindergarten, and he's a fun, smart little boy who has a hard time learning things that aren't fun or clearly applicable to his life. His teacher wanted him to do tutoring on Tuesdays, but I think that the last thing he needs is one more hour of school each week! What he needs is time to play, and if I can sneak some learning into his play, I figure that's a bonus.

I have a background in psychology, and I work part-time helping develop early childhood and achievement tests, so I might know a little bit more than your average person about child development and academic skill development, but I'm not a teacher. Basically, I'm just a mom trying to make learning fun for my kids, and I want to share my ideas with others, hence the blog.

Enjoy!