homeschool

I love having people guest post on my blog.  Today I want to thank Tyler for visiting with us.  I hope you enjoy Tyler’s post.  

One of our goals in homeschooling since the start has been to find a way to make it fun. My wife and I both went to public school and we knew we didn’t want homeschooling to be ‘public school at home’. However, we weren’t sure what we DID want it to look like. Starting out we were planning fun activities each day. The kids loved it and we could see they were having fun while learning, but we quickly realized we would be burnt out on creating this fun learning environment long before they learned everything they needed to know. So we started looking for something fun (and easy!) to supplement our homeschooling activities. Enter gameschooling.

What is GameSchooling?

Put simply, gameschooling is homeschooling using games to teach. For us, gameschooling is primarily board games, but also includes some outdoors games. Adding board games to our homeschool routine has been an amazing change for our house. For the kids, board games have kept learning fun and engaging. As parents, gameschooling has taken a lot of the stress out of homeschool planning, because we know board games are there to help us teach or reinforce our homeschooling efforts.

How to Add (or Increase) Games to Your Homeschool Routine?

Fitting board games into an already full day of homeschooling can be a challenge. Here are our top five ways to fit games into our homeschool schedule: 

1. Pick a Subject and Find a Board Game A great way to get started using board games in your homeschool activities is to simply pick a subject you are working on and find a board game to reinforce it. Looking for some inspiration? Check out this article on 100 things kids learn from board games, with game recommendations for each!

2. Add a Daily Game Time

Another option to consider if you’re looking to add some gameschooling to your days is to set aside a certain time each day for board games. A lot of modern board games can be played in fifteen to forty five minutes. This makes them a perfect activity when the kids need a break. We love to play board games right before lunch when the kid’s focus starts to be more concerned with what is in the fridge then the topic at hand.

3. Start a Family Game Night

Rather than cram board games into your school day, try out a family board game night. One of my favorite memories growing up was playing board games as a family. Board game night was the one time all the hecticness of work, school, and other activities seemed to fall away and we were able to enjoy family time playing board games. Little did I know I was learning at the same time! If you have a family with a large age range, check out this list of the 10 best games that preschoolers through adults will all love.

4. Use board Games to Wind Down for Bed

I know I can’t be the only one who has kids who seem to get more and more awake the closer bedtime gets. Board games are a great tool to burn some of that excess brain energy off and help your kids wind down for bed. We try to avoid silly games, or active games right before bed, and instead target something like sleeping queens or robot turtles. These games hit the right balance of challenging without being too complex for them to focus on right before bed in our house.

5. Travel with Board Games

Traveling is a great time to try out gameschooling. Regular homeschool activities are difficult when your away from home. The combination of not having your regular homeschool tools at your disposal and kids being excited about traveling is not ideal. If you pick the right board games, they’re easy to play in a car, on a plane, or where ever you might be traveling and they won’t take up much space in your luggage! To get you started, here’s a list of our favorite kids board games to travel with.

Start your Gameschooling Journey!

I hope these tips can help you start (or expand) your gameschooling and see what a powerful homeschool tool it can be. I’d love to hear from you in the comments! If you already gameschool, what is your favorite way to fit board games in your day? If you haven’t started yet, which of these tips will you try?

Tyler blogs at kidsloveboardgames.com. Kids Love Board Games focuses on the benefits of playing family board games, gameschooling, as well as board game recommendations and reviews. Sign up for Kids Love Board Games newsletter and follow Kids Love Board Games on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

YAY!   I just love having people guest post on my blog and today Miss Rebecca is guest posting.  As you can see, she’ll be addressing homeschooling methods.

Out of all the different homeschooling methods, I like three the most, and I’d like to share them with you. In particular, I like these methods because they seem to bring out the potential in our children and teach them about the world around them without burning them out or making learning seem like a chore.

And these three homeschooling methods are:

• The Classical Method

• The Charlotte Mason Method and

• The Eclectic Method

Let’s get started!

My Third Favourite Method: The Classical Approach

Classical education has been around for hundreds of years. It was in its zenith around the time that Charles Dickens wrote his best-selling books. The Classical approach is a vigorous education that teaches children in three stages – the grammar, logic and then rhetoric stages.

It values things like:

• Latin – because it’s the root of all the romantic languages

• Debate – because it helps children think critically, speak clearly and organize their thoughts consistently and

• Memorization – because it helps children remember important concepts that will help them immensely throughout their lives

Why I like The Classical Approach

While the Classical way of homeschooling is a vigorous education that expects a lot of children, it pushes them and gives them a good work ethic. It expects more of children than public schools might, and in that way, it helps children take on plenty of concepts and values that will benefit them in the future.

In short, we’ve lost a lot of rigor in our education today and I think Classical education will help us get this back.

Shortcomings of The Classical Approach

The biggest shortcoming of The Classical Approach is its inflexibility and rigidity. Picture a flogging for a poor Dickens boy who hasn’t reached his schoolmasters expectations. If not paced correctly, can it expect too much of some children.

But this is why Charlotte Mason invented her educational approach…

My Second Favourite Method: The Charlotte Mason Approach

The Charlotte Mason method was invented when Mason saw the strictness of the Classical approach and thought things should be gentler. As such, the Mason method has a lot of similarities to the Classical approach because Mason was trained as a Classical educator herself. (Indeed, many people who choose either the Charlotte Mason or Classical homeschooling methods tend to also enjoy teaching with elements of the other method).

While there are similarities, the Mason method is particularly known for:

• Testing children with narration – this is when children are tested by parents asking them what they learned, and children narrate back their answers. This can be done orally, in writing, drama, interpretive dance or even STEM building!

• Nature walks – Charlotte Mason was the founder of Scouts! She thought children should spend more time outdoors discovering nature

• Habit training – All education should train us in good habits, so we benefit society as well-rounded individuals. Mason was a Christian and rooted her beliefs in Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection for our sins and benefit

Both Classical and Charlotte Mason homeschooling methods value lots of reading by children separately, and in a group with parents. Homeschooling parents who adopt either of these methods can be found reading tomes to their children for many hours each week. As such, children learn through exciting and challenging texts, instead of texts which are boring or given to children so they can pass an exam.

Why I like The Charlotte Mason Approach

Many Charlotte Mason homeschools are warm places of learning where families bond together as they learn together. For instance, if we look at narration we find harsh exams are replaced with parents simply asking their children what they’ve learned.

A lot of learning is face-to-face, and children and parents learn things together. I love that about the Charlotte Mason approach!

Shortcomings of The Charlotte Mason Approach

The Charlotte Mason approach expects a lot of parents. For example, reading for so many hours is lovely, but it can become a burden if the curriculum isn’t flexible.

I heard of one mom who turned back to use traditional homeschooling (school-at-home) methods because they lost their voice due to reading aloud so much.

And this leads me to the benefits of eclectic homeschooling…

My Favourite Method: The Eclectic Approach

Eclectic homeschooling is picking and choosing parts of different homeschooling methods and curricula that you like and using them in your homeschool. Eclectic homeschooling is like a buffet, you choose what you like.

Why I like The Eclectic Approach

Out of all the different educational methods, my favourite method is the eclectic homeschooling method. I like it simply because you can take the best parts from every educational theory and leave the bits of rubbish.

The eclectic method also lets you individualize your way of homeschooling to fit your child. This means that while one homeschooling method might work best for one child, it may not work for another.

And this makes sense as we’re all individuals and we all like or dislike certain things. It’s no surprise our learning preferences, strengths and weaknesses also work this way.

Shortcomings of The Eclectic Approach

Maybe the biggest thing you need to be aware of when you choose the eclectic homeschooling method is its ability to lead you everywhere if you don’t have a plan. For this reason, I advise you to write down your homeschooling plan so you don’t go down a rabbit hole as you discover all these other amazing ways to homeschool.

Conclusion: My Three Favourite Homeschooling Methods and Why I’m in love with them

Being able to our own way of homeschooling is a huge blessing. We have a smorgasbord of excellent homeschooling methods and resources at our fingertips. And this means we can choose the best ways of homeschooling to suit our own families. Among other educational theories, I believe the Classical and Charlotte Mason approaches are worthy of great consideration if you’re considering homeschooling. Hopefully, you’ll be able to join them all together to form a wonderful eclectic homeschool!

Rebbecca Devitt is the author of Why on Earth Homeschool: The Case for Christian Homeschooling. She’s the wife of a husband who is her best friend and makes her laugh and a son who is too cute for words. She’s dabbled in Nursing, Medical Science, Medicine and Law before settling down to her dream job—being a full-time mother! The family live in Wollongong and actively participate in their wonderful church, Wollongong Baptist Church. Rebbecca has written for various blogs including Homeschooling with Heart, Why on Earth Homeschool and her own Christian homeschooling website, How Do I Homeschool. As you can guess, her passion lies in helping people to homeschool well.