Games, games, games.

As we don’t use school to facilitate education around here, it’s rather more achieved on the fly. Sometimes I set projects, sometimes the kids come up with ideas all by themselves. Occasionally they amuse themselves for days in involved games created around their current interests – Harry Potter is a recurring theme 😉

There’s also a lot of gaming. I mean board gaming, that sort of thing. I have a pile of things to review, but that’s not what I want to talk about right now. I want to talk about our new evening entertainment, Twenty questions. We’re about three evenings in now, and we’ve learnt quite a lot already. Small has learnt that it does no good to choose something no one else has heard of – so he’s learning to try to think things through from other ppl’s point of view. He’s also learnt that he doesn’t get to go first every night, even if he bursts into tears.

Big is learning how to categorise things. Tonight she learnt lots about herbs when Tim chose a Vegetable Abstract, five words with one conjunction. (Turned out to be ‘Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.) She chose an excellent one the other night – Lady of the Lake statue at Needham lakes. Tim guessed it – as I’ve never seen it I wasn’t going to stand much of a chance.

It’s a good game. It means that we’re spending time after we’ve eaten together as a family, playing together as a family. Of course Smallest doesn’t get to take part but she’s still sitting up at the table with us, chatting and being chatted too, and I hope that watching us all interact is good for her. Has to be right? It doesn’t need any equipment other than brains, but it’s leading to all sorts of interesting conversations and discussions.

I’d recommend it. You don’t always need toys to play 🙂

Entered in the learning through play bloghop at tots100.