The Gaming Continues

Yep, we are STILL playing games around here.  It is just what we do.  A lot.

But today I want to share with you a few I think are great for homeschoolers in particular.  Well, OK, they are great for anyone, but we homeschoolers like to pretend anything can count as school.

Sometimes it can!

Battleship- Do not ask me how this child talked his sister into playing with him.  Not sure she will do it ever again.  BUT- this is a great strategy game.  It can teach children about slowing down and thinking about what they should do next.  (trust me when I say this boy needs to slow down sometimes!) It teaches reasoning.  It even teaches about how to lose gracefully.  ummm, still working on that one.

UNO- Yep, still playing this one.  I have said it before, but it bears repeating- this game is good for number and color recognition.  Yes, we have now moved passed that need, but someone who shall remain nameless really likes to win at this one.

Sorry-  While some of us are pretty tired of this game, it does teach good counting skills and reading skills as well.

Creationary- In case you haven't noticed, Legos are the homeschoolers new best friend!  Teaching math- check!  Teaching art- check!  I am not kidding.  There are lessons plans out there for about any subject you want to revolve around Legos.  For now we are sticking to the game, but I will admit it teaches a lot of creativity.  For the record- I stink at it!  Big time!

Campbells Alphabet Dice Game - This is a fun one.  I like it because it is a little less intimidating than Scrabble and takes a lot less time.  A good game to teach spelling but has a few extra rules that make it fun as well.

There are many more, but a mom can only take but so many games a day.  Now, to get the 6 year old to understand that!  Next week, let's talk about some "grown up" games, shall we?

Until then, win some- lose some, but have fun either way!

Blessings, 

Beginning on Monday you can see what other games and toys fellow homeschoolers are playing!

Dinner and a Movie

Our family question of the week was if you could only pick 5 movies we own to keep, which five would they be?

I have long since stopped recommending movies to other families. Just too risky! Either our conservative family favorites will bore you to death or send you into a fit of giggles, or maybe, just maybe you would shake your head in concern, being even more conservative than us. (it could happen!) Too often in the past I have seen a movie recommended by a well intentioned family only to find that their convictions were just different from ours. Because of that, we have seen some movies I just wish we had not.

What I do recommend it a great site called PluggedIn. It doesn't solve all your problems, but it has helped guide our family on many a family movie night. What I love about the site is that it usually sticks with just the facts, no opinions. You know...these are the violent scenes, this is the spiritual content, this is the language....

The language! Oh my!
I know we are sticks in the mud concerning profanity, but really! Is that a must!? There are more than a few good movies out there I would love for the kids to see....but the language...no thanks!

Insulation...not isolation!

I know, before you even say it...they will hear those words somewhere else. Yes, but NOT in my house and NOT by my choice. As my oldest has said before, once those words have entered your ears, head and eventually your heart they are hard to delete from your brain. At the very worst, you begin to see them as not a big deal anymore.

"...Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things." Phil. 4:8

While all the movies we watch may not by definition glorify the Lord (Cars, Finding Nemo, Christy, to name a few ;) I pray that by our choices, we are! So, for now, we tend to stick to classics, old series (be careful, we tend to have long term memory loss about what we watched as kids), and movies previewed by mom and dad.

Stuffy...maybe. Safe...yep! I will admit, it used to be a harder call, but now, not at all. God is good about convicting us slowly sometimes so we can wrap our brains and hearts around His desires for our families.

Oh, and one last thing, we eat around the coffee table often on Friday nights while we watch our movie. (poor CJ gets to watch about 30 minutes before we cheer, turn it off, do devotions and put him bed. Won't he be surprised one day to see how long movies really are?!). Two of our favorite easy family movie night meals are breakfast burritos and nachos. No recipes, surely you can make those!

What do you eat for a fun family meal? And what 5 movies did you pick to keep?