.png)
The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
#105: Gameschooling! What Is It and How Can I Incorporate It Into My Homeschool?
Unlock the secrets of making education a fun and engaging journey with this episode of the Homeschool How To podcast. Join Cheryl as she hosts Chloe from Ontario, Canada, who shares her transformative approach to homeschooling through the power of gameschooling. Discover Chloe's captivating insights into how hands-on, interactive games can teach children essential skills like math, strategy, and logic, all while fostering a love for learning.
Explore the vast world of educational board games that Chloe introduces, which seamlessly integrate subjects such as science, vocabulary, and storytelling. From Wingspan's exploration of bird species to the chemistry-based intrigue of Valence, these games not only entertain but educate. Chloe enlightens us on the benefits of cooperative games that promote teamwork, emphasizing the joy of learning alongside family and friends. Cheryl and Chloe also discuss ways to nurture a love for reading and the importance of personalized learning experiences to build a strong educational foundation.
Prepare to be inspired by Chloe's personal journey into homeschooling and her innovative use of gameschooling to enrich her children's education. With valuable insights on flexible homeschooling strategies, this episode is packed with practical advice for anyone seeking to elevate their homeschooling experience. Tune in and be part of an exciting conversation that celebrates creativity in education and empowers you to craft a fulfilling learning environment for your children.
https://my-little-poppies.com/gameschooling/
Flow State Education- Master Basic Facts in 5 Minutes a Day!
**Your child follows a custom learning path built just for them, focusing on their unique strengths and areas for improvement. Let your kids experience math in the flow state, where learning truly happens!
What is the most important thing we can teach our kids?
HOW TO HANDLE AN EMERGENCY!
This could mean life or death in some cases!
Help a child you know navigate how to handle an emergency situation with ease:
Let's Talk, Emergencies! -and don't forget The Activity Book!
The Tuttle Twins - use code Cheryl40 for 40%
Instagram: TheHomeschoolHowToPodcast
Facebook: The Homeschool How To Podcast
Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool How-To. I'm Cheryl and I invite you to join me on my quest to find out why are people homeschooling, how do you do it, how does it differ from region to region, and should I homeschool my kids? Stick with me as I interview homeschooling families across the country to unfold the answers to each of these questions week by week. Welcome, and with us today I have Chloe from Ontario, canada. Welcome, chloe. Hi Cheryl, thank you, thanks for being here. I'm really excited about today because I have been in search of a game schooling family. I heard of this concept maybe a year ago as I was interviewing homeschooling families on my podcast and someone mentioned game schooling and my son at the time was five and kind of getting into games and I'd never heard of it. So I've been looking for someone that could come on the show and tell me what game schooling is, because I think my son will just have a blast with this. Let's start off with how many kids do you have and what are their ages?
Speaker 2:I have two, so they're eight and ten.
Speaker 1:Okay, those are great ages for games. What sparked your interest into game schooling? Where did you first hear about it?
Speaker 2:I don't know when I first heard the term game schooling, but we early on.
Speaker 2:Well, one of the first methods of homeschooling that attracted me was Montessori, and there were a lot of games involved with that. If you know anything about Montessori, it's, like you know, very, very hands on for the kids. So we we never dove too deeply into Montessori curriculum. It was just a little bit too overwhelming for me. There's a lot of like materials to purchase like that take up a lot of room. But one thing that we did retain was a lot of the games, and even before we had kids, my husband and I both met a family that was really big into games. They were a large family and they played tons of games and we just loved it. So I think we just naturally wanted to incorporate that into our homeschool. We don't have video games here at the house, so we try to do a lot of tabletop games with the kids and you know, like anything, it kind of ebbs and flows. Sometimes there's a season when you're doing it a lot and then maybe not as much, but it's something that we enjoy doing as a family. I probably heard of game schooling because I was just well probably. You know my Facebook algorithm had stuff to do with board games and, looking for reviews, onboard games came across like a game schooling group. I'm thinking that's how it happened and like, oh, ok, like people intentionally do this as part of their homeschooling and, yeah, just kind of went from there. That's so cool. So actually do have quite a few games incorporated. So when I went looking for a math curriculum, one of the things that I was looking for was something that was like very, that had a lot of manipulatives in it, so very like hands-on and tactile. So we went with right start math, which was created by a Montessori professional, and there's a ton of games involved, like card games, all kinds of games throughout, and then Logic of English has a lot of games in there too, card games throughout. So I would say, in that way we do use them as part of our curriculum.
Speaker 2:But the actual games, like tabletop games that we own, I don't use them so much for particular subjects. We mostly just find ones that we enjoy and we play them because there's so much learning that goes on with any game, and I've found that sometimes games that are intentionally educational are a bit boring. They just we, they just sometimes fall flat. Some of them are okay, but if it's a game where it's, like you know, to learn a specific topic, I just haven't found them super interesting. Now there's some that are like. I know there's like an um, a national parks game. I think that goes along with the U S like national parks. I think so in that way, like you're learning about those, but that's not necessarily why you buy the game. Okay.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I grew up you know knowing about, like Monopoly and checkers.
Speaker 1:I don't know if they didn't really have that many games that existed back in the 80s and 90s. There's definitely a lot more now. So it's kind of funny like researching into like well, what games do you get? And when you look it up there are so many from games from Monopoly, or even you know Monopoly Junior you know those are still around and guess who. But all the way to like there are games that are almost like Dungeons and Dragons kind of things and like that really get, I assume, are much bigger than just the like 10 or 20 minutes it takes to play the game. So can you kind of elaborate into what games you've used and how you've used them Right?
Speaker 2:So well, almost any game I would say that we play with the children is going to use math right, and most often I find the math skill that you're probably practicing most, that you know that you can call it. How do I say this? Well, most scoring, scoring devices are going to be multiplication, you know, because it's like OK, you get three points for every X of this. So you're going to, you're going to be multiplying. So if they're not quite ready for that, we take out our abacus that we have with right start math and then we get them to do it that way. So, and if the games are maybe a little too old for the child, we'll do teams, and so even the adult games maybe it says like 10 and up or 14 and up they can pretty much play all of them if you're playing on teams. So they all have strategy, they all have. You know you're learning to take turns, you're learning logic.
Speaker 2:There's so many pro-social skills involved with playing a game. You know learning how to win gracefully and lose gracefully, all those things, teamwork, following direction. Well, even sometimes overcoming homeschool resistance I like I know sometimes with my son, especially like sitting down and doing book work, might not be going that well, but he's pretty much always down for a game and it's fun, especially if you have a kid that is resistant in that way like pull out a game. So yeah, I don't know, we do. We have some games that are maybe a bit role playing, like you're talking about Dungeons and Dragons. Those are fun because they're so creative, like you're creating a story as you go. We haven't gotten too much into those ones. We have, yeah, logic games maybe that are single player, where you have to use logic and deduction to figure out the answer.
Speaker 1:I don't know what would be an example of like a game like that, like a name of one of the games one that I can see it on my shelf over there.
Speaker 2:It's called cat crime. So there's seven characters, there's seven cats, and at the beginning it will tell you a cat spilt a water jug, like, and so who figure out which cat did it? So it'll say you know this cat was sitting across from this cat, and so so you know if this cat was sitting across from this cat. And so so you know if this cat was beside this cat but across from this cat, and then so you have to, using logic, like, figure out which one it would have been, which one was closest to the to the thing that was knocked over or spilt or whatever. So those all little problems like that, yeah, so that's just one example my daughter especially really likes.
Speaker 2:Have you heard of escape rooms before? Yeah, yeah, so there's some really great escape room games. We've tried a few different ones and some are, like, better quality than others. We really like the unlock kids, and so they work just like an escape room. There's clues and you go along often like there there might be a bunch of tiles and you have to get, you have to solve one thing before you can get the next clue, and it goes along that way, just like an escape room would, and those are awesome because she can do them on her own and get really into it, and some of them, you know they could take over an hour maybe. So you really get that focus, and I think that's something that board games really offer too is a chance to develop your attention span, because you can get really involved in that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were just playing a game the other day called Double Shutter, which is a super fun game. It's kind of like a Yahtzee, but you're rolling the dice and there's two of them and you've got two rows that look almost like dominoes and it goes one through nine on the first row and then behind it nine through one. So you roll, say, a six, so you can put down the six, or you can put down a three and a three, or a five and a one, and you want to get that first row down because all those points double if they're up at the end of the game. And once you know, once you have the at least the first you know whatever is down in the front row, you can use the number behind it to. Then the point is to get all your numbers down so that you have the lowest score. And you go, you keep rolling until you can't roll anymore. So if you come up with a six and all you have is a seven and a nine left, you have to add seven and nine together and that's your score.
Speaker 1:So that one's been really fun doing with my son because he's six years old and it was like okay, now get out the calculator. Let's talk about how to use a calculator. And you're doing logic because you're thinking, okay, I only have you know if I did roll, if I rolled a five, and I only have a one, two, a three and a four up, what are the different combinations I could use to get to that? And so that's been a really fun one, where you know you think these games have to be like so long and involved, but really you could just in 10 minutes play a fun little game, which is a great way. Like you were saying, if your child's giving you pushback towards doing some of the book work, this is a great way to say, okay, let's just change the pace and, you know, do something fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially in New York right now it's cold. You know it's not so easy to get all the gear on and go outside and get some fresh air. So it's like, well, let's play a game, and I really love that. I love the different concepts. Do they have games for, like, I'm thinking, a lot of math, but they you mentioned National Park, so they have games that involve science and reading and story, like you were mentioning. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I just ordered one that I haven't played it yet. It's called blah blah blah by Mrs Wordsmith and I'm hoping that's going to help with more like vocabulary. So I think there's a bit of storytelling with it. But working on, yeah, just increasing our vocabulary. I haven't played the parks one before, but I have a friend that just bought it, so I'm interested to hear how that one went.
Speaker 2:I have another park that another game, that's called Baron Park. That it is about parks but not about real parks in the world. But I know there's a really popular one called Wingspan, where I know you're learning a lot about different birds, like. So you know they're using actual bird species and learning about what their habitat and diet, et cetera, et cetera, would be. There's one I've been looking at that is called Valence, because we're looking at getting a little bit more into chemistry, so it's a periodic table-based game called Valence. So that looks kind of interesting. Yeah, what else I don't know. There's so many. Well, so that looks kind of interesting. Yeah, what else I don't know? There's so many. Well, this is funny, but I've owned it for years and years prior to COVID, but it's called pandemic and there's so many different versions of it now. Yeah, I think I've owned that since like 1998 or something.
Speaker 1:So what's what does that game involve? Everybody put on a mask. Whoever doesn't pass out wins.
Speaker 2:You know what? There's no masks in that game, which is kind of fun.
Speaker 1:Do you know why students often struggle with math? It's not because they can't solve the problems. It's those hidden gaps and foundational knowledge that's holding them back. That's where flow state education comes in. Here's the genius of it. Why do people love social media? The fast pace of it. Why do people love social media the fast pace of it. Why do people love video games? The thrill of the challenge. Flow State Education combines both into an engaging math program designed for kids. Even better, their adaptive algorithm tailors the program to your child's unique needs, ensuring they're always working at the right level and building confidence along the way. Ready to see the difference, try their free trial today by clicking the link in the episode's description and watch your child discover the joy of learning math.
Speaker 2:This is another. Actually a good thing to talk about is that it's a cooperative game, so you are all on a team. So basically there's a team. You draw a character card at the beginning of it, because each character has a little bit of a special ability, but you're all some sort of like scientist or researcher, whatever bioengineer, and you're just working together to um stamp, like to, to cure and eradicate diseases around the um, around the globe. So as you draw cards like they will, uh, little viruses will pop up and you have to work together to kind of stamp them out. And if you, it's actually quite hard to win. And if you, if you win, you win as a group, and if you lose it's still pretty fun because everyone's losing together. We have there's some really great cooperative games for younger kids as well.
Speaker 1:That's so funny that there's no pre-programming with that board game. It probably came out by Pfizer. Yeah, I'm looking at a game right now. It's called race to the treasure, I think, and that's probably what you're talking about this cooperative thing, where I'd never thought about it before, but it's you and whoever's playing, so me and my son playing it are on the same team and we're racing the ogres to the treasure.
Speaker 1:So you turn over the card. I mean you have you roll the dice in the beginning of the game and it tells you coordinates and that's where you're placing the keys. I think you need three keys to get to the treasure and you're. Then every card you turn over, it's either giving you a position like an arrow pathway, and you're forming the path to the treasure, but you have to hit each key that you've placed down from the coordinates, and or you could be turning over an ogre card. So then you got a row for the ogres and if you get, I don't know, six or nine ogres in a row, they get to the treasure before you. Obviously, the ogre wins and you and your teammate do not, or you guys win. I never thought about that being a cooperative versus player versus player.
Speaker 2:That reminds me of Castle Panic what you're talking about with the ogres and orcs and it's similar where you're having to defeat the ogres together and, if they, break down your castle, then it's over.
Speaker 1:But so like, yeah, there is. I mean, there are so many. Do you even play the old stuff like Scrabble, or is it like there's so many other things out there? Why would I waste my time with something from like the 70s?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's funny because I was just thinking about the game you were talking about, where you wanted to have the lowest score, reminded me of a game that we have called Rat-A-Tat Cat, which is basically just a children's version of the card game golf.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you're familiar with golf but, you have a certain amount of cards out and anyway, the closest you are to zero is is will get you a win. But you have to memorize what the cards are. You can't actually look at them all, so the cards are getting traded and you're trying to constantly get down. But anyway, my point was that there are so many games like that are um being released for it's like a children's version of card games that we've been playing forever. So like that one I go, oh wow, I just paid $25 for a game that I could have played with a, you know, a dollar deck of cards. But the kids do like having the theme, sometimes like I think it helps. But yeah, so there's a lot, of a lot of that, which I think is great. That's okay, just making them more accessible and with fun themes that kids like. But I'm starting to realize like, oh for bang for my buck, we should probably just print out a bunch of card rules you know and learn. All the different games like even crib is such a fantastic game to learn math.
Speaker 2:I've never been great at mental math, so I was always a little bit scared of games like crib, where you have to count really quickly, and even though it's not difficult math. I always kind of had a bit of anxiety around math. We're like counting quickly with other people because I always like struggled with math as a child. So I just have kind of grown with a little bit of nervousness around that. But it's a great one to just get comfortable with counting really quickly in your head. Yeah, so we do that. We do play backgammon really fun. We do own Scrabble, but we're just kind of starting to get into it. The kids still occasionally do like to play Monopoly. I try to hide I don't like playing it too much. It just goes on and on, but it I mean there's some couple times a year maybe, or once a year I can do it. We have a really old version of the game of life and they love it. It's funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I kind of forgot about that game. It was very popular when I was a kid. I know I had it, but I don't remember the rules to it. It's probably all backwards. Whatever they tell you, the rules are actually the opposite. But yeah, yes, my son is obsessed with Monopoly as well, but that has been fun because I've given it to the grandparents, so now it's oh, whenever you go to your grandparents house, that's what you play there, so they're stuck with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's fun too, because I find my parents are a little resistant to learning new games too. But if it's one that they were familiar with for their from their childhood, then it's not too much of a burden to learn their rules, like they already kind of know it, and it is something fun they can do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good point, because I haven't really been a game Like. I'm that person that when we're getting together with friends and they're like let's have a game night, I'm like, oh no, like I can't we just get together and talk Like, do we really need a game? But you know, anytime I've done it it does end up fun Well, usually. Sometimes it does end up where it's like conversations trail off and nothing ever. Really you don't know the point of it, nobody's listening to the directions but, um, what are like, are there resources that somebody that wants to try game schooling can you know, go look up a website or see, or maybe it's something I can put together too, if you have recommendations like do you even start with games?
Speaker 1:I mean because there's just so many. Would you go towards, like the age of your child or the interest, or are there some that are just like every kid loves? These start here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there are a couple like websites by like homeschooling parents and then some Facebook groups that are pretty good because everyone's different. So I guess you kind of need to know, like, how you want to do it, because I'm pretty like I can't call myself an unschooler because we do use curriculum, but the way that I approach the games is just like we do it, because it's fun and I know that there's a ton of learning going on with all the strategy and teamwork and just all of that that. I don't worry too much about the subjects, except sometimes I will choose, like I told you about the language, one where I'm hoping that it will, you know, encourage some vocabulary work. But, um, there are people that are a little more intentional with, like history, science, and they're looking for ones for a particular subject and there's definitely some websites and uh and facebook groups that are like there's just people to ask. You know, like people have such great recommendations. I think it's called game schooling with my little poppies is her is her, is her name. She has a website and I think she might actually have some offerings now where she has like little courses where she's going to almost like tutor you to how to do game schooling so I could share that I'll. I would just have to look it up and then, uh, yeah, so for me I don't.
Speaker 2:Like I said, we just look as a family at games that we think would be fun. So I'm not the best person to ask, like games on science, games on history, games on that, because we just kind of play it all and just we. Mostly I look for game mechanics that I know my kids like, like the style of game. So it is it like a a card drafting game or like is it so for kids? I think like a bit of strategy and a bit of luck, a bit of both. You know like some games are all strategy and no luck and I find if you of both, you know like some games are all strategy and no luck, and I find if you're just starting out, that can be really frustrating, even for the adult. Like everyone has preferences because, especially if you're working with different ages or kids that are like sensitive to losing, or you know you want them to have fun and be confident and not get discouraged with gaming, so choosing games that are accessible in that, way.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, that's something I never thought about too. So when you play something like the dice game, you know, anytime you're rolling a dice or picking up a card there's a bit of luck. So Candyland, that's all luck. There's not really any strategy you can bring to Candyland. It's just kind of learning colors and counting, but the strategy there is no strategy with that. Your luck is the card that you draw.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you learn taking turns. Someone is going to win or lose and sometimes that's frustrating for other kids, like where they might be competitive, and it's frustrating to them that they didn't win because it's just pure luck and they know that if there was a bit more strategy maybe they would win. So you just have to kind of figure out what you like. But I have, uh, there's a. You know there's a bit of lingo that goes along with it, so you can look up like game mechanics, like what are they? Is it like a worker placement game? Is it just like a card drafting game? Is it a? You know there's a lot of different uh game lingo like that and you can kind of look at what um. Like there's a website called board game geek and you can search in so many different ways and get recommendations for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can link that in the show's description too, along with the other uh account that you had mentioned. That's cool. So what even got you into homeschooling? Had you always wanted to homeschool?
Speaker 2:Yes, actually, my husband and I, we both had like early exposure to families that homeschooled, like.
Speaker 2:I ended up living with a woman who was homeschooling her children and I wasn't even thinking of having a family yet, I didn't have a partner, but it just planted a seed, you know cause I lived with her and admired their lifestyle, and so then later on it was, you know, like the seed was already planted and I remembered that and and just wanted to do it before. You know, even before we decided to start a family, and my husband too. He was in school with a uh, with a man who homeschooled and just thought the kids were awesome and admired their lifestyle, and so that was such a blessing because we didn't have to convince each other. We were already on board, and in Ontario, where we live, full day junior kindergarten starts at age four, so almost all kids are doing a full day at age four, and some of them are still three, depending on when their birthday is, and there was just absolutely no way I was going to be handing over my child that young Like I couldn't do.
Speaker 1:It Wasn't really a question are four years old, we call it a preschool and, yeah, they're full day now, where kindergarten wasn't full day for me, when I was young, but preschool is now full day.
Speaker 2:It's basically daycare, right, so I get it and like daycare is expensive. So people when they can send their child they're going to, but it's unfortunate because they don't like they're not allowed to nap or anything. So I knew that my kids would struggle with that. It's just it's a long day and I don't know. Our main reason, I think, for homeschooling was to have more time as a family. I would say that's the biggest reason for me and definitely it afforded us that you don't have to send your kid to school here legally until age six. I mean, you don't ever have to, but that's like junior kindergarten and senior kindergarten are considered optional, but because it's the norm if you don't, then when you get to grade one you are a little bit frustrating, I think, probably for the child, depending on where they're at and what your methods at home were during those years, how it compares to their same age peers, and so you know it just becomes the norm and so that's what, what's expected, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's funny you say that because we just joined Boy Scouts a month or two ago and last night was their second meeting and these are first graders, so they're six years old. I would imagine there could even be a five-year-old in there if they had a late birthday. And my son isn't reading yet because I just haven't pushed making him do it Like have been doing phonics and all that for a couple of years now. However, I'm just not. I don't know, I don't spend that much time a day on making him read.
Speaker 1:He just isn't there yet. Uh, you know, I read to him more so. And it's funny when you're in that sort of age range of six years old where he, they were all standing together and the troop leader was saying, okay, let's read the scout pledge, and she hands, she holds up the you know the piece of paper with all of the pledge, the words written on it, and all the kids are saying it and I don't know if they're saying it out of memory or they're actually reading, but I'm like I think they're all reading. Like, wow, if we had skipped, like you were saying, preschool and kindergarten, here these kids are already reading by first grade. He would have been already behind at six. I mean, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:So, and there might I don't know how it would be if maybe at the third or fourth or fifth grade level or in middle school or high school, because I would imagine there's some point where he will surpass the kids in school because of just, you know, I try to say to him if someone says something to him about like, oh, you can't read yet, I'm like, yeah, but ask them if they know how to like change a tire or change the oil in a car. You know how to do all that stuff. You do it with your father all the time, so that's just more what he spends his day doing. So it's funny, though, when you're actually placing your child up to kids in the public school system and thinking, oh wow, gee, am I falling short? But you know you have to be, uh, trust yourself in your process that you're setting up a lifelong learner that's going to love reading and love researching things where these kids are just kind of getting it drilled into them yeah, well, that is part of the reason.
Speaker 2:Literacy particularly, was something that I was a bit fearful of starting so early like just reading research and what's actually beneficial. I know how hard they push literacy in JK and SK and starting that early reading skills and I don't think it's that beneficial in the long run and I really just want them to enjoy reading and so I didn't want them to be so. We definitely like took it slow, same as you and my son's eight now, and he's kind of just starting to get a bit of fluency. And I'm not worried because, well, boys, I think, are typically a little bit later with that too, and it's not a not a concern. I think most important is that they both enjoy books.
Speaker 2:I just want them to have a love of reading and you know, like my son, or my son, my, my mother-in-law was telling me recently that in grade four or five, I think, the teachers thought that my husband couldn't read and so they sent him for some sort of testing and they found that he could read, but he was resistant to being forced to read and he could read anything, but he wasn't interested in reading books until like late high school, maybe like early adulthood. But he would read manuals, you know like Nintendo manuals or like whatever he needed to do. But he's actually gifted and so they just thought he couldn't read and she didn't want to read whatever they were asking him to. So, yeah, and my son has a similar personality, like very resistant to being coerced into anything. So my children both have different personalities. I think my daughter would have fared fine in public school, but I think my son, his spirit, would have taken a hit for sure and confidence fit on two hands how many books I read throughout school.
Speaker 1:Because if English class assigned us a book, I think I made it more of my job to be able to pass the exam or write the summary, the book report, without reading the book. That was my task at hand. How are you going to get through this without reading this book? And it's kind of sad now because I'm like they probably were good books but however they were presented to us, there was no context to it. There was no way that it was ever going to like Fahrenheit 451.
Speaker 1:I remember us talking about it in class, thinking, oh, sounds like a pretty cool book, but I ain't going to sit and read it. So, um, but it probably. You know, I think things seem so far out, so fiction that you know we didn't really talk about like, hey, maybe maybe something like this could happen. Or, you know, let's talk about how we could relate this to real life. Um, it just seemed like, oh, here's the next book.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, it's kind of sad because you know, even like To Kill a Mockingbird, what a great story. But as like I don't know, a seventh grader, I don't care, it's something later in life. I remember thinking like, oh, these books will be great when I'm an adult and want to think about this stuff. But as a seventh grader I didn't want to. So, and I remember wanting to read a Goosebumps book in my reading class and they told me, no, you cannot read this. And which is sad, because it's like, if that's what I enjoyed reading, why squash it? Because then I just sat there with whatever book they were making me read and I stared at the wall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's interesting. I was at a library a couple years ago and I noticed an older girl she probably was nine or ten brought up a book of you know those Little Miss or Little Mister was like Little Miss, you know, they were like circular characters and it was like Little Miss, sassy and Little Miss. Do you remember those? It was itself was very easy. Her like that. She couldn't take it out because she needed to pick out something. That was her her reading level, which I totally understand. Like you want your kids to challenge themselves, but it just, um, it made me think of just trying to foster the joy of reading and sometimes there is something I think beneficial in in reading something that's easy. It's just, you know there's nothing wrong with that, because that might just be. She might enjoy the content. Sometimes it's. It can build your confidence if you are reading something easy or reading the same thing over and over until you are super comfortable with the material. It doesn't always have to be hard or a challenge, it can just be enjoyable.
Speaker 1:Hey everyone, this is Cheryl. I want to thank you so much for checking out the podcast. I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I know your time is valuable. I want to ask you a serious question Do your kids know what to do to actually save their life in an emergency? The most important thing we can talk to our kids about is knowing their first and last name, knowing mom and dad's first and last name, mom's phone number, dad's phone number, their address, what to do if they get lost, what to do if someone who's watching them has a heart attack, a stroke, an accident where they fall and your child needs to get help. We live in a world where there's no landline phones anymore, basically, and cell phones lock. Does your child know how to call 911 from a locked cell phone? It is absolutely possible, and my book demonstrates how to do that, whether it's an Android, whether it's an iPhone and, most importantly, it starts the conversation, because I was going through homeschooling curriculum with my kids, realizing that, gee, maybe they skim over this stuff, but they don't get into depth, so my child's not going to remember this should an accident occur, right? I asked a couple of teachers what they do in school and they said they really don't do anything either other than talk about what to do in a fire during the month of October fire prevention month. So I wrote a book because this is near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 1:I have had multiple friends that have lost kids in tragedies and I don't want to see it happen again if it doesn't have to. We were at the fair over the summer and the first thing I said to my son when we walked through that gate was what's my first and last name? What is your first and last name? And what's my first and last name? What is your first and last name and what is my phone number? And if you get lost, what are you going to do? You can get my book on Amazon and I will put the link in my show's description Again. It's called let's Talk Emergencies and I really hope you'll check it out because there's just no need to be scared when you can choose prepared.
Speaker 2:So I thought that was interesting and I had heard from some I don't know where I read it just a literacy blog or something about that. It is beneficial to read something that's even below your reading level because it builds confidence and just familiarity with what you already know, and that's totally fine.
Speaker 1:So I thought that was a great way to do that is to have, like your older child, read to your younger child, because you're kind of saying to them, can you help her learn how to read by reading this book to her?
Speaker 1:Or even you know, the homeschooling groups generally are all different ages, which is the wonderful part about homeschooling and the younger kids kind of want to be like the older kids and gravitate towards them and the older kids take on this leadership role. So those are great places too to have the older child. Hey, could you teach her how to read? Or could you teach her a word today? Or you know what a couple of the letters say, their sound. So yeah, I hadn't really thought about that before, but as my son gets more comfortable with reading, that will be maybe a task I put on him, really for him, but you know that he'll feel confident at reading at the lower level but in also teaching someone. What are other strategies that you've kind of picked up along the way in your homeschooling advice that you would give to other homeschoolers?
Speaker 2:I don't want to call it advice because I'm kind of nervous to give other people advice necessarily. But just one thing that's been helpful to me this year. I'll share that. I recently did a little course with Pam Barnhill. She um, do you ever get familiar with her?
Speaker 1:Yep, she's been on the show before, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, great. So her I can't remember what she calls it if it's her organizational course but in it she gives different ways to organize your homeschool and I've just found that loop scheduling has been really great for us. And actually, with game schooling is, I think, this year, keeping us more. Keeping games in the loop, I guess, because sometimes it is easy to forget about them. Keeping games in the loop, I guess because sometimes it is easy to forget about them and I just want to be more intentional about making sure we at least have like one day a week where we do a lot of them and they're always kind of interspersed and but just being intentional and making sure that they happen regularly.
Speaker 2:So I just wrote out all the curriculums that we're using and all the topics we want to study and I just every day look kind of what we did yesterday and go okay, like what's the next thing in the loop, so that you know you always want to make sure, like for us, we always want to make sure we're hitting like our math and our English language resources, but some of those other ones like games or art sometimes can get pushed aside if you feel like you're not making progress with like your big, you know your big pieces like math and literacy. So, um, yeah, it's just working really well for us because we're prone to being spontaneous and easily distracted and pulled in other directions. So if I have, I can't do like today's math and tomorrow's English. It just doesn't work for us because we would just do the same thing for a whole week because we would be getting distracted every time. So at least we're just always coming back in a loop and just hitting everything.
Speaker 1:So how does that like, how does that look on written down on paper, or how does that look in your life, this loop that you've organized?
Speaker 2:So what I've been doing is I basically got a notebook for each kid and in the front of it I wrote all of the curriculums we use and then any of the extra things like our, our kits that we get, like if it's crunch labs or mal science. I just kind of written everything that we do, including Ford games, including, like biz ed, and I even just keep adding things as I realize what we're doing, even like audiobooks. So I wrote those all down and then every day. I'm not very good at organization, so this may not make sense to other people, but this is how I'm figuring it out and I feel that I'm more organized this year than I have been. So I like I said, there's a notebook for each kid, so I'm just writing the date and I started writing what we did that day and then the next morning I looked at what we did the day before and then went to basically what's next in the list, and then it's just going on a loop and I'm just trying to make sure that each subject gets its attention.
Speaker 1:Okay, so is math happening every day, or would you skip it if you were onto the next thing?
Speaker 2:We would skip it if it's onto the next thing. Math is unique for us because my husband works out of town and he does the math curriculum, so he does that when he's here.
Speaker 1:And that seems to work. Yes, you said it gave you anxiety, right?
Speaker 2:Well, teaching Right Start doesn't Like I actually was very excited to be teaching the Right Start math curriculum because it's easy and I was learning too as we went Like it's fantastic. But because he has a math degree and that's his area and I want him to be involved and that's the you know the subject that he chose, so I'm going to let him do that. Of course, and even though math might not even happen every week or math curriculum, we do math in other ways, right, but right start math might not happen every single week, so that one's a little bit unique. But when it happens I write it down and he knows where we are and kind of where they should be in their, in their books, like we use logic of English and essentials in writing, and that might not happen every day like week.
Speaker 2:We did a lot of that on Monday and then yesterday, especially because I thought we were meeting yesterday, I got really excited about board games, so we just ended up doing just pretty much board games all day and that's fine. So then then, after that, I'm like, okay, we haven't done our keyboarding, you know, since last week, so we're going to do that tomorrow and I'm just trying to like keep it going, because I know that I can't stick to a block schedule or like any kind of schedule just doesn't work for us at all. So she, she sold that organization method as being good for people who whose schedule is irregular and and a way to keep on track with interruptions, and I would say it's working well, yeah and I definitely have that sort of lifestyle too, where I have every good intention of writing down okay, we're gonna do 15 minutes in our well.
Speaker 1:It says teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons in 20 minutes a day. But I don't know if they're all easy and I don't know if they all only take 20 minutes. Some of them take a little longer if you go through every single step. But you know, so I'll start the week out. We're going to do that five times this week. We're going to do this year. We're doing for math. Matthew C.
Speaker 1:We're going to do that for 20 minutes or whatever, and read for 20 minutes and there's our hour and I'm not even adding in extras. But it's funny because, as you were talking about writing down the things that you do as they come up, you know I really need to start probably doing that because as reporting comes, in New York we have very strict reporting. But for instance, yesterday and today he was working on STEM science kits where he's putting together like little remote control cars or putting together I think there's like five things in a kit and then so like a car, a plane, a forklift, you know, and he's actually taking the screws and putting them on the board and you know screwing in the brackets and putting together the thing that holds the battery in and putting the wires in around. You know screwing in the brackets and putting together the thing that holds the battery in and putting the wires in around. You know that.
Speaker 1:So it's a whole thing and I'm sure there's science to it and technology, and I probably would have just gone by the wayside, not even realizing that he's doing science as he's doing that. And even things like going for a hike with one of the homeschool groups or going to a concert, little things like that that you don't really think about.
Speaker 2:Sorry, with the way that you have to do your reporting, are you able to fit those things in?
Speaker 1:So they give us a list of subjects that we are required to do and an amount of hours that they are required to do and an amount of hours that they are required to be in quote unquote school. But you have the ability to say how much time you're spending towards what. I don't even think you have to write down how many hours. It's just what. In the beginning of the year, what do you plan to achieve this year? And then every quarter, you have to write in what you did achieve. And that's exactly how, when I worked for government, our reviews went, and when I, when I wrote reviews for my employees, it was the same thing. This is what I expect you to do and this is what you did.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of funny that it works the same way. I'm like, oh okay, the same person wasn't behind both of those. So, yeah, I, I pretty much just write we're going to do this curriculum this year, and you know. And then you have to write like how you achieved gym class, how you achieved math, how you achieve, you know what you achieved in it, you know. So it's they. They say it's very strict reporting and talking to some of the other homeschoolers from different states or provinces. It might be because some of them you don't have to report anything, but I mean as long as you're submitting it. I think a lot of times I've come to realize with life it's just like showing up, like just submit the things you have to submit by the date and they know you're probably not beating or starving your child and they don't, so they don't care. So that's what I think it really comes down to.
Speaker 2:Yeah In our case in Ontario. I think it really comes down to yeah In our case in Ontario, despite Ontario being like a super regulation heavy province in so many different areas, there's absolutely no oversight for homeschooling Nothing. They don't know we exist, I don't have to do anything, nothing. So theoretically there's a lot of room in there for neglect. But it's great. I love that because we can really do whatever we want. But in some ways I guess for me, like I have to work really hard at being organized and that's why I'm trying to like record things more, like I said is I don't have any sort of tracking like to spur me on to do that. I have to want to do that and I might never have to send it into anyone, but even for our own records and just to keep us, you know, just intentional about what we're doing, I'm finding it helpful.
Speaker 1:But you know there will be that one Christmas that your kid, you know, as a 40 year old, says you never did anything with me and you like, I have the notebook right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not very good at like getting school pictures done in an alternative way or any like we have, so that's why I always like pay for their sports pictures. At least there's something like there you got your professional picture taken. This year.
Speaker 1:That's funny because I had put all these pictures from my son's kindergarten year um into shutterfly, uh, shutterflycom, and made this album but there were too many pictures. It was going to be like $80. I'm like, okay, we don't need all the pictures and I haven't gone back in to take them out, just to make like a $20 yearbook for him so that, oh, this was your kindergarten year and I was planning to do that for every year and I've already at first grade, I've already dropped the ball. But that is maybe that's something he could do. He could pick the pictures he wants, because I'm sure there's some sort of learning in that.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:How to use the computer Totally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great intention. I'm not very good at stuff like that, but but yeah, I just have these plain notebooks that are, you know, those black and white composition notebooks, because I can't even use a calendar because I would. I would just not use it, so I would skip days and then I would. I would probably get upset with myself. So there's some days that aren't in the composition book because maybe I forgot. But almost, just, you know, it's just a habit getting myself to do every day what we did. And yeah, I'm super thankful to Pam for that course, because that's really helped me All right, awesome, I can link that in the show's description too.
Speaker 1:That is very, very helpful, just to have other options. You know that there are things to assist us out there. Just to have other options. You know that there are things to assist us out there, chloe, as we round out, is there anything else you kind of had been thinking about, that you wanted to you know, kind of let homeschoolers know about?
Speaker 2:Trying to think of how I could bring it back to gaming, to our gaming.
Speaker 1:How often do you do the games?
Speaker 2:Like, if you call yourself a game schooler, is it an everyday or you're just kind of? Like I said, it's sometimes sporadic, but I think, with the like, the scheduling method that I'm like I said, is helpful to make sure that that it's a regular thing. So we'll see, we go in fits and spurts, and so do the kids, and that's normal. That's life, but I think it's a really great way, especially if you have various ages in your homeschool. It's a great way to get the kids working together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or if they have a friend over, because I was. You know, my son and his friend were playing the other day and you know they always get to a point where they start like yelling at each other and getting kind of snotty with each other. So I was like, okay, listen, you guys are going to take five minutes apart and then you're going to come back together and play a game. So that was a great just transition for them, because they were before that just running all over the place shooting each other with guns and yada, yada, this one's getting hurt and that one pushed that one. So this was a nice way to like bring them together as something. And then my son was kind of teaching him how to play the game, so that he felt kind of cool and confident. So, and they were doing math. So, yeah, games are huge. We kind of just like forget about them. We kind of, now that technology is introduced into our lives, it's so easy to forget about just the fun, simple board game. Yeah, which?
Speaker 2:one has been your favorite one so far, Well yesterday we were playing Draftosaurus and I have to say that's a really, really fun game. I don't think I could tell you what my favorite game has been, because it's kind of changing. I say my first gateway game that I was introduced to that we still come back to is probably Carcassonne. It's a great family game too. I love that game.
Speaker 1:That was one when I looked up, maybe a year ago, what is game schooling and I went to go like buy a game or buy a couple on Amazon. Uh, that game was I didn't know how to pronounce it so I forgot about it and I didn't buy it, but that game was one of the most like, high recommended for people getting into homeschooling. So can you just quickly, before we end, tell us a brief synopsis of how to play that game or what it's about? It's a tile placement game.
Speaker 2:So I think it's really um manable to like a wide variety of ages, cause even if a three-year-old's playing, they can just place the tile and maybe they're not scoring a ton of points, but they can put two tiles together to make a little river and they love that and you know they can put a guy on it.
Speaker 2:But you know you're you're playing together, but okay, so basically let's start over. It's a tile placement game. You're building cities, rivers, so you can either be in the city or farm the land or be on a road, you know, and at the end of the game you're going to get a certain amount of points for how many. You know how big your city is, how long your road is, how big your, how much land you're farming, and so you have little guys and you place them on. So there's, you know, multiplication for sure, at the end of the game there's strategy involved and you can definitely get pretty intense into the strategy. But at the same time, like I find, little kids can play with with way older children and all kind of have a good time.
Speaker 1:So yeah, because that is the hard part, I you know, having the two children six and two, like the two year old it's, you know I resort to just putting the TV on for her so I can play a game with my son. She doesn't always nap, or sometimes, when she naps, I'm like trying to get something else done or trying to get a math lesson in. So, yeah, it'll be really nice to have something that she can participate in and he doesn't get too annoyed that she's not playing correctly. So I will grab that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's something like you just have to kind of that's, that's a good. Learning to write is like I am sort of a person that you know, if my game pieces are being abused or whatever, I get a little like, oh, and you have to kind of temper your own reactions. And if you're going to have a two year old, you know, maybe they're going to just want to hold the same tile for the whole game and like there's 75 other tiles, so just let them have that one for now. It's whatever. You can have a more serious game later, you know. So true, Great advice.
Speaker 1:Chloe, thank you so much for being here today and letting us know about game schooling and you know what got you into homeschooling and just sharing your story with us. Thanks for having me. All right, I will link everything that I had mentioned in the show's description, so check that out. Bye-bye, great Bye. Or, if you'd rather, please use the link in the description to share this podcast with a friend or on your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. Any effort to help us keep the podcast going is greatly appreciated. Thank you for tuning in and for your love of the next generation.