The original meaning of the word ‘educate’ is to bring out. So, when we are teaching our children, the goal should be to draw knowledge out of them, rather than put something in.

When children play games, they learn on many different levels, and they are able to build upon those levels with each subsequent game. Play is natural to children; they constantly seek out opportunities to play. Game makers know this, and successful game developers make a lot of money capitalizing on this fact. The market is ripe for someone to harness the power of a game for teaching academic content. So why are ‘educational’ games neither educational or playful?

Somehow the idea of education has been warped into the concept of indoctrinating people to a certain point of view. That leaves no room real education. If our children are only swallowing pre-digested material, and then regurgitating it back, where does thinking come in?

We are in the process of developing various learning games to help our children, and hopefully others. Following is an older post with an example of a learning game that produced good results. What learning games have you developed or found that work for your children?

We use Saxon Math at our house. I like how incremental it is. Yes, it can get very repetitious, but if you stick with it, nothing ever sneaks up on you.

Fact sheets are a daily part of the curriculum. Last year, when Joy was in 1st grade and Imani was in 3rd grade, Imani struggled answering 100 math facts in 4 minutes. Or fewer, for that matter. We counted by 2s, 3s, 4s, 7s, squares, etc. We drilled with the cards, did facts sheets sporadically in the summer. . .

And this year? Imani knows her facts. She gets them all right most of the time.

Last year, Joy was jamming on her fact sheets. She rarely missed anything. This boosted her confidence. That was 1st grade, when you don’t time fact sheets. This year she must answer 25 questions in 1 minute. And she’s a 2nd grader, so handwriting is kind of new, along with any new facts.

Her latest hard facts are the +9 facts. She can answer the questions, but doesn’t do it very quickly.

Today I took the babies to Pizza Hut for their November book it rewards. While we waited for the pizza, I tried to do a bop it style game with the +9 facts.

I beat on the table and said 0 + 9, and asked each child in turn to give the answer on beat. I held the sleeping baby in her winter coat. She never once opened her eyes. I told the children they would be out if they couldn’t say the answer on beat. Imani, at 9 years old had the advantage. Joy, 7, was much more interested in her new book it key chain. I confiscated the key chain. We were going to have educational fun if it killed us!

Finally I got Joy’s attention, and she told me that the beat was too fast. I slowed down and tried again. I gave Esteban, 5, easy questions; if they went higher than 9 + 3, they would be in sequence, so he could answer them. I gave Imani harder questions. She got out. Then it was between Esteban and Joy. . . and I asked Esteban 9 + 4 out of sequence, and Joy won.

I gave everyone their key chain back and soon it was time to go.

After lunch, I gave Joy her math lesson. I nervously anticipated her fact sheet for the day. It was new facts–the subtract half facts, or the reverse of the doubles facts, ie. 18-9, or 14-7. The answer is right in the question, which Joy figured out right away.

She answered 25 questions in 35 seconds.

(edited to add: the next day Joy took the fact sheet for the +9 facts and she improved her score by 16 points!)