Yesterday Daegan and I took a break from his math curriculum, Math-U-See, to play some games. Daegan is in the midst of mastering his addition facts, and I am wanting some options for reinforcement beyond ‘yet-another-worksheet.’ He enjoys doing his triangle flashcards while jumping on the rebounder (can you say kinesthetic learner?), but I thought I’d try a couple games as well. Both were very well-received, with him wanting to play multiple rounds. And it provided yet another opportunity to learn the art of winning and losing graciously (quite a challenge with 6-year-olds I am finding). Here’s the games: ...

While Jim was away last week the boys and I got into a pattern of playing games between dinner and bedtime, and this was one of Gareth’s first major forays into the world of games. He and Daegan have played a couple of board games before—Cranium Cariboo and Snail’s Pace Race—both of which I highly recommend for a child’s first exposure to board games. Daegan and I taught Gareth some card games for the first time, and he loved Go Fish. (We played with sets of animal cards to make it easier). Once he had mastered that we moved on...

Begin by putting together the world map foam floor puzzle. Next, grab one of the animal figurines that Mom has cleverly pre-selected and collected in a bag. (Note the Kimodo dragon on Indonesia) Place animals where they live, and look any up on the computer that you don’t know. Here’s Gareth putting a giraffe on Africa: Here’s Australasia (the Australian birds—the budgie, emu and cockatoo—didn’t want to stay on their feet for some reason). Note the coral for the Great Barrier Reef:...