It was a sad day when I learned that a water pipe had burst sending thousands of gallons of water through my two younger children’s school, leaving the old building of the school in shambles. The library was full of wet books, the office and the cafeteria where a few places in the school I had heard were full of water and showing signs of damage from the water pipe bursting. I literally cried. Yes, I am an emotional lady these days, but this is a school I went to as a child, the old part of my children’s building is the same place I went for first grade up through third grade. This is a great school, with amazing teachers and students!
Due to the school having to be restored, the kids have been out of school, a whole week of school is being missed due to the restoration and water damage. This made me sad too, for multiple reasons; the fact that so many students will be without education that week and my work schedule/routine will be in a funk while I have my two sons full time, minus a couple mornings when they go with their Dad.
I am not the type of parent who is like “school is out, what the heck will we do”, I just realize how important it is to keep my kids moving forward in learning at all times. I am also aware that my boys are not the type to want to sit down and “play school”, so that is when my creative mind had it’s wheels in motion. The game of Life and even Monopoly is a family favorite and it uses math skills as well as counting skills. Both boys can use their piece or car to count how many spots they move on the board. My six year old enjoys being the banker in both Life and Monopoly, so he practices his math skills while enjoying a family board game day.
The boys enjoy books, so we practiced reading some of the easier level books I own, having story time and board game time seems like good ole family fun but the tricky part is that my boys were actually practicing their school skills to ensure when they go back to school next week that they did not lose all that their teachers work so hard to teach them!
What tricky ways do you teach your kids at home through play time?
We’ve never played Life, I bet we’d like it. I hope the school was able to save a good deal of items and that they’re cleaned up/restored soon.
We use sneaky learning tactics here too and wink at one another over our brilliance. The kids never suspect a thing. 😉 🙂
You just reminded me of a conversation that I had with my older son’s first grade teacher. We go to Disney every year and I normally pull the boys from school for the week because it’s too crowded to go during times they are off from school. When I told his teacher of my plans she made some snide remark to me about him missing so much work (he was in 1st grade mind you) and I explained that he was going to be getting an education ALL WEEK LONG down in Disney. Sure it’s fun, but there’s the hall of Presidents, the entire World Showcase and so much more educational stuff down there than a lot of people realize. She didn’t say much after that…..