Monday, February 1, 2010

A Rare Post on Homeschooling on a Homeschooling Blog

Last Christmas Santa left a cool package underneath the tree. It is a game called “Sequence States and Capitals.”
It is a fun and simple game. Each payer is given seven cards. Each card has a picture of a state with its capital city marked on it and the name of the capital city printed over it. There are also "ADD' cards and "REMOVE" cards which, ironically, allow a player to add or remove playing pieces from the board. 


The board has pictures of all fifty states with the state names printed over it. The rules are fairly simple. “Beginning with the player to the left of the dealer and moving in a clockwise direction, each player selects a card of their choice from their hand and places it face up on a discard pile (players should start their own discard pile in front of them visible to all other players) and then places one of their marker chips on a space on the game board that has the same state shape and color as the card played. Each card is pictured twice on the game board. A player can play on either one of the card spaces as long as it is not already covered by another marker chip.” The goal is to make two sequences. A sequence is “a connected series of five of the same colored chip either up or down, across or diagonally on the playing surface.”
We love this game! Major Havoc and I play one game each day as part of his school work. Yesterday, I saw him point to a magnetic map of the United States on the refrigerator and excitedly announce, “Hey, dad, look! It’s Helena. Montana!” He’s not only learning all of his states and all of their capital cities, but he’s practicing his reading skills as he reads aloud the state and its capital with each turn.   He's having fun and doesn't appear to realize that he is learning.  That's very cool.

This example of educational excellence comes without a tax increase for education, a pay raise for the teacher, an increase in costs for my health insurance, reading Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, or signing up my students to be members of President Obama's "Organizing for America" program as is being done in Ohio public schools

(Great post, Opus #6)

11 comments:

Kid said...

Beginning with the player to the left of the dealer and moving....

I'm confused already.

Oklahoma Granny said...

I needed a similar type game back in the day when we (freshmen) had to learn the 77 counties in Oklahoma, locate (label) them on a state map and name the appropriate county seat for each county. We had to take that test until we aced it. I think I took it at least 6 times.

Kathleen said...

Amen to your last paragraph!

We have the Sequence math facts game. I think we may have to invest in the states/capitals game as well!

Opus #6 said...

Games make learning fun. Kids love games over books and flashcards any day.

My daughter was indoctrinated in Jr High by a sewing teacher. The lady turned my daughter into a PETA vegetarian. Gave her magazines to read and everything. Daughter started eating meat again after school let out. I was not happy.

The Pirate Mom said...

I'm buying this the next time we're at Target! I love the regular sequence game. Dirty Harry is working through a 2-year US Geography program, and this would be the perfect addition. It's priceless to find a game I actually LIKE to play with the kids! Thanks!

~Kellie

Unknown said...

Opus, there's a reason why we homeschool!

Teacher Mommy said...

God forbid that any student actually learn anything at a public school, right?

Unknown said...

No, Teacher Mommy, God forbid that any student should be indoctrinated into a political belief/movement in a public school! Public school teachers should teach fairly and objectively and refrain from slipping their political beliefs into their lessons! The longer public school teachers ignore this basic necessity the more and more families will turn to private and home schools. What happens to your job security then?

Linda said...

Right on the money, Arby.
I have never seen the games, but will look for them. I have one who wants to play boardgames ALL THE TIME. This will be perfect.

Brownie said...

I haven't really looked into games - I generally have a personal distaste for them. But I'm willing to overcome that for my kids! So this is a game that I can just pick up... where?

Unknown said...

I think we purchased ours at Target. Wal-mart might have them.