Do you PLAY with your kids?

[Henrietta23]

Okay I went and read some, but not all of the responses. You did ask for feedback which I guess they interpreted to mean critism? Not sure. I think one thing some aren't taking into account is that you homeschool. Another thing I wonder is if they are thinking you mean for this to take the place of any play where your kids are allowed to use their imaginations and I don't think that's what you're saying it all.

 

[toots]

Dear Quail- I have been a substitute teacher in Az for the last 12 years. Every 4 years or so there is a volunteer that sometimes does us the pleasure of coming into our fourth grade rooms to give us a one hour presentation once a week for 6 weeks on community invovment or citizenship or introduction to economics. I have heard it called by all those names, depending on what year and what business was sponsoring the program. It is your idea but without all the fun!! It is written in a pamphlet, worksheet format.

I homeschooled in 1991-94. It wasn't very popular then. Our area was going from a tiny rural area into the "new" area to build.The schools were just growing too fast. There wasn't as much school money as was needed. The solution was to hire many new teachers to work in our over crowded schools and my little guys seemed to be getting lost in the tide of new children and faster "city" ways. My husband had changed to a second shift and we were taking care of our parents. We needed the mornings and the later evenings for family. With school difficulty beginning to trickle into the kiddos" kinder and fourth grade lives we made the decision to cut some of our stress and keep them at home and do school in the early afternoon. School takes less time when you have everyone's undivided attention. We have never been sorry that we took those few years out for ourselves. The kids all feel like it is much harder and less fun going to public school-except for the sports!!!

 

[sweetcorn]

We had a small play town in our basement when we were kids that our dad made made for us and had a blast with it , Quail. We had dollhouse, a school , firestation, police station, a farm with a barn and a bunch of other little buildings plus we had roads , a farm field and parking lots painted on the basement floor to drive cars and tractors around on. Little people , little animals. Some buildings were bought, some my dad built. Was great fun, go for it , the kids will have a blast. We did

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Well, we got started this morning...I'll be posting more details about it later today with pictures in the homeschooling section....kids are taking a break because MOM needed it LOLOL

 

[patandchickens]

Instead of imposing a lot of rules on the kids' games, just let them go with it and follow their lead. Little kids are great at imagining, and they will tell you what your role should be and what you should do.

This doesn't fit in with my idea. I want to use it as a core part of my "unschooling". I was figuring the role playing would be good, and they will learn the simple lessons I am trying to get across.

I think the problem, if there is one (and honestly I didn't see any responses over there that seemed to me particularly critical of you, although obviously that is in the ear of the beholder, so to speak ) is that the word "playing" used all by itself tends to mean something real different than when preceded by the word "role". You know? Especially if people think you mean "just for fun" as opposed to "fun but also forming part of homeschooling agenda".

Anyhow, have fun with it ,

Pat

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Instead of imposing a lot of rules on the kids' games, just let them go with it and follow their lead. Little kids are great at imagining, and they will tell you what your role should be and what you should do.

This doesn't fit in with my idea. I want to use it as a core part of my "unschooling". I was figuring the role playing would be good, and they will learn the simple lessons I am trying to get across.

I think the problem, if there is one (and honestly I didn't see any responses over there that seemed to me particularly critical of you, although obviously that is in the ear of the beholder, so to speak ) is that the word "playing" used all by itself tends to mean something real different than when preceded by the word "role". You know? Especially if people think you mean "just for fun" as opposed to "fun but also forming part of homeschooling agenda".

Anyhow, have fun with it ,

Pat

HAHA I think the problem was with me. I was really tired reading those posts, and now I am just embarrassed LOLOL

Yea, and they might be thinking just for fun like you state instead of part of homeschooling.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

OK, look at this :

http://cgi.ebay.com/Home-Sweet-Lund...1205|66:4|65:12|39:1|240:1318#ShippingPayment

That doesn't look like it would be so hard to build does it? I mean, I don't need to put the stairs in, pretty simple layout...I could do that out of a sheet of plywood! and have leftovers!

 

[Cassandra]

That doesn't look like it would be so hard to build does it? I mean, I don't need to put the stairs in, pretty simple layout...I could do that out of a sheet of plywood! and have leftovers!

Dolls don't use stairs!

That's really cute. Looks easy. If you weren't feeling so handy with your saw, you could make it more symetrical, too.

Cassandra

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Yea, more symetrical is what I was thinking...and yup, they don't use stairs, which is why I won't need to put them in...was thinking 3 square rooms on bottom and 3 square rooms on top.

 

[patandchickens]

You can actually make some pretty nice dollhouses (and similar buildings, like barns, stores, etc) out of sturdy cardboard boxes. If there is a grocery store near you that puts their boxes out by the cash for people to use instead of bags, that's a rich fishing ground, also liquor stores often get good boxes. Hold out for nice strong undamaged ones. You can make a second floor by duct-taping in walls and floors (cut apart other boxes for material) or by finding a half-sized box that neatly nests inside a bigger one. Add a roof using cardboard from another box. Duct or packing tape works well for me. Stairs would be really really easy to make too.

You can paint 'em (may need to glue paper over walls or roofs if you've got exposed tape there, as it won't take paint well), or you can use cheap contact paper from the dollar store, or you can ask at hardware and home decorator places for whether they have obsolete books of wallpaper samples they might give you. ("I'm doing this homeschooling project with my kids where we're making a town of cardboard-box houses, and we need to decorate them all nice inside, and I was wondering whether you might have...")

Nothing against plywood of course, just saying, cardboard is cheaper and in many respects easier and can be almost as durable. Just something to consider

Have fun,

Pat