Monday, October 28, 2024

Mists over Carcassonne Game Review


Mists Over Carcassonne 

Players: 2-6
Play Time: 20-45 min
Ages:  10+

Overview:

Mists Over Carcassonne is a cooperative version of Carcassonne (see my review here) in which the players are working together to defeat the ghosts. There are 6 progressively harder levels to beat. Scoring actually works the same as the original game, making it easy for us to jump into, but you’re accumulating those points together to reach a target before you run out of tiles or the ghosts overwhelm you. The target score becomes higher as you progress through the levels, and additional elements like cemeteries and castles are added to the regular cities and roads.


Review:
After playing the first level, I told my husband and teenager that I probably won’t play regular Carcassonne with them again (I’ll still play it with my 6 year old). Not only is the cooperative nature nice, I really enjoyed the slight bump in complexity for this version. You have to balance trying to defeat the ghosts with scoring points, because rarely can you do both perfectly. You can plan ahead and work together to try to double your points by connecting two players’ roads and cities, which will probably be crucial in the harder levels. Plus, the meeples and ghosts are pretty cute. Additionally, it is a quick enough play that I can see us playing the harder levels even after we complete them, especially if we do it yearly leading up to Halloween.


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Saturday, October 26, 2024

Tot School: Halloween

We recently wrapped up a couple of weeks on Halloween themed activities with Juniper (28 months).

We have a TON of Halloween books, but here are her favorites (the ones I had to read on repeat!)
She also LOVES the School of Monsters books we have. She's working on being able to read all the words herself.
Halloween sensory bin. I used purple rice with colored pastas.
Shape matching cauldrons. I remember worrying last year because she couldn't do these yet (and her brother could at the same age), but she did them easily this year.
Using little pumpkin erasers with beginner tens frames.
Lots of play dough this week.
I had some cute little acrylic ghosts from some Halloween table skater, so we used them to act out "Ten Timid Ghosts." She enjoyed making them "fly off to the forest."
We used some of our acrylic cubes to practice number matching on this worksheet from 3 Dinosaurs.

 

Friday, October 25, 2024

Deadlines Card Game Review

 

Deadlines

Players: 1-10
Play Time: 15-30 minutes
Ages: 12+

Overview:
Three columns are created, one for year of birth, one for lifespan and one for year of death. On your turn, you pick from one of three piles of cards with (in)famous peoples’ names on them and try to place that person correctly into one of the three columns. Because correctly placed cards stay, the game gets harder as you play. Some cards also give you the chance to guess the cause of death and let you get rid of or give penalty cards. The person with the fewest mistakes at the end of the game, wins.

Review:

In full disclosure, I happened to win this game in a giveaway from FoxMind rather than purchasing it. Now I will say, that had I just seen this game in the store, I probably would not have purchased it. I am a math/science girl. History and dates are NOT my thing, so I expected to fail miserably. I did lose, by a lot. Like a lot. However, gameplay pleasantly surprised me. It did not feel like a history test at all! A lot of more contemporary popular figures are included, (that even my non pop-culture savvy self knew). There was a lot more wiggle room than I expected. It’s such a simple concept, we said it could easily be played with non-gamers or taken to a gathering. This is more likely a warm-up game rather than the main game of the night, but that doesn’t make it bad. We’re glad it found its way to our collection and will likely continue to keep it in our pre-Halloween lineup (even though the game really has nothing to do with Halloween)!


Check out my board game section of the blog:



 

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Ancient Egypt Homeschool Unit

 We just wrapped up about a month spent on Ancient Egypt. We definitely didn't go too deep or intense, because he's still early elementary, but I think he really enjoyed the unit! Here's what we did.

Books:

As always, we read tons of books! Most books I just let him read, but I did have a few notes/graphic organizers for him. Since he is 6 and hates writing, I often wrote his answers.
I found this neat hieroglyphs stamp set and he practiced writing with them.
For his solo logic game one week he played Temple Trap
I found a Live Worksheet on hieroglyphs, a search and find and a worksheet about the Nile from education.com. We also watched some YouTube videos, but nothing remarkable.


Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Penguin Party Game Review

 

Penguin Party
Players: 2-6
Play Time: ~10 depending on number of rounds
Ages: 5+ (officially 8+)

Overview Video:


Review:

Penguin Party has been a HUGE hit in our house! My 6 year old took to it right away, so we’ve played it many times since we’ve gotten it, including taking it to grandparents’ and on an overnight visit to a friend’s house. We can also easily play it with non-native English speakers in the family. I like that gameplay is simple, but still requires some planning ahead. The small box is great, the artwork is adorable and we like the little animal tokens.

My only complaints with the game are that the rules didn't specify how many rounds to play (we play 3) and the cards seem just a little thin, so I hope they stand the test of time.

Game gifted from @playte but all opinions are my own. Check out https://ebay.com/str/playte for your own copy!

Check out my board game section of the blog:



Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Mia London Game Review

 

Working memory

Mia London and the Case of the 625 Scoundrels

Players: 2-4
Play Time: 10 min
Ages: 5+ 

Overview Video:


Review:
Mia London is a great, quick kids game. It's one of those that my teen and I don't mind playing with my son. I love that there are no pencils needed, everything is contained in the little detective notebooks, making the game super easy for kids to play. They also make resetting for the next game a breeze!

Like I said in the video, I started out saying what accessory card I was putting down each time, to make it easier to remember. Then you can graduate to just playing the cards, making the kids keep track totally on their own. The downside to this game, is that once kids master it, most games end in a tie. My son doesn't seem to mind that too much, and it would not necessarily be the case if kids were just playing with each other.

Check out my board game section of the blog:

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Tot School: Apples

This fall is flying by! We recently wrapped up some apple themed activities for my daughter's tot school activities. Here's what we did!
My First Orchard Game, big brother played too.
Apple maze from Busy Bee Kids Printables
Parts of an apple from 1+1+1=1
Apple play dough
Apple printing
Some Apple Themed Books. Ten Red Apples was the favorite, by far!


Not Theme Related:
Playing Patchwork Garden (no apples, but still harvesting)
Puzzles
 

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Bringing History To Life When Home Schooling

 Homeschooling gives you a great opportunity to tailor your children's education to their interests and learning styles. However, some subjects can sometimes seem a little bit daunting. Take history, for example. However, history does not need to be boring, especially when you approach it right. You can make it exciting and engaging, and the children will love it. Include fun activities, creative learning methods and multimedia resources. You can turn history lessons into an adventure through time that your children want to do again and again.


Photo by Ksenia Chernaya: https://www.pexels.com/photo/children-in-costumes-standing-beside-a-castle-wall-painting-6800536/


Let's have a look at some of the tips that you need for making history fun when you are homeschooling: 

Turn It Into A Storytelling Experience 


When you really think about it, history is a collection of stories about real lives and real people. When you present history as loads of different stories rather than just a list of facts, it becomes much more interesting for children. Try to focus on human aspects, such as what people were feeling like during historical moments, why they made certain decisions, and what challenges they faced. 

Include Hands-Learning Activities 

Hands on activities are brilliant ways to bring history to life. When children can build touch or create something related to a historical event, it helps them understand the lesson and makes it more memorable. For example, if you are talking about castles, you might want to think about building a castle out of paper mache. Or, if you are learning about ancient Civilizations, why not make a model of a pyramid or start drawing some of your cave paintings? When you give the children the opportunity to use their hands and be creative, they get involved in the subject and are made much more enjoyable and engaging. 

Use Documentaries And Movies 

Visual learning is extremely effective, especially when it comes to children and history. Watching documentaries in movies can help bring historical events to life, which makes them much more real and tangible for students, especially when they are young. Seriously, it is important to choose films that are accurate and appropriate for your children's age; however, there are many wonderful resources out there. For example, if you're teaching older children about World War 2, you could introduce them to the film Oppenheimer and watch Oppenheimer online and use it as part of your home school curriculum. 


Build A Historical Timeline

When you piece together, a visual timeline can help your child to understand historical events and how they fit together. Timelines are a great way to enable students to see how one event may have led to another and how different periods of history may overlap or influence each other. You can make this activity extremely fun by turning each time into an art project. Have your children use a variety of different materials to design a timeline on a large piece of paper or poster board and then stick it around your room. As you learn more history, you can add them to the timeline together and put it in the right order. This is an extremely hands-on activity that will help your child grasp the flow of history while allowing them to take ownership of their learning. Something that they can refer back to Time After Time as their history studies grow. 


Travel back In Time With Field Trips 

If you can, take a field trip to a historical site. This is one of the most engaging ways your children can learn about history. Whether it is a museum, historical landmark, castle, or battlefield, this gives your children the chance to make a connection with a part of the past. 


Even if you're not able to travel far, you may be surprised by how much there is history wise in your local area. Research your local area, and if you go on holiday, research those destinations too. You can then include visits to historical sites in your homeschooling and give your children an unforgettable learning experience. 


Conclusion 

When you use some of the tips above, you can make history fun for homeschooling. It’s all about ebbing creative and adding variety. Using storytelling, hands-on projects, watching documentaries and movies, a heading to historical sites, you can turn history into an enjoyable subject and possible their favorite subject. You will find that including these methods in your homeschooling will help your children retain their facts and develop a love for history. Do you know any other techniques that would be good to share? Let us know in the comments below. 




*This is a contributed Post
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