What We're Doing – Review Games

Our family was blessed to spend time traveling and with family this Thanksgiving – two of our favorite things! We’re excited to spend even more time over the upcoming holiday season enjoying those two things again.

However, in all our celebrating, we don’t want to lose all the things we’ve worked hard to memorize over these first several weeks.  Sooo, we’ll be reviewing our memory work and having fun while doing it!  

Here are some ideas I’ve gathered:

1) Your Card – My Card: This is a game from our Saxon Math curriculum which we use to review addition facts.  My oldest son loves it! Basically, I hold the flashcards and quiz him on the info from each card one at a time.  If he gets the info right, he gets to keep the card in his pile.  If he gets it wrong, I keep the card in my pile.  Once all cards have been reviewed, we count to see who has the most cards.  Winner is the one with the most cards!  Of course, you can use all the cards or review one week or one subject at a time.  Multiple students can play at one time.  For CC review, we’ll use the CC Memory Work flashcards pictured above.

2) Grab Bag – Place an object for each subject in one bag and a number for each week in a second bag.  For examples, check out the objects I’ve pictured above.  For math – an equal magnet, geography – a globe marble, english – a letter g, history – a shield, science – a plastic fox, and latin – a scroll.  Use whatever makes sense to you! I tried to keep my items about the same size as each other and used items I already had on hand.  Wooden numbers or number magnets would be placed in the second bag.  At each turn, an object from the subject bag (bag 1) and a number from the week bag (bag 2) would be drawn.  They would then receive the corresponding question.  So, if they draw the shield and the number 1, their question would be “Tell me about commandments 1-5.” 
  

You could use cards instead of objects for the bags, which would make it a bit harder since the little couldn’t feel any difference in what they were picking.  This might depend on the age of your littles.  I think my littles will be excited by the prospect of picking a little toy for their question!

3) Popsicle Pick  – Have you seen the popsicle stick games on Pinterest? I like the idea of painting one end of a series of popsicle sticks the colors of our CC memory work flashcards (pictured above).  So that would be, history – orange, math – yellow, geography – green, science – bright pink, english – light blue, and latin – light pink. Place them in a small jar or can.  For each turn, one popsicle stick would be drawn to determine the subject of their question.  Next, the little would roll a die or dice to see which week number. 

[UPDATE: I made the popsicle pick game.  Visit here to see pictures to DIY!]

Each of these games could continue in 2 ways – the first little could continue until they got a question wrong or you could rotate through each of your little contestants and even allow them to help each other if they get stuck. Since the main goal is to encourage their memory work, I tend towards allowing them to help each other.  It could also be because my littles are extremely competitive, so I like to encourage cooperation in learning instead.  : ) But, I know there is a place for competition, even while learning.  So, play however it works best for your family!  Maybe even teams?

I hope these ideas sound as fun to you & yours as they do to me!

Happy Reviewing!