Homeschooling my oldest son has always been a breeze.  He learned to read when he was 3, and my greatest educational challenge with him was poor penmanship.

I was not prepared for the struggles I faced with our second son.  He wasn’t ready to read at age 3.

Or at age 4.

Or at 5.

Or even at 6.

Some days I felt like I was a failure, and other days I thought he wasn’t trying hard enough.

School wasn’t fun for either of us.  It was disappointing, frustrating, and exhausting.

We had him tested at age 7 and found out that he is dyslexic.  At first I felt like I had been punched in the gut.  I worried we would continue to struggle together for years.

But we didn’t!  In fact, his diagnosis was the key to unlocking his tremendous potential, and the turning point in his education.

Here are some ways we turned things around:

• I knew that working one on one with my son would be his best chance at success, so I stopped entertaining ideas about putting him in school and going back to my easy life.  I committed myself to home schooling for the long haul and started figuring out how to do it better.  I read and researched and tried different methods and curriculum in each subject until I found some things that worked for him.
• We began thinking outside the box.  Some of our new methods were unconventional (such as learning through games), but it didn’t matter.  I was tailoring his education to suit his needs, and we started seeing success for the first time.
• I stopped doubting myself as a teacher and him as a student.  I am grateful that my son never suffered the embarrassment of struggling in a classroom setting, but I confess there were days when my attitude discouraged him. I became more patient and more positive, viewing each challenge as a solve-able puzzle instead of an insurmountable obstacle.  We both gained confidence and began to enjoy school more, approaching difficulties as a team.  This had a positive impact on our relationship as well as on our school day.
• I began to employ a two-pronged approach of remediation and accommodation, which allowed him to move forward in areas of strength while continuing to work on areas of weakness.  Before his diagnosis we spent all our time working on the things he couldn’t do well and never found time or energy for other things.  Our new strategy meant that at least part of every school day was enjoyable and felt productive.  His self confidence grew, and he had more energy to tackle things that were difficult.
• We began using audio books for history and literature.  He began to truly enjoy learning for the first time.  Audio books changed his life so much that we built a website (and a home business) dedicated to helping kids get inexpensive access to the best educational books.

That little boy is a teenager now.  We are still successfully–and happily–home schooling.  Through the use of audio books and other technology, he is an independent, thriving student. He doesn’t have quite the same love for school that his older brother has, but he likes it just fine.  Some things are still hard, but it is no longer a daily battle.  Even the challenges have turned out to be blessings in disguise, shaping our son’s character in wonderful, God-glorifying ways.

I’m so thankful that we stuck with home schooling!!!  The fruit of it is sweet and vastly outweighs the challenges and frustrations.

I got this idea from someone else’s blog, but unfortunately I can’t remember where I saw it!  We had lots of fun with this one.

First, we printed out castle templates so that the kids could assemble their own castle.  I printed out the black and white ones, and the kids colored them creatively.  This was a simple activity, that required a few printouts, some colored pencils, cardboard (we used old cereal boxes), toilet paper tubes and glue.  The castles did not take long to assemble…maybe an hour to make 3 castles (from start to finish, with most of the time spent coloring.)

Next, the kids placed their castles on a large sheet of butcher paper.  I wish I had had poster board on hand, but I didn’t….so the paper had to do.

I read a book about castles to them, pausing at the end of each page so that they could decide if they wanted to “add” anything from the reading to their own castle.  I had to do the writing for the youngest ones.  They made little drawings on the paper to indicate buildings, weapons, and supplies, and then whispered to me what each drawing meant.

I helped them to label their drawings, and then read the next page.  We went back and forth like this, pausing after each page, so they could decide what their castle would need to withstand a siege.

After we were done, I used a printout from this Castle Siege game which prompted them to tell what people would be present in their castle.  Those names were written down (king, blacksmith, peasants, etc.).  They had one last opportunity to mention any supplies, animals, food items, people, buildings, etc. that they needed before the game began.  Once the game started, no one could add anything to their castle.

The Castle Siege game has a bunch of cards that you print and cut out.  Each player draws a card and adds or subtracts points from their total score, based on how well they outfitted their castle.  For example, they add two points if they remembered to include a dungeon, and subtract two points if they forgot.  Once they’ve gone through all the cards, the game ends and the player with the highest point total wins.

I wanted a chance to play, too, but it didn’t seem very fair, because I knew exactly what everyone else had put in their castle, and what the cards called for.  We agreed that I would use our Fairy Tale Castle puzzle, receiving or losing points for whatever the puzzle creators remembered to put into the puzzle.  Let’s just say that the Fairy Tale Castle wasn’t designed very well for a siege, but it was fun anyway.

This puzzle, by the way, is a remnant from the days when I believed that all boys should have gender-inclusive toys.  No one plays with it in this house now-a-days.  For more on that, please read my post about Boys and Weapons!

This game was fun, and didn’t take very long to play.  The longest part of this entire exercise was reading about the castle and getting the boys to label it.  But they absolutely loved doing that part, and they remembered so much more than if we had only read it.  Thinking about what they would need, labeling and listing everything, and then finding out through the game what was missing was very instructive to them, and they won’t soon forget this material.

I’m so happy we took the time to do this!  It was well worth it.

One of our favorite activities while studying the Vikings was playing the game of Hnefetafl (pronounced Nef-uh-tah-full). Hnefetafl is a strategy game like chess, though much simpler to play. It simulates a Viking raid, with attackers trying to capture the King and defenders trying to protect him.

We made the game board years ago, using instructions from a previous curriculum. I tried in vain to find a board online that you could print…so I’m including instructions in this post about making your own. Don’t worry, it won’t be difficult!

Online Hnefetafl:

I’ve found a site where you can play online. Click on one of the game boards to play. This site is great, as it allows you to play against the computer, as either the attacker (black) or the defender (white), and it also allows you to do a two player game and play both sides. You can choose from an 11 x 11 board or a 9 x 9 board. Click on one of the boards to begin playing. Make sure that you click the word “English”, which you’ll see beside the board on the next screen, if you want the computer to prompt you in English instead of the default Danish!

They have the rules printed on their site, or you can read the rules I’ve written below.

Make your own Hnefetafl Board

It’s worth it to take 15 minutes to make your own board, because Hnefetafl is just that fun! My kids have gone back to it again and again. Games are over quickly and it’s a little bit addictive!

If you are great on the computer, you can design your own game board that way….otherwise, you’ll have to do it the old fashioned way.

You’ll need a square piece of posterboard, a ruler and some markers. The board is laid out similar to a checker or chess board, but with 121 squares (11 rows and 11 columns). Smaller and larger versions have been found in ruins, but 11 x 11 seems to be the most common. Use your ruler to mark off equal sized squares, 11 rows and 11 columns.

You’ll need 3 different colored markers to designate where the attackers, the defenders and the King call home.

Each of the four corners and the very center square should be colored the same (with a matching color or pattern, we’ll say blue for our purposes). These squares belong to the King. The center square is his throne and the 4 corner squares are his exit points to escape from the attackers.

Every square touching the center square, as well as the squares that are two squares away from the center in a straight line, should be colored identically (we’ll say yellow). That gives you 5 blue squares (the corners and the middle) and 12 yellow squares (a kind of compass, surrounding the middle blue square).

The final pattern and color is for the sides.

As you look at the perimeter of the board, you’ll see the 4 blue squares in the 4 corners. Each blue corner should have two empty (uncolored) squares beside it in each direction. The middle squares along the perimeter will be colored identically, let’s say in green. There are 5 middle squares on each side, plus four empty squares and two blue corners per side, for a total of 11 squares per side.

Finally, the square that touches the middle square on each side will also be green.

Do the same on all four sides. When you are done it will look like this!

The Rules

The rules are fairly simple. You’ll need 3 different colors of glass beads (or some other marker) to represent the players (24 beads in one color for the attackers, 12 beads in another color for defenders, as well as one glass bead in a third color for the King). You can substitute something else for the markers (24 pennies, 12 dimes and one nickel).

The King sits on his throne, which is the center blue square, and he is surrounded by his men on the yellow squares (the 12 defenders). The rest of the beads are the attackers, and they are set up around the board on the green squares.

It is hard to differentiate the King from the defenders in this picture, but you get the idea. The light blue beads are attackers, the green beads are defenders and the center, turquoise bead on the throne is the King. Also, we colored this board a bit differently than our instructions, but just disregard these differences.

Objective:

The four sides represent four ships. The middle represents the King on his throne, surrounded by his loyal defenders. The defenders try to help the King escape by enabling him to get to one of the four corners. The attackers win if they can capture the King before he reaches one of the corners and escapes. Typically the attackers have the upper hand, so good manners dictate playing twice and switching sides so that each person has a chance to play both roles. If you want to keep score, count how many of the opponent’s pieces are captured in both games, and add up the total to determine the final winner.

Here are the rules:

1) Pieces can move as far as they want to in a single turn, but only in a straight line right to left or up and down. No diagonal moves are allowed. Think of how the Rook moves in chess; Hnefetafl pieces move the same way.

2) The throne and the four corners may only be occupied by the King. Another piece can pass through the throne if the King is not sitting on it, but no piece may land on the throne or corners except the King.

3) The attackers are allowed to move first. Turns alternate between the two players. Pieces are not allowed to jump over each other.

4) Pieces are captured in one of two ways: either they are trapped between two enemy pieces, or between an enemy piece and one of the King’s squares (the center square or the corner squares). The two enemy pieces must be directly beside the captured piece (left to right or top to bottom), not diagonal.

Also, the trap must be closed by the move of the opponent. In other words, if a defender sneaks in between two attackers which are already in position, the defender is not captured. Captured pieces are removed from game play for the rest of the game.

Since corner squares can be used to help capture an opponent’s piece in an attack, it isn’t wise to stay adjacent to one.

5) The King can be captured just like any other piece unless he is sitting on his throne or on one of the four squares directly adjacent to his throne. If he is on this throne, the attackers have to surround him in all four cardinal directions.

If he is on any of the four squares directly adjacent to his throne, the attackers have to surround him on the four points of the compass.

6) If the King is in danger of being captured on the next move, the attacker must say, “Watch your King”.

That’s it! The King is wise to sacrifice a few of his defenders in the early rounds, as often they end up getting in his way as he tries to escape. The attackers do well to set up a blockade around all four corners, but this requires fast action from the outset of the game.

Music Mind Games by Michiko Yurko is the most enjoyable and profitable thing we have used in studying music theory. The first time I used this book was with a classroom of three year olds. I was able to teach them many basics of music theory through engaging games. We all had fun and I was amazed at what they were able to learn. In just a few short months the three year olds had learned many difficult rhythm patterns, which they could clap or say. One child could build a long rhythm string and another could tap it out on a drum. It was astounding. They also learned the names of all the musical notes in ascending and descending order, and several other theory concepts.

The children’s favorite game was Yurko’s Blue Jello card game. She prints note stems onto cards and assigns a silly name to each rhythm (such as Blue for the quarter note and Jello for the eighth note). The children can build–and read–complicated rhythms as they learn the names for the different stems.

Here is a video of her working (playing!) with a two year old.
The child is learning how to read rhythm and loving it. There are many videos on this site which will give you an idea of how to do some of her games on your own. Try to find the ones in English!

There are tons of games in this thick book. Many can be done with very young children, and many are of value even to older, more advanced students. I took piano lessons for 12 years but only began to understand some music theory concepts after working with this book. I have not used this book for a few years with my children, as music theory is pretty low on our priority list at the moment! But if you need music theory, you can’t go wrong with these materials. They are truly excellent. Here is another link to this book on Amazon, if you want to read more reviews and “see inside”.

Before you order it, one caveat: many of the games require supplies which do not come with the book. You can purchase many of the supplies needed as a set, called the Puppy Packet, but it is not cheap.

Each item in the Puppy Pack can be purchased individually, and by clicking on the individual links you can easily see how you might make your own Music Alphabet Cards and Tempo Cards and other needed supplies for use in the games. There is also a Magic Staff pack available for sale.

I used the book for a long time before buying any additional supplies. I was able to make supplies for many of the games myself using markers and index cards. The Blue jello word cards can be downloaded and printed quite inexpensively, as well. Click here to view a sample. Many other supplies cannot be purchased as they are out of print, but this game book is still more-than-worth the purchase price for anyone who is serious about having fun while teaching music theory to a child.

So sometimes we do play games for school. And usually I find that a little bit of extra effort on my part is rewarded with a great amount of learning.

Here are some of our favorite learning games.

Board Games

One of my kids’ hands-down favorites is Fast Track, a math game we learned from Peggy Kaye’s excellent book, Games for Math.

Peggy Kaye has many titles, by the way, including Games for Reading, Games for Writing and Learning Games.

One of the problems we’ve had with school games is competitiveness amongst the children. Sorting out fights or soothing hurt feelings is not what I want to do when I’m trying to teach math….so I try to pick games with that in mind.

As the name implies, Fast Track is quickly played, allowing for multiple games and multiple winners. There’s always time for another game and another winner. Sometimes someone wins on the very first turn! It’s that random. The kids don’t seem to mind losing because they don’t have a lot of time invested in a lengthy game.

The game board is simply drawn on poster board in an oval shape, with several “start” spaces, go forward two, go back three, stay put, lose a turn, draw a card, and the like. Of course, there are a few “You Win!” spaces, too.

Everyone chooses a place to start and puts their marker there. My kids like to use Pocket Transformers as markers…hey, whatever makes it fun, right?!

Game play progresses by answering flashcards. If the flashcard says 8+2= the child would move 10 spaces if they get the answer correct. Then they follow the instructions written on the space where they landed. They might draw again, and answer another problem, or they might be instructed to “move forward two spaces” only to land on “lose a turn”.

This game is great for allowing me to quiz the kids on exactly what they need. I make the flashcards up on halved index cards in a matter of moments…whatever we are working on at the moment goes onto the flashcard.

Multiple kids on different math levels can play together with an equal chance at winning. I use different colored index cards (one color per child) so that each child can have their own deck.

This week, one child’s flashcards have times tables on them while another has clock dials with minute hands and double digit subtraction problems.

My kids even made a deck for our preschooler yesterday, so he could play. They put shapes on the front and numbers on the back. If he guesses the shape (often they have to give multiple guesses and several hints!) he gets to move the number of spaces on the back of the card. They even set it up so that the triangle card has a “3” on the back, the square and rectangle have a “4”, etc. Shapes like stars have a random number. They made cards with alphabet letters on them, too. If he recognizes the letter he can move the number of spaces written on the back of the card. The possibilities are endless!!

In order to keep the turns from taking forever, we have a simple rule. If the answer on your flashcard is greater than 20, you have to add the digits together to find out how many squares to move. If, for example, the problem is 9×9= you don’t get to move 81 spaces…you get to move 8+1= 9. If the clock dial points to 45 minutes past the hour, you don’t move 45 spaces, you move 4+5=9. If the question is 6×2= then you get to move 12 spaces.

My kids even ask to play this game on Sundays. They love it that much. The math facts I want them to learn don’t seem like boring facts when we play this game. They would play it all the time if they could.

This is just one of the fun games from Math Games. You might try getting it from your library before buying it. Mine had a copy.

Another game which has been a big success in our home is our Bible Quiz game. We play this game as a way to test Bible story knowledge, Scripture memory, Hymn memory, and catechism work. I took an old Bible Challenge gameboard and made a new category for each color (a Trivial Pursuit board would work just as well).

I write questions for each category taken from what the children are learning, and update the list of questions a few times a year. The kids play as a team and try to get a certain number of rings (or pie pieces) before a timer rings.

This game was too competitive when they played against each other. Now they work as a team and help each other with their memory work, which is the goal, after all. If you are interested in learning more, please read my post on Our Bible Quiz Game.

Playing Outside

When the weather is nice we like to play “horse” with our spelling words and the basketball hoop, or a game of Quiz Baseball to check what the kids remember from their history or science lessons.

I’ll try to explain the rules for quizzing on the baseball diamond. Perhaps it will sound a bit confusing, but it isn’t if you know how to play baseball. Just try to picture a real baseball game, where the play follows typical baseball rules, but instead of “batting”, kids answer questions to get a “hit”.

Here is what we do:

We set up the bases outside, just as if we were going to play t-ball. Each child is asked a question. If they get the answer correct, they get to advance to first base.

One benefit to playing games is that our preschooler can be involved. In this game, we let him actually try and hit a whiffle ball with a plastic bat before each question is asked. If he gets a hit, that makes it an automatic double if the person gets the question correct. If the next “batter” gets their question correct, they get to run two bases instead of one.

Of course the preschooler gets an automatic home run and a chance to circle the bases every time he hits the ball, adding his run to the team’s point total!

If the first person got a “double” (because of the preschooler’s hit!) and the second person only got a single (the preschooler struck out), the person on 2nd wouldn’t advance. If the second “batter” did get a double, the person on 2nd advances to home, just as they might in a real baseball game if the batter hit a double. If the batter gets a “double”, all runners get a double as well.

Clear as mud???

Keep track of runs scored. In the above example, if the preschooler gets a hit and the first “batter” answers his question, the preschooler would score one home run and the batter would get a double. If the preschooler hits again and the next batter gets a double, the person on 2nd runs home, the preschooler runs home and the batter goes to 2nd…the score would be 3 runs at that point, with a runner on 2nd base.

Of course, I try to pitch in such a way that my preschooler almost always gets a hit. He is so proud, profitably engaged in the game, and the hero of his whole team for running up the score.

Play continues until they have 3 “outs”, or 3 missed questions as a team. Then you can call the game, start over, or (if you dare) let them ask you questions until you get three strikes. The kids may not realize it, but one mom working alone will rarely score as many runs as a group of kids working together! They enjoy winning, and beating mom seems to be even sweeter!

If bases are loaded and there is no one available to “bat”, the person who is closest to scoring (let’s say 3rd base) gets the question and play continues. The people behind him (1st and 2nd base) don’t advance, just as no one would advance if someone on third “stole home” in a real game.

You could also adapt this game by choosing easy questions for singles, medium questions for doubles and triples and really hard questions for home runs.

Whether you’re teaching math, quizzing Bible memory or checking up on history and science concepts, games are a great idea. They reinforce what the child has learned, and make happy memories in the process.

My first stop today was Goodwill, to buy some white sheets that we could use for costumes. On the way in, I quickly asked the Lord to help me find something I could use for playing pieces for the games I wanted to do tonight. I needed 20 pieces and had no idea what I would find. I was thinking maybe checkers or something.

Why is it I am still surprised by His extravagance? Right there, in the front window, was this game, “Escape the Mad Mummy”. Guess how many Egyptian-themed tokens were inside the box??? Twenty. It even came with a big pyramid.

Next, I went to Walmart to get the food for the feast. I found everything I needed, even fig jam! The shopping was the hardest part of throwing this feast together, and I’ve already told you how easily that was done!

When I got home, I printed out some recipes (see bottom of this post) and got started on the feast. We had a tray of fruits and vegetables (grapes, raisins, chopped dates, lettuce, cucumbers and radishes), a bowl of sliced melon, “Ancient Egyptian” marinated chicken, and carmelized leeks. I also served sliced bread, a staple of the Egyptian diet, along with a choice of spreads (hummus, honey and fig jam, all store-bought). For dessert, I made Egyptian Tiger Sweets. It seems that the Egyptians didn’t eat a lot of meat, but poultry was available and my husband and four sons are not willing to eat vegetarian, even for one meal, so I threw that in to appease them.

This was a great summer meal, with very little cooking. The leeks took less than 20 minutes to prepare on the stove, and the chicken was grilled. Other than that, the only prep work was slicing fruit and bread! The kids were asked to taste everything, which they were willing to do. They didn’t like the leeks, dates or radishes, but they made up for it in chicken, bread and fruit consumption. I knew I was right to make the chicken!

While the leeks were cooking I quickly made the costumes. It took less than 15minutes to make all six. Instructions are at the bottom of this post.

The boys wore kilts and I had a simple Egyptian-style dress. I wrapped the kilts around the boys’ waists, tucking the loose end in at the waist. The little boys thought it was great fun when their kilts accidentally fell off, again and again and again, so I had to use safety pins to hold them together. The boys and my husband all wore their kilts, and no shirts or shoes. I had found some Egyptian necklaces in a gumball machine at Kroger last week, so we all had those, too. The look was complete when I applied some black eyeshadow with a damp brush above and below everyone’s eyes.
While we were setting up the games, Cal slipped into my bathroom and got into the black eye makeup. He came out proudly, saying, “Look, mommy! Now I have Egyptian hands!”

After dinner, we played the Egyptian games. I had already printed a gameboard and the rules to play the ancient Egyptian game Senet. My kids have been enjoying an online version of the ancient Egyptian game Hounds and Jackals, and I wanted to find a way to make a board for that, too. I ended up printing out two additional Senet boards which I cut up and taped onto two pieces of cardstock to make a nice Hounds and Jackals board.

We all enjoyed playing the games, especially Colin. He has been wanting to learn Senet all week.  Here are some instructions for how to play Hounds and Jackals.  The board they are using looks more like a cribbage board, with pegs, but our homemade board worked fine with some modifications.  We didn’t have the fancy dice, either, but regular dice can work fine, too…just modify the instructions to fit what you have!

I have read that Hounds and Jackals is similar to our American game of Snakes and Ladders.  If Hounds and Jackals seems too complicated, you could use a Snakes and Ladders board instead to play something a little more familiar to little ones and readily available.

This was really a fun evening. At bedtime, 3 year old Cal folded his kilt and put it on his dresser, “For the next time we play Egyptians!” I asked him what his favorite part was and he said, “I had two favorite parts. The games and the feast.” Those were my favorite parts, too!

Recipes:

I found a list of common Egyptian foods in our curriculum. For recipes, I did a search online. I am not an expert in ancient Egyptian cuisine. If someone else said the recipe was “authentic”, that was good enough for me.

Korrat (Leeks)

Ingredients

2 lbs. leeks
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil
lemon juice
salt

Wash the leeks carefully to remove any soil between the leaves. Trim the root ends and cut off the tough green part of the leaves. Slice the rest into 2 inch pieces.

Fry the garlic and sugar in hot oil for a moment, just until the sugar becomes slightly carmelized. Add the leeks and turn them, over low heat, until they become slightly colored. Sprinkle with lemon juice and salt. Pour on enough water to barely cover the leeks and stew them gently over low heat until they are tender and the liquid is reduced. This took about 15 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Tiger Nut Sweets

Ingredients
I put about 1/2 cup of chopped dates in the food processor until they were ground. Then I added about 1/2 cup pecans (the recipe calls for walnuts, but I didn’t have any). I added a splash of water, just so it would hold together. You can add cinnamon, but I did not. Shape the mixture into balls, coat in honey and roll in either ground almonds (I didn’t have these either, so I used sesame seeds). Cal and I LOVED these, but the other boys and my husband all thought they were too sweet.

Ancient Egyptian Marinade

1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 onion, grated
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Mix ingredients together and pour over chicken. The recipe says to cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or up to overnight. I only marinated the chicken for about 30 minutes before grilling it and it tasted great!

Directions for Egyptian Costumes:
I had purchased 3 twin sized white sheets. I left one untouched, for my husband. That was easy! I folded the second sheet in half (top to bottom) and then in half again (side to side). I cut the sheet in half so that I had two pieces, both folded top to bottom.

I took one of them and cut along the fold, making two pieces, both 1/4 the size of the twin sheet. Those became the kilts for the littlest boys. Cal’s was still too long, so I folded it in half to make a long, narrow strip. It was perfect!

I took the other half of that sheet and cut out a square in the middle of the fold for my head. I used Stitch Witchery, which is an iron-on product that requires no sewing, to close up the sides of my Egyptian dress, making sure to leave holes at the top for arms. I realized too late that my sheet was too sheer, so I ended up wearing a white skirt and t-shirt underneath.

I took the last sheet and cut it in half to make two larger kilts for the bigger boys. Voila! In less than 15 minutes we had 6 costumes, with no sewing. I think it will take very little to turn these awesome Egyptian costumes into Roman or Greek costumes later this year.