Bananas Over His New Game

One of our UK friends George, recommended the game Bananagrams to Ebi-kun, his mom explained it was a bit like scrabble but you have your own game going on. Well, scrabble doesn't work well in this house because of the mixed levels, I always win, hahaha I don't mind but the others do!

It works much better than scrabble, we have had no meltdowns or tantrums so that is a win if you ask me. Basically it's a bag of tiles, each player takes a set number of tiles, turns them face up and tries to make them into a crossword or scrabble type figuration.

If you get stuck with a letter you can put it back but you have to take 3 more tiles and if you finish all your tiles you pull and new one from the pile and all the other players have to do the same.

The other great thing is about Bananagrams is that you can switch letters or completely change your layout. You keep playing until there are no tiles left. There are other variations of the game too. I don't like letting kids win all the time, I don't think it teaches them good sportsmanship but on the other hand I think sometimes we need to level the playing field, it's much easier to do that with this cam than it is with scrabble.

And of course, it's using words so a great educational game to boot. So a big thank you to George for the recommendation and to Di for getting it for Ebi-kun at Christmas.

Playful Learning

My friend Mariah over at Playful Learning has been busy, she has recently released some new courses and lessons and she has a special offer on over this weekend, you can get 30% off!

Just use the code GRATEFUL30 when you checkout!

I interview Mariah about her book Playful Learning, you can read about it HERE

Win a Playful Learning Scholarship and a Free Course for Everyone

I have an exciting post for you today and a chance to win a scholarship for you and your kids to Playful Learning Ecademy. The contest is actually being run over at My Organized Chaos, so pop over and put your name in the hat. The courses are great and if you have kids at home who are claiming to be bored, then get them signed up! AND even if you don't win you get to do one of the courses for free anyway! Whoop-whoop!

click image to enter

I'm bored......good!

It is spring break here at the moment so a certain little boy needs to be kept occupied, or does he? 

I feel like there is so much pressure on parents to keep their children busy at all times, they need after school classes and activities to do for the time they haven't got classes, computer games and TV, so many ways to keep them entertained. Of course, with the internet there is an abundance of activities and projects for you to prepare for your little ones but how much do they actually need?

Let's rewind a bit, this is what set me off thinking about this... yesterday I had quite a bit of computer work to do so I started to feel a bit guilty for leaving Ebi-kun to his own devices, but you know what, he wasn't at all bothered. He spent most of the time building a Jedi temple with his blocks and Lego and making his own Star Wars - episode 7. 

A bit later in the day the new oven arrived and Ebi-kun couldn't wait for me to get the thing out so he could claim the box. I gave him the other card packaged pieces too, so he got busy, drew up a plan of what was going to attached where and made himself a fighter-ship-1, his friend came round to play so they took the fighter-ship-1 upstairs and it kept them amused for over an hour.

I started thinking about when I was a kid, back in those days, so very, very long ago, there were only 4 channels on the TV and kids programs had a limited time slot, so there was no sitting in front of the box all day, like it is so easy to do these days. If I ever dared to claim I was bored my mom would remind me that I could tidy my room (yeah right, I was never a that bored) or find something to do. 

Being creative and imaginative play was what I had, and I think this is often lost in this modern day of child rearing. Sometimes of course, me and my brothers would get into mischief but isn't that what kids are supposed to do? Mostly I remember making tents and dens with the bedsheets, re-enacting our favourite TV show of the time whether it be the A-team or The Fall Guy or making things using whatever we could find around the house.

So, is being bored a bad thing? 

I know many parents dread those magic words but really, I don't think so. A good dose of being bored can invite all kinds of creative ideas, pushing children to explore their mind and their environment, encouraging their creative side instead of being entertained in one way or the other. As an adult, being bored can also lead us to new things, that said, I never seem to have time to get bored, there is always something else on the to-do list to do!

Yes, Ebi-kun does watch TV and sometimes plays computer games but I keep a watchful eye on the amount of screen time and yes, I do organise lots of crafty activities or projects but I also keep his art area supplied with crafty goods so he can go and get creative whenever he likes and he has a good chunk of independent play each day. 

In a age where there is more and more pressure for us to raise well rounded children is keeping them entertained the whole time actually producing a well rounded child? I fear not, so forget all those boredom busting ideas/boredom jars and instead introduce.... 

Sit back and see what happens!

What do you think? Should children be allowed to get bored, I'd like to know your thoughts on the subject. Do you feel like you need to entertain your kids the whole time? let me know.

Halloween Poetry Basket...

One of the ideas talked about in Playful learning was a poetry basket so last night I made up a poetry basket for Ebi-kun using poems from the big poetry book that we read before bed some nights. Scrolls are the 'thing' of the moment so rather than give him the sheets I rolled them up with a bit of string! So, in the basket is...

The white scroll has a poem with words missing, the words are at the bottom of the page for him to fill in.

The orange scroll is a sheet for him to write his own poem.

The purple scroll is a spell where he has to fill in the blanks with his own ideas.

The orange strips are a poem puzzle

Some stickers for decorating.

The white paper has the completed poems so he can check his answers.

This is something I used to do in class all the time when I was teaching, I printed out the poem then cut it into strips, shuffled them then had him put them into order. This is one of his favourite poems so I didn't read it to him first, I just sat back to see how much he could figure out. After I made this I had a look in Playful Learning to see if there were other poetry ideas and this is the one she suggested.

I was never a fan of poetry at school but I think it was the stale way that it was presented, yet poetry is an important part of language learning. Of course nonsense poems are very popular round here but we do slip in some sensible once too.
If you want to make your own Halloween poetry basket you can download the file HERE. For those who teach ESL you will be able to use it in class too.

Looking for some Fun & Fast Ghoulish Halloween Treats?
Grab the ebook and bonus labels pack too!

It works!

Yesterday I reminded Ebi-kun that it was one of his friends birthday soon, instead of making a card he decided to write her a letter using things form the letter writing box. He worked away, writing the letter, occasionally asking me how to spell something, he decorated it all with stickers and wrote the address on the envelope and put on the stamps, other than the odd spelling help I didn't do anything! This morning Daddy offered to drop the letter in the postbox on the way to work, Ebi-kun looked mortified and declared that he would do it, it was his letter!

I hope there is more letter writing to follow :o)