Our home school journey began a short year and a half ago and it has lead us to a wonderful curriculum/community called
Classical Conversations (CC).
We
are thoroughly enjoying our school year! My 5-almost-six-year-old always looks forward to our CC community days. She is enjoying new-found friends and other adults who speak life into her.
My four-year-old son isn't enrolled in the CC program this year, but
he joins in as we review the memory work throughout the week. I actually caught him singing the Timeline song as he was getting dressed the other morning. He is a hoot!
Our CC community is only in it's second year, so it is a young community. And
out of seven families, we had five that were able to attend our recent Review Game Day! We chose to have it right after our Week 10 memory work was learned. We all had such a great time together that we plan to have another Review Game Day at the end of the year!
Our Review Game Day served as a wonderful time for the families to get to know one another better,
have some fun together, and review the past 10 weeks of memory work.The accountability that being in community brings is so necessary... especially for this home school momma :o)
So, without further ado,
here are a few pictures from our fun game day and a short description of how each game was played.
The kids were excited to play the games at each station.
My first idea was to have an adult stationed at each game and ready to quiz the children who rotated through their station on one subject of the memory work.
When it came down to it, with only 5 moms and 7 game stations we ended up splitting the children into 4 groups (2 groups of 3 and 2 groups of 4) and having the moms lead the kids from station to station, switching the subject questions to fit that station's topic. The extra mom (that was me) kept the timer going at 5 minute increments, called out when it was time to switch up the game stations, and helped out as needed. This worked out well for our group!
The groups spread out at various games stations and the timer began!
Geography Race
The younger ages really enjoyed standing at a starting line and once the adult called out a state and its capitol, they raced to the maps that were taped to the wall (with painter's tape) and pointed to the correct state. The adult leader would then be sure that they had chosen the right state.
If they hadn't chose the correct state, they would be corrected and would repeat the capitol and state while pointing to the correct location on the map!
The older kids quizzed each other, without all the running :o)
English T.P. Toss
"Yes, that is a REAL toilet and NO, please don't use it."
This is a line I use often when we pull out the T.P. Toss toilet from our backyard and set it up for a game. It's a favorite with the kids. Who wouldn't want to throw a roll of toilet paper into a toilet?!?! Haven't we been teaching our kids NOT to play with toilet paper (and the toilet for that matter) since they could walk (or crawl)?
At this station, the kids lined up and reviewed memory work from English and then took turns tossing a roll of T.P. (that was wrapped in duck tape to keep it together) into the toilet.
Too much fun!
(PS. This toilet isn't used for its intended purpose. I picked this beauty up off a curb and disinfected it for use at our annual Fall Festival carnival games! It's sure come in handy over the years.)
Latin Gun Range
Here the kids lined up, answered some Latin memory work and took turns shooting the tower of cans down, using a Nerf riffle. After a while, loading and un-jamming the riffle slowed the game down and we ended up throwing a ball at the cans instead.
Next time I would like to have two Nerf riffles going, one loading up and one being used. The kids really enjoyed this one, especially all of our boys!
Science Land Walk
Here is a mix of Candy Land and a Cake Walk - we called it Science Land Walk!
The kids would walk around on the colored squares while our Timeline song was being played on a CD player near by. When the leader would pause the song, she would call out a color (or two). All the kids on those colors would then answer a science question together! Younger and older kids had fun with this one.
Math Bowling
I didn't get a good picture of the kids playing the bowling game, but here's one of our youngest CC members being sweet :o)
At this game station, the kids would sing a math skip counting song and then get to bowl the pins down. Very simple, yet fun!
It did take a bit of time to set up the pins after each child played. It would help to have an extra adult at this station to set up pins next time.
History Ring Toss
What do you get when you mix recycled coffee syrup bottles and a few glow in the dark necklaces???
The perfect Ring Toss game!
The kids at this station would line up and take turns reciting a history sentence and then try their ring-the-bottle skills. I did catch one of the younger groups singing the sentences together and then all at the same time, tossing their rings at the bottles. This helped them get through the past 10 weeks of history a bit faster and no one had to wait in line! Great idea!
Fun Time with Grammy
So.... this wasn't really a game station, but we can't forget to include our smaller CC members in a picture! A big thanks goes out to my mother for coming with us to help with the littles.
They enjoyed playing the games that other groups weren't using at the time and just running around the gym. What a sweet group of kids we have.
Timeline Limbo
We ended our Review Game Day with Timeline Limbo. I found the idea for using a pool noodle for this game over at
Solagratiamom. The kids enjoyed this, but with a 12 minute timeline song, things got a bit crazy.
What started as limbo, ended as "follow the leader around the gym". We were lined up and running, hopping, skipping, crawling, crab-walking, doing cart wheels, and being all out goofy!
It was a blast and we ended up out of breath and laughing! What sweet memories.
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Overall, we had a great time reviewing our memory work together and getting to know each other better. The advice I would give to other CC parents who would like to plan and host a review day is:
- Be prepared, but be flexible. It's great to have a plan and to be organized. Even so, some games won't play out like you planned or you may have to substitute other items in the game (like at our Latin Gun Range).
- Get the word out! The more help you have, the better. And the more kids that can have fun reviewing their memory work is wonderful too!
- Try it once, and then fine tune it for your campus. What worked for us, may not work the same for your group. Splitting up the kids by age group worked well for us. I think we will do that again. That way they are reviewing their work in a similar way to how they learn it in class. Also, this gives those kids going for Memory Master a chance to really review and be challenged by another adult.
- Just HAVE FUN! Sometimes, as parents, we like things in order and very controlled. This is a chance to have fun with the memory work and to make review feel like you are just playing some games with your friends! The kids did their best during the review and they each received a small candy prize. We really enjoyed being in community and eating lunch together at the end of the game time. Work hard at preparing your Review Game Day and then have fun!!!
Thank you for stopping by! I hope that our first attempt at a Review Game Day will encourage you to try something fun with your CC community. May God bless you as you lead your children and as you work with others around you.
May our mission in life truly be to know God and to make Him known.
Have a great week,
