Learning on the sly....

A while back I found myself at an Used Homeschool Curriculum Fair! I love those fairs!! Over the many years of my life I have discovered things about me. One such thing is that I tend to have a weakness for three things... bargains, books and educational things. Do you see the dangers of me being at an Used Homeschool Curriculum Fair!? Hehe...it can get scary!! However, I was behaved and practiced great self control because that's one of my strengths!! Heeheehohohaha.....no seriously, it was because I only took so much money with me and I was under strict orders to not spend foolishly.

Anyway...I did come away with a few educational bargains and can happily say that I have been able to use everything I got that day. One item in particular has me especially happy and I'm going to share it with you today.

You can find this art appreciation game here. I was able to pick it up for $2.00 and what a bargain that has been.

You can find "The Bath" by Mary Cassatt.

Even this one called "The Old Stagecoach" by Jonathan Eastman Johnson.

There is a sheet in the box that has pictures of all the paintings with information listed. You can find info like: the artist, the type of art, the size of the canvas, the year it was created and what museum has the art.

(Sidenote: notice how we don't have to line our cards up in perfect lines...I know this picture will drive some moms crazy and yet others will think our cards are in too much of an order...isn't it funny how we are all different!!)

One of the games they suggest is Concentration. Now K loves that game. I put a little twist on the game. We can only play with the cards that she knows the name of the painting. Whenever we make a match we have to say the name of the painting to claim the cards. After we played a few times with 10 pairs, I told her that I would play again when there was 12 pairs. And then after a few games with 12 pairs, I upped the minimum again. She is now at 19 pairs and is ready for another jump next time. :) Once she knows all the names of the paintings we will work on knowing the artist. When she has accomplished that we will then start looking at the individual artists starting with whichever painting she likes the most. This is what I call "Learning on the Sly". She is learning and we are partially covering our art requirement...but it is all a game.

The best part is that you can apply this strategy to a lot of different games that you can buy or make.

No stress...no boredom...no tears. It's just F.U.N!

How can you not like a game that includes "Sunny #4" by Alex Katz??