This morning I awoke far too early yet again after another night of tossing and turning amid a cacophony of coughing. I tend to be one of those the-glass-is-half-full-when-life-gives-you-lemons-make-lemonade-have-a-sense-of-humor-look-on-the-bright-side kind of people but this morning I realized that no matter which way you look at it:
This winter is kicking our collective ass.
It’s Seuss’ first year of school and he is catching every germ in the building. I cringe to think about what we’ve paid in tuition per day because he’s hardly ever there! He will show up once a week or every-other-week for his cameo appearance, lick something, and then fall ill once more. The kid doesn’t just spread joy, he also spreads germs. Oodles and oodles of them. In our house, it’s usually the boys who get sick. T and I have hardy immune systems and we rarely go down. Well, this week I’m the last man standing in this house-that-sounds-like-a-TB-ward. And this morning I realized that we’re losing the battle that winter has waged on our family and it’s only the beginning of January. Folks, this glass-is-half-full girl got a tad bummed about the whole thing. As I lay there, not sleeping, I was trying to think of what I could do to snap us out of our winter funk. How could I make yet another sick day more bearable?
That lemon ain’t lying!
Anyone who knows me will not be surprised by my resolution: board games. I love board games and I have a closet full! We are making our own game this year while homeschooling. Plus, Santa and a dear friend who I’ll refer to as Santa Kate, gave us a bunch more this year. I present to you my winter survival strategy:
While winter kicks our collective ass, we’ll be busy kicking each other’s!
Once everyone else was awake, I presented my plan. The kids thought it was awesome while Schizz said, “Eight weeks is a long time. You should do a 30-day challenge.” Whatever, Schizz. This girl loves games and, besides, eight-weeks gets us through February. Every New Englander knows February can be brutal.
So, starting tomorrow we will play a game a day for eight weeks and we’ll provide a little review for you guys. Leo has been dying to blog about all the games we love and this is a perfect opportunity to do so. I have to tell you guys, having more time together to play board games has been a definite homeschoolin’ perk!
Follow My Little Poppies’s board Games, Games, Games! on Pinterest.
If you want to follow along with what we’re playing over here during the challenge, click here.
What about you guys? What are your family’s favorite games? Could you play a game every day for eight weeks? What games would you like us to review? If you want to join in our challenge, the more the merrier!
***
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
~Voltaire
***
Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley
Cait co-hosts The Homeschool Sisters Podcast and is co-founder of Raising Poppies, a community for parents of gifted and twice-exceptional children. Cait is also founder of the Family Book Club at My Little Poppies, a fantastic community of book-loving parents and the Gameschool Community at My Little Poppies, a vibrant community of gameschoolers.
Cait is a contributing writer for Simple Homeschool and GeekMom. Her work has also appeared on The Huffington Post, The Mighty, and Scary Mommy. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram
and G+.
Latest posts by Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley (see all)
- Mad Libs The Game: Laughter Guaranteed! - July 20, 2017
- Artists Around the World: A New Series from Around the World Stories - July 17, 2017
- The Perfect Game for Kids Who Love the Solar System! - July 13, 2017
We have been doing almost the same thing, but started last week! So far, we have played Memory, Twister, Slapjack, War, Addition War, and a new one from my childhood that I was totally excited to come across - Enchanted Forest. It plays directly into D’s love of Grimm’s fairy tales, and it’s just as fun as I remember it being when I was little. This week, our line-up looks like it’s going to begin with Sorry. 😀
Isn’t it one of the best perks of homeschooling? We used to play games once a week on the weekend and now we are playing all the time. I have not heard of Enchanted Forest. If D loves fairy tales, she’s like one we just got. I believe it’s called Fairy Tale Spinner. It is made by the people who make the Tell Me a Story cards. So fun! Maybe that will be the one we choose today 🙂
I so needed to see this post this morning as we’re in the second week of The Cold That Would Not Die and I’m not feeling any joy from just giving them “assignments” when we can’t go out. And while video games are fine up to a point, my sanity can handle only so much.
My teenager is back to school this year but over our Sick Break she got into Gin (Rummy). She also loves Egyptian War and a couple of other games. Other favorites: Battle Ship, Scrabble, Othello, Chess, Checkers and Monopoly. Quarto is a new favorite. I also have this great book called Family Math that is filled with games to help teach math strategies.
Can’t wait to read follow up posts!
Deborah! We have The Cold That Would Not Die as well! Awful, isn’t it? You reminded me that I have Battleship somewhere. I bet my little guy would LOVE it. Othello was one of my favorites as a kid. We don’t have Quarto. I’ll have to look that one up. Thanks for sharing your ideas and for reading. I hope you all feel better soon!
We play board games almost every day! I’m lucky to have a brother who keeps us up to date on new and fun games and sends them for birthdays and Christmas. A few games we’ve been enjoying include: Rampage, Labyrinth (by the makers of Enchanted Forest), Avalon, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic (cooperative game), Shrinking Island (another cooperative game), Settlers of Cataan, Sabateour, and Dixit. Great way to pass the cold winter months.
Ooooh, your brother sounds like our Santa Kate, who sent us a ton of winners this year! I haven’t heard of Rampage or Avalon or Shrinking Island so I will check those out. I got Catan this year but haven’t played yet. I’ve heard awesome stuff about Labryinth, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, and Dixit. Thanks for all the recs! I can never have enough games or books in my world 🙂
We love games here! As a family of 5, it gets tough to find games we can all play at once (No Sorry, or Quirkle, or lots of traditional 4-player have), but my boys (almost 7-year-old twins, and a 5.5 year old) love:
Aggravation
Catan (we started with Junior)
Mille Bornes
Castle Panic
Ticket to Ride
And we’re trying to love Zooleretto, but we’re not there yet. Attention spans and such.
We also own lots of others mentioned:
Enchanted Forest
Battleship
Oh goodness, I could go on and on; we have shelves and shelves of games!
I’ll be clicking over to your reviews now!
I need to get Mille Borne and Ticket to Ride and Enchanted Forest. Everyone raves about those games! I hope you follow along. I’m terrible about updating but I post on FB when I do 🙂 We are playing, I promise. I also have a post on here about great one player games. Our favorite right now is Rush Hour. If you guys, as fellow game lovers, have any to add please do! 🙂
I’m so getting on board with this! We have tons of games here, but I’m the only one who likes them, and when ds2 gets involved, it’s very intense (in a good way!). Ds1 has to manage his emotions better; we’ve had one too many “rage quits” over losing or perceived slights.
Recently played:
Monopoly
Skippity - a great game based on checkers where you get to jump and collect the most rainbow-colored chips to win
Story Cubes
I Sea 10
Pig - a dice game where you roll two and add the numbers up to a goal, say 100. If you roll a 1, your turn ends. If you roll snakeyes, both your turn ends and your sum goes back to zero.
Some faves:
Rush Hour; Quirkle; Battleship; Uno
Toot & Otto - a cute early reader game built like Connect4, where you pick a name, Toot or Otto, and drop letters into the grid to spell your name as many times as possible.
Robot Explorers - an eeboo game where you explore the solar system collecting gas, rock and animal samples from each planet.
Build a Robot - an eeboo game with die cut shapes and you take turns building your robot.