10 Days...

We have two news games that we've been spending a lot of time playing. Actually, they aren't exactly new, as in we just bought them. I bought them awhile ago, we are just now getting around to using them.

And we're having FUN!

"10 Days in the USA" and...

"10 Days in Africa".

Jake, Abbie and I spent a week playing the USA game every day and then moved on to Africa.

The point of the games is to travel from place to place either by walking, driving or flying. Each place (state or country) has to be connected in a certain way and once all 10 cards are connected properly you win! And this does take some thinking and strategy. And it is very unpredictable.

This is an example of my line of cards: I start in Sierra Leone and drive to the Ivory Coast (either through Guinea or Liberia) then fly to Nambia (which I can do because those three are all the same color) and it looks like I was hoping to drive to my next country, but I have to get the right card. In order to drive to a new destination you need another country/state to drive through. But only one. And it can be a different color. You just have to have the same color when flying.

There is a reason I don't have a job writing out instruction manuals or game descriptions. Just trust me that it is really easy to learn how to play but not that easy to win.

And you know what is such a great thing about this? We are really learning our countries in Africa! Do you know where Eritrea is? Or Burkina Faso? I didn't either. Now I do. And some day I might REALLY need to know where those countries are.

Reason #2974 of Why I Love To Home School: We get to play games for Geography. On the floor. In our jammies if we want. (But we aren't here. I'm just saying we could if we wanted to.)

Color My Brain

I'm not able to "play" Sudoku. All those black numbers in little boxes gets my brain too frazzled. I've tried to do it because I think it is a great way to exercise one's brain.

But it just doesn't work for me.

A few years ago I was looking through an homeschool catalogue and saw the game "ColorKu" and I immediately felt a rush of excitement. It was full of color!  My brain Got It. I could see how this worked.

I am an amazingly visual learner.

So I bought two of the games to give to our parents for Christmas.

My Mom has hers sitting on the trunk-table she has in front of her couch in her family room, ready to be played. And the game is constantly being played. Anyone who sits on the couch gets enticed by the colors and the lure of a little bit of mental gymnastics. Nothing too hard, but just enough. And an added benefit? You get to exercise your manual dexterity, fine tune your small motor skills as you pick up those little wooden balls and put them in the proper place.

Nick played ColorKu a lot while we were at Gramma's this past weekend. At first he was skeptical of the game but it quickly drew him in and he informed me that we needed to get one for us, too.

Bright colors for your eyes.

The feel of smooth wood for your hands.

Patterns for your brain.

Yep. We know how to have fun.