The Games We Play (Part I)

Whenever they are seated close to one another, the kids often invent games to play amongst themselves.

In the past, it used to be Chip who would suggest the games, but lately, the Dolly has learnt so much from her brothers that she would be the one who initiate.

The hot favourites recently are the Country game and the Letter game.

The Country Game
We take turns to name a country. The boys learn the continent they are in and simple facts about the countries as we name them.

But for Dolly, it is really just a memory game more than anything else. We did not do any active teaching in this case. When we first began playing this game, she just joined in for fun and we did not want her to feel left out. We even allowed her to repeatedly name 'Singapore' and 'Malaysia' and the only few that she knew at that time. It caught us by surprise how much she loves the game and the pace she picks up.

She just listened to the names of countries mentioned and recalled them at the next round of game. Despite being the youngest, she knows more than one of her brothers. Haha! Again, another example of why having a great attitude to learn is a key determinant to learning effectiveness.

She can now easily name more than 20 countries in one round of game. I will not attribute this to her having a better memory than the boys, who have memory like an elephant. I don't believe having good memory is genetic; I like to think that their memory was strengthened since young from all the games and lapbooking activities we used to do before they were 6 years old. That said, Dolly does have great memory compared to the average 4-year-old kids, which certainly gives her a huge edge over peers in learning.

Anyway, back to the game... after she demonstrated such keen interest, I decided to reinforce her learning. I introduced her to games related to geography and the world map and did several trans-interdisciplinary thematic activities  which greatly accelerated her learning and further boosted her interest and confidence to take on the big boys.

Look out for the next post on the Letter Game.