How's it going?

So I've been asked this question a lot in the last 1.5 weeks... it's still a bit early to really give a solid answer but I've been kinda 1/2 "homeschooling" since day 1 of virtual learning.    But now, it got real- real fast!  Im responsible for making all their educational choices, the rules, the decisions on  what and how they learn and study something and I get to see things through from start to finish - or hell stop doing something because it isn't working. Some of these aspects Im still figuring it - and I foresee it will be a process that will have ebs and flows and will change as we all learn together. ​​

However, I have learned something extremely valuable about my kids during this process... my kids are WAY more apt to learn something if it is not in a workbook.   Yes, some subjects MUST be done in workbook - there is no two ways about it.  I read not too long ago that when your kids are within the grades of k-3 subjects like math or even word study are the most impactful when taught hands on or as games... It really struck a cord with me and stuck with me.  I've now done "game days" for math and WOW, I see it coming together.  Great example, My little one has seen/heard us talk about place value with numbers and the other day I used a montessori approach to explaining it.  They both "got it" but I could tell by the end, rather then really  getting it - it had been lost on them both in some way and it ended with my older one feeling "not as smart as" her little sister (which is TOTALLY not true!) -  So today, I found this game on pinterest using UNO cards and improved upon it a bit to help my girls and decided it was math for today.  WOW what a difference.  If you're curious - here's what we played. 

Place value UNO war
Here's how to play. *You can play this with just the 1's place value, 10's, or go up to 100s or even 1000s!  

1. pull out all the non-number cards
2. take 8.5x11 paper and write out the place values for the game you want to play - dividing them on the paper - so your kids can see where to place their cards
3. shuffle and deal out all the cards 
4. when they put down their numbers - make sure they go in order, hundreds, tens, ones.. etc...  (we did 1 round of 10s and then a 2nd round of 100s)
5. Have them each say their own numbers - I did it with them if needed.   Saying,  8-hundreds, 5-tens, 3-ones... then told them how to say it "853" and asked them to try it too... they kinda just did it voluntarily.  If either of them got it incorrect, for example Big Love often is confused when a zero is in the 10s place - or Bear flip  flops numbers (Saying 13 for 31 for example)
6. I then asked them to tell me who won that round  - they yell it out.  I then took turns having them explain to me WHY that person one - often flipping around the other persons paper - so they could easily see the difference between  the 2 numbers. 

It was AMAZING to see by the end of the game how they were analyzing it all and seeing the differences between the winners hand and the losing hand... it was great when they would have the same number for the 1st place value but the 10s or even 1s would be their "downfall".  You could 100% take this to a higher level and ask them to subtract the difference between the two numbers to see who won by how many - and make those "points" for winning the game - rather then just who has a larger stack of cards.  
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