My kids are in love with Pokemon cards. William was first introduced to them over a year ago in Transitional Kindergarten and soon began making his own on little scraps of paper. He had no idea what the numbers meant or how to play, but it didn't matter. He made up his own game with his own rules. With his birthday money, he bought his first actual pack of cards and received a second set for Christmas. But still it was just "his" game.
Fast forward to April 2020 and we find a plastic shoebox full of Pokemon cards on the sidewalk by our house. I bring it home for William as a fun surprise. But the condition on receiving this many new cards was that he had to learn the actual game. So we did. We all learned how to play.
And now, we play and play and play. William and I typically play 2-3 games a day; Stephen and I play once or a couple times a week; Chris gets in the action as much as he can on evenings and weekends. It's actually really fun and I'm really enjoying being able to engage with what my boys love in this moment of time.
But they also still love to draw and make their own Pokemon cards. They get to change the health points and the damage points; they make their favorites even stronger. They create evolves that we don't have. They get really into it. So much so, that we barely have time for anything else.
In Pokemon "school," Stephen has learned how to write his numbers 1-10, his favorite is 1,000,000,000 (+). He is learning which numbers are bigger than others (bigger numbers do more damage and defeat smaller numbers, etc); he is learning to write more letters as he makes up his own card rules. He is learning matching - each Pokemon is a certain type and requires that type of energy card - so he is finding those matches in his deck. He's working on strategy too, even at the age of 4 he knows that one of my Pokemon is really weak to another of his and he'll play that one to beat me.
William isn't into writing much; at least not since schooling at home started. BUT, he will write all the things on his homemade cards. His first edition of cards were very simple; name, health points, damage points and a picture; now they include ALL the details. Attach names, weakness types, resistance type, damage, and a more detailed picture of the Pokemon. William is very strategic in this game, he understands it a lot more and knows (remembers) a lot more details about his cards than I do. He knows how many times he needs to attach before my Pokemon is knocked out, he knows his multiplication a lot better as some damages do "x the number of heads" when you flip the coin 3 times, etc. Sometimes I am really impressed with all this game has taught him.
So, we haven't done a lot of actual school work at home. But as far I'm concerned, they do the following every single day:
- Math
- Art
- Writing
- Reading
- Problem solving
. . . and sportsmanship.
And they don't even know it!
My kids are in love with Pokemon cards. William was first introduced to them over a year ago in Transitional Kindergarten and soon began making his own on little scraps of paper. He had no idea what the numbers meant or how to play, but it didn't matter. He made up his own game with his own rules. With his birthday money, he bought his first actual pack of cards and received a second set for Christmas. But still it was just "his" game.
Fast forward to April 2020 and we find a plastic shoebox full of Pokemon cards on the sidewalk by our house. I bring it home for William as a fun surprise. But the condition on receiving this many new cards was that he had to learn the actual game. So we did. We all learned how to play.
And now, we play and play and play. William and I typically play 2-3 games a day; Stephen and I play once or a couple times a week; Chris gets in the action as much as he can on evenings and weekends. It's actually really fun and I'm really enjoying being able to engage with what my boys love in this moment of time.
But they also still love to draw and make their own Pokemon cards. They get to change the health points and the damage points; they make their favorites even stronger. They create evolves that we don't have. They get really into it. So much so, that we barely have time for anything else.
In Pokemon "school," Stephen has learned how to write his numbers 1-10, his favorite is 1,000,000,000 (+). He is learning which numbers are bigger than others (bigger numbers do more damage and defeat smaller numbers, etc); he is learning to write more letters as he makes up his own card rules. He is learning matching - each Pokemon is a certain type and requires that type of energy card - so he is finding those matches in his deck. He's working on strategy too, even at the age of 4 he knows that one of my Pokemon is really weak to another of his and he'll play that one to beat me.
William isn't into writing much; at least not since schooling at home started. BUT, he will write all the things on his homemade cards. His first edition of cards were very simple; name, health points, damage points and a picture; now they include ALL the details. Attach names, weakness types, resistance type, damage, and a more detailed picture of the Pokemon. William is very strategic in this game, he understands it a lot more and knows (remembers) a lot more details about his cards than I do. He knows how many times he needs to attach before my Pokemon is knocked out, he knows his multiplication a lot better as some damages do "x the number of heads" when you flip the coin 3 times, etc. Sometimes I am really impressed with all this game has taught him.
So, we haven't done a lot of actual school work at home. But as far I'm concerned, they do the following every single day:
- Math
- Art
- Writing
- Reading
- Problem solving
. . . and sportsmanship.
And they don't even know it!
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