Hey guys,
This last month when we were far from home, I prepared a few games, worksheets, books, activities and toys to have them around, in order to have them just at hand for the moments we were doing nothing at the hotel room or to our friends house. I had a small luggage only with toys and other kids playing stuff. 😁
But appereantly, these were not enough. 😆
My son wanted exactly those games I didnt bring with us. Funny, but true right? I think you all know what I'm saying.
Well, good thing my kid has a creative mom 🤣😶 (hmmmmm, yeah; it sounds kind of weird to say it myself), but hey. In the end, I truly think I am. And I think its not a bad thing to accept and highlight our own qualities right? Yup, I am creative when I work with Caleb. I created a few games and all kind of stuff along the last few years,some of them even without being inspired from other moms work. I think this means creativity. To be able to create and reproduce something without seeking for ideas.
Anyways, he wanted to play sudoku and chess.
Sorry, my sweet baby boy, but I didnt bring the chess mat , neither the chess pieces, I said.
And he answered: No problem, let's make one.
I was 100% NOT in the mood to reproduce a chess mat. But then I thought its not that hard and while I was into making it, I was quite happy with the result.
After we both colored the mat, I took a look see what I can find in order to get inspired on how to draw the chess pieces.
I had a lot of cardboard and colors, carioca more precisely.
Caleb helped in with the chess mat. He colored black and white all the squares.
My son is four and a half years old.
He learned how to play chess at the age of 3 and 10mo. In one day, well, a few hours, he learned what's the order of pieces and how they move.
I was wow'ed on how fast he can learn. From that day, he liked chess a lot. How I'm taking him to chess lessons, together with other kids, here in our town.
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Numberblocks Dice
Next time I got creative when I realized we need a dice for a worksheet game I prepared.
I know you may not know who Numberblocks are...you can google it if you're curious to find out but in short Numberblocks are characters from an educational animated tv show. They represent numbers and they are like blocks, little squares.
Numberblocks were my son's first crush. He adored Numberblocks. I promise to make a post about them, they are super useful for kids in preschool/early school because these video teach math concepts.
Numberblock one is red, numberblock 2 is orange, numberblock 3 is yellow and so on.
I used parts of our Numberblock toys to make this dice, and it turned out great.
Every face represents a numberblock, so it was super easy to figure it out what number we throw.
Also, we didnt have pawns, but we used some Numberblobs. Numberblobs are a sort of puppet creatures living in Numberland along with Numberblocks. 😅😅😅
We played a board game. Each player had 100 point and depending where you land on those squares, you need to substract or add those numbers (points). The player with most points wins in the end.
Caleb was super happy with this game and actually he won. He did all the Math for himself.
Sudoku in colors
Caleb wanted to play Sudoku.
We didnt have any but I did draw a few on paper (I didnt take any photos). But the concept was the same: using numbers.
I designed a few, starting with 4, 6 and 9 grid.
In the end, I thought we can make a Color Sudoku, using Numberblobs. They are too cute ❤️. Each column and raw had to contain all of the colors.
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Sorry Board Game
Caleb knows how to play "Sorry" from the age of 3.5yrs old. He loved it instantly. He made me teach him how to play. I wasnt sure he can learn and understand a board game like this, but I was surprised he got used to it from the very first time. He insisted so much to play this game back then, I said Ok why not?. And so we begins.
Last time when we were in vacation, I took the Sorry board game, but this time I didnt. I forgot. Actually I think I didnt bring any board games.
Caleb insisted to play it, so here we go again. Creating a Sorry game from what we have.
I used some colored wooden sticks, tetris peaces and numberblobs. Ohhh and the dice I mentioned above.
And so, my friends, we've had a lovely time together, me and my son.
He had fun and learned by playing all these games and we spent quality time together. I said it before and wrote a whole article about learning while being in vacation, as we did this time too.
I noticed my son is creative too. He's too creative and sometimes can be too much. Every time I come with a new idea or a new worksheet, a new exercise, he wants to reproduce it in his own way. He's so excited to present his idea, he doesnt finish the task I gave him. He designes his own idea and only afterwards continues with the task. Anyways, I will give you some examples in my next post.
Tgabk you guys for reading,
Have a lovely week 🧡
Missdeli