Really wish my kids could spend tthe whole day building forts

[grantmeawish]

My house and yard are turned into to forts everyday.  I should be doing school right now, but they are playing so well, and the 3 year old is engaged.  I really want to get through some more subjects but I hate to tear them away!  Its already been a stressful morning with ds8 .  I think he is bright, but if something doesn't come easy to him, he doesn't want to do the work like math.  He wants to do all the problems in his head and if he can't he melts down saying he can't do, BUT when I have him write it out, he knows exactly how to do it.  He just didn't want to do the work involved!  So that is also why I am content to let them play right now.  I am getting some laundry done.  No point to this post just sort of venting :001_smile:

[strange_girl]

My kids are young, but...yeah, I've definitely been known to call off school when the kids are having a blast together. :)

[happypamama]

Yes to all of this!  Can't do it every day, but some days, it definitely happens -- sometimes board games, outside play, forts, or Legos are more important than book learnin'.

 

[mom2bee]

Of course you can spend days building forts! Heck, one of my friends--a guy, 25yo at the time and still in college, turned his entire town house/apartment into a fort for a week.

 

He'd had 2 roommates and they moved out and he was the last one left before the semester ended, so he used all the blankets and sheets to make a giant fort throughout his house. He told a group of us (also college students) and no one could pretend that it wasn't cool. So build the fort, internalize the joy that comes with the day.

 

Also, I find it fun to talk about math casually as we do some really normal or fun things. So talk about place value and ask how many groups of 10 are in 37 and work on math facts as you build the fort. No one says you cant do things orally while doing something unrelated and hands on.

[chelsmm]

We actually did math today in a fort on the back deck  :)  My ds spent his free time after breakfast building it, and so math class was held in the fort.  We also did our read aloud in the fort.  One of the reasons I am homeschooling is so that my kids can have fun and be kids and learn all at the same time.  I want them to be able to learn in whatever way works for them.  DS often does is daily reading work in a tent in the playroom.

[sewingmama]

Nothing wrong with building forts. My brother wasnt homeschooled but he spent every minute after school and all weekend building forts in the backyard. Now he is an architect who spends his day designing houses.

[brownie]

Andrew Pudewa rom IEW has a talk on How to Teach Boys That Would Rather Build Forts al Day :)  I've heard it 1.5 times in person but I think he sells it on his website.  He talks about the differences in boys and girls brains and studies on single-sex education,etc...

[lmrich]

Can you read to him in the forts? Maybe even do math in there. But, I think you can let him build forts and be a boy. It is a short time.

[boscopup]

We did math on top of our boy's playground one day this week. It's a bit like a fort (big wooden structure with climber, ladder, slide, etc.)

 

But yeah, some days, I blow off school and let the kids play all day, especially if they're all getting along nicely and keeping everyone entertained outside!!! They're still at the age where we CAN do that. :) This week, the weather has been really nice. We didn't get my whole checklist done. I'm ok with it.

[freeindeed]

I say let them build forts. Taking one day off won't hurt. It will probably help. I plan to take a few off myself when the autumn weather really arrives. :)