fun & reading work

[LaughingCat]

DD and I have really been butting heads worse than ever lately with reading work.  She would just like to be done with it, she feels she's made huge leaps (which she has), but ignores all the continuing problems - really lots of tween style complaining --  anyway, long story short is I'd like to find something fun that we can do as part of working on reading.   What have you all done that your DC really enjoyed and learned from?

 

So far past winners have been mostly games and more related to VT than reading (and sadly I find I am not really a 'gamer' at this level :sigh:)

Blink

Spot It

Set

Ping Pong

(to my shock), she loves bouncing a big stability ball while skip counting (even though she struggles with it) <-- this is the only one I've can see clear improvement from but at least the others I can see the reasoning behind

 

I wish I could find more things she enjoyed that weren't games - but I'd welcome even hearing about more games, if you think your DC enjoyed it and got something out of related to reading (including vision and other side issues).

[PeterPan]

Are you playing puzzles together?  I forget her age, but when I started doing puzzles with dd as part of our VT, we started with say 60 piece and worked up to 200-300.  I'd get two puzzles of the same count and manufacturer and then we'd race.  Melissa and Doug makes some really nice 200 count puzzles you can find on amazon.  Sometimes you can find them in school supply stores.  It's just less common to find those lower count and keep moving the difficulty up but still keep the piece size large.  Or try really small art puzzles that you can do together.  Pomegranate makes some amazing art puzzles.  They children's puzzles will be PLENTY hard enough, and I *think* I saw some even smaller puzzles in a museum shop lately.  But puzzles were fun for us.

 

http://www.pomegranate.com/10pu.html

 

http://www.pomegranate.com/30pu.html  These take several hours with multiple people.  

 

Melissa & Doug Underwater Playground Jigsaw Puzzle, 200-Piece  One of the 200 piece that we worked up to.

 

When you do puzzles, you're working on figure ground, spatial, visual memory, all kinds of stuff.

[Jennifer-72]

Some games we have been enjoying lately are pajaggle, cool circuits and tribbit. I really love the last one. It is great for categorization and problem solving skills.

 

Edited to add: what about some of the language games at super duper? Maybe some of them would be a good fit.

[ElizabethB]

Mad libs?

 

Tweens and younger teens are the only age group that does not like my phonics concentration game, although some homeschooled tweens and teens do enjoy it.

 

Word root bingo. Whatever prefixes, suffixes and roots you are studying, make them into bingo games with a free online bingo game generator. I use skittles and allergy free chocolate chips as markers, you get to eat a few markers while playing and the rest of your markers when finished playing a few rounds. This is always a big hit with all age groups!! I make 4 by 4 cards with no space and every word is on every card, it makes for a fast game with everyone looking for all the words. You have a lookup card with English/Greek or English/Latin, call out the English, students look up the Greek or Latin root or affix, then find it on their card.