Tile Placement: Game Mechanics 101

Welcome back to game mechanics 101! Today's topic is tile  placement. It is a broad subject since the essence of the mechanic is that you have tiles that you place to construct some thing. We have had a lot of tile placement games over the years. Even though they utilize the same mechanic, they feel very different.

Square tiles are very common in these games. Carcassonne,  our first hobby board game, uses the tiles to build a map with cities, roads, and cloisters. Glenmore II is similar but each person makes their own individual map and it is combined with a rondel mechanic. In Alhambra, the tiles for your city must be purchased.

Between 2 Cities is another city building game but it doesn't only use squares. It changes things up with some rectangular tiles and building with teammates. Castles of Mad King Ludwig has a variety of shapes to construct your castle. There is even a mash up of these 2 games, Between 2 Castles of Mad King Ludwig.

With Tetris style tiles, Baren Park brings tile placement into the puzzle realm. The pieces build your zoo but they need to interlock efficiently to win the game. Patchwork is another of these type of games but adds a little economy as you need to make money to buy tiles.

Share with us your favorite tile placement game or one you are interested in trying. I for one am interested in trying Cottage Garden. Join us next week for roll and write games.

A Week of Fun Leading Up to Roald Dahl Day

I actually didn't know Roald Dahl had a day. A few weeks ago I found out that September 13th is Roald Dahl day and I knew we could have a lot of fun with that in our homeschool.

Diary of a First Child has a great list of things to do, eat, and watch. Her list includes a link to the entire BFG movie on youtube, which I didn't even know existed. We watched BFG On Monday. On Tuesday we ate peach cups for snack while watching James and the Giant peach on Netflix. We also checked out Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (that's the newer one) and Matilda from the library. We are planning to watch Chocolate factory as a family and have a candy extravaganza. I picked up some peanut butter M&M's and Sour Patch Kids for the occasion. Unfortunately, Willy Wonka candy is not gluten free.

We also read The Enormous Crocodile and are reading Matilda because it is mister's favorite. We haven't read either before and they have been so much fun. The Enormous Crocodile is a quick read and is very silly. It is a great Roald Dahl book if you are reading with younger kids with shorter attention spans.



 

October

Have you missed me? I have! Last Sunday I pulled into the driveway with our dog in the kid carrier. It hit the curb and flipped. The dog is fine, but I came out with a sprained right wrist. That means I can do very little, typing included. I did want to pop in and say hello though and share a bit of what we have been doing the last couple of weeks...

Jayne makes a ruff for history class

Halloween decor went up

Jayne and I made this just days before the sprain...thank you pintrest!

Jayne learns about cells!

on the left is the animal cell, on the right is the plant cell. Our organelles are dried currants and the nucleus is a prune.

Dance

Getting ready to go to class

Jayne had his first dance class on Thursday. He was about as adorable as he could get when I got to watch his routine he learned. I asked him what he thought of it and he said he wants to do that every day! I'm glad he enjoyed it. Plus it is a built in day of P.E. each week which was part of the point to start with. His group only had 2 in it, so we have to switch to another time. It is fine though. His new time means that his Daddy will get to come too and I will have someone to chat with while Jayne is in class.

Dancing his very first routine. So proud of him! He looked like a natural.

K Week 2

Still having a blast here! A certain someone, I'll let you guess who, has been quite a bit less attentive the last 2 days because his daddy has been home during school time. We still got everything done including some fun projects. We are both enjoying the curriculum a lot and I don't think we will be making many changes next year. I'll share a bit of what we did this week...

The first part of the week we continued to learn about the first people. We made these coracle boats out of wiki sticks and plastic bags. They did not take on water, but I certainly would not have wanted to ride in one!

Jayne "leveled up" in reading and was so very proud of himself. Leveling up on anything that is real (not a video game) is very exciting because he didn't realize you could level up for real!

History moved to ancient Egypt this week. Jayne is painting an ancient Egyptian gold collar. That has to sit and dry for the next step.

We are still learning about air and weather this week. Today we made a snake and  and held it over the heat of the oven. Adam had to force himself to bake a cake to make the heat worth the time. He will be especially sad to have to eat the cake, I'm sure. The snake spun and excitement was to be had.

Here is the finished collar, thank you foamie shapes, the fantastic snake, and out first country marked on the map, Egypt!

It is fun to see what really sticks. He asks me questions about stories he tells me because, "well you know, you ask me questions about The Boxcar Children!" He also is aware of new words in the real world. They mentioned the atmosphere during the weather on the news and Jayne asked how they new about the atmosphere. I love that he thinks our home holds all the secrets to the universe. I'm glad he think he has a great teacher at least.

First Day of K

Today was Jayne's first day of Kindergarten! All the planning was entirely worth it because it went quickly and efficiently. It only took us 2 hours and that includes P.E. time! It will take a little longer next week because we will start regular reading lessons, this week we are doing review. I will see how things go over the course of the year, but after today I think my curriculum choices are going to be a great fit. We started the day with what will be our first day of school tradition: belgian waffles and a first day pic. Jayne chose apple pie filling and carmel drizzle for today. We got a few shots of his first day pic, but this is my favorite even though it is a little blurry.

Then we cuddled up on the couch and did our reading. While Jayne did some computer stuff from our Internet linked encyclopedia, I checked off what we had done and got the second half of the school day ready. Crocie came out to help Jayne through math, reading, and science pages and then it was time for P.E. We played bocce ball and watered the plants. He played on sesamestreet.org while I fixed an extra special lunch. I made him a PB&J with blue jelly (his favorite color), angry birds crackers in a blue cup, pineapple in a blue cup with a blue sword pick, and string cheese. I have never seen him so excited about a meal! Now we are done for the day. We did a great job this morning and are going to spend the rest of the day relaxing after a very busy weekend.

Reading time: 2 Encyclopedia sections, Boxcar Children, Bible, and Nursery rhyme

Passport is Here

Jayne's first month of Little Passports has arrived! It came much faster than expected, arriving before we start school. The look on his face when he saw he had a package was priceless.He was a bit disappointed to find out it was not a toy. I don't know why he seems to think he should be getting piles of toys in the mail. We certainly haven't given him any reason to think that. We read the letter from Sam and the excitement was back. Especially when he found out that he would get a package every month.



Checking out all that is inside.

The most exciting task f decorating the suitcase with stickers.

He had to lay out everything for his daddy to see.

He will be needing help with the activity sheets and online activities since he is not a strong reader yet, but he is looking forward to it and so am I!

Getting Ready For School

My blogging break is going to be shorter than I thought! We have decided to start school on August 6th. That is a whole month earlier than I originally thought we would do. It will work out great for our family though. Running from August through the end of April is going to be great because we had a really hard time doing anything in May. It was busy and nice and we just didn't hit the books like we intended. Jayne and I are both very excited to get started on school and I actually gave Jayne the decision on the start date and he is the one who chose sooner.

In the last 4 weeks of our summer break we are going to be doing lots of reading and swimming at the pool. Our book reading slowed after we started The Borrowers. The book is quite a bit slower than the movie and Jayne just wasn't connecting with it. Today we started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and it is a huge hit! It is very readable and has a couple of pictures per chapter to keep his mind from wandering so much. He loves the movies and can't wait to compare them to the book.

As we are getting ready to get started for the school year, I came across the "So You Wanna Homeschool Class" I signed up and am going to give it a try. I found it on samsnoggin.com and here is a little of what they are going to cover during the 1 week online class:

Here’s what you’ll learn over the seven days of the course:

• How to find the legal requirements in your area and fulfill those
• How to find and choose curricula and other resources that work with your values, style, and needs
• Specific ways to organize your homeschooling materials
• The secret to successful homeschool planning and goal-setting
• Stellar record-keeping techniques
• Where to find your people {how to build your support system}
• The things nobody tells you to do during your first week of homeschooling

I am really looking forward to the class and learning some new things to grow my homeschool confidence. If you want to join me, I am in the very first class, which is also half off and comes with a free copy of the book I might add!

Here is The Class link: http://starthomeschoolingnow.com/the-class/