Free Learner

What you can learn from Monopoly

As we've all been sick with bad colds around my house, we've not done much "schooly" stuff this week.  And today I played Monopoly with the kids for hours because I was just too sick to do dishes, laundry, cooking, etc.  But it was quite the unschooling experience.  Stuff my kids (one or the other) learned:

• Obviously, math for Tristan, who would be in 1st grade.  He's getting really fast with the exchanges of money.
• The difference between the phrases "make change" and "give you back your change," which were confusing him.
• What a monopoly is in the first place.
• The reason why, late in the game, you may have enough money to pay for rent on Boardwalk with three houses, when at the beginning these costs were totally prohibitive.  It's inflation due to the influx of new money into the system (i.e. the $200 per go-around & by other means).  Money entering the system = inflation; incomes and rents can thus increase.
• Railroads are like that because they really were monopolies, historically.
• Okay, this one was just for me-- the game is based on Atlantic City, which I didn't know until Marvin Gardens rang a bell, and then I looked over at Boardwalk, and I went and Googled it.  Coincidentally I've been watching HBO's Boardwalk Empire, set in Atlantic City during Prohibition.  The colored territories seem to be the neighborhoods of Atlantic City, from the poor row houses to the boardwalk hotels.  And of course, if you could monopolize the booze sales in a neighborhood you'd get much higher prices.  Not so much "rent" as liquor sales?  Houses = speakeasies and hotels = hotels / casinos?  I don't know, but the timing is roughly correct, because the game was evolving during Prohibition and was sold to Parker Brothers in 1934.  In the game, as in Prohibition, you're nowhere without a regional monopoly.
• For both kids: that you need both income and savings.
• How to calculate 10%.
• What it means to mortgage a property.
• What a dividend is.
• Reading (Tristan was semi-reading his Chance & Community Chest cards).
• Haggling (when we were selling properties to one another).
• The perils of tying up too much capital and being cash-poor.

If someone asked me if we did any homeschooling today my initial reply would be "No, we didn't."  Then I remember the discussion about DNA shared between family members.  And about the Egyptian revolution.  And about the safety of the antiquities museum in Cairo and King Tut's mask.  And Anya saying "They usually get stolen art back eventually but it's usually damaged," which, although it may or may not be true, is a conclusion based on various stories we've read because she's so interested in art history.  "Right," I said.  "Like The Scream."

I find that when you're a homeschooler it can be very easy to start holding yourself up to too high a standard.  Partly, other homeschooling parents will tell you what their schedule or curriculum is but not tell you how much of the time they actually stick to it, leaving you with the impression that their house runs like clockwork while in yours, you can't keep to the same schedule for three days strung together.  Secondly, you hear about so many different things that other kids are doing-- but you can't do all of that.  That's why I was drawn to unschooling in the first place -- why not do what my kids are most interested in, as that's the most efficient learning anyway, and it solves the problem of What to Focus On.  And most importantly, even when we aren't doing any deliberate learning, like today, there is still a lot of learning going on.

US foreign policy in 2 minutes 41 seconds

Perhaps my second favorite scene from Good Will Hunting:

 

 

My absolute favorite scene, of course, is the bar scene.  The more I read about the dubious educational value of college and the incredible amount of debt incurred, the more I tend to agree with this:

 

 

The only thing that's unrealistic in the second speech is that I rarely have so little as a $1.50 late fee at the public library.  My impression is that we pay so many late fees we should have our names on a plaque somewhere, as devoted contributors to the library.

Treasure trove of free educational videos

This morning someone alerted me to the online Khan Academy, where you can find over 1,600 short videos (usually 10-15 minutes) on math, history, science, and economics.  Truly an amazing site!  There is no registration required.  Just look around and click something.  If you were worried about teaching your kid algebra, have no fear... they're good videos, and you can pause, re-watch, or rewind as needed.  Notice they also have SAT math test prep.

Speaking of math, another site I'd recommend for those with younger kids is The Math Worksheet Site (check out what you get with a subscription), because you can customize the worksheets your kids are doing.  This seems much better than buying workbooks for a few reasons.  First, you can give them more or less practice at a concept, depending on how fast they pick it up.  Second, you can make the problems a little easier or set it to print fewer problems per page to make something new less intimidating.  Third, Anya always objected to the stupid drawings and decorations that are somehow supposed to make math workbooks more interesting, but which she thinks are condescending.  These printed math worksheets are as simple as possible.

Hurrah for the internet!