Unschooling Blog, Vol. 31: Learning Odds and Evens For Fun! - Creating an Original Mega Man-Themed Board Game.
Our dice game, based on the Mega Man video game series.
The Idea.
After watching some videos of the Mega Man, Powered Up game for PSP, my son wanted to play fight in his room, with himself fighting as the "bosses" and myself as Mega Man. He really loves the different powers and attributes each boss possesses, and often enjoys creating his own bosses. After a hard day's work teaching all day, there was only so much "ninja fighting" I could do, so I eventually suggested we draw or color. We ended up making a Mega Man dice/board game, and Isaiah (my son) contributed some amazing ideas to the game.
Isaiah, hard at work.
Odds and Evens.
If you look at the first photo of the game closely, you can see that each "boss" space has numbers that, when rolled, determine the outcome of Mega Man's fight with the boss. This was an excellent chance to teach Isaiah about odd and even numbers. I did not plan this. This was my original, "adult" idea, and it was not meant to be "educational." Isaiah naturally wanted to know what odds and evens were, so I explained. This is the real beauty of unschooling. There are no lessons. The point is to play the game. Odd and even numbers are just as means by which to make the game MORE FUN!
Isaiah chose these dinosaurs for the game pieces! Pretty cool!
The Takeaway.
Once again, as always, I wish to reiterate the self-evident truth that NO FORMAL, STANDARDIZED "LESSONS" OR SCHOOL PROJECTS ARE REQUIRED FOR LEARNING. Life is learning, and different skills sets are acquired naturally by all humans as means to accomplish goals! In this case, the goal was to make a fun game!
~KafkA
(Thanks for stopping by! If you missed the last Unschooling Blog, "Unschooling Blog, Vol. 30: Interview with Remarkable Tennis Coach, Keitaro Watanabe," you can find it HERE.)
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
I am unschooled lol from our financial system!
YES! This is very important!
Board games are fun :) I liked to play them when I was young... monopoly, even one old game from USSR that I don't know how is called :D Yeah, they r fun, you only need dice and some luck, but I would suggest you to play chess - the game if kings :)
Yes, I have always wanted to become proficient at Chess, but somehow or another always forget the rules as I do not play regularly. The most fun part about this game was making it, though!
Well, I regret that I haven't began to play chess in childhood, now it's not useful for me :/ I think the most interesting part for your son was to beat you in this game :D
The little kid is adorable!!
Thank you!
Very wonderful @kafkanarchy84 ...upvoted...Blessings
Cheers, @andrewramdas. Thank you!
That's the way to learn :D By playing! So when can we buy this game in the stores ;)? Btw, if ur a fan of megaman u might wanna check this Steam game out: http://store.steampowered.com/app/322110/20XX/
Hi friend good morning, yes life is education, life itself teaches us everything.I respect your decision, we should have right to think and take decisions for our kids. Unschooling topic gain much popularity in our community, children should learn everything from observing them selves ,we should leave them free to fly higher and higher. Thanks for sharing such a valuable lesson.Don't you like to come my blog if you don't help me, I will be no where here, you can see yourself everything, wish you good luck and happiness.
Yes, I try to visit as many of the blogs I follow as possible, but sometimes they do not show up on the home page due to time differences. I enjoyed your post about your son and sleepwalking. You shouldn't rely on just me though, for support here! You have a good blog. It takes time and networking as well as good content, which you have. I will definitely try to vote when I can!
Great. Thanks for sharing. I'm starting to follow you.
Cheers, thank a lot.
Cute kid I used to play board games when I was young.