How to Include Gaming in Home Schooling
Incorporating gaming into a home schooling curriculum can transform learning into an interactive and engaging experience. Tabletop roleplaying games (RPGs), board games, and educational games can help students develop a wide array of skills, from problem-solving and teamwork to creativity and critical thinking. For homeschooling parents or educators, gaming can be a valuable tool that provides structure while making education fun.
This blog post will guide you through how to effectively integrate gaming into a homeschooling curriculum, focusing on practical steps that align with learning objectives and academic goals.
Why Use Games in Home Schooling?
Before diving into how to include gaming in homeschooling, it’s important to understand why games are beneficial for learning:
Interactive Learning: Games provide an active learning experience where students are engaged in the material through participation rather than passively absorbing information.
Skill Development: Gaming encourages the development of key skills, such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and strategic decision-making.
Multi-Disciplinary Learning: Many games incorporate elements from various academic disciplines, such as math, literature, science, history, and social studies.
Motivation and Engagement: Games can make learning more enjoyable, increasing student motivation and willingness to participate.
Creativity: In RPGs and certain board games, students can build their own worlds, characters, and stories, which stimulates imagination and fosters creative thinking.
Steps for Including Gaming in Your Home Schooling Curriculum
1. Identify Educational Objectives
The first step in incorporating gaming into your homeschooling curriculum is to identify what you want your child to learn through the gaming experience. Set clear learning goals that align with your overall curriculum.
Curriculum Alignment: Ensure that the games you choose align with subjects you are teaching. For example, use math-based games to supplement a math unit or history-based games to bring a historical period to life.
Skill Development: Focus on the skills you want to foster. Do you want to improve problem-solving abilities? Enhance teamwork? Or develop creative thinking? Choose games that align with these goals.
Assessment Goals: Think about how you will assess learning outcomes. This could involve reflection, written summaries, or discussing strategies and learning points after the game.
Consider These Questions:
What subjects can gaming reinforce or enhance?
What skills do you want the gaming activities to build?
How will you assess whether the gaming sessions meet your educational goals?
2. Choose Appropriate Games
Once you have identified your learning objectives, the next step is to select appropriate games that meet those goals. Whether you’re choosing RPGs, board games, or educational games, each game should have a clear link to the subjects or skills you’re focusing on.
RPGs for Creativity and Problem Solving: Tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeon Crawl Classics or Fate are excellent for developing creativity, storytelling, and problem-solving skills. These games require players to navigate complex scenarios, make decisions, and cooperate with others.
Board Games for Strategy and Critical Thinking: Board games such as Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, or Pandemic emphasize strategy and critical thinking. These games teach resource management, planning, and tactical decision-making.
Math and Science Games: Games like Prime Climb or Cytosis are designed specifically to teach math and science concepts in a hands-on and engaging way.
Language Arts and Literature Games: Use story-driven games to encourage reading comprehension, creative writing, and language skills. You could also create game sessions based on literature, asking students to roleplay characters from books or write their own stories.
Game Selection Tips:
Look for games that offer both educational value and fun.
Choose games that are appropriate for your child’s age and skill level.
Select games that tie into the subjects you are covering in your curriculum.
3. Integrate Games into Your Schedule
For gaming to be a productive part of homeschooling, it needs to be intentionally integrated into your daily or weekly schedule. This ensures that gaming is used as a structured learning tool rather than just recreational time.
Designate Gaming Time: Set aside specific times in your schedule for gaming, just like you would for other academic subjects. You could have a “game day” each week or dedicate a certain number of hours for gaming during the week.
Balance Play and Learning: Make sure that gaming sessions are balanced with other forms of learning, such as traditional lessons, projects, or reading. Gaming should complement your curriculum, not replace essential learning activities.
Allow for Flexibility: While structure is important, also allow flexibility. Gaming sessions may take longer than planned, and some activities might be more fruitful than others. Be willing to adjust your schedule as needed to make the most of the gaming experience.
Scheduling Tips:
Dedicate specific times in the week for educational gaming.
Use gaming to break up traditional lessons, offering students a fun, engaging way to apply what they’ve learned.
Ensure gaming sessions are aligned with other subject areas being taught.
4. Foster Learning Through Reflection and Discussion
One of the most effective ways to solidify learning through gaming is to incorporate reflection and discussion into your sessions. After a gaming activity, have your students reflect on their experience and tie it back to academic goals.
Post-Game Reflection: Encourage your student(s) to reflect on the gaming experience by asking questions such as: What decisions did you make? What strategies worked or didn’t work? How did the game relate to what we’re learning in school?
Discussion Questions: Develop discussion questions that relate to the educational objectives of the game. For example, after a historical game, ask how the scenario connects to real historical events.
Journaling or Writing Activities: Incorporate creative writing assignments that ask students to write about their characters or the events that happened in the game. This is particularly useful for RPGs, where storytelling is a core component.
Reflection and Discussion Ideas:
Ask students to describe what they learned from the game and how it relates to their lessons.
Discuss strategies used in the game and how they applied logical or critical thinking.
Have students write journal entries from the perspective of their in-game characters.
5. Track Progress and Assess Learning
Tracking progress and assessing learning outcomes from gaming is critical in ensuring that your educational goals are met. It helps you determine whether gaming is serving its intended purpose and offers opportunities for course correction if necessary.
Set Clear Metrics for Success: Before starting a gaming activity, define what success looks like. This could be as simple as mastering a new strategy, understanding a concept, or demonstrating collaboration and teamwork.
Create Rubrics: Develop rubrics to measure student engagement, decision-making, and learning outcomes. Rubrics can include categories such as participation, creativity, problem-solving, and communication.
Portfolio of Learning: Keep a record of gaming activities and reflections in a portfolio. This allows you to track your student’s progress over time and see how gaming has impacted their learning.
Assessment Tips:
Use rubrics to assess skills like problem-solving, teamwork, and creativity.
Keep a portfolio of gaming reflections and writing assignments.
Set benchmarks for gaming activities, such as mastering new concepts or successfully collaborating with others.
Conclusion
Incorporating gaming into homeschooling offers a dynamic way to enhance learning while keeping students engaged. By identifying educational goals, choosing appropriate games, structuring gaming time, fostering reflection, and tracking progress, you can effectively use gaming as a tool for academic success. Whether you’re using RPGs for storytelling, board games for strategy, or educational games for subject-specific learning, gaming can transform the homeschooling experience into something exciting, fun, and educationally rich.
Start small, experiment with different types of games, and adapt the approach to fit your child’s learning style. With thoughtful planning and implementation, gaming can become a powerful element of your homeschooling curriculum.
