{"id":4485,"date":"2017-09-26T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T15:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=4485"},"modified":"2019-12-18T09:11:52","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T17:11:52","slug":"homework-the-fun-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=4485","title":{"rendered":"Homework the FUN Way"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone loves to play games. \u00a0They&#8217;re engaging, motivating, and fun. \u00a0And from an educational perspective, they can be a powerful learning tool. \u00a0Here&#8217;s what games can do:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>reinforce skills learned in the classroom<\/li>\n<li>develop mental math skills<\/li>\n<li>encourage strategic thinking<\/li>\n<li>foster mathematical communication<\/li>\n<li>build confidence<\/li>\n<li>engage parents<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But one of the best things about games is that they offer meaningful practice in a way where kids actually\u00a0<em>want<\/em>\u00a0to do math. \u00a0That&#8217;s because games, by their very nature, are fun. \u00a0It&#8217;s not too hard to entice a child to play a game. \u00a0And because of that, games offer important practice in a way that worksheets can&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to homework, we need to tap into the innate interest and motivation that games provide so that we can help parents sneak in some important math reinforcement. \u00a0It&#8217;s no secret that the more engaged parents are in their child&#8217;s education, the better their children do in school. \u00a0And current research says that homework can be effective when it piques students&#8217; interests, doesn&#8217;t take too long, and allows repeated exposure to master new skills. \u00a0Games fit the bill on each of these.<\/p>\n<p>So let&#8217;s make it easy to engage\u00a0ALL\u00a0parents in their child&#8217;s learning by periodically sending home games for homework instead of worksheets.<\/p>\n<p>This is where our\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/familymathnight.com\/kits\/powerpack.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" shape=\"rect\">Power Packs<\/a>\u00a0come in. \u00a0These Power Packs are filled with engaging dice games created specifically for parents to play with their children. \u00a0Not only are the games fun but we took great care to design them around the skills students are learning in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>Each Pack comes with the games and game pieces needed so all you have to do is pop the Pack in students&#8217; backpacks. \u00a0It&#8217;s as simple as that. \u00a0Soon, parents and kids will be enjoying the games together &#8211; not to mention each other&#8217;s company!<\/p>\n<p>To give you an idea how this might work as a part of your classroom routine, we put together an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/familymathnight.com\/pdf\/PowerPackParentLetter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" shape=\"rect\">introductory letter<\/a>\u00a0and weekly game\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/pdf\/PowerPackTake-HomeSlip.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" shape=\"rect\">take-home slip<\/a>\u00a0(2 pages) that you can send home to families. \u00a0And with conferences coming up, it&#8217;s the perfect opportunity to introduce the game packs to parents. \u00a0In fact, you may also want to share this\u00a0fabulous\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2kmTymH\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" shape=\"rect\">TED Talk<\/a>\u00a0that underscores the importance of practice &#8211; or what the speaker calls the\u00a0<em>learning zone<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the Power Packs are also perfect for your Family Math Night event. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/familymathnight.com\/pdf\/PowerPackFlyer.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" shape=\"rect\">Here&#8217;s how<\/a>\u00a0we use them at our events.<\/p>\n<p>As always, our goal is to support you in your support of parents. \u00a0If you have any questions about our\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/familymathnight.com\/kits\/powerpack.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" shape=\"rect\">Power Packs<\/a>, or any of our\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/familymathnight.com\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" shape=\"rect\">Family Math Night\u00a0products<\/a>, feel free to email\u00a0us at info@familymathnight.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone loves to play games.  They\u2019re engaging, motivating, and fun.  And from an educational perspective, they can be a powerful learning tool.  Here\u2019s what games can do:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>reinforce skills learned in the classroom<\/li>\n<li>develop mental math skills<\/li>\n<li>encourage strategic thinking<\/li>\n<li>foster mathematical communication<\/li>\n<li>build confidence<\/li>\n<li>engage parents<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But one of the best things about games is that they offer meaningful practice in a way where kids actually want to do math.  That\u2019s because games, by their very nature, are fun.  It\u2019s not too hard to entice a child to play a game.  And because of that, games offer important practice in a way that worksheets can\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=4485\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,76,161,51,44,184,45,52,234],"tags":[237,69,81,231,61,235],"class_list":["post-4485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activities","category-family-math-night-2","category-fractions-kids-and-math-3-5","category-kids-and-math-3-5","category-kids-and-math","category-elementary-mathematics-2","category-number-sense","category-number-and-operations","category-take-home-kits","tag-estimation-skills","tag-family-math-night","tag-family-math-night-activities","tag-math-night","tag-number-sense-2","tag-power-packs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Homework the FUN Way - Karyn&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=4485\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homework the FUN Way - Karyn&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Everyone loves to play games. They\u2019re engaging, motivating, and fun. And from an educational perspective, they can be a powerful learning tool. Here\u2019s what games can do:  reinforce skills learned in the classroom develop mental math skills encourage strategic thinking foster mathematical communication build confidence engage parents  But one of the best things about games is that they offer meaningful practice in a way where kids actually want to do math. That\u2019s because games, by their very nature, are fun. It\u2019s not too hard to entice a child to play a game. And because of that, games offer important practice in a way that worksheets can\u2019t.   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