Game Schooling - Dread Pirate

While not technically an "educational" game, Dread Pirate is a beautifully crafted family game. It's fast moving and suitable for players of all ages. For the younger set, counting dice and planning a route provide some educational value. For the older set, the pirate lore on the playing cards provides an entertaining education about famous pirates.

St. Paul Winter Skate

Wells Fargo WinterSkate rink in St. Paul is a beautiful place to skate!

We went for the ambiance and loved the holiday lights, the horse-drawn carriage clip-clopping down the street nearby, and the cozy warming house!

Inside the warming house, looking out on the rink!

Museum of Russian Art

One of Mane's Christmas gifts this year was getting to pick out her own matryoshka doll from Russia! We ordered from: Matryoshka Dolls. And then we took a trip to The Museum of Russian Art.

The museum is practically right in our back yard (though not quite so close as the Minneapolis Institute of Art), right off 35W and Diamond Lake Road, and we couldn't believe we'd never been there!

Current displays include "Winter Holidays in the Soviet Era," with "New Year" ornaments, memorabilia, and propaganda from the time when the Soviet Union forbid the celebration of Christmas and tried to replace it with the New Year. Another exhibit called "Life on the Edge of the Forest" celebrated the woodwork and forests of Russia, primarily with displays of window frames and distaffs:

A third display had watercolor paintings of mushrooms by current artist, Alexander Viazmensky. His paintings are used in botanical texts because of their accuracy and detail. 

The permanent collection included beautiful works depicting the Russian countryside and some small churches:

Thousand Word Thursday - Advent/Chanukah

Week 1

Week 2

Chanukah Picture Books

1st Night of Chanukah

Wordless Wednesday - This MN Girl is Finally Learning to Ice Skate

Game Schooling - Sequence

She won!

Sequence comes in a bazillion different forms (States & Capitals, Letters, Numbers, Bible, Travel, Jumbo...), but all we've got here is the original playing card version. I realized as I was playing with my friend's 5yr old the other day how valuable this game is, not only for number recognition, but also for eye scanning and tracking skills (same principle as word finds). This is helpful for both the pre-reader and readers, who are building fluency. Having read a whole lot about dyslexia, I'm aware that eye training exercises can be part of skill-building and therapy for kids with dyslexia. Hats off to another fun learning game!

We let the little guy have the edge of the board for his tokens!