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!)
