Pick and Draw

I want to tell you about the game Pick and Draw.  This is not an official review or anything.  I’m posting this simply because I like the game and wanted to blog about it!  I won Pick and Draw in a give-away that Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations had.  I won it the day before we flew back to England (back in October), and I had to have it sent to my parents’ US address.  So, I had to wait until my parents could forward it on to me, and we received it just before Christmas.  Thank you to Jolanthe for hosting the give-away and thank you to Rich Davis (the creator of Pick and Draw) for giving it!

All of my children love to draw, so I knew this would be fun for them.  In fact, I enjoyed it myself!  The first day we tried this (at the beginning of Christmas break), my 2 older kids spent at least a few hours drawing with this game.  It was a nice quiet way to spend an afternoon…well quiet except when they were hilariously laughing over their creations!

 

Basically, you pick one card from each pile (which are color-coded and divided by facial feature) and draw a cartoon face using the features you picked.  This was easy enough for my 6-year-old to do, and both kids loved it.  They also enjoyed naming their characters and telling about them.

(Pardon the spaghetti sauce on my son’s face…)

Here are MY pictures:

You can try drawing a character yourself for free by going to the Pick and Draw website…just click THIS LINK.  You can order the game from the website for $10.  The title card says “Game 1,” so I’m hoping he’s planning to make more.  I’d definitely buy another deck!

Medieval History Curriculum

This year we're using The Story of the World: Middle Ages by Susan Wise Bauer. Last year we used the first book in the series, The Story of the World: Ancient Times. Instead of getting the book to read to Isaac this coming year, I decided to get him the audio CDs of the book. This way, he can do his own history lesson while I work with Moriah. I also purchased the activity book that goes with it. The activity books are great because they have wonderful coloring sheets and maps, which you can photocopy for your own children. Also they have reading lists and wonderful activity ideas that bring history to life! Isaac does the coloring sheets and map activities and places them in his history notebook. He also does a timeline. Isaac loves to draw, so I let him draw a picture or symbol for each time block. For 3rd grade, I'll be giving Isaac independent reading assignments in books that go along with our history lessons.

We will be reading Door in the Wall as part of our storytime this year, and I plan to have Isaac do a lapbook on it. Along with the books pictured above, Isaac will also be reading Castles, What Were Castles For?, Once a Mouse, Lon Po Po, Baboushka and the Three Kings, Explor-a-Maze, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, and William Shakespeare and the Globe. If you've never watched Animated Hero Classics, they are wonderful! I look for them on Ebay and have several already. This year Isaac will be watching the DVDs on Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Joan of Arc, Marco Polo, and Christopher Columbus. In Science this year Isaac is studying Earth and Space. Around the time we study the Renaissance, Isaac will read a biography on Galileo as part of his science study. I'm planning to look in charity shops for books of Renaissance art. I particularly want to study da Vinci as part of Isaac's history. I also have a few field trips in mind. It REALLY helps that we live in England!!! We normally go somewhere every Saturday and have already visited loads of castles, but I have in mind 2 particular "big" trips for this year. We are planning to visit Warwick Castle (which is supposed to be the best medieval experience at a castle and also costs a lot--we're going to save our money!) and also the Jorvik Viking Centre in York. We visited it when Isaac was 3 1/2, but it would be so much more to him when he studies Vikings!