Homeschooling via D&D

I live on a hippy commune in virginia. Last winter I agreed to help homeschool a young boy here on the farm 1 a week.

I've been homeschooling a 6 yr old for about 6 months now. The first 1-2 months were really hard. He would negotiate and fight and distract for about 1.5 hours and I usually only got in about 30 mins of lessons in our 2 hour sessions.

I went on a little vacation and hatched a plan. I had stumbled across a set of Dungeons and Dragons rule books. He loves video games and ther Lord of the Rings. I decided to see if I could create a homeschooling cirriculim using dungeons and dragons as the medium and reward mechanism.

It has worked out great. He will focus really hard on the math problems knowing that there might a new item or treasure behind each puzzle he solves. He's using his creative energy to it's fullest potential and he's creating his own way of solving math problems.

We've shot through addition and subtraction in the 1000's, he has had no problems figuring out simple cyphers and finishing number patterns. We've done a lot of pre-algebra.

The charts and graphs of all the skills draw his interest. He is being constantly drilled in simple addition (he does not have a lot of addition memorised, he mostly uses his fingers for addition) by adding modifiers to dice rolls.

And I am having a blast. it has turned somthing I've dreaded into somthing I enjoy. His younger friend has joined him and they sometimes compete to see who can solve the math puzzles first, or cooperate and explain to eachother their methods and shortcuts for solving problems.

Anyhow.. I'm having a blast and it's time to continue our quest to get the Lunar Chain Mail in the ancient temple to Ishtar currently infested by Gnolls (who seek to revive the anciet wyrm Tiamat!)

-bucket

 

That is the most insanely awesome thing I've ever heard. Can I come be homeschooled too?

 

That's great! I love it when you can really fire up a kid's imagination and teach in a FUN way! That's what it's all about.

 

This sounds SO cool!

We create units around the kids' favorite books - and recently dug some fun stuff up based on some movies... but I hadn't thought of using a game! What a truly awesome idea, and the incentive to learn would be built-in
love,
mom

 

Ahh... You're turning his highschool career from one full of barely passing grades to one full of virginity.

 

I'm sorry, but what?

 

Hes implying that the parent is structuring their curriculum around an activity whose practicers tend to be nerdy and socially withdrawn. Shoot, if you look at a lot of gaming fansites their members tend to joke about the lack of social life that they collectively have.

Dont get me wrong, I am not saying that kids shouldnt be allowed to play warcraft or D&D or whatever. But I think that guys point, however trollishly his post was written, was that there should be some balance in the kids life. Homeschooling, lots of gaming, and living at a hippy commune all tends towards one side of the balance. On the other side there is athletics, dating, going out with friends, etc. Then again he is only 6 years old, so maybe it doesnt matter and by the time he starts to enter adolescence his life wont be as one sided as the post makes it sound.

 

Hey, girls game too.

 

I've heard of D and D being used by homeschoolers before. I think there's a website for it somewhere. It's usually older kids though. My five year old loves King Arthur. If I could tailor a whole curriculum around King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, he would be ready for high school in a month.

Kathi

 

Dakota's Mom... DO have a peek at the Sir Cumference books by Cindy Neuschwander... your son would LOVE them! The Magic Tree House has a couple books & companion guides he might be interested in too - we've used those as mini-units They have some fun activities on their website too... looks like the teachers section is down at the moment, but here's the link - http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/magictreehouse/activities.html
love,
mom

 

That is so cool.

I actually had an English teacher in Junior high school do something simpler but similiar. We had our characters who got rewarded when we did well on spelling tests. I remember little of that year anymore, but that game stayed with me.

 

wow what an awesome idea! i wish i had been playing DND when i was 6. maybe i'd have a badass half elf rogue by now. lol i am a DND nerd

 

I had a great 17th level priest once who inherited a dragon from its mother who was dying. She raised it and took him on quests to help him raise gold. His name was Az and his question was always. "What is that? Can I eat it?"

I would homeschool my kids if I had any.

 

That's interesting.

I've been playing since I was in Jr. High which was a looooong time ago. In that time I've managed to have a full life, start a career I love, get married and have two wonderful kids who I now, home school.

I'm not too keen on sports in general, particularly spectator sports but I love to play most sports a bit. I prefer cooperative games rather than competitive games.

In any case, as 6, I don't think this matters much.

The idea that gamers don't date or have lives is rediculous. They do. Unfortunatly they then tend to not find time for gaming. Which is why I have to keep finding new players! *chuckles*

I guess it's all a matter of balance and priorities. I like to have fun and relax. It's a priority for me, along with work, family and love.

 

Double posting blues . . .

 

That was supposed to be facetious.

But I still think there is a grain of truth to it. I tend to find escapist fantasies like that discourage real life.

 

I see nothing wrong with escaping as long one faces real life as well.

 

escapist fantasies...like television and video games? ...ya know, two drug most of america is hooked on already.

 

thats awesome

 

Real life kind of sucks. But filling it with fantasy is never good either. There just has to be balance....too much reality would drive me insane.