Win, Lose, or Draw - Homeschool style.

Anyone remember "Win, Lose, or Draw!"? It was a sorta cheesy game show based primarily on Pictionary. (You can read about it in more detail HERE.)

So what's the homeschool version? Simple: play the game, award points instead of money, and for your cards of items to be drawn, use vocabulary words or terms from subjects you're currently studying. For instance, as we're learning American History right now, some of our terms might be "The Mayflower" or "Pocahontas". I write a bunch of these on plain index cards* and we use a large dry erase board to work with.

To make the game fair, because I already know every potential answer, I work only as an "artist" - not a guesser. And we don't use teams. Everyone not drawing (but me, when I'm not the artist) has a chance to guess the answer. The person who gets the answer right in under 30 seconds gets 15 points; if it takes between 30 and 60 seconds, it's 10 points; between 60 and 90 seconds, it's 5 points; between 90 and 120 seconds is 2 points, and after that the round ends and no points are awarded. The person with the most points at the end of the game gets bragging rights. We actually have a notepad where we've been recording the winners and how may points they earned. And yeah, because I can't guess, I'm nowhere in the winner's circle. *Elaborate sigh*. ;) To determine who's the artist, we simply take turns. Everyone draws an equal number of times.

We've played this game with science terms, history terms, Bible heroes and more. We usually use a mix from several subjects to make things more interesting. This is a fun "rainy day" game or a good game to play if your kids are showing signs of "spring fever" and can't seem to focus on their regular lessons.

*I cut the index cards into five pieces so that we aren't wasting them and after we've played one game, we keep the cards for another one - and write on the backs.