"He had a game for everything," she says. To reinforce social studies, he would lead his seven children in a round of current-events hopscotch. To teach math, he'd cook up a make-believe stock market game. "My dad just loved to learn--he still does--and he passed that on to us," she says. Judy, now a mother of five, has followed her dad's lead, with similar games.
More than 500 parents who wrote to us have found ways to blur the lines between home and school, to make sure the classroom isn't the only place to learn. Some have tried to sneak troublesome subjects into their kids' favorite games; others have simply made the process of asking questions and finding answers an everyday ritual. What works best? Nearly every parent suggested this: Keep learning playful. The biggest hits, they told us, are ideas that don't have the feel of homework but are simply new ways to have a good time together. In this package we have compiled our favorite ideas.
Jackie Fitzpatrick is a freelance writer who lives with her husband and two children in Milford, Connecticut.
