Games for sanity, or at least a little fun

Pleasant distractions are welcome, especially in this time of pandemic when we are trapped inside with the same people, day after day after day.  A recent New York Times article touted the value and joy of table top games.  Which is great, and it recommended a couple of good games (Patchwork and Japir), but they left out some of our favorites. 
We have a lot of games, as I've posted before, so I'm here to correct add to their list.

Carcassonne
Quirkle
Century Spice Road
Pandemic the Cure
VivaJava
King Domino
Xenon
Bonanza
Dominion
Wits and Wagers
Codenames
Las Vegas Dice
Dixit
Anomia
Geistes Blitz
Hey That's My Fish!
Gobblet
Trambahn
San Juan
Citadels
Sheriff of Nottingham

and so many more....

So how to pick?  I'd want to know about who you've got stuck in your house with you.

Want to buy a gateway game?  Quirkle and/or Carcassone

Party game?  Anomia, Wits and Wagers, Dixit, or Codenames

Need something quick and easy to learn?
Quirkle, Las Vegas Dice, Wits and Wagers

Some pre-reader or not-yet-fluent readers?  Remember, just because a kid isn't reading, doesn't mean they can't clean the table with you.
 How about Quirkle, Hey That's My Fish, Dixit, Gobblet, Geistes Blitz, Las Vegas Dice, King Domino, or Carcassone

Only two of you?  Try Gobblet, Carcassone, Quirkle, Hey That's My Fish!, Trambahn, San Juan, ...

For more details on each game and suggestions and ideas for more games, check out BoardGameGeek

If you want to play virtually with friends there are a few resources to try, TableTop Simulator and Tabletopia are some I've heard of.

Got a specific question or need?  Ask me, and I'll offer an opinion.
Let me know what your favorites are.  (but don't say Monopoly, please)

Universal Slack

I want to introduce you to a most useful concept

Granting Universal Slack

I just got off the phone with Janice, who had to tell me that a surgery for our big rescue dog had to again be rescheduled to some date that is not yet known.  I said of course, and that I hoped she was staying well in these crazy days.  She almost cried, and said "Thank you for making this easy" - because other folks had been making it hard.

So, don't be that person.  Don't make it harder for anyone else right now.  Things kinda suck at the moment.  They just do.  It's hard enough, grant folks some slack.  Grant Universal Slack, to everyone.  Including yourself. 

Universal slack means acting with patience regardless of how you're feeling.  It means remembering that nothing about the current state of affairs is anything like normal, for anyone, and we're all just doing the best we can.  Universal slack means granting it to someone who isn't ready to reciprocate.
It means remembering that what is really important is how we treat each other, and that real character is shown when things aren't going your way.  And it's ok to screw up, just try again.  and again.

We're going to figure this out together, somehow.  Somehow, some day, we'll be on the other side of all of this mess.  What we'll remember is how we stood together, how we treated each other.

So cut each other some slack, ok?

I love you enough to share some cuteness
Here's a picture of two of our foster kittens

and our eighty pound rescue dog who won't be having surgery anytime soon

Make bad art

The act of imagination is an act of survival

To learn is human
To engineer is human
To create is human

Create because it feels good, not because the product is good, but because the process is.  It fufills a basic human drive to effect change, create, express.  It's good to feel good. But, if you need an excuse, make art because making art is good for us, like vegetables and exercise level good.

Remember when you were little?  You'd make something and not know that it was "bad"?  Mud pies were real.  You'd draw a picture and it was so satisfying, no, it didn't look like what you'd intended, but it felt good to do it, you liked the colors, the shape, the way it felt.  You'd hear a song, it gave you shivers, and then maybe you'd sing it, with no thought to if you were "good".

Then, probably, somewhere, you got feed back that didn't feel so good.  You handed someone a picture and the tone when they asked "what is this?" stung. Or your fourth grade music teacher told you to just mouth the words instead of singing. 

When I was a little kid I would sing, all the time.  Real songs I'd heard (or mis-heard), songs I made up, pretty random, but to me it made sense.  It was comforting.  Some time in 6th grade I learned that maybe this wasn't socially acceptable. (ya, late bloomer here)
[I think it was when I got peeved with a friend on the play ground and loudly sang at her "Anything you can I can do better, I can do anything better than you!"  You get a certain sort of rep when you do shit like that.]

Even as a teen my brother and I would play a game where we would only respond to each other with snippets of song.  Huh.  Firelord and I found ourselves doing that when the full implications of COVID19 started to hit us.  "It's the end of the world as we know it" "We didn't start the fire, 'cause the worlds been burning since the world's been turning" "Staying alive, staying alive"
So, ya, I guess I haven't really outgrown it.  It feels good.

There's research out there that shows that art is good for you. 
Making art is good for you.  The  objective quality of your work is irrelevant. 
Play.
Make art because it feels good. 
Call it a mediation if you need an excuse. 
Do it to stay sane. 
Do it to model for your kids and community this oh-so-valuable survival mechanism.

learn anything, go anywhere - virtually

I am one of those awful people who leaves stuff out so I can see it and be reminded to deal with it.  It's a mess, but it mostly works for me.
I do the same thing with tabs on my browser, but when I opened my computer this morning and realized that I had 52 tabs open, I knew I needed to do something.  Even I have my limits.

Here it is, a list of some of the resources I've found in the last couple of days for keeping a kid busy at home.  I was going to sort it all out in, write several {absolutely brilliant} blog posts with specific topics and ages in mind.  But, fuck it.  I don't have time and I'm moving on.

So here's a brain dump, I hope you have some fun poking around.  Oh, and check out your local library's website.  They'll almost certainly have many resources there like Kanopy, Hoopla, Overdrive, Flipster and Mango

Remember that this is not all about your kids.  It's about you too.  You never know, you might find something of interest here for you too.


Open Culture lists free and education media on the web

PBS listed 19 museums you can visit from home
Paris Musees has thousands of images you can access for free
Broadway shows you can access from home
list of virtual field trips
Adventure Journal has a list of live feeds of animals
U.S. National Parks virtual tours via Googles Hidden Worlds of the National Parks
Geoguesser is a fun geography game G
List of other Google maps games

50 birds and the sounds they make
The NYPL is offering an app that lends e-books for free

There are many free courses on line
Crash Course has some really amazing/fun/wonderful educational classes/videos
Disney Imagineering in a Box
Ivy League Courses on line for free
Coursera also has many free on-line classes
the Khan acadamy has free on-line educational classes and videos
Doodle with Mo, lunch art for kids on the Kennedy Center's youtube channel

Giant list of ideas for being home with kids
Here's a website of Virtual School Activities, virtual tours of museums and zoos around the world.
Amazing Educational Resources is a website of crowd shared found resources
Engineering ideas for kids to try at home
another crowd sourced list of ideas

Netflix has tons of documentaries and educational videos (hint, anything w/ David Attenbough is excellent)  Also, I just learned that you can do a Netflix party!

And finally, if your school is going to make your kid to school at home, you might find this helplful -the  Parents guide to Google Classroom

Sudden Homeschooling

So, here are a few notes I made for myself when brainstorming for emergency homeschooling - no complete thoughts here, but perhaps it will spark something for you (or for me to flesh out!)

chill the f out

routine vs schedule
neighborhood community/support

chores
  you are useful you are appreciated you are notice you are an important member of the family

acting things out, making up stories
make videos?

whereto find how to pick educational videos - kanopy
david attanbough, crash course


read aloud
make stuff - art, write, comic books (both)
 exercise - dance party, hoolahoop!, juggling, poi,

audio books (librivox, library, hoopla,
hand work/ crafts - crochet, knit, art, weaving
scheduling
math (place values) real life - money, cooking,  books -beast acadamy, a o ps, math u see (videos)
legos
games
creativity
library - what do they have at your local one? free stuff, e stuff
virtual museums
google
nature watching
music - practice an instrument, chord charts, free songs
art - so many links!
google map games, geoguesser
languages duolingo, muffy,
science - how does soap work?  what is a virus?