File Folder Game Tips

After making a bunch of these the past few weeks, I thought I'd share what I've learned.

I bought 2 books from Carson-Dellosa, which require coloring, cutting, mounting, and laminating. This is a lot of work! I also bought 2 of the ready made sets, which turn out to be pretty expensive, but you do have the coloring already done and the inside of the folders mounted. I think I ended up getting the books for 12 dollars, and they each have approximately 40 games. The ready-made sets come with I think 6 games for $20. You do have to factor in the cost of folders, etc. but the books still come up to be a much better deal if you have the time to devote to it.

I took one of the books to Staples and had them copy all of the pieces (not the mounts) onto card stock. This cost about $15. If you want to have your pieces on card stock, I highly recommend this method. It saved so much time!

The thing with file folder games is you end up cutting out the same pieces several times. First you color it and cut it out. Then you mount it on card stock and cut it out. Then you laminate it and cut it out. Having it copied on to card stock cuts out one of those steps. I have started taking a few short cuts along the way though. So, I tear the page out of my book and color it. Then I laminate the whole page without cutting anything out. Then after it's laminated I cut the individual pieces out. Yes, this isn't quite as sturdy as the other way, but I figure since this will be home use rather than classroom use it will be just fine. So, that's my biggest tip.

I've been struggling trying to figure out a way to laminate the whole folder and spent the day searching the internet for a larger machine. I found the candidate for us, but in the meantime I had games to laminate! I tried Contact paper on several of them with varying degrees of success. Yes, they're protected but not very pretty. I finally took a laminating pouch and stuck one half of the file folder in it and laminated it. Then I took another pouch with the other half of the folder in it and laminated. Then I turned it inside out and ran it through the machine again to insure adhesion to all sides. It worked like a charm! There's about 1/4 inch that hangs out the top, and the same about of the tab sticks out. Next time I'll just trim a bit of the tag off. It looks so nice and was relatively simple, especially compared to the Contact paper. I'm feeling quite pleased with myself at this point.

Tomorrow I'm going to try putting a few of the pages in one of the kids boxes and let them color them. Then I'll mount them and make up the game. That way I don't have to color it and they get an extra exposure to the subject matter.

First Language Lessons AKA Another Peace Hill Press Rave

We used First Language Lessons when Mr. Blue was in first grade and have been using it steadily ever since. He's on Level 3, while Miss Pink is on Level 1 at an advanced rate. She already knows most of the information covered from listening in on her brother's lessons. I have enjoyed Level 3 so much, I ended up getting Level 4 for Miss Green to go through quickly before starting Rod and Staff grade 6 next September. We've bounced around so much with her in grammar, but I can really see her making progress in this, even in the 2 weeks we've been using it.

We've used Rod and Staff (grade 3), Easy Grammar (3/4), and Learning Language Arts Through Literature (Orange and Gray.) Rod and Staff was really okay, but she decided on the first day she didn't like their tone. Every day after that was a chore. Easy Grammar was okay as well, but I didn't feel she really retained much. LLATL is probably a decent program, but I just felt overwhelmed by it. The teacher's manuals are very confusing to me, but that could be because I never found the time to sit down with them before using them.

First Language Lessons is truly open and go, which is a necessity here. I have 4 kids schooling now, so the less prep work I have to do the better. My kids enjoy the poetry memorization more than I ever thought they would. Everyone from Miss Purple to Miss Green has memorized all the poetry for the 3 levels we've done thus far. I try to find recordings of them to listen to in the car and Miss Purple usually asks to hear them above any music I might offer. It's quite interesting to listen to her recite poems.

It's also lead to other discoveries. For example last week Mr. Blue was memorizing A Tragic Story by William Makepeace Thackeray, and the only recording I could find was a choral arrangement sung by a boys choir. We ended up discussing boys choirs, falsettos, and music in general for a long while. I keep trying to get Mr. Blue to sing in a falsetto with them, but he's not falling for it.

Long story short, if you're looking for an open and go, gentle yet thorough introduction to grammar, go get First Language Lessons!