A Differentiated Family Night

Since starting school I have a new school planner. I love it. It’s the The Ultimate Homeschool Planner by Debra Bell and published by Apologia Press. In the front there is a page for setting family priorities for the year. One of the goals I set this year as a family priority (with my husbands approval of course) was to try and have a family night. This is sometimes difficult with various activities but we are trying.

Last night was a spur of the moment family night. We usually intend to try to do this on Thursday, but at dinner we started talking about a new game that Little Man got for his birthday, Qwirkle. Little Man and I had played once before but this was the first time all three of us had played.

Qwirkle is a fun game that has an unlimited amount of strategic options. It requires logical thinking and is recommended by Mensa as well as Hoagies Gifted Education. So this game is great to help my son stretch his mind muscle a bit. In fact, with his emotional intensity very active you might have thought that he were on speed had you watched him play. He was jumping up and down, rocking back and forth, twirling round and round. He was quite excited.

The game is very similar to Dominoes, but rather than playing with dots you are playing with shapes and colors. Each player has 6 tiles. 
You can then play as many tiles in your turn as possible by making lines of matching colors or matching shapes but not both. The maximum number in a line can only be 6, which represents the number of shapes. So you can have a straight line of 6 different color clovers or a straight line of  6 different shapes. You keep score by adding the number of tiles you play, by counting the number that you add to each line. If you finish a line you get a bonus 6 points, If you go out first you also get a bonus 6 points. 



When we got started, I was taking a pretty good lead while Little Man and Beloved were neck and neck. As we got toward the middle of the game, Mr. took the lead, and I fell to last. It came down to the last few rounds though when all three of us were neck and neck. Finally, with me having the last playable tile, little man squeaked in a win with 1 point. He was so thrilled to have beaten both of his parents. I can not express in words how thrilled he was.

This game, which is simple to play but with a wide array of strategic and logical challenge options, made for a really fun family night. I just love when we are building memories as a family. 


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