Ants in the Pants

Last Monday I began a new thread talking about the games we play in our home. The boys were playing Ants in the Pants, so I decided to snap a few pictures and even got a video for you to see.

At first glance this game does not look very "academic". You look at it and say... this is a game to drive people crazy. All you do is pop the ants and pray they go in the pants. Yep, this is true, but there is more going on than just that.



Your child is learning about distance and trajectory. They have to figure out where to put the ant to get it to "fly" at the right height and distance to get in the pants. You have to work on the alignment to get it into the center of the pants (where it is easier to get it in). You can also work on position words(on, in, over, under, left, right, etc...). You can count the number of ants you got in the pants and compare it to the number of misses.

We also have races with the ants. Which ant can jump the furthest down the kitchen table. This deals with distance as well as the comparison of distances. You can work on words such as which went the furthest, the shortest distance etc. You could get a table measure out and see how far each went quantitatively.



Remember sometimes it's the questions you ask while playing a game that makes it more "academic".