Supplemental Math practice and games

So we have a math menu of sorts, to mix things up when there is too much book work. I'll list them from favorite to least favorite, but these were all welcome breaks from Saxon and Abeka.

Math for Fun- Discovering Patterns (with easy-to-make projects for fun math games)

You make some really cool patterns in multiplication, triangular numbers, Fibonacci sequence, and practice some algebraic thinking...it hardly felt like math. It was like being creative with numbers, but you're actually learning math concepts at the same time.

Math for Fun- Making Fractions (with easy-to-make projects for fun math games)
This explores fractions and percentages with a pizza to craft, noodles, "bricks" to make, mosaics...pretty fun.

M. C. Escher Kaleidocycles- Explore building some polyhedrons and tetrahedrons and all kinds of hedrons I guess with this kit- we didn't exactly learn a ton about the math behind the shapes but it was a real challenge turning these flat sheets into three-dimensional objects. It was neat to do it in the Escher prints rather than solid colors. You had to work to get the patterns lined up right sometimes. The accompanying book is written to an adult, so although interesting to explore how the pattern and colors were chosen, how he wrapped different designs around specific shapes, it's a bit of a yawn as a book for a 4th-6th grader. It was too much work for me to examine all of that book and disect it into manageable lessons. It was a great reference though and I basically used it to identify tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahedron, dodecahedron, and figure things out when Elli was stuck. There are better ways to actually teach these concepts and the math lessons, but this created a fantastic project. She was proud to have it displayed as a mobile for over a year.

Math Path Puzzles from MindwareOnline.com are the practice workbooks that Elli liked for practicing basic operations through a back door kind of way. Mindware rocks! They've got the best stuff. Love love love their catalog. Love our local store that carries many of the same products even more though.

Smath or a similar game Equate is a fun like Scrabble, only you write out math sentences (or equations). Elli picked this the other night for Family Fun Night, and that was a shocker. But now that she's moved on to simplifying equations in prealgebra, the game finally holds some appeal. Not so much fun for her when it was just basic operations.

Evan-Moor's Math with Nursery Rhymes for primary grades was fun for preschool. About half the class of kindergarteners thought it was babyish so we didn't use it a lot then. I loved the Lucy Locket game and the Jack-a-Dandy candy graphs. It even has a rock candy crystal experiment! I did like this. It also spurred my own creativity.

Irresistable 1, 2, 3s (by Scholastic) for preschool and kindergarten is quite resistable if you ask me. I found it rather basic, with boring ideas that you can find any number of places. The I Spy pictures idea is kind of fun (but we did it already), 101 Counting Jars is kind of fun, and I did like the Phone Book of Friends pages to photocopy. One thing I did use out of this (both in preschool and kindergarten), was the Mystery Number Game. This was actually a favorite math game in my class. You make sliding number lines for everyone out of tag board strips, and you let them guess at the mystery number. You give them clues (odd/even, higher/lower) until they figure it out. I let the winner do something special (hold the door open, win a jellybean, choose who was sitting ready to line up). You might find an idea or two that makes this book worth checking out at the library, but I wouldn't put it on my priority Book Wish List. There are fantastic free ideas out on the web from places like the perpetualpreschool.com.


What I'm hoping to get (I guess for baby Karson as he gets bigger rather than Grace now) are all the Froebel gifts. That is a fun way to explore math in a concrete way. Explore, compare, combine sizes of blocks to build freestyle, then fit them back into the original cube shape box. A free-play and a puzzle. See http://froebelusa.com/ for more information about Froebel gifts. Basically Froebel invented kindergarten and this method inspired Frank Lloyd Wright and many others. That's a totally basic introduction but I think it sums it up.

Oh, one more math book we used was called No Problem! It was helpful in teaching math problem solving, but dear daughter didn't like it either. That was the year she didn't like anything to do with math though, so maybe it was just her. It came highly recommended and I liked the way the book was laid out and concepts presented. It focused on one strategy at a time. Elli didn't think it was creative enough. Boring compared to the Math for Fun books, but better concepts and I think someone was just feeling lazy. I still like it.

Homeschooling With Baby :)

I was reading some of my posts and realized I should update what is actually working for us now. Baby is now 9 months old, and the girls are 2nd and 7th grade. When we are home (which now is 4 of 5 mornings a week now, yeah!), it goes something like this:

Gracie (2nd grade) Elli (7th grade)
9-10 LLATL yellow, 2 pages 9:30-10:30 Online class- World Languages
-I get them started here and if I didn't get a shower yet, I rush up to take one about 9. Baby usually takes a nap somewhere around 9:30. If he isn't napping yet, I might stick him in the exersaucer in front of the tv/dvd and let him watch his movie. I know, pathetic. I don't like babies or young kids watching tv. But it's educational and interactive. This one is "Teach Your Baby to Read", which I know, sounds horrible and controlling. But it was cheaper to get that set for $79.95 with Usborne books instead of $100-200 for the Baby Einstein set at Costco. I got a discount as a "show" with their party-plan, but I also get a wholesale discount because I signed up as a personal use consultant. Anyway. I'm trying this out. He LIKES it, and if he learns to read as a bonus, great. I am happy he likes looking at the kids and babies in the video. I love it that it has songs and fingerplays that he LOVES (who knew a baby would like the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes). Anyway, I can stick him in front of that and he'll be happy. Sometimes he fusses because he's bored after a while and wants another song so one of the girls comes in to check out the situation and usually it's starting the next song anyway. If not, they skip it to the next song for him. Buys me enough time for a quick shower anyway!!
When I'm done with that, I come down and see where everyone is at. Sometimes Grace needs me to do Spelling Bee or quiz with her, or "discussion with teacher". I play with baby and teach her at the same time. After a few more fingerplays or patacakes, I'm usually bouncing him or rocking him to sleep as Grace and I are discussing something. I take him upstairs, sneak him into his crib and come back down. I do some dishes, clean up, check email or whatever until the next mini-lesson is needed.

10-11 Grace works on Just Write (book 1), and Italic Handwriting. To mix things up, I
might have her write a penpal or use Kidspiration software to make a storymap or "report". If her hands are too tired that is-I don't always dispute that. We're starting memory work again.
10:30-11:30 Elli starts her Usborne Adventures in Literature. (It's one of their 10 Terrific Weeks curriculum sets.) It's very clearly marked Monday-Friday what to do.
-Elli has a journaling topic and assignment in the Adventures in Literature. She likes to write pages rather than paragraphs so she often takes longer than necessary. I try to steer her away from this and rephrase assignment topics to help her unlock her Writer's Block or narrow her focus.....She loves to write but instead of this being fun, sometimes it's a chore because she wants to write so much (instead of the little paragraph they have in mind). Drives me crazy knowing she's a great writer and seeing her sit there sulking about this. When she eventually turns in her work, we're amazed and love to see the results of her being stretched in these specific lessons having to do with plot, imagery, developing the characters, etc. Baby Karson usually wakes up sometime this hour (short 1/2 hr-1 hr nap). When Grace is done, she gets free time until 11. She also has to take the dog potty sometime around here. Suddenly I see it's 11 or quickly approaching and say it's time for Story of the World.

11:00 Story of the World for Grace 11:30 Online Lit/Comp class for Elli
-Hopefully I've planned this out the day before at least, but sometimes during that 9 ish bouncing-baby-to-sleep time at the table, or the last 5 minutes I've given Grace to play outside before starting SOTW. At any rate, we start right about 11. The first day we read a section of the chapter, answer the discussion questions from the activity book, and she does a dictation of that section. Then we try to do something more fun. Depending on how much other writing she's done in her other classes, I may have her do the mapwork, or do one of the crazy things like build a cocoapuff-melted marshmallow "stone" castle, or make Chinese paper lanterns, etc. They're fun and easy to do with stuff I have on hand. I have looked at chunks of chapters ahead of time and starred the activities I think we're going to do (based on appeal, ease of finding materials, etc). Sometimes they're more complicated types of things that I need to purchase specific stuff for, so on a Monday I usually notice that activity and plan to do it later in the week on Wed or Friday. I buy the stuff Monday or Tuesday afternoon.

12:00 The girls make lunch together. They make sandwiches, grilled cheese and soup, or heat up leftovers. I'm usually busy with baby at this point and I think it's good life skills for them. They usually include me in their lunch plans but occasionally forget and say "Sorry mom- didn't know you were hungry." Other times they serve me first and are really sweet about it. It totally varies. My main expectation is that they get their lunches made and eaten before we have to leave to take Elli to school. (She needs to be there anywhere between 12:15 and 1, so there is definate leeway there.)
We're working on Elli getting her chores done during this time, too, because on days when she goes straight to ballet after school, it's not getting done by 5 and I can't make dinner in a messy kitchen. I could clean the kitchen myself or make her sister do it but since unloading or loading the dishwasher is a reasonable expectation out of her, I'd rather make her develop the discipline of getting the task done on time. It's not working totally yet but I think we're making progress. I'm trying out different things like giving her more work to do or letting her sister do both jobs for her with Elli having to reciprocate that the next day.

1-ish we come back, have a little break, and then Grace does math. Sometimes Karson has fallen asleep in the carseat and we let him nap a whopping 10-30 minutes while Grace does math and I do laundry. She loves her math and is proud to show me what she's finished. I usually star what she gets right and give her a sticker on the main page and let her take a break until 2. Sometimes she's so quick and into her math, she'll do lots of assignments. Othertimes she'll do the one assignment and then take a 30 minute break reading a chapter book on her favorite step. Whatever, I'm flexible. I just want 1 math lessons done a day.

2-ish I take our cue from Grace. If she's tired and still reading a good book, I'll let her just read the rest of the afternoon. Or we might do more from Story of the World, do a BF History of Science or BF History of the Horse assignment (especially if it's a horse book she's been reading). Occasionally I'll realize she's dinking around playing Miuchiz or with toys, and ask her if she'd like to do something special like paint. (We have this great Painting like the masters kit. That's not the exact title I don't think but it's cool.) If it's been a long time since we've worked on one of those Beautiful Feet history guides, I'll just say "now it's time to do History of the (whichever)." Or we'll have a French Lesson. She's so easy and agreeable. It's so fun. Baby is Mr. Busy during this time, having floor time crawling, climbing, and trying to walk. Seriously! He walks behind one of those push toys already. It's crazy. He just turned 9 months old!!! (My girls didn't walk until closer to their 1st birthday.) He also likes to ride in the laundry basket full of clean clothes as I haul it into the living room. It's a boat! He likes to help me fold laundry by pulling out articles one at a time, waving it, and flinging it on the floor. Or unfolding what I've just put on the coffee table.

3-ish, school is officially done. There are rare moments when Grace has had free time ever since we dropped Elli off from school, and I realize oh! she'd better do some school. So I make her do her math and 1 free choice educational activity of her choice (but it no longer includes me). If she was reading a book that whole time, I might let that 1 free choice educational activity slide because it's not like she was goofing off from 12:30-3. But other times, she'll ask if she can play Typing Tutor on the computer or a math or something else from the Elementary Advantage pkg. So obviously I say yes to that! Instead of saying no, you're done with school for the day, why don't you come watch TV? By this time, I want a nap, baby is fussy and needs a real nap (as opposed to that cat nap he had when he fell asleep in the carseat), so I get him to settle down, plop down on the couch, and take a break. 3:40 Elli is home so I get back into mom mode and figure out what else needs to be done for the day, but "school" is over.

So this schedule is working out great. It has the flexibility I need but the structure to get everything done that is "required". I definately have to multi-task somewhat with a baby, but it's not bad at all. It was much harder when he was littler. I still juggle making the bottles, heating them up, etc, as I'm talking with someone or working through the next phase of an activity with Grace. Often it's during SOTW's dictation that he fusses and I have to do bottles and stuff and I'm repeating the line I gave Grace, or have to go change his diaper and come back to see she's copied the next sentence already (after looking in the book). I'm not majorly scientific about the dictation. I read it to her and give her correct spelling on major hard words or names (Abu Bakhr for example, which not looking it up I might have spelled wrong just now). Later in the week or month I might give her a true dictation where she has to do it without any help, if I see that we need to. She often gets it right anyway, so it's not really an issue to me. My goal is for her to have a correct paragraph completed that summarizes what we read. This cements that lesson in her mind, and simultaneously teaches her how to write a paragraph summary. Anyway, it's fun with baby. As the weather gets nicer, we'll take longer trips taking Elli to school and stopping at the park before heading home. One of these days I'll figure out how to go to the fitness center for a workout without messing up this routine.

I don't feel bad about using the afternoon as a time to run an errand or two while Grace and baby are in the car already. Combining errands, finding the "right" workbooks for us, and trying to keep a routine (if not an exact "schedule") are what make the difference for us. One day a week we're doing the parent partnership program now from 9-1:30 and the only thing I usually do for Grace after that is llatl since baby has fallen asleep on the way home and there's a window to do it easily.

math curriculum- my two cents!

I had an interesting discussion today with my friend Audra, analyzing different math programs we've used and examined. With one child who hates math (but is good at it anyway) and another who loves it, I think my conclusion is that different math programs fit different learners better. There is no ONE perfect program for math. Some people are sold on Saxon, some are sold on Singapore, some are sold on Abeka, etc....I have my own opinions and here are my conclusions:

Singapore Math- We are using 2A and 2B for 2nd grade Gracie, a visual learner. We use Base 10 blocks to cement the ideas...it would be silly to have pictures of the blocks and yet not use any, but I've read reviews about Singapore not being hands-on enough... so maybe there are people who are relying only on the book? I'm horrible at doing that, as I am a curriculum junkie. ha ha. Anyway, I thought the blocks were an obvious part of helping cement the concepts. So, by using these types of blocks (available everywhere in educational stores) and everyday objects in the way the pictures are used, you just can't go wrong with this math program. The pictures, math games, puzzles, and practice pages really hold my daughter's interest. In fact, math is her favorite subject! She thinks it's fun! But she isn't distracted by visuals. She isn't needing a lot of review. She likes to move forward. When we get to the point in 2B where multiplication facts are ignored for a while to do measurement, time, money, etc, we will probably supplement with Addition the Fun Way and Multiplication the Fun Way.

Making Math Meaningful- we really enjoyed this! It was very hands-on for my 6th grade kinesthetic learner. It was non threatening, fun, and had very little writing. Gracie appreciated that as a first grader.

Saxon Math- Was not the best choice for my older child, Elli. She hates it with a passion. She also hates Abeka. Strong words, I know. Hers. She is a kinesthetic learner, as well as a visual-spatial learner (see The Visual-Spatial Learner by Dr.Linda Silverman). She enjoys learning the bigger picture and then getting down to the gritty details. She is very quick at memorizing and so much repetition made her physically sick. Now I know that many people love Saxon. I've seen it be a very effective program. However, for my daughter, it was not a fit. Ironically, now that she is in 7th grade taking a math class at the Christian school, she is using Saxon's school version of their pre-algebra level math and liking it. I think this is because the concepts are more intriguing to her, she says it's interesting. Doing it at school somehow makes it more manageable for her, too. So something about the higher-level math (as opposed to basic facts taught in earlier grades) erradicates the issues she struggled with before (boredom w/the repetition).

Abeka uses the same type of approach Saxon does, which is what didn't work for us. Elli did appreciate the graphics and pretty colors though. She used it 1st-3rd grade and had a very solid foundation of facts, despite a strong dislike for the subject. Absolutely no enthusiasm for learning anything related to math. Turned off that part of her brain when math "class" was done. We had to abandon traditional math workbooks to sneak in math the next couple of years, through a wide variety of "kits" that seemed to appeal to her creative side.


Supplemental materials we have used include Addition the Fun Way, Multiplication the Fun Way, Wrap-Ups, Take it To Your Seat Learning Centers (Math 4th-6th grade), and this math puzzle book I can't recall the name of...I've searched for it online but I can't remember the name of the website and catalog...I thought it was Mindware, but apparently that's not the name of it. The worksheets looked like circle paths with numbers in them and a few paths missing, you had to fill it in...it was math patterns and algebraic thinking, review of math facts to get there.... I can't recall. I'll have to post again later with more detail. I have a couple of other books we pull out for fun, too. They're very artsy and hands-on.

Kindergarten math was something completely different. Mostly an ecclectic hands-on approach. I used a Gifted and Talented workbook series we called the "Star-Tree Kit" (describes the logo) that had activities for a variety of subject areas. I liked the math section- it was colorful and she thought it was fun. We used dominoes to translate into addition problems (a domino with a 3 on one end and a 6 on the other meant add 3 + 6). We did patterning, cooking, measuring, etc.

We are interested in Shiller's Math K-3 and 4-6 programs. I love Montessori materials, maybe because I worked in a Montessori classroom for a year. I like it that it's all inclusive. I like it a lot. But we didn't have $200 to put out for one subject then, even though it'd be several years. I might get it this summer though- if Grace doesn't get $200 out of it for 3rd grade, I do have a baby who will be preschool/kindergarten age before we know it. We might just test to see if the next level kit would be better. I am skeptical about doing that- I don't want to rush her into anything before she's really solid on K-3 facts. She may be starting multiplication in Singapore, but that doesn't mean any of those concepts are rock solid yet. Let's be realistic.

So there's my 2 cents about math! We have done a lot of interesting math things away from "book work" to woo Elli after her bout with Abeka (and later Saxon). I think balance is extremely important. I think any declaration of one program being "top" falls into the Extreme Homeschooler category. Examples might include either an extreme Unschooler, or a Specific Brand Enthusiast. I will never say that "We only use this brand" because if we did, I know I'd get burned. The people in my life I know who say this all the time drive me crazy because they're extremely opinionated like that about all matters in life. I love them, but everything is a black and white issue. I prefer to look at math (and life) as more of a rainbow.... we need all these different types of choices because each child is so unique. There is a perfect program out there, but it will be personal for you and your child.

New Curriculum Discovered!

I found a new Literature and Composition program that I like for middle school and high school. It's by Hewitt Homeschooling (www.hewitthomeschooling.com), and it's called Lightning Literature. I love it that it uses short stories, novels, and poems, incorporates biographies of the authors, and discusses things in depth but in an interesting way. My 7th grader previewed it for next year and thought it looked good, if she must be homeschooled. She would really like to go to private school full-time next year. We're not sure about that yet- she has to prove herself by actually getting her homeschooling work done for us, and not continue to ignore our timelines, etc. That's a posting for a different day. Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings is another good curriculum, but after finishing the first book and set of unit studies, she was a little sick of Lord of the Rings. (I was actually thankful for that, since I was sick of it before we began the study! But it was a small sacrifice I was ready to make to ensure high interest and self-motivation for my students.)

Anyway, we liked this one a lot. Gracie, our 7 yr old, loves LLATL so we're going to stick with it. It seems super easy so she works a grade above and it's still not very challenging. I think it just seems easy because it's so contextual and uses books or unit studies that are interesting. My kids are all big readers so I'm particular about the content in the Language Arts curriculum they use. It has to be as interesting (or preferably more) than the books they choose on their own. LLATL has utilized books that they've already read, but they're books the girls don't mind reading again. I'm keeping my eyes open for something similar, but more interesting. This is working though- she likes it, she's learning, and still reads a ton of interesting books on her own. Her favorite series are by Carole Marsh- the Real Kids, Real Places history mysteries, and Around the World in 80 Mysteries. I like their Write Your Own Mystery book, so we're going to do that and use their teacher guides. Since LLATL isn't big on creative writing, we also do "Just Write" every day or so. When we start the Write Your Own Mystery, it will take the place of Just Write. (The Teacher Guides we'll use as Unit Studies.)

Second Semester

Last semester we tried a Parent Partnership Program with a local school district. It was 2 days a week and once ski season started, that was 2 days too many. We switched to a different one so we only have to go one day a week. It works better for our schedule- I drop off one child at "work", and then take the other one to her classes. It frees up our mornings again so we can do our regular schedule, and not have to rush around. This feels better for all of us, especially with my oldest daughter having evening play rehearsals again. Now when she gets home at 10:00, at least she can sleep in the next day.

We actually not even going to finish our ski lessons I think, because I didn't think it all the way through with the afternoon classes at the Christian school- I didn't think they'd have tests in the middle of the week (we always had them Mondays or Fridays I thought). So of course she's now had 2 tests scheduled on the same day as ski lessons and I can't very well have her skip a school test to go skiing..... can I?

Next year I just can't see doing a mixed schedule like this. I highly recommend doing one thing and sticking to it- homeschool or private school, but not both!

Next year we plan to only homeschool. We're going to Colonial Williamsburg in the fall and studying American History next year. It should be fun!! I'm not sure the teenager will appreciate it though. She wants to go to school. We're not liking some attitude things though so we hope to work on that at home. If she works at it, she can earn the privilege again. But she isn't entitled to it.

Baby is very mobile now- gotta go, he's into the big sisters' school cubbies!