Oh Math.... sigh...


I love math! I enjoy numbers - I was a Financial Advisor for years and much of what I did each day was about math! But somehow, math in our homeschool has eluded me, challenged me, frustrated me and given me a few tears now and then. 



The problem with me is I am constantly torn between three factors in math. The computational drill of math, the conceptual math and then the practical math. How much of each can I balance, how much of each should I include, how much of each is valuable and worthwhile given our techno age? 

We have used Math U See and I have found it to be an excellent program in the younger years especially for helping children to get place value firmly embedded in their math beginnings. Later when Math U See focusses on one topic in detail for an entire year it didn’t really fit for us.



We have used Discovery Education’s Discovering Math program and found it to really help math students to understand the application of each math concept. This was valuable for the concepts of math and in many ways practical math, but the lack of computation was a problem. I added in Daily Math Reviews like these to help with this. Because the videos cover 3 years, it was a one year commitment for us at each level as I couldn’t see our daughter watching the same videos over and over. 
We have used Singapore Math, which I truly believe is an excellent program, it just went too fast for our daughter as it got to the transition to middle school. 



I have looked into Living Math. I love the concept of learning math in a living way, but I never could really get this into a format that felt like a complete math program to me. We read lots of the living math recommended books though when our daughter was younger including the Cindy Neuschwander books, What’s Your Angle Pythagoras by Julie Ellis, The Math Start Books by Stuart Murphy and many of the “food” math books that are available. 



We have tried our best in practical math with cooking, budgeting, counting, subtracting, dividing, multiplying at home. We have had pattern blocks, money sets, dice, stopwatches, base 10 blocks, flashcards and lots of other math materials. We have played lots of games over the years including ones like Monopoly, The Game of Life, Settlers of Catan, lots of card games, Uno, and so many more. We have had many computer games and apps including Math Blaster, Math for the Real World and business games like DQ Tycoon.



So I ask myself, as you may be asking, why is math such a challenge....sigh...I think that it is searching for a feeling that our math is incremental enough, conceptual enough and practical enough and that there is a good measure of drill for those basic skills. All this and at the right pace, the right blend of manipulatives and the right amount of visuals. It’s a new year coming, and maybe this year I will find our ideal math program!! Right now we are using a combination of Math resources. It would be nice to have all that we need in one program, but I am getting more comfortable using many different resources. I will save our current math for another post,
Blessings!

Role Play


Role play has been such a fun outlet in our home for our daughter and her friends. I posted a little bit about Kidsboro here. Kidsboro beyond the market days was a way for our “Little One” and her friends to play in many roles during there play time here. “Little One” would love to play on her own this way as well with dolls and stuffed animals. 



We got the majority of our role playing materials and ideas from Sparklebox. How fun to set up a doctor’s office, a grocer, an optometrist, a library and a veterinarian’s office. I remember “Little One” getting so excited about there being a bank machine - so we got an old box and turned it into a bank machine. Sparklebox is from the UK so everything is in pounds but it didn’t matter to the children - they just adjusted to it. 
We didn’t have a great space for all these shops. An old workshop in the back of our home, but that didn’t seem to stop the kids. They had lots of fun out there playing. 
This was a time that our trusty laminator got used alot so that the materials were a little more durable. 



There were so many great skills that went along with this type of play. Writing, reading, vocabulary, organizing, collaborating and so much more. 
Blessings!!

Reader's Theatre


Over the years I have purchased several Reader’s Theatre books just to have around the house for those dress up moments that extend to more!
We have had many impromptu plays around our home that have been just that!
I love the Reader’s Theatre books that are a focus of some kind. We have had plays on Civil Rights, learning about a historical figure and many other great little plays. The play in these pictures was about oppression in the cotton mills. 



We do have a large dress up box, that has been fed over the years by garage sale and thrift store finds. We have had specific purpose costumes (uniforms and ethnic costumes) to old dresses and skirts that can be used for so many purposes. We also have had a variety of hats and scarves. 



Reader’s Theatre plays are wonderful as they are fairly short, the can be done with as little as 2-3 children (with some possible costume changes) and can be done with gusto on the spur of the moment!



I hope you will consider this great way to extend your children’s knowledge, drama skills, oration skills, collaboration skills and creativity (some of the sets we have seen on the spur of the moment have been great)!
Blessings!

Gingerbread Fun!!


Yesterday “Little One” had some friends over for an afternoon of gingerbread making and crafts. The girls made a special present, decorated a chinese takeout box to put it in and then made a plate or two of cookies and decorated them. What a great afternoon it was!



It was pretty impromptu on our part as we just decided a few days ago to pull it together. Sometimes impromptu events can be wonderful. We kept it so simple and easy! What a joy to see the girls take responsibility for their own cookies and crafts. Each girl brought some icing and decorations so when we added it all up, there was lots to share!! “Little One” had a Christmas cracker at each place, and each girl was a great sport about wearing the hats!!



I was struck by the focus of these girls. How they set to work on what they were doing and kept up their creative focus for hours at a time. It was beautiful to see! They knew what they wanted to do and needed no prompting from me at all. They just dove in to each project! They shared, worked together and had a great time!



Blessings!