A Cool New Resource: fun with math

We have found a fun, new math resource.

I first heard about Times Tables the Fun Way by Judy Liautaud when I visited the Montessori school in Lakeside. Math facts for 3's, 4's, 5's, 6's, 7's and 8's have a fun story to help the children remember it. I looked it up and Judy Liautaud has also written a similar book for the addition facts. My budget would only fit in one, so I decided to start with Addition the Fun Way.

Daniel and Isaac are really picking up on these. Each number is a cartoon character for example, 3 is a bee: the 3 bee. 6 is always sick. Some are silly, but others are pretty good. Either way, it seems to work.

Memorizing math facts are important, yet I also do not like the idea of memorizing by rote without understanding the concepts behind it. So we have also pulled out the dominoes. We have a set of double nine dominoes which are perfect for generating addition problems from 0 - 9. So we pick out a domino at random, say it the problem, maybe write it on the white board and then talk about the story. Then they count the dots to make sure we are right. It is fun to see.

Another fun game we have started playing is Addition War very similar to traditional War. We use a stack on number cards with each player having half of the cards. To play, the players each pull off the top two cards from the deck and lay them on the table. The two cards are added together. The player whose card add up higher get all the cards on the table. Much funner than timed sheets.

Well...

I had an ultrasound and it appears that baby is a boy. Everyone was counting on a girl so that Rebecca would have someone to play dolls with. (for some reason her brothers tire of this game). Maybe it is a good thing she has girl cousins nearby. :-)

17 Down, 9 to Go!

Yippee, Yippee, Yahoo! One more down! I'm on the down hill side now. This class was a wonderful introduction to "the exceptional child." Now I get to focus six weeks on one demographic of those exceptional children, the English Language Learner. This next one is the only 6 week class, the rest are all 5 weeks. So they are pretty special.

Naya Nuki

I have been wanting to do some reading on survival skills in our schooling. Things like weather, map and compass, finding water, and making shelters, that sort of thing. It finally occurred to me to compile a list of "survival classics" of not just how to books, but of literature that talks about such skills.
We finished reading Naya Nuki: Shoshoni Girl Who Ran. We loved this story. Naya Nuki was a friend of Sacagawea, they were kidnapped by another tribe together. Naya Nuki was determined to escape and return home. This book tells of her kidnapping, escape, and 1000 mile journey to freedom. The kid was 11! I was so impressed with her detailed planning, her courage, and how well she relied on her instincts. Steven couldn't wait to get to the end and the other boys actually paid attention a bit. A wonderful little story.

New Year Musings

Well, it is time to look back, take inventory, and make plans for the next year. My goal for the next year is ‘not to push myself” OK, I’m supposed to say things in the positive, but I haven’t figured out how to word that yet.

This is about the only goal I can handle right now; knowing that this whole year will be a big push. I am on the downhill side of this degree goal. It will be a big push to get it done. Therefore, I cannot push myself in other areas. A few days ago I was mentally going through all of my responsibilities, realizing how many of them I am not doing as well as I want to.

I have an extensive list of things I want to improve on. I actually started to write it down and decided it was just too much to think about. I can’t do everything every day, and certainly not well. My to-do list is depressing me.

A few years ago one of my mentors told me about her Victory List. One day she stuck a piece of paper on the fridge and wrote down everything she accomplished that day. When her husband came home he was both surprised and impressed with everything she had done. This began her keeping a Victory List instead of a To-do list.

As I was pondering and feeling overwhelmed, I remembered Donna’s Victory list. I do not have to do it all everyday; I simply can’t, but I can do what I can for that day. I decided to jot down what I did do for my own personal victories, and what we accomplished in our school day. So my goal is not to push myself.