That almost sounds racy doesn’t it?
Believe me, nothing racy about phonics.
Just google “the effectiveness of phonics” and you’ll see all kinds of debates … about whether or not it works and if it is necessary to teach children phonics. Continue reading
I’ll let the pictures mostly speak.
Our baby chicks (and one baby rooster … see him in the pic below with the white spot on his head)
… are here. And I am in a little bit of shock. What was I thinking???
I will say I got some Momma points when I fashioned a brooder from the two large boxes the Prez had brought home.
The expert at our local 4H office, where we picked up our “babies” today, told me our box was too deep and we needed a brooder about 4 times that size … so when we came home I started cutting the top half off of each of the two boxes and taping and cutting sides … and before long we had a brooder 4 times larger and half as deep. 🙂
Mo was doubtful but quite impressed once I finished. Curly gladly loaned me his very sharp pocket knife and helped with the cutting too.
The pics include only Li’l Miss because I was too in shock at first to worry with the camera, and by the time I headed back to the shop with it Li’l Miss was the only one still interested except Mo.
But he was back at Grammy and Papa’s house working on “The Chicken Mansion.”
To Be Continued … hopefully …
I thought this might be fun.
I put “proverbial” because the photos were not all taken on 1 day, though all have been taken this week.
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Here we go.
One night the Prez was trying to figure out which prescription ointment went with which skin ailment, he decided a Sharpie was what we needed.
In the last couple of months, we’ve had staph infections of varying natures. Mo struggles with on-going staff infections. Long story short, he got an MRSA infection on his finger from an infected splinter wound, and has had bouts with it ever since.
They tend to crop up mostly on his face and other unmentionable places … ahem.
So, now the Prez has his own staph infection cream. And we have some eczema cream. And some itch cream. And even cream for folliculitis. Oh and how could I forget the cream that we are supposed to put around Li’l Bro’s BAHA site 3 times a day. What? Did I mention the BAHA has already gone back for a repair–because it keeps falling off. Yeah. Not good. Back to the ointments.
While taking said photo, I thought it would be fun to snap a photo of my “retreat.”
LAUGHING OUT LOUD!
When we bought this house more than 11 years ago now, we loved the jacuzzi tub in the {then} spare downstairs master suite. A few years ago, we moved to the downstairs master and renovated the bath, but we kept the tub. Isn’t it neat?
Except now the edge that I envisioned surrounded by candles and whatnots is instead cluttered with Aquafor Baby Wash, Kids’ 2-n-1 Body & Hair Wash, a basket of bath toys, and ONE LONE candle. 🙂
And our small drawer for toothpaste and brushes … is FULL to overflowing. 🙂
Instead of running upstairs with the three littles for tooth brushing, it is just easier to take care of this in our downstairs bath. So I have quite the array of toothbrushes too … some of which {might} need to be replaced.
We do have another half-bath downstairs but most of us don’t go in there … the boys tend to use it … and well, enough said. If we know company is coming, it gets cleaned and the fear is put into said boys to GO UPSTAIRS. Thank you.
But you know, even with my “quiet retreat” no longer so quiet or retreatish, I wouldn’t change a thing. One of these days, I’ll look for one of those little toothbrushes and wonder where all of the little people who claimed them are … and they will be too big to use Momma’s bathroom anymore (as our 3 big boys have become). So it is all good.
I just want to remember.
Sniff, sniff.
OK, moving on to today. I snapped some photos here and there. I really should have taken one of the laundry room, but honestly it is always the same. Lots of clothes needing washed, others needing sorted for giving away, yet more awaiting stain management, and still more that need to be taken to the living room for sorting and folding and finally, putting away.
And have I mentioned before that our two oldest boys do ALL OFF their laundry. Mo mostly does, though he has been known to slip more than a few articles of his clothing into our community laundry bins in the laundry room where mine, the Prez and the littles clothes are sorted. While I’m talking laundry, I do have a three-compartment laundry sorter, so that when I do wash it is already sorted by whites, lights and darks. Even the littles know how to sort, of which I am quite proud.
I will add a photo of my laundry room because it seems everyone is doing it LOL and I think I want to remember what it was like … when someday I’m not doing laundry for 8. 🙂
But today I snapped the following photos just as I walked by various stuff.
Someone always has shoes laying somewhere. No matter how easy we make it to PUT THEM AWAY please. Did you know that at any given time we could have a pile of 16 shoes … if everyone left theirs laying out?
How about that? Stuff that STILL NEEDS to be put away from our China Trip … that we arrived home from almost 2 months ago.
And this. Our living room always looks like this in one way or another. Stuff. Out. Actually the small pile of laundry you see there is NOTHING. It is usually a MOUNTAIN. Only reason it is not is because it is all awaiting my attention. Can y’all tell I have a preoccupation obsession fear of the laundry?
Amidst the taking care of stuff like laundry, we do manage to get a fair bit of schooling done each day. I choose to look at the big picture. 😉
But here are some views from today in our school … with a little explanation.
Li’l Miss found a caterpillar and we decided to cage the creature to see if he/she would show us metamorphosis. To our delight {and my surprise}, he/she has made a cocoon (we think it is a moth in a cocoon rather than a butterfly in a chrysalis). We shall see.
The creature is in the white cocoon/chrysalis on the back of the habitat. And we have another one in there of the same variety who appears to be favorable for metamorphosis as he/she is eating like crazy (they do this right before going in their cocoon/chrysalis) and also has developed an affinity for the ceiling of the habitat.
And here are some photos {from yesterday} when we found the second little caterpillar, who as I mentioned above is now in the habitat as well.
And someone did cry again because she wanted to HOG the creature and not share. Sorry Grammy but she has to learn to share, and she didn’t cry for long because one of her big brothers scooped her up … have I mentioned how spoiled she is by her 3 biggest brothers?!?
“Mommy, he is getting too close to my face!”
Note that Li’l Bit didn’t mind this little guy crawling ALL OVER HER. She loved it in fact. He is crawling on her shirt and then crawls all the way around her back to the front again!
I don’t know who is cuter … the caterpillar or the baby girl!
OK, it is the baby girl but isn’t he a cute little caterpillar? And he was so kind to them!
At this point, she is getting mad because I’m telling her she has to let Sissy have another turn with the caterpillar.
Moving on to other scenes from today (or one day this week). Curly is working on the Fly Fishing Merit Badge and used his own money he had been saving to buy himself a fly fishing rig. He practices every single day. And is researching like crazy for it. I’m very proud of him.
Speaking of Curly, I have been after him to keep practicing speed typing skills. He has not been honoring his mother in this request. So the other night, he came and found me on the couch on my laptop and asked “what in the world are you doing?” I was typing away and my palms were sweating and I was saying “DON’T SAY A WORD! I am taking a typing test!”
He may have laughed out loud at me.
After I finished my speed test (and got 71 WPM–oh yeah!), his curiosity was peaked. SUCCESS. You see, that was my plan all along. He attempted to take the test and did very poorly.
He said forget it, but I said “Let me ask you a question.” He says “OK.” I say, “Son, what if you have the job as a designer at LEGO in Denmark all but wrapped up, but the interviewer says ‘Oh, by the way, you do know how to speed type right?'”
He looks at me, rolls his eyes, and says, “Where are the lessons on that site you were telling me about a minute ago?”
SUCCESS. I found him at the computer at one point today taking a typing lesson.
And in other events today, I took some photos from math lessons with the littles … Yes all three as one certain little was on my back! {Yes I’m wearing her more and she is loving it, and if she is whining, wearing her for half an hour or so always does the trick.}
And no, she doesn’t always have her bottle … but she does have it sometimes. Like after breakfast, before nap, maybe one more in the late afternoon, and of course one before bed. Thing is though, she eats GREAT and a lot and is gaining weight .. and to be honest, I give her almond milk and water it down a bit … so it is all good. And she likes her bottle and that makes Momma happy.
And I suppose Momma is partly to blame for the spoiling too huh?!
OK, back to the actual math lesson.
Making addition equations while reading Hershey’s Addition book.
And a little follow-up copywork in their math notebooks.
Next up was a fractions lesson with Larry. Have I mentioned … yeah, I have. Fractions with Larry is kind of like getting one’s teeth pulled without any pain management. 🙂
I told him we’d use 10 of the “Game” cards and see who wins–me or him. If he gets the correct answer, he keeps the card. If not, Momma gets the card. Fair enough.
Do you see the question?
“Son, remember, if the numerator is the same, and the denominator is different, the one with the smaller denominator is ALWAYS LARGER IN SIZE. Remember, like cutting a pizza in slices?”
“OH, yeah, definitely. I remember.”
“OK, then, let’s play.”
Please note that I also allowed him the use of manipulatives (thanks M!).
About that card above?
Yeah, Momma got that card.
And promptly did this, to which Joel laughed hysterically and wanted a photo to document the moment.
Back to the fraction game.
“Ah, I get it now, Mom, 1/3 really is larger than 1/6. I see it now that I’m holding it in my hand.”
And the final score: Larry, 6 // Momma, 4.
He won. Sort of. I think.
As for me, I decided I might need some more coffee, which by the way I never got.
Winning photos is not my game, but I like the way this one turned out (and a few others too).
I love her profile and the way the sun’s setting glow is framing her entire face and frame. I just love her, so loving the photo is quite easy for this Momma.
I am not in any way shape, form or fashion a photographer, but I love how Sunday Snapshot gives me an opportunity to blog about the everyday. Here are the settings *I think* though.
ISO400*55MM*3EV*f/5.6*1/100*I post-processed it in iPhoto.
We have a wonderful backyard. We are blessed with a large space, privacy, and plenty of room for an impromptu game of football, woofle ball, soccer, nerf wars, you name it.
We have been outside a LOT lately.
We have been blessed with 80-degree and SUNNY days.
We went outside one evening last week as we awaited the arrival of a reporter and cameraman.
We found ourselves quickly involved in an impromptu game of soccer while we waited.
Well I did.
The Prez had his hands full keeping a Li’l Bit out of harm’s way, though she was not happy about her situation. At all.
Yes, her tears are HUGE and will break your heart. Trust me. I know.
We don’t play around though.
We play for real.
While some played, I stole away for a few shots as the sun was setting, and to give my Li’l Bit the attention she was needing from Momma. She loves to pose for the camera.
These are a few other favorites from that impromptu photo shoot.
This one is strange but I like it. Almost deleted it, but then played with editing and I kind of like it!
This is my second favorite of the evening: all four of our precious sons captured so well: the oldest leading the way, the two middles vying for a ball (in this particular instance) and Li’l Dude trailing behind!
*****
Since that evening, we’ve spent countless hours outside, namely in various activities during our school days.
Painting Easter eggs using paint tape for relief art.
Li’l Miss even found a couple of creative painting implements.
And Li’l Bit of course copied her big sis.
Li’l Dude made sure his was ready for the tape to be pulled away.
All of the painting made a certain Li’l Bit very tired.
*****
I took these photos one early March afternoon while we waited for Daddy to come home from work. Only some of our children were willing subjects, which is why you’ll only see part of our crew.
*****
Our azalea bushes are in full bloom. And our Li’l Miss loves them so much, so one day after dance we took advantage of the beautiful red blooms!
*****
Li’l Miss loves her Bitty Baby.
And so does someone else.
Before the above exchange, Li’l Miss was not-so-successfully encouraging her little sister to “share” Bitty Baby, even using sign language to convey her point.
After some time with her Bitty Baby, Li’l Miss decided she was too busy to care for Bitty Baby and decided allowing her little sister to baby-sit was not all that bad.
And Li’l Bit decided being the babysitter was not a bad gig either.
*****
Curly has been hard at work on a Boy Scout Merit Badge for Environmental Science. One of the requirements was to build a compost. We had wanted one again for awhile, so this was a win-win!
I am quite proud of him. He worked for a couple of weeks in the Prez’s workshop on this with very minimal assistance from his Dad.
I regret not getting photos of his progress, but he was working in the late nights while I often had a certain little someone who wanted to be none other than in my lap.
These photos were taken as he put it all together and put some already-composting leaves in it.
*****
And finally, when is it not a good day for play-doh?
TarJay has had some Daily Deals leading up to Easter in the Toy Department, and I happened upon one last Thursday evening. Funny thing is I had play-doh on my list as TarJay had a 24-Pack on sale for $9.99 and I had a $3 manufacturer’s coupon. We don’t do Easter baskets, but we needed some new play-doh anyway … so I hopped on this deal. 🙂
To my surprise, TarJay had a 36 Mega-Pack as their Daily Deal last Thursday (they are having them through Easter), and I was still able to use my coupon. So 36 tubs for $6.99.
Everyone was excited when they saw the big box. I promised we’d use it the next day.
Imaginations were used and patience was put into practice as well as some give and take too. Fun was had by all.
A crocodile war even commenced.
Li’l Dude and Li’l Miss have a solid grasp now of 1 Whole, 1/2, 1/4 and 3/4.
I gave them a notebooking activity yesterday, which they completed with ease.
So today, I brought out our TarJay Dollar aisle pizzas, and they were able to serve up pizza slices to me by the fourths, halves and I even threw in a “one and one-half” and they figured that out too!
Fractions: we got that covered.
But calendars? Notsomuch.
The failure has been me, not Li’l Dude and Li’l Miss. Sigh.
I had one of those calendars with velcro pieces and pockets. I found it VERY CHEAP at a discount store with the name “Alyssa” on it. I am guessing it was misspelled? I dunno, but we just discreetly covered the name since we don’t have an Alyssa, though we have nothing against the name Alyssa.
Ahem. So, I tried. I really did. Maybe one day or possibly two days we would get to our calendar time.
The littles did it and they enjoyed the weather velcro pieces and participated with the rest. I felt like it was a bit lackluster and more of a chore than them really getting much out of it. And we just didn’t get it done most days.
I have been looking around and love the ideas I’ve found of a calendar board, but I just don’t have the spaceI decided I needed to find a way to do something they could look at (besides a quick jotting of the date on the whiteboard). And I didn’t want to spend any money, and I didn’t. So I started wondering what do I have already (in terms of space and resources on hand).
*Edited to Add: After using our Pocket Calendar for about 10 days, I did decide I needed something they could refer to. Still determined to use something on hand, I started perusing my supplies and came up with this.
I had this metal hanging thing, but I turned it horizontal for this. I left the nails I had it hanging on in a doorway in case I want to use it for something else. I also had the colored clips just in a box and the blank handwriting strips. I figure some of y’all might have wondered why I used a rainbow of colors on the original PDF. I had envisioned all along that I would use the same color coding for the larger calendar board (using the term board loosely here), and I’m not sure if you can tell from the photos but the colors do correspond (red for day, blue for month and year, purple for date, green for “today is”). I have the larger version of the “Today Is” and “Today’s Date Is:” in page protectors so I can just use a dry erase to change each day.
Y’all know me and the 9-pocket page protectors (for chores and a variation of workboxes both of which we still use). And I thought to myself in a rare moment of total clarity: What about a “pocket” calendar?
Get it? I know, bad, I know. But I really did wonder if it would work. You see, I had already decided I wanted to somehow get ALL the days of the week and ALL the months of the year in one place to see all at ONCE. One of mine in particular NEEDS repetition and to SEE it.
I got busy with a program I use to create these *ideas* I dream up, and of course laminated a few pages (some of the pocket inserts we will write on and replace each day).
I think it turned out quite well. Today was our first go at it, but I can see us sticking with this. In anticipation of using it for quite a long time to come, I went ahead and made a “2013” insert card.
They enjoyed it and I enjoyed it {mostly}. OK, we had a bit of a learning curve with the days of the week, but I think we’ll get there. At least I think we will since they are all there everyday. That was one of my big goals: for them to see them all there together. Same with the months. A certain someone who shall remain nameless wants his own pocket calendar. He has the days of the week, but he still struggles with the months.
I mentioned that two of the cards are dispensable: One I have them write “Today’s Date” in two formats—with numerals and with words and numerals. (They copy what I have written on the white board.) The second is a “Yesterday Was:___, Today Is:___, Tomorrow Will Be:___” card.
For the other 6 pockets (1 pocket has a cards that says “My Pocket Calendar” so it doesn’t change):
*These are on one line across in this order for obvious reasons. They circle the numeric date with a dry erase on the laminated card.
I think the finished product turned out well. I am really wanting to get serious with a more structured notebook next year for the littles, so this will go in there. For now, it is hanging on the side of the cabinet where they keep their schoolwork. I am hoping we can stick to this more and that the repetition mixed with hands-on mixed with writing the date each day as well as 3 of 7 days of the week (for the yesterday, today and tomorrow insert) will help them along in this area of learning. 🙂
*I have to brag here too. This finished example above is that of one certain Li’l Dude. He was convinced he could NOT do the last insert, but Momma encouraged him to try “one letter at a time” and he did so well, even managing to get that pesky “Wed-nes-day” in there.”
(No, I don’t call it that, but I did tell our 9YO that is how I have always remembered to spell it by sounding it out in this way, and to this day he can spell it and he always uses the correct pronunciation. I dunno but it works for me and my weird way to remember how to spell weird words is another post for another day!)
I’m joining in love2learn2day’s Monday Math Blog Hop. Go check out some more math ideas! I always find something useful and creative over there!
**This Page Protector Printable resource is available for download at my TpT store as a separate product or as part of a bundle (better deal!)I have other Page Protector Printables, some of which are FREE, at my TpT store. Thanks!**
Questions around here lately anytime money is at hand:
“How much is this one, Mommy?”
“Which one costs more?” 🙂 (Yes, she means which one is worth the most.)
“Do I have more than him?”
So … I figure why not. It is not a kindergarten standard according to our state. And no I don’t dwell on the standards, but I do have them printed out.
Not so much for comparison’s sake, but more as a point of interest.
We’ve been dabbling nonetheless in coin recognition and values at our house.
Even the littlest of the littles was interested today. And why not?
Sand is so much fun or at least she thinks it is. Especially whilst (shout out to my friend Naomi) she is throwing it up in the air. OY. But for the older two littles, it was a welcome opportunity to “dig” around for treasures … and try to state the name (or value) of the coin. If you got it correct, you kept the coin (only temporarily), and if not, your classmate could guess. Thankfully, this went well. Sometimes … it does not.
They did have fun, and I think they solidified that a penny is a penny and a quarter is a quarter.
As for the dime and nickel, at this point they are interchangeable. Or so they think.
After we dug out all of the pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, we played Grocery Store, which I didn’t get any photos of because we were having too much fun and Li’l Bit was … well, she was trying to sabotage our game. … OK, OK, I know she wasn’t trying to do that, but I had to either put down the camera or someone was going to get unhappy.
This time, I stopped while they still wanted to play Grocery Store (e.g. math) more.
I’m learning ever so slowly at times to stop these activities whilst they are still fun.
“Can we play this again tomorrow, Mommy?”
“Maybe.” After Grocery Store, I did ask them to copy what I had written in their math notebooks, which was the names of the four coins—penny, nickel, dime and quarter—along with their amounts—1¢, 5¢, 10¢ and 25¢. And they did. 🙂
Hope your Math Monday was as much fun as ours!
I should add three older boys, who shall remain unnamed, might have fibbed about their math problems on IXL (or rather the time they spent on them or rather didn’t), but Mommy of course checked and noticed their time spent was way off. Much to The Prez’s delight and mine, they actually admitted their lapse in judgment and rather willingly finished after supper with nary a complaint.
I have no idea what is into me and the verbage tonight, but I have had no less than 10 people tell me lately “You really need to write that book.”
Trouble is, I have no idea what THAT book is.
Maybe. Someday. I will write THAT book. If you find out what that book is, would you let me know?
In the meantime, my little slice of the blogosphere is it for my writing.
And I can’t end a post today without posting a few photos I snapped this weekend of the Li’l Bit herself.
Chowing down on an apple. Seriously, she is really that adorable.
Anyone who has met her will tell you in case you think I might be slightly biased. Because I definitely am.
I try really hard to hit math hard on Mondays.
I love that a blog I frequent has a Math Monday blog hop.
It inspires motivates me to do math with the children, so I can take photos and join the Math Monday blog hop.
I know. I know.
Teach for the purpose of taking photos and blogging about it?
That is not exactly what I meant.
Today was no different than most other Mondays.
I attempted (and actually succeeded in) a fun and productive math lesson with the littles. If we don’t do anymore “book” math this week, that is fine because we do plenty of living math through games, road schooling and life. And for the bigs, I had them do a lesson in their books (Saxon for two older right now and Life of Fred for Mo), watch a Khan Academy video and they also did some work on IXL (well some of them have; some still need to but the sun is out and they are out).
I used to be a planner. Really I did.
But somewhere between kid #3 and kid #6, I started flying by the seat of my pants a lot more.
Maybe this is a bad thing? I don’t know.
I know today Mo and Larry were BEGGING me to give them more problems on our whiteboard to solve. WHAT???!!! So, sometimes, flying by the seat of one’s bum is not a bad thing.
They had watched a video on Khan about adding mixed numbers with unlike denominators (why do math sites and books and such use the word “unlike” instead of “different?). Actually the whole thing with problems on the board started because Mo said, “If you give me some problems and I can solve them, will you let me skip the video?” Hmm … let me think … OK, I say. And sure enough, he aces the problems.
OK, I guess he does know how to do that. {I swear the last time I gave him one of these problems, he got totally frustrated.} I love it when the light bulb goes off over time. So Larry decides he can do this too {after watching the video a couple of times}. And after fumbling through the first problem, Mo shows him a trick he uses (that really does work) and Larry gets it too.
Then it became a game of me trying to stump them (not really but each problem I added in a bit more challenge like improper fractions after they found the LCM and converted and added the fractions) and them trying to stump me with problems as well.
It lasted a short time, but it was fun and it got the job done. While it may be unconventional, I always think if they are learning, there is a point. If they are not, well then there isn’t one. So we trudge on and some days just go better than the last … like today.
***
Meanwhile, Li’l Miss and Li’l Dude (OK more Li’l Miss, but Li’l Dude is able to sit in and so it is not optional 🙂 are very interested in adding and subtracting, so I’m going with it.
Late last week, we used the Do-A-Dot paints to add and subtract in my bathroom floor. Judge me but they had fun while I finally got around to my shower (thus no pictures :)).
Li’l Bit even had her notebook and painted away with the dot painters.
Li’l Miss and Li’l Dude … they would roll two die and then add [or subtract] the numbers.
Each time they rolled, they would paint that many dots. For the addition, it didn’t matter which number they dot-painted first. I would also encourage them to write the digits. I also showed Li’l Miss how to write her equations vertically and horizontally.
With the subtraction, it was more challenging of course. They learned quickly to write and dot-paint the larger number first. I would have them then cross out the smaller number (using the previously painted dots). Then whatever was left in terms of dots … that was the answer. After a few tries, they really started getting it.
So this morning, I got out our brand-new (Dollar Tree find) large foam die.
Yes, I bought two sets in orange because they didn’t have purple, so I didn’t want to buy red (Li’l Dude’s color) and not purple (trust me, it is better this way and Mo is the only one who knows what I did). It is just easier when you have *twins* to buy two sets of some things … in the same color if both of “their” colors are not available. The littles grabbed their math notebooks and I wondered aloud, “How else can we add and subtract?”
Enter unifix cubes (any manipulative will do but this is one we haven’t used in a while) and Red solo plastic cups. The littles rolled their two die and then counted that many unifix cubes into their cups. I added a twist though. I told them roll the two die two times. I titled this lesson, “Adding 3 or More Numbers.”
They AMAZED me with it!
Not only that, Li’l Dude was counting the teens like crazy. {Note to the Prez: If you give him SOMETHING TO ACTUALLY COUNT, I promise he can count to 20} I am thinking Li’l Dude has just figured out what is the point of counting if there is nothing to count? Can’t say I totally disagree with him.
At this point in my life, I find myself counting “1-2-3-4-5-6” a lot. Bet you all can guess why?! Speaking of which, Li’l Bit can already count to 3 in English. 🙂
In this next photo, Li’L miss is actually adding two 2-digit numbers! She wanted to add her “two answers together” (love how her mind is thinking ahead!) so I showed her how. Granted it was “11” and “13” but I drew a little line and showed her the columns and she added it and said “24!” Yep!
After we had a few rounds of adding our unifix cubes, they were losing interest but they weren’t quite ready to put up the cubes.
I suggested they build something and that just didn’t motivate them. So I said “Hey, let’s sort them and count them!” SCORE.
As we began sorting them into the cups, we talked about “more than” , “less than” and “equal” and “most” and “least.”
It became apparent which one had the most, and I asked them “Which one has the most?” Li’l Miss quickly answered “the green Mommy, see it is the highest in the cup!” Well, yes, they are! And then I had a momentary thought, “Graphing!”
So, I suggested we count them all and “record” it on a new sheet of paper.
I told them to grab colored pencils that corresponded to the colors of cubes. Li’l Miss is ALWAYS up for anything that sounds half-way like art, and Li’l Dude was … well, he was not about to let Li’l Miss count all of the cubes by herself (little friendly competition mind you).
So, we began counting and recording on our VERY SIMPLE “bar graph.” We figured out which color had the “least”, “most” and which were “equal.” And they loved it! so much so Li’l Miss begged to do “another graph tomorrow Mommy?”
In the meantime, I had gotten out these neat little marble and rod do-dads we salvaged from a bunch of yard sale donations given to us by another homeschooling family who had found out we were having a yard sale to raise $$$ for an adoption.
Li’l Miss’s “rectangle”
Larry’s hexagon that turned into a hexagonal prism
Mo’s “church”
This is one of those things about homeschooling that I love. The spontaneity. Before long, all but one of our children were building with these things and making “3-dimensional shapes” and “prisms” and “hexagons” and “triangles” and it was fun! I wish I was more math-minded and could figure out something really cool to do with these, but in the meantime it certainly presents a great opportunity to review names of shapes and prisms and how that all relates to math.
Finally, Mo challenged me to a game of Stratego. OK, is it just me? I DON’T GET THIS GAME. I actually won, but it was by accident. I put this right up there with RISK. Over my head. I don’t think I’d make much of a soldier for many reasons, but strategy is certainly not my thing apparently.
How was your Monday? Linking up to Math Monday today.
Y’all have got to check this out! Whether you homeschool or not, some of this stuff is bound to be useful! Notebooking pages for vacations … for “traveling” across the USA … check it out!
You can find the FREEBIES that are being downloaded one at a time as I type on CurrClick’s FB page.
I think this LINK will take you to the freebies, but I think you’ll need to refresh as they are giving away of total of 9 FREEBIES and so far have only shared the first five.
FWIW, CurrClick is an awesome site, and our favorite publisher over there is LightHome Publications (their copywork and handwriting books are superb!).
Don’t miss the NINE FREEBIES today only until midnight!
*I did not receive any compensation for this. I am just sharing so others can enjoy the FREE goodness!*
My two littles are so easy to teach. I figure I’ll ride this joy train as long as it lasts LOL!
They wake up ready to go to school. Their older brothers … well that is another post for another day LOL!
I typically work to teach the little ones at least one new *concept* in math each week.
Really at this point it is just to introduce them, but they really are learning a lot!
Li’l Miss can count to 100 now! I am so proud of her. She is close to counting by 10s to 100, but for now she can to 100.
Li’l Dude knows the names of all of his shapes and seems to get the relationship between 2-dimensional shapes and their 3-dimensional counterparts. This has been learned mostly spontaneously, but he is a LEGO maniac and he just seems to think in a way that lends itself to shapes and prisms.
In the last few weeks, we have played games to learn math concepts in fun ways. They continue to use their Math Copywork books as well.
They both love a game of Candy*land, and most always I incorporate some type of math review with it. Each time they roll, I ask them a question and they try to answer. On this particular day, I was quizzing them on the numbers 1-20. I have an old 4×6 photo brag book that I filled with 4×6-size numbers 1-20.
After they would roll and move their gingerbread man, I would call out a random number 1-20 and they had to turn to that number in the book. Their favorite part is if they got it correct, they pulled the card out and kept it. If they got it wrong, the card stayed in the number book until they got it correct. Once they were through the numbers, we put the book away and just finished the game, but they wanted to play more with the number cards!
In this next math lesson, I worked with the littles on addition. They have both shown spontaneously that they are thinking on this, so I figured we would work on it.
I pulled out our education cube number insert cards (0-10) and took them upstairs where the little cars are stored. I told them we would be driving around picking up numbers to make an *equation*. I had them write this word in their copywork books, and explained to them in very simple terms what the word means.
They LOVED this game! I told them to do three equations, but they did many more. Li’l Miss wrote a lot in her math copywork book.
Li’l Dude opted to do the required three though he drove around picking up more numbers and figuring out more equations. I also gave them counting bears to use if needed, but honestly they didn’t use them for all of the problems.
You may see in the photos that I also gave them the + and = magnet (like magnet letters but number set instead) to use to make their equations. They really like this. It helped them to write the equations on their papers.
*Yes, she added 9 + 8! She counted the bears and said, “17!”*
*And he added 10 + 5! He struggled a little bit with thirteen and fourteen, but he got there to 15!”*
One day, we were talking about being first or last, and Li’l Miss was asking me about the other numbers after first. That got me to thinking about teaching them ordinal numbers first through fifth. I thought a hands-on lesson would work best, so I grabbed some pipe cleaners and foam shapes with holes in the middle for threading them.
They really liked this and both spontaneously made “patterns” on their pipe cleaners. After they had put five shapes on their pipe cleaner, I would call out an ordinal number and ask them to point to that shape on their pipe cleaner. I made sure to have them hold them upright and made sure they knew the top one was “first”.
They did extremely well with this. After the object lesson, I wrote “first”, “second” and “third” on the whiteboard and had them copy this in their math copywork books. I will work on more ordinal numbers later since this went so well!
Today we worked on shapes again and I was pleased to see they knew the eight basic ones and I had them write this in their math copywork books.
I pulled out some very old scrapbooking supplies with all of those shapes on them, and they liked tracing with the templates. I had them write the names of the shapes in or beside them in their notebooks.
We also worked on an art project which allowed them to cut out different shapes freehand. They put a lot into this and we decided to extend it to a second day.
I will take photos of the finished products tomorrow, but here is how they left them. I love them already!!!
And the FINISHED masterpieces! Li’l Dude’s is on the left and Li’l Miss’s is on the right.
I am linking up love2learn2day’s Math Monday Blog Hop today!
And also to
Our theme for school in December if I had to pick one would be hands-on. I knew the month would be even more relaxed in terms of school than our normal level of relaxed schooling.
We had several doctor visits to take care of and some field trips and parties planned.
After talking with someone about what their 5th grader has been doing this week in a brick-and-mortar school, I am even less worried about our relaxed approach to December. 🙂
In math, we continue to work on some developmental areas concerning fractions, decimals and percents. For one of my older students, this has required going all the WAY back to whole and 1/2. I am proud to say our two littles have a solid grasp on these concepts and Li’l Miss understands 1/4 and 3/4s as well.
I have used khanacademy quite a bit this month and will be incorporating it more in our school days. I just don’t like teaching math, so why re-invent the wheel when these free videos are available and our boys like watching them (well relatively speaking). I HIGHLY recommend this site. It is that good. And it is FREE. No ads either. You can even register an account and do practice problems and keep track of videos already watched.
My goal here is for the older boys to understand solidly that writing or saying 0.5 is the same value as 1/2 and finally as 50%. Of course, they get this but sometimes things get muddled when the values are not as easily identified or related to. So, we have been practicing, practicing, practicing.
In some ways it seems strange to teach a concept to 3 children of different ages, abilities and levels, but for 1 it is total review, which I’ve seen was clearly needed as a refresher, another it is challenging but he can do it, and still another he is just learning and my expectations are reasonable for his ability and understanding. I think language plays a huge role in understanding or lack thereof even with math.
As for the littles mentioned earlier, we still use a lot of games and copywork for math concepts. They both thrive in this. Li’l Miss just about has counting to 100 mastered. She picked it up very easily, but we practiced while playing board games. She can count to 29 every single time. She gets stuck at 30, and of course wonders why it is not “threety.” I don’t know. I did tell her it is like “thirteen”, but she still forgets that on occasion. So … once we get past thirty, she usually sails through to 49 and then there is “fifty” which is not “fivety.” 🙂 You get the idea. Sixty. Seventy. Eighty. Ninety. Those make sense to her and use the actual number.
Li’l Dude is counting to 20 now. I can’t believe just a few months ago, he was stuck at 5. I am very proud of him. He used to always forget 7 and 8. I finally started putting 7 things on his plate at lunch, things like 7 pepporonis or 7 potato chips or whatever that I would give him more than one of. I asked him to count them before he ate them and within a week he had 7 mastered. Then I did the same with 8. Sometimes it really is that simple, and getting him to do repetition with flash cards or something like that would be disastrous but the food really motivated him. 🙂