I had planned to take this whole week of school OFF thinking Li’l Miss would possibly be in the hospital until Monday. What was I thinking? She always blows away the doctor’s predictions and she was home by Friday at 1 p.m. And I was going to FINALLY finish our school plans. I am the type who likes to have it ALL mapped out. I did come up with a system last year that worked well. Plans are numbered to create order for the older boys to follow, but they are NOT dated. We add the date as we complete it. Done. I have finished science plans, history plans, worked on language and math plans. I also need to map out the littles’ plans very generally.

Did I mention that the littles are BEGGING to do school EVERY.SINGLE.MORNING by 7:30 a.m. 🙂 While this is good, I need a plan. I have things in my brain; just need to get it on paper. I think today I finally have a handle on it. I don’t want to overdo and at the same time, I want something that makes filling their workboxes each evening for the next day EASY-PEASY. I think I have it figured out.

In the meantime, I have made some fun things. Have you ever heard of math copywork?

I had not until I saw it mentioned on the Math on the Level yahoo group. I was very intrigued because our two littles are always wanting to do math. I do have a few things we’ve done that have gone well, but mostly I just want them to learn 1-20 at this point. We are getting close with one; the other I am thinking repetition is the key.

Enter math copywork. HE LOVES IT!!!

And she likes it. And it is so SIMPLE.

I looked through my basket of stuff-I-don’t-get-rid-of-because-I-will-think-of-a-use-day-after-I-toss-it. I found an old photo brag book. You know the kind with 20 or so pages ready to be filled with 4×6 photos.

I had a light-bulb moment. The last one was several weeks ago when the Prez took all the kids camping overnight. Anyway, I didn’t do such a great job in the alignment department, but I made a math copywork book for the littles.

I’m pleased with it and it cost very little: printing 10 b/w pages of numbers and 1+? math problems.

I did go ahead and laminate it so we can use it other ways like placing in order on the floor or playing go fish with a twist.

What do you think? I highly recommend this for your little ones. I just bought several notebooks for 50 cents apiece at Staples last week. I wrote “Math Copywork Book” on the front; Li’l Dude’s has a red cover and Li’l Miss’s has a purple cover of course. *By the way, Li’l Bit’s color will be yellow Aunt C :)*

While we’re talking school, I am excited that we will again be using Math on the Level *mostly* exclusively this year. In anticipation, I cleaned out our game cabinet. Games always sell well at our garage sales, so this served a dual purpose.

Do you see that game called EQUATE? Think SCRABBLE with numbers and operation symbols. Yes, it is that good (or bad) depending on one’s like/dislike of math. I will say my oldest who does NOT love math but does love scrabble … he likes this game. The best part is that I had never bought it because it is expensive, BUT I found it at a nearby curriculum consignment sale for … drumroll … $10!!! AND it had the advanced tile set INCLUDED. Sometimes you just score. 🙂

This is just another view of our bottom shelves, which house the games our littles love to play most.

Perfection is a recent favorite; I highly recommend it if your child needs some fine motor training. It is fun but purposeful.

We also talk about the major shapes when they are placed. I would NOT however pay $20 for it; I bought it at ToysRGiant when they had the BOGOF games sale between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is worth $10 I think.

And this neat game, Summology. I bought it at our homeschool curriculum fair. I do like it and can see many uses for it.

If I had known I would find Equate, I’m not sure I would have bought it. But I do like it and plan to use it with all of our students in various ways.

Hope y’all are having fun getting started this school year!