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. 🙂

Well, I’ll be honest right from the start.

I have been a wee bit totally unmotivated in the schooling department.

Perhaps burn-out is a better word here.

I on one hand don’t want to post that, because then I might hear things like “well put them in school” just as an example. And I don’t mean from comments here on the blog. KWIM?

On the other hand, I know I’m not the only teacher who experiences this. I have a good friend who teaches in a local high school. She gets burn-out too. We have talked about it. She has challenging students as well. Just sayin’

When I take stock though, we have seen some major accomplishments as of late.

I thought a little list is in order:

1). Li’l Miss is reading C-V-C words easily. She is also BLENDING!!! Her ST has commented on her reading abilities as well. I am so proud of her efforts. She is VERY motivated, which makes teaching her fun!

2). Li’l Dude can count to ten!!! And sometimes he can count to 12. Even more, he can identify the numerals 11-20 when he sees them. YEAH!

3). Larry is reading on a 2nd grade level with great comprehension. He is also reading above that grade level, but his comprehension is not there for many things at levels above grade 2 words. Still he asks questions when he doesn’t understand a word meaning, which to me is success on the comprehension aspect.

4). Mo is doing well in many areas, but perhaps the area he has really made me most proud is taking part in our church’s Christmas Musical and trying out for a speaking role for the first time. He told them the part he hoped to get when he tried out and he got it! He finally took the leap and tried out this year, and he has memorized his lines so well and is excited and ready for the big day. It is this coming Sunday and they will perform in all 3 morning services. My stomach is already doing flip-flops, but he is very confident and I am so proud of his taking ownership of this and working so hard to do his best!

5). Curly excels in many areas, but perhaps the area where he is doing the best right now is growing into a young man. Seriously, he has matured so much and he is SO HELPFUL with his younger siblings. Li’l Dude has taken a particular liking to him because of their mutual love for LEGO building, and it is incredibly wonderful to watch Curly encourage Li’l Dude in his own LEGO pursuits. It truly warms my heart! They are 7 years apart in age, but I see them as kindred spirits on many levels. Who knew? BUT God. 🙂

So without further ado, a few photos I have managed to snap in recent weeks. Like I said, I’ve been burned out and we have not logged in as many school days in November as I would have liked, but we will be schooling more days in December than we normally do. And this year, I am fully committed to schooling through the summer. I’m not sure what form that will take and it will be modified to be sure our afternoons are FREE for swimming, but we have lost ground in math and I’m not willing to take that risk again. So I know our summer school will include daily math drills and perhaps some creative writing tasks that I haven’t ironed out yet, but anyway we will get it all in!

I recently read a post on the yahoo group I’m a member of for families who homeschool and have adopted (PM me for an invite if this applies to your family no matter where your child was adopted from!). The post really blessed and encouraged me because this Mom, who has homeschooled for 26 YEARS! straight, shared how some of the most important things we’ll teach our children DO NOT come out of textbooks. HOW TRUE that is! As I watch literally it seems God growing our children’s love for their waiting little sister, I credit that as learning. Oh how we’ve been on the other side of that difficult transitional time when God is grafting another child into our home, and I do pray everyday not a moment is wasted as He prepares us yet again for that grafting.

OK, I rambled. Some photos and brief descriptions of recent events in our school days!

This is one of our favorite games to play lately! Yes, this is mine from childhood. Don’t you love the hairstyles LOL!

Speaking of games, I love a suggestion I learned from MOTL (Math on the Level; our math curriculum). We will play a game but add in some math questions along with it. As each person has their turn, they choose a card from their stack of math questions. The beauty is everyone can play a game together, but their math questions can be individualized. In the photos above, Li’l Dude, Li’l Miss and me are playing Candy*land and they are answering questions about shapes and the numbers 1-20. I have on my to-do list making cards with the tens facts 20-100. I was VERY PLEASED with how well they identified the numbers 10-20. Li’l Miss can count to 20 now and Li’l Dude can get past 10, but the best part is they can both identify them all by sight. Major accomplishments here let me just tell you! Number ID has NOT come easy around here! 🙂

We participated in an International Festival with a local homeschool group in late October. The children all worked together and chose the country of Norway to study. I was so proud of their work and their efforts in putting it all together. We were able to walk around and learn from other students about many countries around the world! It was a fun event that we hope to participate in again next year.

We love, love, love this game we printed for FREE from this site (look under the math tab for “Add-It”). I have a tub of various counters (by the way, don’t ever throw out pieces to games when you get rid of the games b/c the board has disintegrated; keep the counters!!!). Li’l Dude and Li’l Miss are adding now. My only wish is that the creator of this ingenious idea would make a subtraction set! A girl can dream!

**Photos below taken on my phone so not great quality but the leaves were beautiful!**

We went on a leaf hunt one day around our yard and a few neighbors’ yards in October, and we were absolutely in awe of the beauty of the leaves. How can anyone deny a Creator? We decided to make a garland out of the leaves. We just took it down, and it was even beautiful still even with the leaves drying out. It still  had color. Hard to explain but it did!

And finally, some fun with phonics! I pulled out our Scrabble Slam game and used it for a fun phonics lesson with the littles. I could put together the word endings that I knew they could read and then they were instructed to choose consonants to form new words. They did great and it really encouraged them in their reading!

I also did a similar activity with some phonics tiles Grammy gave us. They liked using these too.

Speaking of reading, I highly recommend Reading Eggs for anyone who needs a bit of reinforcement in this area. Yes, it is computer-based, but they love it and we use it in moderation and it does help me out too by freeing me up to do things with the older boys while they work on this. We have two very old MACS (one in the schoolroom, one in the kitchen), so I can put them on simultaneously and then have 20 minutes to work with someone else individually. I got our subscription through Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op at a DEEP discount. Highly recommend that site as well for huge savings; it is FREE to join the co-op!

Well that is about all I have photos of I think from the last 6 weeks or so. I am ready for a new month and hopefully will stick to our plans a bit more this month. Maybe LOL!

I *try* to incorporate active learning into every single day. Note the word *try.* It is hands-down (no pun intended) the best way for all of mine to learn. I never hear any complaining (not that any of my students would do that … ahem) when we are on our feet or seated at the table playing a game.

I am going to highlight some things we’ve done recently for school, and some of them had no idea it was even a lesson!

We have had this game since Curly was 5 years old. I distinctly remember him receiving it at his 5th birthday party from a friend. I know, I remember odd things. Anyway, it has been on our game cabinet untouched for more than a year I would say. On this day, I decided to try it while Mo and Larry were at their Junior Achievement class. Curly decided to play along for old time’s sake. This used to be his favorite game!

Well, it is going to be a favorite again I think! They are already asking to play it again. It took them a bit to get the hang of it, but I was so encouraged by the thinking going on with this game. After we finished, they like their older brother decided to extend the learning by trying to put together more of the sets using the instruction cards.

We will be pulling this one off the shelf again soon! (And upon seeing the selling price on Amazon, on second thought, this game may be leaving our cabinet. $274??? Really???)

Moving on to our next math lesson … I mean, game time! Curly and I played a competitive game of Equate. I mentioned finding this gem at the used curriculum sale I attended. This game does not disappoint. If you have a Scrabble lover in the family who happens to deplore math, you NEED this game.

I was very impressed with the equation-making going on. We were able to review and put to use exponents, negative numbers, fractions, mixed numbers and all 4 operations of arithmetic using those numbers as well as whole numbers. I was winning when we quit … just saying … though we declared it a draw because official Scrabble rules say all tiles must be used before a winner is declared … and dinner was ready. There WILL be a rematch! 🙂

Yesterday, Mo asked to play Grocery Store with me for part of his math lesson. It was easy to say yes. There is so much you can do with this concept. I decided to work on percents (and fractions and decimals) since he has shown a natural interest in figuring this all out. I sent him shopping for 5 items using our evolving list, and he came back and totaled the items.

Just as he was counting his money to pay the salesperson (ME!), I made an announcement, “SHOPPERS, today is your lucky day! Every purchase will be discounted 25% off today!” He giggled and said, “Mom, that is 1/4 off.” BINGO! But how to figure out the new total? He says, “A calculator.” Um … no. As we walked through the steps, he told me we needed to divide, but what how was he going to do that with dollar signs and decimals? I reminded him those things *could* be removed for the sake of calculation. He then made the $14.76 into 1,476 and divided by 4.

The only part he struggled with was going from the original total to the new total. After some hints, he said, “Oh, I just need to subtract the 1/4 off of the total.” EUREKA, I think he has it! I briefly explained to him that obviously in a store one would not do long division and that in our next lesson we would talk about how estimating and rounding could be very handy if one is in a store where a calculator is not handy and you are paying cash (and need to be sure you have enough $$).

I am certain Grocery Store math is one of the BEST ways to teach children. In this 15-minute lesson, we discussed and put into practice fractions, percents, decimals being removed and put back in proper placement, subtraction and addition of 4-digit plus 4-digit numbers with and without decimals and dollar signs, long division and counting money! Not bad!!!

Of course, the littles saw the Grocery gaming going on and wanted their time with Mom and the Grocery basket. I decided we’d play around and really try to learn about the 4 main coins and of course the dollar! I think they get the dollar as they received $1 for allowance on the weekend if they complete chores during the week. They are not solid in the 4 main coins though after our Grocery lesson, they understand them more.

I even threw in some things like “4 quarters equals 1 dollar because 25 is 1/4 of 100.” I figure hearing it now will only prime their brains for learning it later! They didn’t want to quit shopping! As they gathered 3 items at a time, I would have them count out the money they owed. I used only items for their evolving list that contained dollars and cents by tens.

I was pleased with how they counted by tens, contemplated which coins to use, and counted out dollars up to 5 dollars. Li’l Miss was even concerned when she quickly realized her total was $5 and she had only $3, so we talked about how important it is to be sure we don’t buy more than we can pay for in a trip!

We love to play this game I got for FREE from Confessions of a Homeschooler. It is called Add It and is the first game listed on her math printables page.

My Li’l Dude needed some extra encouragement, so he *drove* his beans to add them up. He LOVED it. We used the 1s and 2s cards and beans (Li’l Dude) and colored macaroni (Li’l Miss) for our counting.

I also found this wonderful little gem thanks to a link at love2learn2day’s math blog hop a few weeks ago. You can download it at the link above.

Li’l Dude helped me build the numbers with LEGO bricks. He liked that too as he is a building machine! I decided to write some two-digit numbers on the board because Li’l Miss is interested, and then they made the numbers using the LEGO numbers, which we are keeping in our math box for future learning.

We love to use our Education Cubes and this little game did not disappoint.

We are still working on the numbers 1–20, so I decided to use the Dot Counting Set from the Members Only Site at Education Cubes.

But I added a twist. I got out our Pattern Blocks and we counted out the same number of pattern blocks as the dots on each die. They loved this, and it got them counting!

After 5 rolls, I then told them to make something out the Pattern Blocks they had counted out. Li’l Miss made some beautiful flowers with some amazing patterns and symmetry. I didn’t get any great photos b/c she was creating them and starting over faster than I could snap. Li’l Dude made a “monster truck” that was quite creative as well. We will do this game again I think!

Finally, if anyone is still reading, I thought I would give a snapshot of our 3 big guys’ 5-A-Day pages from one day this week. I know it sounds crazy to give them only 5 problems a day but it really is great. I can often add in multiple skills to one problem, and can also add in a problem every now and then with a skill I’m fairly sure they don’t know. To my surprise, more than once, they either know it or have figured it out. These pages do challenge them, and I can virtually put any type of problem I want. Why test them with 20 of the same type of problem if they know the skill? I think this idea will also prepare them more for the type of test they will see such as the ACT and SAT where math problems will be random and not 20 of the same kind. It does TAKE TIME and I have to do them at night or quite frankly, they don’t get done. But once I get going, I can do all 3 in 15 minutes.

Well that is math that has been going on at our house in the last few weeks. Mind you, this does not take place every day but I do try to do something hands-on with the littles each day even if just giving them the pattern blocks and seeing what they build with no guidance. We will count them as we clean up or something like that! I’m linking up with the Math Blog Hop at love2learn2day and Education Cubes Show & Tell.

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!