Keeping It Simple

Lots of stuff! Ready to read.  Because I want to be able to sit down at a moment's notice, the reading stuff (Barton System) stays out. While it might be considered a step back for Mark and James, I am using this with them too. They have many "dyslexia moments" in their lives, so I am hoping this gives them a step up. They are nowhere near as severe as their older brother, but I am so impressed with the system that I want to use it with all three boys. Mark likes it- he feels that it is able to master each concept more than in the other program (also one that I love) we were using. James is amazed that he no longer reverses his "b" and "d". About the tickets (shown top left)-  The boys would do their reading program anyway, but it is summer, so I thought some incentive would be nice. Each time a section of the lesson is completed, a ticket is awarded. Prizes can be purchased when they earn the "cost" of an item. Really, there is n...

I have mentioned this book a few times of the last few weeks, so I thought I'd spend a few minutes to share what I think of it. Math Smart Junior (for grades 6-8) is written to help students understand basic math. We are only on chapter 3, but I would say that it does a pretty fair job. About the story of three friends (and some talking animals) and their adventures on a hot summer day, students reading the book learn about math along the way. I would probably choose a more direct approach myself, but my two oldest boys really are enjoying this. This would be a perfect supplement to a textbook. Or maybe summer review for a student to work on independently. We are using it to bring a more systematic approach to our learning- most of the concepts in this are familiar to my boys, but they have not learned them in a structured sequence. As far as grade level- when we "do math" together, usually all three boys (ages 8,11, and 13) join in. If the concept is famil...

Yes, it is Monday again! I thought I'd post about more of our math adventures. I said last week that I would talk more about Math Smart Junior- I'll share a little, but I am mostly here to share some more fraction learning! We'll begin with Goldfish equivalent fractions:    Food and fractions just go together!  Goldfish were used to work on equivalent fractions- like 2/4 = 1/2. I was actually surprised how far we went with this. I thought because there were different denominators, it would get confusing.  I guess Goldfish really work for fraction learning!  A little blurry, but I thought this demonstrated that James really is having fun.  No math has to be painful. Although,  I have not figured out a way to make Algebra edible yet.  Moving on to adding fractions with Smarties:    Each boy (James and Mark) opened their Smartie pack. After a false start, I helped James set...

Better than blue Monday- right? I am not sure if winter is here for real,  but boy is it raining. We wimpy Californians are in for it now. I love real books for math. I prefer ones with a story line. This one does not have a story line, but the fun illustrations and understandable explanations make it an enjoyable aid to learning about fractions.  James had plenty of fun!  He also started a notebook page with fraction terms. Included are examples of fractions with a common denominator yet different numerators showing larger/smaller fractions (2/4 > 1/4), and fractions that have different denominators with the same numerator also showing larger/smaller fractions (1/12 > 1/15).   This is our second year without using an actual math curriculum. A friend has loaned me her "Math On The Level" to look at, but I have not gotten up to speed yet. In the meantime, we do our daily drills and I sort of wing the rest of it. In ...

I noticed that my boys (the two older ones- 13yo and 11yo) have been stumbling over their multiplication facts. They understand multiplication and have  had their facts memorized. In response to this, I started them back on Timez Attack last week (I love TA btw). But Mark was resistant. Today he started telling me that he did not want to do it, that the characters are creepy (one has long toe nails (?))... Okay, assuming that he was not just trying to get out of work, I pulled up the online Math-U-See drill pages. He loved it.   It is funny how that works- Paul would despise sitting there and punching in the answer without the fun interaction of a video game style drill. Mark did the same number punching drill three times until he got all of the problems correct. Paul is happily fighting with James over who gets to play Timez Attack next.

First, I have had a great time perusing this site- MathPickle.com  . Which is where I found out recommendations for these three math apps (that we LOVE!). From Math Pickle:  "Here are three apps that are fantastic for getting your students to work with addition in a fun puzzle like environment." Sum Stacker  $0.99- We had this one already and love it. Reiner Knizia's Yoku-Gami  $0.99- Math smath- we are all addicted to this game now. Yukendo-Sudoku  KenKen Variant  $free- fun variation on Sudoku. I love Sudoku, but on paper. Not the app. I love (and the boys too) this app. Got to try it. Also From Math Pickle: "The secret is to embed the mathematics in a rich puzzle experience." Watch the app review from Math Pickle on YouTube.  (don't get locked in by the "grade 2" label)

Mathwire Blog leads to activities posted on Mathwire.com . I don't know if everyone has heard of this amazing blog. I mentioned  it in passing when I first heard about it, and have really enjoyed it since then. This is a great resource for many math concepts- the tags are listed at the bottom of the blog page, so scroll down and take a look.  Most of the activities involve little prep work. If there is a hand-out needed for an activity, there will be a link to the Mathwire Template Library . Things I love about this blog- 1. The activities are fun. We have done several of them and my boys have enjoyed each one. 2. The activities are not overly complicated- they work on a concept in a direct way. Anyone who has ever pulled together an activity and thought "what were we trying to learn?" at the end of it, knows what I mean. 3. I don't have to go in search of materials. We have needed a few things- dice, dominoes, coins..., but most s...

I love a new math resource. This one was posted on the FIAR forum a few days ago. I was pretty sure my boys would love the Hundreds Board Logic and Guess the Number - they tend to enjoy logic and reasoning type things. So, we spent a little time this week playing with those activities. Mathwire / Mathwire blog This video, with an All About Spelling demonstration, was also linked in a FIAR board post. I think it gives a nice idea of how the program will work. The review card component was not demonstrated which I think it too bad--- keeping that review in our day is a key to our progress. (it was not included, understandably, in the interest of time) I also should give a disclaimer to those of you with boys (especially more than one boy)- our lessons do not look at all like the ones in the demo. Same material, different kids! :) All About Spelling

A surefire hit for box activities around our schoolroom are math games. This Number Ladder is one of the very simple ones that we use from Peggy Kaye's Games for Math . The numbers on this ladder are strategically chosen so that no problem adds up to more than 10 (for James 1st grade). We have a more difficult version (for Mark 3rd grade). Both game pieces are placed at the bottom of the ladder. The first player rolls the cube and adds that number the first number on the ladder. If the player gives the correct answer he moves up a space and it is the next players turn. In our game, if one player (the student) catches another player (mom) in a "mistake", the player who made the mistake has to go back to the beginning. I remind James at the beginning of the game to watch out- I almost always make mistakes. ;) * our number cube is 0-5 -if you had regular dice, some of these would add up to more than 10

I am a bit unsure of what to title this post. I have been reading blogs (lots of 'em) about "living math", "math journals" and such. Of course, I always want to wait until I completely understand a concept before I jump in. Heaven knows, I don't want my kids to do a math journal "wrong"! Well, in attempt to get over my fear of not doing it right, we started today. Yes, I just grabbed some $.99 notebooks that I purchased for something a while back, and we started. On the recommendation from this post over at the Pumpkin Patch blog (the book titles are slightly different, but it is the same series) I had ordered a few of these math books from our library. So, with journals, pencils and books in hand we began. The boys enjoyed reading about the baby Panda-- they were most interested in the fact that this newborn panda weighed about as much as a butter stick. Then the work began. While I don't have pics of all three of the boys (the lighting was to...

This is the first in series of posts I want to write to feature how we have used the resources that I have listed down the right column of this blog-- they really are places that I have found useful and inspiring, and I did not choose them lightly! Sometimes it takes a bit of exploring to get started, so I thought I'd offer an introduction. :) Okay, so Let's Play Math is the coolest blog ever ( well , certainly the coolest math blog ever!). I have to admit to having a healthy fear of math, but reading this blog can actually make you believe that math is fun! One of the many ideas from this blog is "math concentration". You take a card deck- remove the face cards- and play concentration. Instead of matching numbers like you would in traditional concentration, you find two cards that equal 10. Pretty simple. Even though I set up to play with James (going in to 1st), his big brothers were happy to play too. There was more than enough competition to keep them interested ...

I have to admit that I was not sure how well this game would go over, but, surprisingly, James (K) really loves it. We have played one of the three versions- all players work together to build lilly pads (out of fraction pieces) before "Croak" eats all of his eight part lilly pad (you have to "feed" Croak when you land on red).  It is really only as educational as the mom (or other grown up) makes it by talking about the process. Using the right vocabulary-- three quarters, one half-- and asking questions like "how many more sixths do we need to make a whole lilly pad?" is what helps make it a learning experience. Even my 8 year old joined us in playing today and requested to play again! Go figure! So, we give this game a ***thumbs up*** .

I have been working on some math centers/activities from a book I purchased at Currclick called Shoe Box Math Learning Centers . We are not using shoe boxes to store the materials as suggested-- I don't have any more room for boxes around here! We are setting them up in manila envelopes, and the bulky items that some of the centers require are stored in plastic baggies in the crate that I keep the game envelopes in-- when I place an activity in a workbox, I just check the directions to see what is needed. This is the newest one that I have put together (in James' workbox for tomorrow): Name of center on the front. Directions on are the back. The dominos actually fit nicely in the envelope. The reason for the black out marker is that I am having James (K) use this for addition- not subtraction as the worksheet had it shown for the second problem. I just marked out their sample and replaced with an addition problem.

Peggy Kaye is my hero ;-) -- I don't know her and doubt that I will ever meet her, yet she has single handedly changed our school day. We started using some games from her books a few years ago as extras, but this spring our primary focus has changed to utilizing games outlined in these books as well as other hands on activities. The frustration that my boys felt toward their math (really, I think it was the math book, not the math) has all but disappeared. And, the added benefit is that what they learn really sticks!   We brought this game (below) from Games for Math out to dinner with us tonight. We had a rare dinner out with just our three boys, so we set up at a booth at a quiet diner nearby and played. We had a great time and my hubby was super impressed at the kid's quick fact recall. This game is played by drawing a card with a math problem on it-- the player then proceeds to move the number of spaces that his answer is. I made three sets of cards to match the lev...

I love it when an activity works!! I put together this math center for James (K) using Shoe Box Math Learning Centers . It took James a few minutes to run with it, but eventually he did. The activity consists of 4 storyboards, math facts written on index cards-- answers included, and various manipulatives. (picture below) All he has to do is choose any math fact card, a story board, and the manipulatives to go with it and make up a story using the chosen math fact. In the picture above James is using the log story card with the toy frogs that I purchased at the dollar store.

I recently purchased this set of 4 riddle books on clearance from Lakeshore Learning - I think the cost was about $11. Each book presents 10 shapes. Each shape has a fun riddle like this one-- "I have 5 flat faces. I have as many straight edges as a spider has legs. In Egypt, people built huge monuments out of stone in my shape. What shape am I ?" (square pyramid) My plan is to pair it with this box of geomags. The boys can read the riddle, answer the question and then build the shape-- I think for the first time I put it out I will just let them play around with it though. I'll let you know how it turns out. ;-)

This was a rather impromptu math center that we (ds 8yo and I) put up this morning, but it turned out to be fun!! We took one dollar store math money game... plus a money worksheet (to list person and monument/symbol on each coin or dollar) from our American History notebook... added a file folder game that we had on hand... threw out a bowl of coins and some money cards... looked up some money worksheets on Enchanted Learning (leveled from K up)... and, for the pièce de résistance, we added some dollar store money window clings to our white board (Mark loved putting these up!). This equation all added up to a pretty fun afternoon! Paul is excited about- (?) - I have no idea ;-), but I am glad that he was having fun! Mark, who took the more serious approach, told me that he wants to do this again tomorrow-- from Mark, that is a definite thumbs up!