Thursday, December 30, 2010
The Water Cycle
Just wanted to post a link to this interactive water cycle site. I'm going to use it next week. So fun.
Friday, December 17, 2010
MATH!!!!!
I am afraid of two things in regards to home schooling: 1) teaching my little ones to read and 2) incorporating math in a fun, useful and test ready way. The reading I can talk about later, today I want to discuss the math issue.
In my view math is something very critical to daily living, you need to know how to count money and make sure you get the right change back so as not to be cheated, you need to know how to create a budget and calculate it out, you need to be able to be able to figure out sales prices, read and understand recipes, etc, you know the basic living stuff. On another level if you want to be able to build anything you need to have a knowledge of geometry, measurement and the like. I don't use that very often or very complexly anyway but Dennis does every time he builds me a cabinet or something. Finally, I realize for college entry my kids will need to be able to take a math test and do well on it. Not to mention if they decide to go into any field such as science, engineering, medicine etc. they will need a good foundation in mathematics.
My fear is that I am not great at math. I also see that it is not Will's favorite subject and he almost never chooses it for himself to work on. I don't want him to hate it and force it and make his dislike of it worse, but I do want him to keep at least semi-current with it. For now I have decided to do a math mom share once per week. I have found two things I am excited about. One lead to the other. . .
My friend and home schooling mentor Beth suggest the book Mathematicians are People Too which tell stories of real mathematicians in a kid friendly way. I was reading through this today and was delighted to find a mathematician story on a math topic we have been working on. Will is technically a 3rd grader and my mind screams time stables because of it. So, that is the topic we have explored the last few weeks. John Napier is one of the mathematicians from the above mentioned book. Famous for logarithms, he also created a device called Napier Rods or Napier Bones that act as an early multiplication calculator. I looked on-line and found several references for making our own rods/bones. I think it will be fun to read about John Napier and make a set of his "bones". Maybe I don't get out often enough but, seriously I am so excited to find fun and interesting connections to something as drab as memorizing mulitplication tables!!
Other ways I am trying to make sure Will gets good doses of math is to have him use it as he would in real life. He counted prices, and made change when he did his candy store. We have cooked together and discussed fractions when we doubled recipes or halved them. He also has designed and built a step stool with his dad.
Sometimes I feel a little panicked we aren't doing math worksheets every day. But as I reflect on what we are doing I feel a wave of relief and a faith that in the end he will have a well rounded understanding of math concepts, that he will be able to apply what he knows in a variety of ways and that not only that. . .he won't hate it but at some point will actually enjoy and welcome solving problems using mathematics.
In my view math is something very critical to daily living, you need to know how to count money and make sure you get the right change back so as not to be cheated, you need to know how to create a budget and calculate it out, you need to be able to be able to figure out sales prices, read and understand recipes, etc, you know the basic living stuff. On another level if you want to be able to build anything you need to have a knowledge of geometry, measurement and the like. I don't use that very often or very complexly anyway but Dennis does every time he builds me a cabinet or something. Finally, I realize for college entry my kids will need to be able to take a math test and do well on it. Not to mention if they decide to go into any field such as science, engineering, medicine etc. they will need a good foundation in mathematics.
My fear is that I am not great at math. I also see that it is not Will's favorite subject and he almost never chooses it for himself to work on. I don't want him to hate it and force it and make his dislike of it worse, but I do want him to keep at least semi-current with it. For now I have decided to do a math mom share once per week. I have found two things I am excited about. One lead to the other. . .
My friend and home schooling mentor Beth suggest the book Mathematicians are People Too which tell stories of real mathematicians in a kid friendly way. I was reading through this today and was delighted to find a mathematician story on a math topic we have been working on. Will is technically a 3rd grader and my mind screams time stables because of it. So, that is the topic we have explored the last few weeks. John Napier is one of the mathematicians from the above mentioned book. Famous for logarithms, he also created a device called Napier Rods or Napier Bones that act as an early multiplication calculator. I looked on-line and found several references for making our own rods/bones. I think it will be fun to read about John Napier and make a set of his "bones". Maybe I don't get out often enough but, seriously I am so excited to find fun and interesting connections to something as drab as memorizing mulitplication tables!!
Other ways I am trying to make sure Will gets good doses of math is to have him use it as he would in real life. He counted prices, and made change when he did his candy store. We have cooked together and discussed fractions when we doubled recipes or halved them. He also has designed and built a step stool with his dad.
Sometimes I feel a little panicked we aren't doing math worksheets every day. But as I reflect on what we are doing I feel a wave of relief and a faith that in the end he will have a well rounded understanding of math concepts, that he will be able to apply what he knows in a variety of ways and that not only that. . .he won't hate it but at some point will actually enjoy and welcome solving problems using mathematics.
Friday, December 10, 2010
A week in review
This week was quite productive and as I have finally pulled myself together and worked out a system I feel good about I know more than ever I won't go back to public school. So here's our week:
Monday was "church" day. We did our regular read scriptures and read another chapter of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and then moved on to scouting and Faith in God. In scouting we went over his rock collection and talked about what he needed to do to finish up and cross that off in his book. For Faith in God he worked on developing talents and wrote a poem about one of God's creations (Lizards). He wrote an acrostic poem that requires you to know a little bit about lizards so he went on-line and read about lizards, as he came across words he liked he filled in the poem. L-Long Tongue I-insects for food Z-zoom A-anole lizard R-rain forest D-devil. I thought it turned out well and connected to Wednesday for science YAY! He really wanted to sculpt something but I couldn't find the clay but later this week he was able to very impressively sculpt a Sonic. I really was impressed at how well it turned out, I'll post pictures when he is done (he wants to paint it).
Tuesdays are more difficult because Ian is home all day and Will prefers to play with him than do work. I wanted to continue on with Rivers so we watched fresh water section of the PBS series Earth. Will was glued to it and I was reminded of how interesting he finds this sort of thing. I thought it gave a good background and imagery for him as we will continue to learn about the rivers of the world. We all made craft stick puzzles and mostly did closet for the day. Of course we read another chapter of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and scriptures.
Wednesday we read again and wrote out the questions Will had about Lizards for his report. My plan is that his report will mainly be about what he wanted to learn. I chose Whales and modeled for him the writing of the questions so he would have a general idea of what kinds of questions I had to give him ideas. We then went to the library and found books on our animals. I thought we could put a copy of his lizard poem in his report as well.
Thursday Will got to go on a field trip to the local planetarium and picnic lunch at the park. I have made a great connection with some other moms that home school and one of the moms took him with her and her son so I wouldn't have to take all the little kids. Will had a great time learning about the planets and they did a light show on the way different cultures celebrate Christmas. We also started a little art project of painting poinsettias. The art topic will be complementary colors. We had finished the "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" on Wednesday and with him at the planetarium and such we did not get any together reading in. He did read on his own as usual though so that was great too.
Friday, today is math day. We read scriptures and also started reading Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". It is a children's version and I told Will that I wanted him to read the original when as his reading skills improve. For now I think this version is appropriate. We then moved to math. I wanted him to work on his math program as one of his tasks but he didn't want to so instead went through a lesson in a 3rd grade text book I have. We discussed times tables with factors of 1 and 0 and he was a wiz, I didn't even have to back track or anything. He didn't even miss a beat when we looked at the algebra parts of the assignment. Then, I had him continue work on looking at patterns associated with times tables. Last week he colored in the 3's of a 100's chart and this week he did 4's and 5's. He quickly noticed the patterns and said he thought times tables would be easy for him. I agreed. Finally, I bought a book called "Mathematicians are People Too." and we read one of the stories about a mathematician.
Several times this week we have also done "pillow talk" where Will writes in a journal to me. I told him he could write whenever he wanted and then at night I would answer and slip the book under his pillow. This has been really fun. It hasn't been quite what I expected it would be and Will has surprised me with what he writes about. I don't want to spill too much about it because honestly as it develops it seriously is something I may look to publish especially if it continues along these lines.
I have to say, I am loving the home school thing. Yes, I am busy and way more overwhelmed than if I just sent them all off to school, but I am finding great joy in seeing my child/ren develop and learn and it such unexpected profound ways. Even if it is the harder road I would take it again and I will take it 3 more times! I don't know when I will pull Viv but my guess is that it will be sooner rather than later. I am just trying to be patient so that I do that at the right time as Viv brings those special circumstances, I have to be in the right place to start with her.
So that's it for this week!!! Happy Home Schooling!
Monday was "church" day. We did our regular read scriptures and read another chapter of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and then moved on to scouting and Faith in God. In scouting we went over his rock collection and talked about what he needed to do to finish up and cross that off in his book. For Faith in God he worked on developing talents and wrote a poem about one of God's creations (Lizards). He wrote an acrostic poem that requires you to know a little bit about lizards so he went on-line and read about lizards, as he came across words he liked he filled in the poem. L-Long Tongue I-insects for food Z-zoom A-anole lizard R-rain forest D-devil. I thought it turned out well and connected to Wednesday for science YAY! He really wanted to sculpt something but I couldn't find the clay but later this week he was able to very impressively sculpt a Sonic. I really was impressed at how well it turned out, I'll post pictures when he is done (he wants to paint it).
Tuesdays are more difficult because Ian is home all day and Will prefers to play with him than do work. I wanted to continue on with Rivers so we watched fresh water section of the PBS series Earth. Will was glued to it and I was reminded of how interesting he finds this sort of thing. I thought it gave a good background and imagery for him as we will continue to learn about the rivers of the world. We all made craft stick puzzles and mostly did closet for the day. Of course we read another chapter of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and scriptures.
Wednesday we read again and wrote out the questions Will had about Lizards for his report. My plan is that his report will mainly be about what he wanted to learn. I chose Whales and modeled for him the writing of the questions so he would have a general idea of what kinds of questions I had to give him ideas. We then went to the library and found books on our animals. I thought we could put a copy of his lizard poem in his report as well.
Thursday Will got to go on a field trip to the local planetarium and picnic lunch at the park. I have made a great connection with some other moms that home school and one of the moms took him with her and her son so I wouldn't have to take all the little kids. Will had a great time learning about the planets and they did a light show on the way different cultures celebrate Christmas. We also started a little art project of painting poinsettias. The art topic will be complementary colors. We had finished the "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" on Wednesday and with him at the planetarium and such we did not get any together reading in. He did read on his own as usual though so that was great too.
Friday, today is math day. We read scriptures and also started reading Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". It is a children's version and I told Will that I wanted him to read the original when as his reading skills improve. For now I think this version is appropriate. We then moved to math. I wanted him to work on his math program as one of his tasks but he didn't want to so instead went through a lesson in a 3rd grade text book I have. We discussed times tables with factors of 1 and 0 and he was a wiz, I didn't even have to back track or anything. He didn't even miss a beat when we looked at the algebra parts of the assignment. Then, I had him continue work on looking at patterns associated with times tables. Last week he colored in the 3's of a 100's chart and this week he did 4's and 5's. He quickly noticed the patterns and said he thought times tables would be easy for him. I agreed. Finally, I bought a book called "Mathematicians are People Too." and we read one of the stories about a mathematician.
Several times this week we have also done "pillow talk" where Will writes in a journal to me. I told him he could write whenever he wanted and then at night I would answer and slip the book under his pillow. This has been really fun. It hasn't been quite what I expected it would be and Will has surprised me with what he writes about. I don't want to spill too much about it because honestly as it develops it seriously is something I may look to publish especially if it continues along these lines.
I have to say, I am loving the home school thing. Yes, I am busy and way more overwhelmed than if I just sent them all off to school, but I am finding great joy in seeing my child/ren develop and learn and it such unexpected profound ways. Even if it is the harder road I would take it again and I will take it 3 more times! I don't know when I will pull Viv but my guess is that it will be sooner rather than later. I am just trying to be patient so that I do that at the right time as Viv brings those special circumstances, I have to be in the right place to start with her.
So that's it for this week!!! Happy Home Schooling!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Rivers
Home school has been going well. Even yesterday which was a personally hectic and emotional day we somehow had a great school day. Will helped with all the chores, we read another chapter of the Best Christmas Pageant Ever, we read scriptures, Will worked on a book report, he wrote a 4 page book with great paragraphs and illustrations (I didn't even ask him to do it, he just did it during closet time!!), and we studied rivers. For a little activity and to show will how tributaries flow together into rivers I used this fun activity I had used when teaching 4th grade a million years ago. You crumple up butcher paper and tape it down to create a mountainous land form then line the ridges with goo style food coloring and then spray with water (rain) and watch tributaries flow into rivers and empty into and create lakes in land basins! Will really enjoyed this little project and at the end of the day when we asked what his favorite part of today was this little ditty got the prize. Super fun and another great school day!!!
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