Math Article-Moebius Noodles

This is an interesting article about learning math. It highlights an interview with Maria Druoujkova of Moebius Noodles. You can get a PDF copy of this book (name your price!) HERE.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/5-year-olds-can-learn-calculus/284124/

Our Homeschool Focus

When we first started homeschooling, I identified our homeschool with a particular method of homeschooling and by the curriculum we purchased. But now, the focus of our homeschool has become creating a lifestyle of learning and cultivating family togetherness and developing the children's interests. We use academic curriculum as a tool to develop skills, so I don't think of our homeschool in reference to what curriculum we use.

Curriculum is part of what we do for Table Time and I wanted to post about what we're using now because I haven't posted on academics in awhile.

I recently decided to go a different route with our history reading. We've done history chronologically and we've been at ZERO for awhile, studying the life of Jesus. It pained me to think about picking up another H.A. Guerber book. I realized how bored I was with going through "the Greeks". I decided we'd read something else. I'm really enjoying "A Child's History of the World" by V.M. Hillyer, reading just a part of a chapter per day. I started the book and we're working up to ZERO again. A good review. I like that the book has a visual of stairs steps...Dan seems to "get" this kind of timeline.

I also felt the need to work on spelling, so I purchased Sequential Spelling and didn't like it at all. We're now using "The Wise Guide to Spelling", which is part of a larger curriculum set called "Spell to Write and Read", which I've had on my shelf since the beginning. We never used it to teach the kids to read since they learned that in school. But I'm using the spelling book a la carte and using this book to just go through spelling words to identify weaknesses. Dan has improved his spelling and he has noticed several times that he knows how to spell something from the reading he's done. Sarah has some weak spots and using the spelling book has helped me help her. I like that it connects each word to a spelling rule and I've here and there used the grammar portions to discuss grammar. I'm considering purchasing Winston Grammar in the near future. It is a hands-on grammar curriculum and I think we could benefit, though I refuse to waste a whole lot of time diagramming sentences!

Math is going well as we're still using ALEKS. In addition, Sarah also does Math Rider. Dan finished his first pie! When we moved, I realized my kids really needed to log in every single day so they didn't have to do new assessments all the time. It has helped them since I started requiring every single day for math. I need to do this in other areas, too!

The kids work on their spelling, grammar and writing by working on their notebooks and blogs and forum posts in various places.

We enjoy Mythbusters and some science DVDs, though I've put our biology book on the shelf for now. I'd like to come back and finish that soon, but I don't want Table Time going too long for right now.

I've been reading "Where the Sidewalk Ends" to expose them to some fun poetry and we continue doing Your Story Hour's "Adventures in Bible Study".

When we started homeschooling, I thought of our school with regards to what certain curricula we used. I've tried a lot of different things and feel good about our days with regards to academics and play.

If you only think of your homeschool with regards to what curriculum you use, like I used to, you might find this site challenging some of your ideas about education:
http://homeschoolcurriculumoflife.com/

Reading Math is FUN!

I was curious about the elementary Life of Fred books...what a delight! The kids are begging for more! We did five chapters over breakfast and they can't wait for more at lunch. Dan ran and got out the fractions book...interesting.

New Life Of Fred Math Books Available

Recently, I got out our Fractions Life of Fred book and decided to visit the website again. Hey, it looks like there's a whole new set of elementary math books available! Interesting! I've put the Apples book on hold at the library...some super fun reading in store for me! :)

FlashMaster

FlashMaster: I purchased this when we started homeschooling to help with math drills. The kids thought it was neat, then it ended up on the shelf...until today when Sarah asked for it.

Sarah ended up in multiplication tables today while doing ALEKS (she hasn't mastered addition and subraction) and wanted to use the FlashMaster. Today she realized that 2 times 3 is taking a group of 3 twice. That's awesome!

Learning Math With ALEKS

I keep this blog for me as a reminder of our days and weeks and months and years. It is such a delight to look back over the photos of my precious children and reminisce about their unique, creative learning processes.

I went to college to become a math teacher hoping to change the world for good by helping students ENJOY math and see it in all its' practicality. My husband has a BS in Math so you can see that we LIKE math in our house. I find that I'm attracted to crafts that involve lots of math...formulating recipes for soy candles and lip balm, crochet, sewing and quilting. It is a good day in my mind, if I have to use algebra to solve for an unknown in my measurements!

Basic life skills include communication and computation. At the core, communication requires reading and writing and computation involves basic mathematical functions. In the grand scheme of life, a person needs these tools to move their education forward. The how and when are debated feverishly throughout humanity. 

We started our homeschool journey under the heavy load of a lot of curriculum which included a math curriculum. Recently, I realized the repetitive worksheets were really just busy work and set them aside for a time.

Shortly thereafter, a friend mentioned ALEKS. I'd heard about it when some friends used ALEKS to pass required college level classes so I thought it was only for advanced math. I was so wrong! I just wanted to post about ALEKS because though I limit screen-based activities, this is really worthwhile in my opinion.

I signed up for the 60 day free trial. I told Daniel the only requirement for the 60 days was to visit ALEKS everyday and do a minimum of one problem. He has done that-and MORE. In a few short weeks, he's spent over six self-motivated hours of interactive, self-assessing math with a high level in enjoyment.

Here's what I like about ALEKS:
-FREE 60 day trial (thank you!)
-student decides what to work on
-knowledge base divided into "pies" (student selects topics to explore)
-no boring explanations or lessons (if the student misses a question, they click the HELP button to find out how to get the right answer, "reverse engineering" is a great way to learn!)
-no lifeless, repetitive drills

I expect to sign up for the paid subscription when the trial is over. ALEKS offers a way for homeschoolers to master math concepts in a student-directed way that I appreciate.

Just Do The Math Article

Since we started homeschooling, I've read a few books by David H. Albert. There was a chapter in “Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow. Homeschooling and the Curriculum of Love” that fascinated me because it was about math.

An excerpt from the chapter:

"I had just explained how the Sudbury Valley School (www.sudval.org), a democratically managed, child-directed learning environment that has been around for almost 40 years, has demonstrated repeatedly that a child could learn math – all of it grades K through 12 – in eight weeks. Average (if there is such a thing), normal (never met one), healthy children, scores of them, learned it all, leading to admissions to some of the leading colleges and universities in the nation".

EIGHT WEEKS? Only 20 contact hours? I've never heard of such a thing. The article went on to describe how this was done.

Reading this gave me a huge sense of relief that there's not one exclusive formula for learning math. It also gave me "permission" to reconsider how and when my children will learn computation skills. This is very freeing! Thank you SO much David!

Life Of Fred Math

I don't remember when this was purchased, but it is a GEM. Dan has looked at it a few times but I think he'll probably engage with it as he gets better with fractions. It is right up his alley as he loves kittens and this character (Fred) is a professor at Kittens University (even though he's only five)!

This math book has a wonderful way of explaining concepts and the writing is simply hilarious!

As a non-consumable math resource, this is a bargain at $19.