Mastery of Mathematics

One of the most difficult things about homeschooling is choosing an appropriate curriculum that is a good fit for your child. There are SO MANY options out there, and not all of them are excellent, although most are.
For math, you can choose from the more popular curriculums:
Math-U-See, Singapore, Saxon, Math Mammoth, MEP (totally free, which is really cool!), Miquon, Rod & Staff, Life of Fred (which we will probably use later on), Calvert Math, Abeka Math, Horizons, Teaching Textbooks, Bob Jones, McRuffy Math, Moving With Math, Key to Math, Christian Lite Math, LifePac Math, Kumon....
The list seems endless when you are researching for your own children.

I remember math as a child. I recall sitting in school, having the teacher demonstrate an algorithm one time, and getting it. I spent the rest of the weeks bored out of my mind wondering how we could still be reviewing such a simple topic. My dad taught me to add double and triple digits in church one morning. He explained it through once and that was that. From then on I looked forward to adding up his numbers every Sunday morning (he was an usher and counted the people in attendance). When it came time to learn this strategy in school the following year, I remember groaning, sighing, and putting my head on my desk in boredom. Needless to say, I never struggled with math concepts in my early years. But I did have a bad habit of counting. I think we were supposed to memorize the arithmetic, but I couldn't be bothered. And I also did not have a good visualization of quantities and numbers, which affected the way I researched math programs.

We started off with Math-U-See because so many people had raved about how easy it was to use and how well their children did with it. It was a complete flop. Elijah and I trudged through it for a year, completed a total of 2 years worth of math in that time. He hated it. I hated it. It was boring & monotonous. Every time I brought it out I could feel my shoulders slump over and I felt as though I wanted to cry. Elijah did too...and many a tear were shed, poor little guy. Math is anything but boring and monotonous! The patterns that emerge with numbers alone are totally cool.

For example, have you ever realized that if you count by 3's....

 3             6             9
12           15           18
21           24           27
30           33           36

Do you notice anything with this pattern?

I'll give you a moment....


Look at the first column. The digits all add up to 3.
The second column, they all add up to 6.
The third column, they all add up to 9.

How cool is that?

On top of that, mathematics is not just about numbers and algorithms.
We need a math program that taught more than arithmetic. *I* needed a math program that taught more than arithmetic. So after investing $300 (ouch) in 4 years of materials, we made a switch.

Enter RightStart Math.

I have yet to talk to a homeschooler in Canada who is familiar with RightStart, which boggles my brain. How can an amateur 2nd year homeschooler know about this when all the seasoned homeschoolers do not?
I have had to start basically right back at the beginning with Elijah since Math-U-See taught him nothing except how to combine numbers. I will say that it was effective in teaching him place value - they use a cool visual called "Decimal Street" with each place value being a house. But it is a rather abstract way to teach something that could be taught in a much more straight forward way.

RS Math uses the 2-toned abacus as the primary manipulative. This is absolutely my favorite teaching tool!

When we were still struggling through Math-U-See, we were using the abacus as a supplement to the blocks.

Right Start also uses more of a spiral approach, introducing many topics and frequently refreshing and reviewing it throughout the next few years instead of relying on the mastery approach which bored my poor artsy little Elijah (ie drill & kill until you get it, and then move on).

Toviel is 5 and LOVING math. LOVING it! When I say, "It's time for math," he drops everything and comes running. He will tell you the difference between parallel and perpendicular lines, he will explain how a square is not just a square, but it is also a type of rectangle and quadilateral. He can solve problems by mentally add numbers together and recognize patterns that I overlook. He loves to play math games, which is what we do instead of worksheets.

For anyone trying to find an excellent math program for their elementary-school-aged child, I highly recommend looking into Right Start Math. And no, sadly Right Start Math hasn't paid me to say this.

Fractals - Or Something Like That

The other day I was teaching both my sons some math and we were playing with equilateral triangles. We discussed the properties of equilateral triangles and played with different sizes of them that I had cut out of paper. I came across a side note in my guide saying that we were going to be discussing ten fractals the next lesson.
Frac-what? What the heck are fractals? And why are my 5 and 7 year olds learning about something that I know nothing about?

It turns out that fractals are geometric shapes that can be split into parts, each of which is a smaller size copy of the whole. And a tens fractal merely suggests 10 of the smaller = one of the larger. Well, it is way more complex than that, but for our introduction to fractals it was simple (thank goodness!)

The 3 of us made ten 10-fractals with equilateral triangles. Then we glued those all together to make one big fractal to show how 10 of these triangles with 10 triangles in them equals 100. Then, we were supposed to make 10 of the ten 10-fractals and glue those together to make one monstrous fractal, which shows how ten 10's are 100, and ten 100's are 1000 or that ten ten 10's are 1000. This process is way to monotonous with 2 boys who don't know how to switch off their imaginations to perform the tedious processes of life and 1 ADD mom who is easily distracted and has difficulty staying on task for more than a few minutes. So we just did one of the 100 triangles.

For the 1000 triangle we just used our imaginations, since those run rampant all the time anyways.

A Little Acedemic

Okay...

After that last post it makes it look like all we do is play all day with a few chores mixed in there.

I actually DO teach my kids acedemic stuff.

Last week we learned about linking verbs.
A verb is a word that does an action, shows a state of being, links two words together and something-something-something (I can't even remember).

Anyways, we were concentrating on the "links two words together" last week, and this is what we did:

Cool hey? See how the linking verb links the words together? For those of you less inclined to remember how we parse sentences, the linking verb is on the white link.
I thought it was a cool, hands on idea for reinforcing the concept.

No, it wasn't my idea (Thanks Jessie Wise). But I implemented it pretty well.