Eventually these titles will get sort of dumb..so maybe just for the first week :)
Today was good again. I had some urgent internet stuff to do so the kids all kind of played and made stuff all morning. They have fallen into their most comfortable old patterns of Greta being mostly the leader/grand idea creator, and the boys, happy to have such an awesome and fun idea-generating, enthusiastic fun sister to play with, join in!
I wish I could tell you that I knew all about what they were doing, but all I know it that it was something about tying 5 bikes together and making 600 signs and it was CatWorld and there was an elaborate tuna menu and tickets and stamping of hands and enemy cats and mice and dogs and they were extremely loud and extremely happy and the gym-room was totally unrecognizable and I got to do what I had to do. I WISH I took pictures but my batteries died arggg we need more AA's soon!
We had lunch, we put Charlie to bed, and then Casey begged to play for five more minutes with Greta and Mickey. Sure--I am happy they are getting along like they haven't in 2 years, and I still had some business to attend to. I let them go 20 minutes and then I told Casey it was time for nap and he was not too happy. Which was a bummer since yesterday went so smoothly and I thought he really got it that he slept and that we were so proud, but I don't think he fully gets that he has 2 sleeping cycles or even the whole concept of days, I really do not. After a failed attempt to recreate the nap time of yesterday, we ended up putting him in Mickey's bed and he did sleep! YAY!
For school today we went into more fractions and decimals, as prompted by the show Cyberchase on PBS. We talked about tenths and cut paper into ten pieces and stacked them up, .1, .2, .3, .4, .5, .6, .7, .8, .9, 1.0
We went more into carrying, which I know is supposedly first grade math, but it is something that we needed to review, and borrowing which I am leaving for Steve since it seems to cause deep emotional reaction in Greta. Sigh.
We ate all of the Combos which I bought as a special treat, and tried to do some fraction thing with them but then just gave up and laughed about that idea.
We did more with Ferdinand and discussed "Line" and the idea of creating a sense of distance when we draw forms and figures. We read a USA book that has the states and the capitals and the state flowers and the state birds and they acted like it was just a beloved old storybook, not a dry little fact-book. We actually sat and cuddled on the love seat, one child on each side of me, reading the little USA book and talking about states. This was closer to my idealistic homeschool visions than I have come in a long long time and it was a completely heartwarming and healing experience. I feel like the way that I have worked to arrange our little schoolroom, the vibe, the feng sui, whatever, enabled us to be able to do that--it just didn't happen in the old house, no matter how hard I tired.
The love seat right in the front of the window, facing outward, is the nicest idea I have had in a long time.
(not my photo but this is Him)
Today we saw a White-Breasted Nuthatch again, a bird that doesn't usually come to seed feeders, as he is mostly an insect eater. So cute. Chipmunks galore, and Sparrows, Cardinals, Cowbirds, Grackles, Starlings, Pigeons, Doves, squirrels and a sassy cat who tortures our indoor kitty. We joke that she is his girlfriend.
We talked about the seasons even more and started to get into the pagan holidays that were based on the equinoxes and solstices, and then got into the Renaissance Festival somehow and they want to go next year.
We looked at Google maps at the state of Maine, which they turned very interested in today.
That's about it...we got up the babies from naps and they went right back to CatWorld and I folded clothes till I was dizzy. Made dinner, ate it, and then they begged me for slurpees "with their own money". So when Steve got home at 8:15 (I hate Thursday late night!!!!) they got slurpees with their own money and got to watch Charlotte's Web. Part of it.
What happened to bed at 8? That will most likely be in the winter. Seems like they are up late, but they have been so so so good this week, and it is ok. For now.
I wrote to my homeschool group to ask if there is still Homeschool Park Day, or if that was a summer thing. No one wrote back yet. So maybe all of tomorrow will be fun and frolic and maybe it won't. We'll see!
(not my photo but this is Him)
12 comments:
Glad things seem to be going well. Maybe I will have to pay more attention to what Dionte's crazy math does with borrowing and carrying. They definitely don't call it that, and it seems like he mostly goes front to back - opposite of how we learned (1st add hundreds, then tens, etc.). I'm sure I will be seeing plenty of it soon. I'll make him explain to me what he's doing, especially since it's likely that he will have forgotten most of it.
Very cool. I like what you guys are doing. Where do you get your ideas for math? I really like the idea of cutting up the paper into tenths. I love math, but I haven't figured out yet how to teach it. Of course, I haven't figured out a lot of things yet. :) You have great ideas!
It sounds like your days are really going so well! I'm so happy for you!
So, are you exhausted - or feeling good? I'm so worried about starting to get up early myself. I have another couple of weeks before we begin our "school year" in earnest. I can just imagine coming to the end of the week and collapsing! Tell me you feel energized and fantastic - please!
It sounds like the kids are really thriving on the routine. They look so happy in the photos. It also sounds like they are very cooperative with the "lessons" - of course you're presenting them in fun ways. I've been nervous about how I want to present our "lessons". We'll have to talk - you can explain how you decide what you'll do each day. Do you have a list or schedule of subjects? It doesn't sound like you're only using Five In A Row.
Maybe I'll see you at the park and you can tell me all about it!?
You are awesome...can you teach me math? Seriously, I have no clue what to do when my kids get old enough for math...math hurts my brain in many ways, and hubby is not pro homeschooling and therefore refuses to help with the teaching and such...grrrr. Oh well, I've got a few years before that problem arises...pre school is more my speed, LOL...I'm smart, really, I swear. =)
You know what is funny? "MATH" is my terribly fearsome realm. I don't know howo to present jack squat above literally, 1st or 2nd grade stuff, and if they don't understand it, I don't quite know what to say. I have things that come to me as childhood memories, we watch cyberchase which is a little cartoon that brings up some middle elementary subjects, and I skim through the stupid workbooks (the kinds you can get at the grocery store) to get a few ideas but hardly ever ever use them.
The tenths idea was from cyberchase, and somehow fractions don't make Greta go into hysterics.
We are still really doing Plus, Minus and I refuse to go on to Times and Divide until they can INSTANTLY deal with "what's 8 plus 9". INSTANTLY.
I always hated how they motored along in school, whether you got it or not, and I wholeheartedly agree with the stance of John Holt, John Taylor Gatto and Sandra Dodd which is that anyone could learn all of arithmetic in a week, if and when they were ready.
That being said, I feel it will be okay to do geometry and algebraic concepts WAY earlier than the schools do, as shapes and "solving for X" in my opinion, are very natural concepts in daily life and should not be segregated.
I do have panic attacks. I suffered the most humiliation and silent angry tears in math classes than any other ones. Math class was to me what some people went through in gym. Humiliation, shame, frustration, anger, and tons of faking-it-till-the-bell-rang and fear. So perhaps I have been TOO gentle. This is the third year I have sworn that I was going to make the kids memorize the multiplication table. You really really cannot do much else until you know these, right?
when I feel weird or like it is coersion, I remind myself howmany inane things they memorize every week--little pop song lyrics, 8 minute dialogs on YouTube of Harry Potter Puppet Pals, that way out of the maze on their video game...
So I know they have incredible powers of memorization. I hope i will be able to get them to memorize some simple numeric facts, so they will feel more accquainted with numbers and then, perhaps, their fears and frustrations will lessen.
Grrltrouble--I don't even know what to say about that insane new-new math that they are giving poor Dionte. The stuff you showed me last year made me want to march on Washington. It was a travesty, it was the opposite of arithmetic and I really thought it must have been some cruel joke. I am so, so sorry that you have to muddle through that jabberwocky wth him, and I do not know what I would do if I were you, except to maybe work on some "money", "clocks", and plus and minus.
Just this morning I heard about some program called J.U.M.P.-- on the very eve of us getting ready to order Singapore math, now I want to look at this one.
Math post next--thanks all :)
I so relate to that. My childhood and into college was full of math torment. I didn't get it, and my public school experience was that instead of help you get punished...I remember well faking it until the bell rang. But, my dirty little secret is that math is one of the biggest reasons why I was unable to finish my college degree. I needed College Algebra to graduate, but I tested into basic math...which I took, and failed, TWICE! I seem to be great with decimals and geometry and things I can see a real life or physical basis for but all those complicated letters and numbers beyond just made me ill, and panicky.
I think my biggest challenge, though, will be to find a way to show math to my children without letting any of my own anxieties hold them back. Of course my husband's response to the math problem is, "Well we should just put them in school then" GRRR and double GRRRR.
I guess I'm just going to have to learn math, LOL.
You know what's funny? I LOVE math. I love, love algebra, and geometry, and math in general. However, I am quite worried as to how to transmit my excitement into my young kiddos. I love more advanced math, and so I am really excited for when we get there, but I am wracking my brain trying to figure out how to do the basics with my kids. I just bought one of the math workbooks at Wal-mart, and I'll see what ideas I can get from there, but I really like what you are doing, and I love the idea of not moving past addition and subtraction until it is as easy as falling out of bed. (Why do we use that particular expression? Oh well.)
I'm one of those math geeks - I really love numbers. I have a book - I'll have to check the title - but it's about making everyday math fun for kids.
It treats every number with a personality - teaching little tricks with them. That's kind of fun.
I also got a book about how numbers create the universe (it's kind of a new age type book) but it's so cool! It has all these great projects. It had me rushing out to the office supply for a good compass and some graph paper! I was building decahedrons, etc. I know the kids saw how excited I was and they begged to play with the compass too! We were all making these great shapes and it was fun.
Anyway, I'll have to find out what the titles of these books are if anyone is interested.
For all my excitement, though, my 12 year old is still really not interested in memorizing multiplication tables. We have a few games that involve multiplication that she enjoys, but she uses the cheat sheet that came with it pretty heavily. However, when she needs to figure something out (like how much money she needs to buy the item and pay the tax at the store) she can figure it out.
I've been mainly trying to get them to see the patterns with numbers. But I have to remember that I discovered those patterns without being taught, and it was when I was much older than they are now!
So much of life is patterns, and I think the trick is figuring out a way to help the kids discover them for themselves. I'm coming up against this with my piano students. I keep trying to explain to them that music is mathematical and full of patterns. Perhaps if I keep telling and showing them, they'll see that. And then, perhaps I'll figure out how to show it to my own kids.
Trish, I'd love to know the titles of those books.
Trish, we all want your new age math book, ASAP--
What was it called!!???
I'm sorry... I got sidetracked again!
The book for kids is "Math Magic For Your Kids - Hundreds of Games and Exercises from the Human Calculator to Make Math Fun and Easy" by Scott Flansburg.
The other one is called "A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe - The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art and Science - A Voyage From 1 to 10" by Michael S. Schneider.
Wow - both of those are long titles!
Constructing the Universe was bought at Mayflower Bookshop in Berkley on 12 Mile (248)457-8227. I think they have on-line ordering available too.
Anyway, I enjoyed both books. But, I'm kinda a number geek :-)
Awesome, thanks...I'm actually excited to check them out and I hate math!
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