Friday, February 24, 2012

Living Math

We interrupted our normal math routine because I landed on a site to assist children in budgeting:  http://www.threejars.com/


And because we are trying to be more intentional about "living" math in our home, I seized the opportunity for the boys to once again count their coins.



We selected their share-save-spend distribution, and now they can keep a log of their allowance - a little more accountability for everyone!  I was even able to connect what their allowance is to their chores.  In the end, they will receive a report that tells them how they could have earned more.  I am rather impressed with the site!

David has been learning the difference between pennies and dimes in his Saxon Math 1 book, and to assist in that effort, we've been using LearningPage's Coin Worksheet Packet, which I also used with Stephen a few years back, and which I will also use with Levi when he's ready.



This brings to mind some presentation flashcards I put together when the boys did a presentation on coins and the U.S. Presidents last year.


And then there's the U.S. Mint site, which has several lesson plans and activities for kids.  The great thing is that these lessons tie history and geography in to the study of coins.

Stephen has read 2 more books in the Life of Fred series.


Reading Life of Fred Apples.  The books are not in color and
the cover is not that attractive - which says a lot about the content.

At this rate, he'll be through all of the elementary books by the end of next week.  I have not ever been able to really rant and rave about any one math curriculum, but I will rant and rave about Life of Fred because now my sons love reading math textbooks (though only from one series - Life of Fred).  We still have a core math program (or in Stephen's case, two - Math U See Gamma and Christian Light Education, with Calculadder Drills thrown in there as well), but Life of Fred is now a given in our math library. Not only is our son learning about math, but he's also learning about things like Archimedes and deciduous trees.  Plus, I overheard him talking in x's and y's earlier today.  He has worked with them in other math books, but he has never actually talked about them!  And, last but not least, he's teaching David how to draw animals with Fred heads.
A cat with a Fred head.  The boys cackled over this for
nearly five minutes.

To check out Life of Fred:
Life of Fred Samples (make sure you and your child enjoys this type of humor).
Life of Fred Scope and Sequence
Life of Fred money-back guarantee
It's $16 for the first book, Life of Fred Apples - free media mail shipping. (But download the sample first!)

Other ideas for making math fun:

I am not an expert when it comes to making math fun.  I love math even when it's monotonous, and it takes me way out of my comfort and effort zone to prepare games and play games and do the fun math stuff.    But I love to share what I have discovered and what has worked.  But just so you know, we do workbooks more than anything else.  And if you do everything on this page, you will have surpassed me a quadrillionfold.


Having said that, we love picture books. (I even used them in middle and high school!)  Here's just a few we've been reading lately that have helped with even and odd numbers, fractions, and telling time.

One Odd Day by Doris Fisher 
My Even Day by Doris Fisher 
My Half Day by Doris Fisher 
Tick-tock Sharks by J. Elizabeth Mills 

One of my all-time favorite math videos is Donald in Mathmagic Land, which closes with the famous quote "Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe." - Galileo


We love file folder games.  Our favorites are from File Folder Fun:
Preschool Math File Folder Games
Kindergarten Math File Folder Games 
First Grade Math Games 
Second Grade Math File Folder Games
Third Grade File Folder Games 
Fourth Grade Math File Folder Games

Ellen J McHenry also has some great games, as well as a math curriculum called Professor Pig's Magic Math. 

For odd and even numbers, try Even Steven Odd Todd.  I love games like this where you can just print it out and start using it right away (no cutting necessary)!

For Living Math Ideas, download Living Math Ideas from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  She also offers many math printables, activities, and games.  (I have to watch myself, for I am envious of a woman who can do so much.)

And then there's Homeschoolshare's Math Worboxables.  I need to put some of these together for Levi, but that won't happen till this summer, knowing my tendency to procrastinate.

Timez Attack is a PC video game for learning multiplcation that can be downloaded from BigBrainz.  (They also have beta versions of PC games for addition and subtraction.)  

Free Math Programs
Finally, I thought I'd mention that there are free math programs out there.  Here are a few, but I know there are others.(These are the only ones I have used).

Math Key - Grades 1 -5:  http://www.freemathprogram.com/

Bridges in Mathematics - Complete practice books with blackline answer keys and student workbook pages for Grades K-5.  Go to the lower right side of the screen to find the Practice Book Blackline pdfs (in green text).  You can also access the correlations for several states (on the left) and supplemental activities (in the center).
http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/resources/materials/tn


Khan Academy - on-line videos teaching just about any math concept from arithmetic through Calculus.  (And almost any other subject, too!)  Then go to the exercise dashboard to practice what you've learned!

XtraMath:  For drill and practice, Xtramath.org is a great, free site that even provides progress reports.  (Discovered this one from a friend - aka, My Virtual-Be-Real Pen Pal.)

And yet another long, foreboding list of resources.  (These are from our Cycle 3 Resources Page - to see them organized by week of CC, click here and scroll down to math.)
Posted by at 10:37 PM
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3 comments:

  1. Once again your blog inspires me to go above and beyond the mundane! Thank you so much for all you do. We use your blog prodigiously.

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  2. Oh my goodness, you ROCK! I love your blog and have recommended it countless times to all of the other cc families we know. Thank you so much for all the hard work! Our five year old is great at math but thinks it's "boring". We're doing Saxon 1 right now as well, and I see several great ideas here to hopefully make math more "fun".

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  3. Wow! You have provided so many great resources and ideas for teachers and homeschool families. Thanks for sharing. On the Doris Fisher books (published by Sylvan Dell), there are teaching resource guides you can download free at their site. Just click on the book and then "teacher resource" on the book page. http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/

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