Golden Acorn Homeschool

I don’t know about you, but I hated timed math drills when I was in school.  They made me sweat, squirm, and hate life for 5 minutes a day.  Math was the one area in school where I didn’t just instantly “get” everything and I hated struggling.

Often, I hear homeschoolers talk about avoiding things like math drills in an effort to make math “meaningful.”  I agree that math instruction should apply to real life and be taught in ways that are fun and enriching.  We have certainly been known to play lots of math games and use food and manipulatives to keep things interesting.

But, I have decided that Cole will be doing timed math drills this summer.  As much as I hated them as a child (loathed, dreaded, avoided)…the truth is that they also happen to be really effective.  We both want him to memorize these math facts over the summer.  Cole is on board – he wants to be on target with his skills – but he is a nine year old boy, it’s summer, and he wants to maximize play time, too.  Timed drills give us both what we want.  He wants to spend as little time as possible doing anything related to school work (who am I kidding, me too!) and I want something effective with the ability to see definite progress.

I never thought I would be using these, but here I am.  Hopefully, we will see the results we need to see over the next 2.5 months.  When he can do 50 problems in three minutes, we will move on to the next set.  *fingers crossed*

I do my best to keep the math education in our house fun and light-hearted.  Maybe it’s because I detested math when I was a girl (who am I kidding, I am still a literature girl at heart!), but I know that if anything gets tedious in a hurry, it’s page, after page, after page of math worksheets.

I am not sure if I have raved about my admiration of Peggy Kaye’s books before, but if I haven’t, I will now!  Every parent should have these books, or borrow them from the library.  Homeschooler or not.  Games for Learning, Games for Math, and Games for Reading are all great.  If you can only afford one, get Games for Learning since it has a bit of everything.  These books really get my creative juices flowing and helps our family learn without it feeling like a chore.

Yesterday, we played some math games from the Games for Math book (DUH!).  :-P

This is a game called “Counting Stars” and it’s used for multiplication.  (The goldfish crackers were just a snack this time around.)  The players roll a die, and then draw an appropriate number of circles on your paper.  You roll again, and them draw the corresponding number of stars into each circle.  So, let’s say I rolls a 6 first.  I would draw six circles on my paper.  I roll again and get a 4.  I would draw 4 stars into each circle. Then I would have to determine how many stars I have.  For each turn, the player with the most stars wins.  Cole and I ended up having to role a tie-breaker.  Mommy won.  Tough break kid…no mercy from this mama!  ;-)

I think he had fun anyway!

I played a modified version of this game with Sydni, with addition.

And I modified it even further to play with Zoey.  We rolled the die and then counted and ate the appropriate number of goldfish.

Baby’s are so lucky, huh??  ;-)

As we were about to tackle math this morning, the kids requested a snack. Never mind that they *just* ate breakfast! These kids are growing and they have growing appetites. :-) I decided to give them some goldfish crackers and use the snack as a learning opportunity. Mostly for the girls, but even Super-boy got a kick out of doing “Goldfish Math.”

For the girls, I gave them the Math-U-See blocks and some number flash cards along with a bowl of goldfish for each of them. They pulled a card from the pile, or a block, and matched the crackers to the number. If they counted correctly, they got to count again while eating them. Sneaky mommy! All that counting and number recognition disguised as a snack!

Super-boy was taking a test this morning (because we still have two lessons left in Beta!), but he used the crackers to aid his subtraction. It’s easier to “take away” when the taking entails eating a tasty snack!

Just another wacky day, in our wacky school. Have a beautiful Monday everyone.

I don’t post very much about the work I do with Monkey. I do “teach” her, but she is three and I feel the majority of what she should be learning right now is simply imitative play. Her brain is working so hard to understand her world, I don’t need to bog her down with academics. She makes certain leaps and connections on her own, and I take her interests and expand them as far as she is comfortable with at this point.

However, she can feel left out of the “school” work, especially when we “do math.” Why is it all of a sudden you are “doing school” or “doing math” when you start to homeschool? Anyway, I digress.

There are certain math concepts that are good for a preschooler to have an understanding of. Basic counting and sorting are good places to start. I have found a nifty little resource for allowing her to work on these skills in a way she seems to enjoy – Zoo Pals Funtensils!

I picked up a box of these in the fall, and she has been using them all year long! She loves them. She started off just by counting them. But now she sorts them; by color, by use (fork, spoon, knife) and by animal. Then she counts how many are in those different groups.

Lately, she has been sorting them, and then selecting a numbered flash card to lay on top that matches the number of utensils in her group. It keeps her busy during math time, and she feels like she is an active part of our little homeschool. All for under $2. Plus, they work great for feeding various “babies” and doing double duty as part of her play kitchen. They are also dishwasher safe. What more can a busy mom ask for? ;-)

I came across a homeschooling mom today that suggested that a homeschooler should be teaching math from life experience only, rather than use any curriculum.

I agree that it is invaluable to teach “life” math. You can make almost anything an opportunity to teach math. Cooking, baking, grocery shopping, playing video games, playing almost any game where points are involved. You find math all over this big beautiful world. Percentages, statistics, you name it. But, can a person receive a well-rounded education in mathematics and arithmetic without a curriculum? My answer is no. Of course, radical unschoolers will disagree with me, but the truth is, eventually most kids will use some sort of math curriculum if they want to progress in their learning and studies.

From Webster’s Dictionary on Curriculum:

I chose Math-U-See for a math curriculum for our homeschool. To be honest, I am not a math lover. I understand math, and I wouldn’t even say it’s difficult for me, but if I had a choice of what to do with my time, math would rate very, very low on my scale. Perhaps that is why during my senior year of high school, I had completed my required math credits, and opted out of taking a third credit. Instead, I attended three English classes a day; two literature, and one writing class. ;-)

I wanted to make sure that my kids had a solid foundation in mathematics, and for the concepts to be taught in a hands on approach. I love the manipulatives in Math-U-See, and I love the way the way that each concept builds upon the previous one. There is constant review of what has been learned, but never so much repetition that my son gets bored with what we are doing. He is challenged by learning a new concept, but he never struggles to learn it. It’s as effortless as breathing, really, and even I have a better understanding of simple concepts since we began using this program. Not only that, but it’s in line with a Charlotte Mason style education.

Charlotte taught math in her schools. But like everything else in a CM education, the lessons are to be short, focused and lively. Find and use excellent living books if you can, and help the child see and appreciate the beauty and wonder of math and arithmetic. It should never become a burden to the child.

So, what are your thoughts? Do you use a math curriculum? Do you think learning math from life is adequate for an entire education? Do you feel math curriculum fits in with a Charlotte Mason education?

Inquiring minds want to know…