Lovin' my manipulatives, baby!

We are well!! Laundry is done. Dishes are done. School was done today (and not just home EC, which they got plenty of on my sick day!) Homemade chicken noodle soup and rice was cooked. Yes, yes, yes, I appreciate the standing ovation. Really. Ah, yes, thank you.

Man, it feels goooood to be back. I'm tired, but it was a good day. Thank you, God, for giving me sunshine today. We worked outside, and I just ran in and out to move laundry from washer to dryer to couch all day. After school, we did art. Of course. And then folded laundry ALL evening. (Contented sigh)

So, anyway, manipulatives. I love them. Because they are fun! And they are anything.
A manipulative can be a bean, if I call it such. I feel the power.
(yes, I'm on a healthy-high right now, almost giddy feeling so much better.)

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I like hands-on learning. I want these things to stick, and I believe we should use as many methods possible to ensure it.

Dominos= manipulative. You bet.

Bears, Stackers, poker chips, and mini-counters. All manipulatives. All fun.
Can be used for all ages, to demonstrate so many problems.

Rods and cubes. Love 'em.
They're hard to build with, but come in so handy for many other things!

Worksheets have their place in our home.
The kids like them thank goodness. (Honestly, I always liked worksheets myself.)
Actually, books and worksheets are our primary method,
but we supplement a LOT with other tools.

The huge dice and flashcards. It's all fun when it's mixed up. If I only used flashcards for drills, the kids would hate math after day 3. When used once a week, it's just part of the "game."

Window clings. Sure, they can be manipulatives.

And addition bingo! Gotta love the genius parents who came up with this. We also have word-family bingo. Heheheeee.

We've started our plant unit now. First up was the celery experiment. I'll post our steps & results tomorrow night... or sometime this weekend. :-)