Motivation for Measuring

Q. How do you get a 1st grade boy to measure as accurately as possible?
A. You involve a funnel, measuring cups and MUSIC!

Idea by Family Fun.

How to Fill the Bottles
1. 7 ounces (Do)
2. 9 1/2 ounces (Re)
3. 12 1/2 ounces (Mi)
4. 14 ounces (Fa)
5. 16 1/2 ounces (So)
6. 17 1/2 ounces (La)
7. 18 1/2 ounces (Ti)
8. 19 ounces (Do)

Row, Row, Row Your Boat
1 1 1 2 3
3 2 3 4 5
8 8 8 5 5 5 3 3 3 1 1 1
5 4 3 2 1

Have Fun!!

Teaching Greater Than > Less Than

Like so many other things, I don't really see the point of waiting to teach certain concepts until a particular age or grade. When kids are ready to get it, they're ready.

And they're usually ready before most people think they are!

Right now my kindergartner and 3-year old are at about the same academic level, (Dash is way ahead with his gross motor skills, storytelling, humor, etc. but a bit slower in fine motor skills and attention span )

So I'm embracing this, and am now grateful that I can teach double-duty for these little guys.

In case you haven't guessed it yet,

I simply start by telling the boys that the hungry alligator wants the side with more food.

He always eats the bigger number. Simple, right?

(below, my 3-year old LittleLad draws his "monster teeth," to eat the number 9)Within 30 minutes they progressed from manipulatives (poker chips and number rods, in this case) to number puzzles playing cards, dominoes, Skittles...

I should have taken pics of the Skittle Lesson. We had to turn the alligator around several times, depending on how many of their 10 skittles they ate. Soon, of course, there were no Skittles left, and we moved on to marker board "worksheet" practice.

Playing is the best way to learn!

No risk of boredom here

This has been one of those super-busy, super-fun, super-hectic weeks. It's almost too much to share. But I'll try. :-)

My sister Julie's birthday was this week.
Happy Birthday again, Julie!!

Jules and Adam, out to breakfast, before the Razorback game they went to.

On her actual birthday, Amy and I went out with Jules to Kosmos and then to the Wine Cellar. I highly recommend both. I love real Greek gyros. Mmm.... It was a nice, casual little place. We were over-dressed in there.At the Wine Cellar we fit right in. Our "waiter" was obviously tipsy, but he was a nice enough guy and the atmosphere certainly made up for it. Wish we'd taken photos in there.

I've also been painting every night. The color is a bit off in some of the pictures. It's called Powder Blue 3, and reminds me of a calm sky over the sea.



You get the idea. I'll post a big full picture when my vacuum is out of the living room, and laundry is off the couch. ;-P
We've been doing "fun" stuff, too. Painting the house is only fun at first... hallway was great. Ceiling was fun. Living room wasn't bad, because I just watched movies while I painted. But the bathroom job started to wear me out. Luckily, I ran out of paint. Heh. Maybe I'll get more this week. Maybe not.

So, fun stuff...
drawing with fabric markers on the kids' socks.
Fun, artistic outlet.
(And I found out that my socks were "released" the same weekend as the movie.
Is that awesome or what?)

Little Lad did lots of block-building, shape-sorting on the gray and wet days.

The older kids and I were busy with projects, plans, and a paper for the Artist to finish up.
I worked for a bit on the Halloween Lapbook with Dash.

More pictures of the preschool Halloween one here.

Our Time lapbook
More pictures of this one here.

On Friday night we had Game Night at Amy's.
Fred was trying to pressure me to sing.
I didn't cave. Sorry, Babe, I'm a guitar gal.

Julie rocked on the drums, Vu mastered the guitar, and my honey can sing like nobody's business. Amy was chillin' after she rocked on vocals.
So much fun, as always!! Amy even treated us to my Mimi's enchilada recipe. It was sooo good. And guacamole, too. Mmmmm....

Next day. Saturday. I had my in-laws over all day (seven kids in the house- woot, woot, lots of energy.) At 4pm they took off and by 6pm I had ladies arriving for Firepit Night.

I. Can't. Believe. There. Are. NO. Pictures.

I was distracted by the table full of desserts. I think everyone brought either drinks or desserts!! YUM.

And then there's today. Worship, Julie's special time with The Artist Girl, and then our Family Firepit Night.

Does this Nature Man look like his Daddy or what?

(I think my boys all need haircuts. Or is the style long right now?)

Dash likes to cook his own marshmallows. More power to him.
They were...ummm...overcooked....

but apparently still very yummy!!

The Artist, so carefully, munching her smore, trying to guard against stickiness.

Even our big ladies got in on the feast.

Yes, we let them free-range every day. Watch where you step.

I don't know if I could take this many
parties, plans, projects, papers, people every week,
but it sure was a blast!!

the colorful forest and never-ending side

The Artist and Nature Man use Teaching Textbooks for math, and love it, but we still like to supplement with other activities now and then.

Today I had the kids make a Möbius strip.

To make one, cut a long rectangular piece of paper and draw an X and an O in alternate corners on the side facing up. Now twist the paper until the two sides are facing. Tape or staple together, to make a sort of circle. Try to color one side red and the other yellow (you can't because it only has one side.) This makes an easy elementary intro to topology (or M.C. Escher!)

As I mentioned before, we just started a plant unit for science. Yesterday and today we studied about osmosis & cohesion, and used celery stalks and food coloring to demonstrate.

Put celery in a glass of water (we decided to do three different colors, to make a Color Forest.)Before shot (taken as soon as we set the celery into the water)

Within an hour, the celery has absorbed enough to change the color of its leaves...

Close-up (click for an even closer view)...

Voila! Blue and red celery!
The purple one didn't turn out as well.
Happy learning!

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. :-)

multiplying rewards

I told The Artist about a week or so ago that I would take her out to eat, at a restaurant of her choice, when she has all of her multiplication tables, up to 12, memorized. That means she needs to get 100% correct on a timed test.

I had no idea what kind of motivation that would be! She is a hard worker anyway, but now she is spending every spare moment studying. And she is using every spare moment of mine to quiz her, check more worksheet pages, and do flashcards. She just completed an entire multiplication book. Oh, my!! Maybe I should offer rewards more often??

But, no, that is what makes it so special.

The Nature Man gets the same reward for his addition/ subtraction...yet he isn't quite so motivated. Maybe if I offered to get him a snake?? ;-) Just kidding.

School Days

Trev started preschool at Tender Care on Tuesday. I can't believe it!! Of course, at this age, they don't teach all that much, so it's more like a 3-hour playdate. But it's great fun for him, and wonderful for me to be able to spend that extra time working more intensely with the bigger kids. We got some schoolwork done in half the time it usually takes us!
Of course, I'm still teaching Trevor the alphabet and numbers, colors, etc at home. But I'm glad that he can have fun somewhere else, too. He just walked right in and started playing. He didn't even say good-bye. Little rascal! Of course, he knows Miss Johnna from church, and he knew most of the other kids already, too.



And here are some pictures of Isabelle and Ethan working on their math and Bible lessons on Tuesday.



Tonight the kids did Team KID and seemed to really enjoy that. This is the time of year that starts to get super busy for us. It will help that we aren't doing sports this season, though.
Tomorrow is pre-K, CHESS card pick-up, gotta drop off some bills, and then go to book study. Friday is Mothering Matters and lunch date. Saturday is Dad's birthday party... and so forth. I think we have every day booked for awhile... I like staying busy, but my house starts to go to pot.