Math Day

Monday is Math Day. Anna focused on counting by 5's, 10's and 25's using coins and learned how to count change quickly in her head. We played this great coin game where you roll the di and take out the corresponding number of pennies. Once you get 5, you can exchange for a nickel. Once you get 2 nickels you exchange for a dime. The first one to $1.00 is the winner. She loved this!


While we were playing this game, Ella sorted change.

Next we played with the colored bears and animals. I had a di with colors on it and made different colored circles on a sheet of paper. They roll the di and pick an animal that color to place on a circle that is the same color. First one to cover their entire page wins. They both loved this game.

Trying to find a fun, hands on way to memorize the multiplication table. This week we focused on 1 and 2 x's tables. Anna had a paper plate with a mult. problem written on it. She had to find the right answer written on a clothes pin and pin into the corresponding problem.

Ella simply matched up number to number.

Ella also made patterned beads, counted bears, did a few dot-to-dot pictures, and a couple of mazes.

Anna also did 20 mazes (she loved this).

They both enjoyed math day. The plan is to make activities like this every Mon. and do them together. Then I will leave them on a shelf for them to do on their own throughout the week. Hoping to pull that together this week.

Sorry, Mom!

I tried for a long time to post pictures tonight, mom. But it wouldn't work. Will try again tomorrow!

I'm not sure what you would call what we are doing right now. I think we are starting to find a bit of a groove. We've been all over the place and I've been tempted, more then once, to get back to the good ole trusty textbooks. They are safe and I know that they will learn something with them. I'm not sure that they will retain it or even like it. But, by golly, I will feel like we're doing something.

We've been kind of going with the flow. I plan a million things. We do a few of those things, but most the time we end up doing something different all together.

Every Monday we are consistently doing the Think Challenges (kidswhothink.blogspot.com). This has been so great... for all of us.

She likes Sudoku a little... so we do that some.

We play games like Pet Shop with cards that have pictures of pets and a price on them. They are given coins and have to add the change up to give me the correct amount. They learn to budget. They sometimes have to figure out what change they would get back.

We visited the Planetarium and we fell in love with the night sky. I checked out a bunch of books from the library about our solar system and we are slowly going through them. I could easily overwhelm them with it all and go too far in depth so that they get bored and want to run off. I don't want that to happen. I want to feed their fire not smother it. We are starting with the moon and will next move to the sun.

They are both in a pretty good habit of reading their Bibles every morning after breakfast. Anna has an easy to read Bible that she enjoys. Every single time after she reads she comes to me with a question about it. It's great to know she is processing the story, comprehending it and thinking about it critically enough to come up with some really great questions. They are also writing in a prayer journal every day.

Anna loves to make up clubs. This time it's the Bella Sara club. Boy is she ORGANIZED! She's got a folder that she created and it is filled with everything she needs for a successful club. Our whole family joined:) and she tried to get her friends interested in it today. They obliged her for a while, but weren't really into it. It has gotten her writing, organizing information, and creating. So, I'm pleased.

They are listening to books on tape just about every night. I like this routine.

I still feel like we aren't doing enough, but I have to let go of that. They ARE learning and loving what they learn. They are thinking and creating and that is more then I can say for most kids. I have to give us room so that we can grow into the kind of education that our family needs.