Math Peek!

As a transition to getting back into the homeschooling groove, I took the time this week to work on the 3Rs only. We did a lot of writing and plenty of focused math. We tried to do some good practice, a few new concepts, and even some fun games. Here's a look at just one day this week in our math world.

With R10 and I8 I played a game called Biggest and Smallest. They had to roll the dice and create math problems from the numbers that came up.

I modified R10's game so she could practice multiplying two digit number together quickly. The basic idea of the game is to make your dice roll into a two digit number to calculate either a product or the original game involves a difference.

We play a lot of low key, skill targeting games from Games for Math by Peggy Kaye. Run! Don't walk to get yourself a copy.

E12 was working on equations with two of the same variable on both sides of the equation and on the distributive property. Both of these are beginning algebra, but they are among the last skills from the Math on the Level manuals that E12 needs before moving on to Algebra. In this case, I let him read the manual himself to correct these problems.

J5 received glow-in-the-dark Wiki Stix for Christmas and to that order I added some number and letter activities for Wiki Stix. Here is making a number 4 with a stix.

Though I showed him how easy it would be two Stix, he insisted on getting the job done with one. And here we have it. Success! Although, generally we teach a closed four so I'll have to come back to this one.

I typically set out work for the kids to do at the same time. Sometimes it relates- meaning it is the same set of math skills/concepts at various levels. This week, I worked on introducing some new things while having the kids practice some things they need work on. For example, R10 doesn't do well with timed math problem sets. This week I had her do two. Not that I'm a fan, but her computation suffered on her last IOWA test simply because she ran out of time. So, every now and then I have her do timed sets to see if we can improve things a bit.

I8 is beginning on the road to memorizing his multiplication tables. I gave him a chart and he was on his way with problems. I also had him do some drills with addition and subtraction. Where do I get the drills? It is true that I'm a Math on the Level user, but for those of you who have not been around a long time we were Horizons users for years. I have K through 6 materials (the entire Horizons program) and well...I still pull them out to use them now and then!

E12 is working with the pre-Algebra pretty hard at this point. I'm hoping to begin Algebra I within the next few months. I think he's ready and we need a goal so I'm on it!

It was a good week and I'm hoping for more in the coming weeks as we settle down and continue to focus. We have a lot of things on tap for math fun so as always, stay tuned!