math

Driveway Math

Since the weather was actually nice yesterday morning, we took our math outside. Ladybug worked on filling in a number grid, using different colors for the 10s numbers, and the 5s numbers that aren’t also 10s. She loves math and sidewalk chalk, so this was great fun!

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Turkey and Bunny worked on adding decimals, which isn’t difficult in and of itself, but they do need practice keeping the numbers in the right place value columns.

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They also added fractions with different denominators. Also not too challenging, but the practice was good for them!

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Bunny wanted to give me a problem to solve, too, but she came up with one too complicated for her to know if I was correct! I guess she’ll just have to take my word for it! Next time, I’ll have to add some equations to the mix, and see if I can stump them.

Third Grade: Week Eight Wrap-Up

Something that’s very important to constantly pay attention to and evaluate when homeschooling is whether or not your curriculum is still working for you. It can be easy to pick something and think you’re stuck with it long-term, but this isn’t the case. I am not by any means encouraging curriculum-hopping, because I think consistency is important, and if you hop around too much, you may manage to miss important lessons and skills. But you shouldn’t be a slave to your curriculum, either–it’s supposed to work for you, not the other way around.

I’ve had to switch a few things up in the three-plus years I’ve been homeschooling. The first switch came at the end of our first year–Kindergarten–when I realized that our Language Arts program was moving too slowly for Turkey and Bunny, and they needed a more advanced program. I learned a similar lesson with a spelling curriculum we were using last year. I also changed our core curriculum after last year, because we needed something more hands-on than Sonlight offered us.

Now that we’re almost a quarter of the way through third grade, I’ve realized that I need to make a change again. We’ve been using, and liking, Horizons math. I’ve realized lately, though, that the level we’re using isn’t providing enough of a challenge for Turkey and Bunny. Yes, new concepts are being introduced, but they’re mastering them almost immediately. And while Turkey likes math so much that he doesn’t mind doing the same thing over and over, Bunny is bored to tears. She will take forever to complete a lesson, not because she hasn’t learned the material, but because she is so bored with doing the same things.

So, I sat down and evaluated the scope and sequence of Horizons fourth grade math. Frankly, I don’t know why I’ve been so reluctant to do it before. Homeschooling allows a wonderful flexibility in choosing appropriate, challenging materials that children need. Yes, there are things that we haven’t learned yet that they’ll need to know. But, there’s also plenty of opportunity for review at the fourth grade level. So, I made the decision to teach a few more key concepts from the third grade book, and then move ahead to the fourth grade books. At the worst, we discover it’s too advanced, and move back to third grade, and keep the other materials for next year. But, I’m hopeful that this will provide the additional challenge they need–the last thing I want is to give them the impression that school is boring, when one of the big benefits of homeschooling is supposed to be fostering a love of learning!

Third Grade: Week Seven Wrap-Up

I can’t believe how much math has changed since I was in school!

When I was in third grade, math, at least as I remember it, primarily focused on memorizing multiplication tables and learning about fractions. Well, Turkey and Bunny did that last year. Sure, it’s something we’re still reviewing, but the concepts are old-hat by now. Something else they learned last year, which was surprising to me at the time, was an introduction to simple equations:

n +6 = 14

or

n -2 = 12

I know this is very basic “solve for n” situation, but I’m fairly certain that I was approaching junior-high age when I learned these things. Maybe around fifth grade? I guess my memory could just be foggy, but either way, I was shocked when they learned this last year. I have heard that the math curriculum we’re using, (Horizons), tends to run a grade level ahead, but having no other experience with math curriculum, I don’t know if this is true, or just something Horizons users tell themselves to feel superior. Regardless, it’s certainly ahead of where I was at this grade level!

This year, I continue to be shocked by the things they’re expected to learn in math. For example, we’ve begun order of operations. Yes, the most simple format possible, but the concept is still being introduced:

(4 + 3) + 2 = (2 + 6) + 1

I told you it was simple, but to me, it’s a huge step for third grade, learning that you need to do the part of the problem in parentheses first. Yes, since it’s all addition, it doesn’t really matter at this point, because they’re going to come up with the right answer no matter how they do it. But it’s a concept that they’re learning, that they’ll apply to more complex problems later.

We’ve delved into more complex equations this week, as well:

n + 6 = 4 x 3

Not only is the equation more complex, but they’re continuing to learn about order of operations on top of it–do multiplication before addition.

They’ve actually taken quite well to all of these concepts, which is a big relief for me as their teacher. I’m still kind of mystified that they’re learning this stuff already, though, (but I don’t discount the fact that I simply may be out of touch with what is standard math curriculum these days!), and slightly concerned what this means for us in a few years!

What Now?

The Olympics are drawing to a close.  I don’t know what we’re going to do with ourselves.  In the last 16 days or so, we’ve lived the Olympics.  We’ve watched it all.  Anything that’s been on network TV, we’ve seen (it’s the first time I’ve really missed having cable!).  We started our day every morning with “Today” in Beijing, and then on days when we didn’t have various appointments, we kept the TV on to see the morning/early afternoon coverage, breaking only for our Olympics school.  We watched all the primetime stuff (and I do mean all–I planned all the grocery shopping and other errands for the last few weeks so that I was always home in time for the games).  I even stayed up and watched some of the late night stuff.

The traditional favorites were, of course, enjoyed–gymnastics, swimming, diving, and volleyball.  Turkey also added cycling to his list of favorites, and I discovered a new love of water polo.  Heck, we even watched stuff we didn’t really like, including the entirety of both the men’s and women’s marathons (not necessarily by choice, but because we kept hoping they’d break in with something more interesting!)  We saw many records set, and cheered on our team.  We even turned into the NBC Nightly News and the Olympic Zone, because apparently we just weren’t getting enough of an Olympics fix without them!

Our school allowed us to really immerse ourselves in the Olympic spirit, and we covered almost every subject you could imagine studying about the Olympics, China, and sports.  We learned a Bible verse and talked about working your hardest, playing fair, and sportsmanship.  We learned a lot of geography in mapping the torch route, and in studying one country from each continent (save Antarctica, obviously), and added in history and government with our country studies.  We used counting our team’s medals to learn math, including counting by fives.  We learned more about our favorite sports, and then talked about events we’d never even heard of before.  In studying China, we learned about everything from architecture to fashion to history.  We had music appreciation and art (we colored a lot of pictures!)  We even studied a bit of foreign language, learning a smattering of Chinese, and even some Latin.  We read stories from around the world, and compared and contrasted the world’s flags.  We snuck in a bit of physical education with our family olympics, and craft time with making medals.  We even had fun with cooking–one night we made Chinese food for dinner, and then all ate with chopsticks (Turkey was surprisingly proficient in that area!), and we made an Olympics cake, complete with the Olympic rings made from M&Ms (brown is the new black!).

Yep, we’ve really enjoyed our Olympics experience.  It’s hard to say what we liked best, because we liked it all.  I just don’t know what we’re going to do tomorrow!