09 10

20 September 2011

Math, Math, and More Math

I was feeling a little behind where I wanted to be - we had missed a few days and were out of sync with my schedule, particularly in Math. So we took 2 days and just focused on getting back to where my lesson plans said we ought to be in math. Happily, Math is one of Monkey's favorite things to do, so this was no chore at all.

Working on teen numbers as 10 + ____
We practiced finding the missing partners.


Here's a fun variant on Go Fish, called Go To the Dump, that I think we'll be doing in the next while to practice math facts. We did it once already with partners of 10, but I put too many combinations in, and Monkey is still really slow. I think that next time I'll put in only 2 or 3 pairs - 9/1, 8/2, and maybe 7/3. Then he'll get more intense repetition on the partners we're working with and can start to remember them out of his head a little better.




I've been thinking a lot about math lately, and we've got the first of the Miqon books on the way, we're going to add it to the Math Expressions that we're doing. The Cuisenaire Rods are already here, and so is the Lab Sheet Annotations book that's supposed to help me figure out what to do with the worksheets. But I don't actually have the worksheets, and I don't have the rest of the instructional materials for me to figure out this system. I've been looking at blog posts about other folks' experiences with it, though, and I like this idea for making it kid-directed. Very interesting. This looks like an entirely different take on math. Math with lots of toys. Jennifer, of Adventures in Mama-Land, says not to put away the toys too soon.

In fact, there's this whole thread at TWTM forums on how to drill math facts, but fun. I'm thinking that I'll be needing some of these games. Sure wish someone had made drilling facts fun for me when I was little! I just remember being so frustrated with those goofy timed tests. 100 problems in less than 5 minutes. Ugh.

2 comments:

Annie Kate said...

We're almost finished Miquon Math after 13 years! But we're keeping the cuisinaire rods, for sure. They are so beautiful.

Enjoy your time with Miquon!

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm your latest follower.

Annie Kate
http://anniekateshomeschoolreviews.com/

Unknown said...

I love using toys to teach math. I did this with my 5th grader in his PreK-1st grade.

Stopping by from the Homeschool Carnival.

Come visit me www.asliceofhomeschoolpie.com.

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