My Math Journey

Math was always difficult for me as a child. I don’t remember my mom having me “tutored” though until Jr. High and High School level Math. I vividly remember staying after school daily beginning in the 8th grade. My 8th grade Math teacher, to this day, is still one of my favorite people on the planet. I have only positive memories of her constantly telling me “you can do this!” As I moved into high school, I remember meeting a Math tutor at my church every Wednesday night prior to Wednesday night activities. In college, I dated my Math teacher’s son…..so I passed. {not fully joking here}

This experience however made me a good elementary Math teacher! I understand kids who struggle. When I taught in public school, I was chosen to attend the Marilyn Burns Math School to teach kids Math through experiences. This was a life changing experience for me and I realized why I struggled so much as a child. I loved teaching Math in my elementary classrooms. I loved watching the kids faces light up when they would finally understand a concept through experiencing it verses a bunch of problems on a page. 

Fast forward a few years into homeschooling……I picked a workbook full of problems without experiences? SAY WHAT? I knew better, but the time monster got the better of me in the beginning. {I had to check it off my list!}  I vividly remember the day, one of my children started crying and said “I can’t do this!” I stopped in my tracks remembering immediately the words of my 8th grade Math teacher to me. I remember closing the book and THROWING IT AWAY! I did not want this child to go down “my Math road” thinking they could not do Math. That very day, I dug back out my  Marilyn Burns Math files and just started playing games with this one child.  I don’t remember how long I took this approach with this child, but long enough to build back the confidence level it would take to make them successful at another Math curriculum. 

For this reason, I love Math literature to teach Math skills, especially in the lower elementary years! Looking back, you don’t even need a Math curriculum in the younger years.  If you need a little bit of guidance on what Math skills are recommended a different ages, that is easily accessible online. Grab the list of skills and find Math literature and hop on over to https://mathgeekmama.com/ for some awesome lessons and games per topic. 

Odd and Even…a Math Lesson

I have a million things I should be doing right now. I just want to sit for a minute though….so thought I’d blog about our super fun Math Lesson today.
Levi does go to a private kindergarten class, but he does Math at home with us everyday. He rushes home everyday so excited to do Math with Mom!
The  concept of odd and even numbers came up in Zach’s Math curriculum a few weeks ago. I skipped over it because I wasn’t ready to teach it yet. I am so glad I did! I was super excited when First Grade Parade blogged about Odd Todd and Even Steven the week before Thanksgiving.
So today, I introduced the boys to Odd Todd and Even Steven by reading them a book.

AFter I read the book to them, I gave them the book to go back and retell me the story.

Next, I wrote down the numbers on a piece of paper and got out a big tub of Legos. They counted out Legos on each number and then had to decide if the Legos could be shared fairly or not. The Legos that had numbers that could be shared went to Even Steven, and the Legos that could not be shared evenly went to Odd Todd.


After we figured out our odd and evens to 10. We glued Odd Todd and Even Steven into our Math Journals to visit again at a later day.

Then I gave them another game to play so I could check for understanding with each boy.

As you can see, the number 9 got into our Even pile. After a few minutes and some re-teaching though, this particular boy figured out that the number 9 was not part of the pattern of the rest of the numbers.

We will keep working on this all week though. Such a fun way to learn though. I love Odd Todd and Even Steven!

Hands On Math and Art!

Its been a while since I have been excited enough about a “mommy school lesson” to blog about it. I am preparing to homeschool my oldest next year and am enjoying dabbling in a few curriculum recommendations when I get the chance.  Todays post is about TLC ART. This is a program that one of my dear kindergarten teacher friends does in her kindergarten class weekly.  I decided to do one of the online sample lessons with my crew! Take a peek.
Materials given to each child.

Children do not know what they are making but must listen and follow directions. 
For example:
“Find your black rectangle. Glue it horizontally to the bottom of your paper”

“Place your blue rectangle horizontally on the left side of your paper.”

“Place your red square on top of your red rectangle”

Other Math Vocabulary/directions used in this lesson were:
“fold the rectangle in half”
“cut a circle”
Wa….lah! Our final product
Zachariah…Kindergarten age 5. 11 months

Levi…Pre K4…age 5. 3 months

Ava..PK3…Age 4.1 month

I did have to guide my kids and teach them what these vocabulary words meant during this lesson.
I LOVE this….and didn’t waste any time ordering 3 more units….stay tuned for ABCS, Space, and Stages of a Butterfly

More Math….and Fine Motor

Just a quick post to share a fun number Math activity I found on Carisa’s site.

http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2010/06/preschool-printables-pom-pom-numbers.html

The kids were given a set of numbers with the matching number of colored dots on each card. They had to find the match and then glue pom poms to match the number of pompoms with the correct color. For example, the number 1 had 1 blue dot on it and they then had to find another number 1 and glue 1 blue pom pom on it:)

This was more challenging for them that I thought it would be. The 3 of them worked together on it and had fun doing it!

Did you know squeezing a glue bottle strengthens fine motor skills? Something I learned in a parent training I went to at The Handwriting Clinic in Plano. http://www.thehandwritingclinic.com/

Today we went to meet the kids teachers at their preschool. Zach’s teacher won my heart immediately when she gave each kid a box of spaghetti and scissors to take home for the weekend!

Marvelous Math….

I’ve been a little quiet on the blog front lately.

It has taken me quite a while to settle back in our routine from being out of town for so long. I have also been working hard to get all my kids stuff ready to sell at a few upcoming consignment sales.

I also started teaching Zachariah to read! A friend of mine shared with me a gold nugget in the book
Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons For those of you who may not know, I have an Elementary Reading Degree, but I had never heard of this book in any of my training. I actually ran into my Reading professor at church the other day. She had never heard of it either. We are on lesson 5 now, and I think…. the book is FABULOUS! I love it, the lessons are short, easy and more than anything He is enjoying the lessons together.

Lastly, I thought I’d take a change of pace and share a few Math lessons in the upcoming blogs.

And as always, Carisa from 1 +1 +1 =1 is a huge help in my planning http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2010/06/preschool-printables-how-many.html

This is a fun way for the kids to count and then recognize the number they have counted.

Zach cutting out his cards. I highlighted the “cutting line” in yellow guide his scissors.

Zach clipping his clothes pin on the numberthat matches the number he counted.

Today I sat down and taught this activity, but this is totally an activity they can do on their own now.

PS….Also found out by doing this activity with Ava she knew all her numbers 1-10…CRAZY and YES I’m totally PRAISING THE LORD….b.c her Mama was quite Math challenged in her day. LOL.

Stay Tuned for “Some and Some More” Math!!!