Have I mentioned I love math?

One of the members of our local homeschool group recently gave a presentation on learning styles at one of our Mom's meetings.  I was so interested in what she had to say I sought to find an online test for assessing children's learning styles.  Turns out both of my girls are visual learners just like their dear old Mom.  One is actually equally visual and kinesthetic which apparently a lot of younger children lean more heavily towards the kinesthetic (or hands on).  Which is something I think a lot of homeschoolers should know.  If I could stand up and shout out to all homeschoolers across America, I would shout this:  DO NOT MAKE YOUR CHILDREN SIT ALL DAY AND DO WRITTEN SEAT WORK!!!!!!

Anyway, I also did another online test by Scholastic and guess what?  Turns out my girls are also Analytical Learners. 

As an analytic learner, your child thinks logically and numerically, and tends to discern patterns easily. An analytic learner does well in math or science, and often gravitates to board games. She uses a methodical approach to problem-solving and prefers black-and-white solutions to more amorphous ones....

Well imagine that.  I love my sweet little analytical learners to pieces...every sorted (not sordid) and organized little piece of them.

So, I guess it goes without saying that we tend to really like Math.  I love Saxon but left just as they present, well, sometimes leaves a little to be desired.  So, I like to throw in some fun every now and then.  Recently we covered the (idiotic, imho) English system of volume measurement (gallons, quarts, pints, cups).

 Why, oh why can't the U.S. just convert to metric?  I digress...  If we MUST use the disgusting system it must be learned visually with a little kinesthetics thrown in.  Hence Gallon Man to the rescue....

First of all I showed them a real skeleton so that they would understand our bone structure.  I then showed them the picture of Mr. Gallon Man.

Then we made our own.  For each gallon man you will need 4 pieces of construction paper in colors of your childs choice.  (Hey I am listening to Love & Logic and I'm all about letting THEM have as much control as possible, these days.)  We used a whole sheet of construction paper for the Gallon.  Cut one whole piece into 4 strips for the Quarts.  Cut another piece into the same 4 strips then cut them in half the long way for 8 pints.  Cut another piece as for the pints except one making one more cup making 16 cups.  Have them label each and voila.

Notice Lil' Bit called hers Mrs. Gallon.  Not that there's anything wrong with that!  I hung them on my math wall.  This is my happy place.  I know.  I'm weird like that.  I embrace it.

What can I say?  We're visual, people!!!

I just happened upon this blog with some lovely and meaningful ways to celebrate Easter.

(In)Courage

Creationism

I recently received an email notifying me of a MSNBC (or MSLSD as Mark Levin refers to them) poll.  The title of the email read, "Should Homeschoolers be Allowed to be Taught Truth: Vote!".  I find the word "truth" here to be ironic.
 
Homeschoolers (in our state and many other states) are free to use any curriculum they choose - and that even includes "unschooling".  Which, in my humble opinion, is as it should be.  Our society has slowly and scarily drifted from "parent knows best" to "big brother knows best".  It is funny that this poll refers to "homeschool textbooks", too.  I am of the belief that "textbooks" are a big part of our societal ills, anyway.  I am a huge fan of Charlotte Mason.  She was a turn of the century teacher and advocate of early homeschoolers in England when, politically, much the same thing was happening there as is now in the US.  Her philosophy was that the mind is a living entity that needs to be fed, not a container to be filled.  She advocated the use of "living books" - books that inspire the reader, feed the mind, and spark the imagination. Rather than a textbook feeding "information" that came from some arbitrary source, the information in these books is presented by the character (or the author) as a person that is personally attached to the information.  Information presented in this manner, she contends, will leave one wanting more information, being personally connected to it.  Therefore, we tend to use many living books - not textbooks - in our homeschool and the Bible is the mack Daddy of living books.  

Now as for Creationism vs. Evolution....I don't apologize for being a young earth believer.  I believe that the Bible was written as a historical narrative.  A science text?  No.  An accurate historical account?  Yes - that is corroborated by many other secular historical records.  I believe when we start doubting the validity or accurateness of the Bible we get into some murky water.  Some people may call me a dumb Christian.  I look at it as, "Why should I reinvent the wheel?".  We have learned and studied a lot (not so much recently though, for whatever reason) on Creationism vs. Evolution.  There is a series of children's adventure audios, Jonathon Park, that my girls literally eat up.  Another book I would urge you to read is Ruth Beechick's, Genesis:  Finding Our Roots.  This book answered MANY questions I had and she has such a depth of knowledge and research on this subject matter.  For instance, in the book she talks about dinosaurs.  Genesis mentions the word "dragon" which many believe was synonymous to dinosaur.   However many people have never seen this reference, because they read the English translation and the word "dragon" is only in the Hebrew text.   When the Bible was translated into English (by King James) the word dragon was translated to "large beast".  Well, the largest beast the English knew of at the time was a whale.  Hence "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moves which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good." (Gen. 1:21).  And there are many more references to dragons throughout the OT.  Anyway, it is things like that throughout that book that convinced me and my simple little mind that I don't need to go there.  I think evolutionists have cleverly crafted and packaged their little "bit".  I am saddened that there are so many people out there that have turned their backs to the Biblical truths, though.  The thing that frightens me though is that this is a societal change (as evidenced by the poll results when I voted were about 2/3 voting "No").  I can try to teach my children truth but the fact is they ARE going to be influenced some by societal thinking.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

A Simple 6 Week plan

I think I have mentioned Sandra Felton, the Organizer Lady, in a previous post.  I just love her Flight Plan for Fledglilngs daily emails.  Today, in her email she included a link to a simple 6 week plan that I thought I'd share.

Love this blog

My parents were telling me about some lady on Fox & Friends this morning that was making some out-of-this-world sounding cinnamon buns.  Anyway, lo and behold she is also a homeschooler.  I checked out her blog and this little quote caught my eye. 

Lots of people support our decision to homeschool.  Some are quietly guarded. Others think we're mentally ill. I vacillate between all three myself.

-Ree Drummond, Pioneer Woman

 Well said.

100th Day Revisited - 2010 Edition

Well, it is that time of year again.  Here's a quick run down of our Hundred day activities.  I have a wonderful neighbor whose daughter is in the girls' dance class that used to teach 1st grade.  She so graciously let me borrow her "box" of 100 day magic.  Thanks Michelle!

We started the morning with our calendar activities.

Last day of the US puzzle and the unifix hundred line.

 

First thing, we read the 100th Psalm

Then, we read some cute books that I had checked out of the library. 

Centipede's 100 Shoes by Tony Ross and  Emily's first 100 Days of School by Rosemary Wells

Then it was on to our first set of activities.  What can you do in 100 seconds?

How many bunnies can you color?

 

How many sets of 10 hearts can you circle?

How tall of a tower can you build?

How many hearts can you cut from squares of paper?

Now here's where the Industrial Engineer in me just couldn't let this one rest.  I asked them if they thought they could do it faster and how.  Ms. Priss immediately suggested that one of them do the folding and the other do the cutting (Mommy was beaming).

Look how many more there were!!!  17 to be exact (as opposed to their combined total of 11 from before our little job analysis).  I even helped them figure out their time per heart.  Hey, Ms. Priss utilized her new divistion skills here.

How many jelly beans can you eat in 100 seconds?  (the caveat was they had to completely chew and swallow one before eating another.

How many staples can you staple in 100 seconds?


100 pieces of snack mix.

 

Then we were on to some fun stuff.  We determined weight and volume of 100 things...  I intended to have them graph these but by this time we were kind of running out of steam.

First the counting....

100 Nerds, teddy grahams, pompoms, marshmallows, m&m's (peanut AND plain)

100 droplets of water and 100 tablespoons of water

Next the measuring and weighing (which I guess you could still technically classify as measuring)...

Weighing 100 tablespoons of water...

The total volume of 100 tablespoons...

Weighing the pompoms...

the marshmallows, nerds, teddy grahams, and m&m's...

now to determine the volumes

 

 

Notice we changed measuring vessels for more accurate results and/or for verification purposes.  All VERY official stuff here. 

In case you're interested in our results...

Item (100 of…)	Weight (grams)	Volume	unit of measure
Peanut m&m's	283	2.75	c
Regular m&m's	95	0.5	c
Marshmallows	65	1.25	c
Teddy Grahams	67	1	c
Pom Poms	25	3	c
Nerds	20	1	Tbsp
Drops of Water	3	1	tsp
teaspoons of Water	567	2.5	c

Then it was outside for a little vitamin D for our mad scientists.  They ran approximately 100 yds to the corner (and back)...I believe 3 times.  Mommy didn't.  She was on the porch with the camera.

And last but not least, our hundred glasses (from last year) but this time with a twist... with 100 googly eyes.

Hope you enjoyed our 100 day.  It was 100 total immersion for us.

Call to Dunkirk

Recently I have had several Christians ask me and in their questioning seem somewhat skeptical about our decision and practice of homeschooling.  One even told me flat out that SHE WAS AGAINST IT.  I really have not experienced this much until now and am a little bit taken aback by this Christian response.  This little video sums it up, pretty much...





...Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.  -1 Peter 3:15