Schiller Math Continued

 Dot and I have now completed lesson 55 of Schiller Math.  I am very glad that I bought this kit.  She loves doing math and probably would have liked to have moved at a faster pace.  We are going to try to do math a few times a week now so that I can get her moved through material she is ready for.  

What I like:

• Lessons are short and easy.  
• No prep.  
• Covers concepts I might miss if I were planning on my own.  
• This program is really solid, and the workbook is attractive.  

Ways that I adapt it:  

• The cardboard thousand cubes were annoying.  They kept getting crushed.  I actually switched to my Montessori Outlet golden bead material, which Dot finds far more appealing.   (The hundreds and thousands are wooden, except for the demonstration set, which are beads).  That is the one thing that really put me off from Schiller to begin with, and why I didn't use it--I don't love the blue cubes.  But it's really, really easy just to use the bead set that I have with it.  
• I've been skipping some of the left-right and even-odd lessons.  I feel like left-right is learned more developmentally.  I think even-odd is easier to understand once someone has mastered division and gotten a little older.  
• I think that the four operations are best learned with large quantities, not with small ones.  So I will be adapting the Schiller lessons and using the ones I learned in my Montessori training.  

So, yes, I'm still very happy with my Schiller purchase.  Next year, I plan to supplement it with math story books.  Around the third grade, as we work through the material, I will transition to Life of Fred.  I imagine there will be a little workbook work too, to prepare Dot to take a standardized test.  

Shiller Math: First Impressions

So, for Dot, I decided to give Shiller Math a try.  It's a logical choice for us, since I am very familiar with the Montessori method.  I have Association Montessori International (AMI) diplomas for ages 0-3 and 3-6.  I love Montessori math.

Here are reasons I didn't try Shiller with her brothers:

• The materials are a little plasticky and flimsy looking, compared to the Montessori math materials you might use in a classroom.  
• I had more enthusiasm for planning lessons 10 years ago.  Now, I want to pursue my own hobbies and interests in my free time.  
• It's an investment!  It's economical in the long term (about 5 years of math lessons), but in the short term, it costs a lot.  
• I just didn't think that a whole big program was necessary; I just wanted to adapt as I went.  This worked fine.  All the things that my boys did (games, conversations, Montessori lessons, Life of Fred, homeschool classes) produced good results; they've each always had an excellent conceptual understanding of math, and both are confident in their abilities and have been able to adapt to working in a classroom setting.  

This is why I got Shiller Math for Dot:

• I need the scripted and systematic lessons at this point in my life.  I have books I want to read, crafts I want to create, volunteer work, chores, kid activities to drive to, and I just don't have the headspace and time for a lot of planning.  
• Shiller Math is a solid system of concrete and developmentally appropriate math lessons.  I want Dot to think that math is fun and to understand what she is doing.  At this age (kit is for ages 4-8 or so), children need to explore and touch.  No drilling, and the system is designed to be encouraging rather than corrective.  
• The materials are not a fancy Montessori classroom quality, but they are attractive enough and good enough.  
• I am more willing to spend money on curriculum these days because I have become a better judge of what works for me and our family and what will actually get used.  I'm happy to have a kit that will last several years.  

Review after one day of use:  We got through the first 8 lessons, and Dot and I had a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to going through all the lessons with her over the next few years.  

The long view:  My plans (always subject to change) include Shiller Math through about age 8, followed by Life of Fred elementary series and perhaps computer games, followed by math classes at a homeschool co-op in middle and high school.  All of this is mixed in with a lot of conversations and answering questions about math in daily life.  I never have to try to "work in" math concepts; they seem to come up all the time on their own.  It helps to be married to a mathematician who is capable of answering anything I can't.  

I'll update on Shiller when we've used it for a few months, but I'm hopeful that it is a good choice for us.  

DreamBox Math for Homeschool: A review

I decided to let Bug (10 years old, 5th grade, gifted) try DreamBox math for a semester and see how it goes.  With a toddler in the house, I have been really needing programs that take the teaching load away from me.  About two months in, I am extremely pleased with this program.  It is completely game-based and designed to be used indepedently.  He seems to enjoy it, and it has identified some areas that we had not worked in sufficiently (mainly geometry concepts).

It is common core based, and it "forces" children to learn and use a variety of strategies.  I think it's developing his number sense and mental math skills, so that is great with me.  It does a good job of assessing his level in various concepts and keeps track of what standards he has completed.  I will be able to print out a graph at the end of the year for his portfolio to show what work he has done.

It's very visual and uses a lot of virtual manipulatives.  He can work at his own pace and doesn't have to repeat things that he already knows.  I'm happy to use this program through middle school if he continues to enjoy it. 

XtraMath: Review

My Initial Review of IXL Math:

I have been using XtraMath with Bug partly to help him learn his addition facts, but mostly because it's just something to occupy him for a few minutes.  He is so needy, and so different from his older brother, and I do find it really hard to find things for him to do all day, if his brother is busy reading.  Bug is welcome to play with his toys at any time, but he really does not like to play by himself.  At 5 years old, he is a beginning reader and has no interest in reading to himself.  He has a desire? need? to interact with someone for 99% of his waking hours. 

Anyway, the greatest thing about XtraMath is that it is free.  It is a "nonprofit organization dedicated to math acheivement for all."  Basically, it is a program that helps children memorize their math facts.  Right now, the computer has Bug working on his addition facts, adding 0, 1, and 2 to numbers 0 through 9.  He does well with the program, not getting upset if he doesn't get the answer in the allotted time.  His older brother hated these types of times programs, but I think they can be very valuable in the chore that is memorizing arithmetic facts.  I just hope Bug continues to enjoy the program. 

I do recommend this program, but it is not for every child.  Some children get anxious when they are put up against a timer, and in this case, I don't think the benefits outweigh the risk of forcing the child to hate math. 

I also believe that no one should ever use a math fact memorization program, unless their child has demonstrated conceptual understanding.  Before a child memorizes addition facts, he or she must fully understand that addition means putting together.  Bug is comfortable with the concepts of addition and subtraction.  I'm not sure he fully gets multiplication and division, but I will be sure that he does before it is time to memorize those tables. 

I'll update again after we've used the program for a while.  

My Final Review of IXL Math:

Bug got really bored of this.  I'm still looking for something to help him with his math facts.  I'd like something that will track his learning but be more games-based. 

Breaking up Boredom with Geoboards

I decided that we need to start out each day with some kind of engaging hands-on activity that both boys (ages 8 and almost 5) can participate in.  For the past couple of weeks, we've been using plastic Geoboards.  I got a smaller one and a larger one for each boy, along with a big bag of rubber bands.  I also purchased a couple of Geoboard books, for them to use to get ideas for designs.

We've been going over basic 2-dimensional shapes with the boards.  We started on perimeter for Bee, a concept he hasn't been exposed to yet.  Learning on the board will minimize the amount of paperwork I will ask him to do.  We can also use the boards to demonstrate area, the different types of trianges, and angle measurement. 

Bug loves making pictures from his book, Geoboard Pictures Flip and Draw, with the boards.  I have a harder book for Bee, but he prefers to come up with his own designs.  So far, he's made some cool faces on it, and today he made a tank, and actually wanted to record his by drawing it on a geobard paper.  He hopes to sell the copies for $1.99 each.  I love how visually creative and enterprising he can be.  When I get around to it, I'll post some pictures of the first face he made. 

I see there are a number of other books on Amazon related to math wih Geoboards.  I imagine we'll find many more uses for this nifty tool. 

Learning Addition with a little Montessori

Bug, who is about to turn 5, has been learning addition this year.  My background is in Montessori, and we emphasize the concepts of the various operations when the children are 4 and 5, so that's what I've been trying to do with Bug.  Addition is putting together; subtraction is taking away; multiplication is putting together the same quantity; and division is sharing equally.  When children understand these concepts well, they have a great foundation for future mathematics study. 

I showed him addition with the Montessori Golden Bead material first.  The golden bead material contains thousand cubes, hundred squares, ten bars, and unit beads.  This allows the children to have a concrete impression of our base-10 number system.  We added some 4-digit quantities this way.  I'm not sure it quite clicked for Bug at that point, but it's hard to say, as so much goes on with him internally that I don't know about.  It's very different working with this material at home than it is in a classroom, where he would have been watching the older children work with this material. 

He's also done some addition on his fingers, and this week I had him do some addition problems using seashells as counters.  Both times he did this, I wrote five one-digit problems on a colorful piece of paper and had him answer them.  At this point, it was clear to me that he understands the concept of addition. 

He has been very enthusiastic.  He's a tad too perfectionist about getting his numbers to look just the way he wants them, but I can deal with that.  Today, I was so happy because he made worksheets for his brother and his dad (and himself!).  His brother and dad were happy to humor him by answering the problems. 

Later this week, I hope to show him addition with carrying on the golden bead material.  This is not for accuracy, it's just to give them impression of what happens when we carry, and how we can't go over 10 in each place value. 

I do not think the Montessori materials are necessary for teaching children math at home.  I have them mainly because they have such sentimental value for me.  They are extremely helpful, but there are many good ways of showing math to young children.  I think the most important thing is that children have a solid understanding of how the operations work. 
He'll eventually move onto another Montessori material, called the Stamp Game, that allows children to work with 4-digit quantities in a concrete way.  We'll also be working over the coming months with memorizing his addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts, with a goal of finishing these by the time he finishes second grade.  I'm hoping that computer games will prove to be a good tool for him in the memorization process (as they were for me once upon at time), but these did not work for his brother. 

Hurray for math!  So far, it's been my favorite homeschool subject to facilitate.  I supposed that is odd, since I am a former English and Classics major.  My children's other parent is a mathematician; perhaps that motivates me. 

January Homeschool

Maybe I'll try updating this blog monthly with items of interest. We'll see how that goes.

We have 2 days a week where we have no activities scheduled, and 2 days a week with afternoon activities. And Friday is our free day, as long as we've been working well all week. We either play games or go somewhere special. This serves as a great motivator for Bee to do his work.

Anyway, I decided to try making one of our long homeschool days a "language day," where nearly everything we do is reading/writing related and the other day a "math day," where everything is math except for Bee's 15 minutes (or chapter) of silent reading a day. This seems to be working out beautifully. I was feeling that our days were too crammed, and I'd rather spend a long time on each assignment and let Bee get as much out of it as he wants than chop things up and have to finish the next day.

On the math front, the program TOPScience: Get a Grip, for grades K-6 program is still really enjoyable. We use it once a week. If we do anything too much, Bee tends to get bored. I need to add some different containers for Bug to play with. I've also had to buy more lentils, since Bug makes such a mess with them. In fact, the floor in the computer room has a lot of lentils on it right now.

Bee hadn't worked much with the concept of rounding/estimating before, but it's something that kids his age are expected to learn. For some reason, we struggled with it a bit (probably because it's boring). This online game has helped a lot:
Round Off.

I bought the book Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye, and I've started using some of the ideas. The main difference is that I'm encouraging Bee to dictate writing to me, rather than trying to make him write so much. This way, he puts his very creative ideas into words, and I get them on paper for him. His thinking is so much more advanced than his ability to write. He's been writing more too. He likes to write me emails on the iPad, mostly about products he wants to buy. The important thing is that he's writing! We do one collaborative creative writing a week, at least one writing a week where he writes pretty much whatever he wants (he can choose a prompt or make up his own), and we do spelling and/or dictation sentences once a week, where we focus on spelling, handwriting, and basic punctuation. It seems to be working.

Materials we are using for wrting:

1) I'm a Writer! (And I Didn't Even Know It), Grade 2 by Teresa Domnauer
2) Rory's Story Cubes

I also signed Bee up for Explode the Code Online, to help him with phonics. It's a bit repetitive for him, but I'm seeing some good results in his spelling. It's good for 15 minutes once a week.

Also once a week, I give him a word ladder to do from the book Daily Word Ladders: Grades 2-3 by Timothy V. Rasinski. I think these are good for problem solving and cementing in Bee's brain how each letter functions.

We started our "History of the Universe" unit (history and science in one). We read Born with a Bang by Jennifer Morgan and have been watching How the Universe Works on Netflix Instant. I've certainly learned a lot!

Get a Grip

We have started working with TOPScience: Get a Grip, for grades K-6. It is a set of puzzles that teach math and science concepts through measuring lentils. I think it is quite ingenious. Bee, my second grader, is really enjoying it. Bug, my preschooler just enjoys pouring with the lentils. The great thing is that they can work on it together. It came with all materials, so all I had to do was glue on labels and make copies of the answer sheets for Bee. I can save all of the materials and use them again when Bug is Bee's age. I plan to try many more sets from this company.