Math Game Explorations

When my oldest was in second grade or so, I moved him from Saxon Math to the SRA math program Explorations and Applications, which you can read a bit more about in this post.  One of the components of this interesting program was a set of board games that reinforced several different math concepts from the book.  Although I ditched the SRA program long ago, in favor of things more home school friendly, I did hold on to the games.  They are simple to use and quick playing.  Charlie and I used several this week.  As always, Charlie is happy to play a game with me, and the learning and reinforcement comes naturally.

The Frog Pond Game for addition and subtraction practice

The 10 Below 0 Game to become familiar with numbers above and below zero

The Find the Distance Game practiced estimating straight distances; comparing line lengths, and multiplying by 2.

More Playing With Math

We're continuing to utilize those math games that are all too often forgotten in the school day shuffle.  This morning's lesson was in telling time using Timing It Right.  

Timing It Right is another Discovery Toys game that I picked up at the same coffee shop sale where I bought Toss and Tally. 

The object of this game is to learn to read digital times on the board, set a clock to the matching analog time, and move your player through the events of a traditional school day to reach the goal of "bedtime".  Not a lot of chills and thrills here, but it is a quick moving game that held Charlie's interest.

 For each turn, the players roll a die with minute increments on the sides, and then move the number of minutes forward on the time path.  There is also a flip book for self-checking that the clock is set correctly, and with further directions for each turn.

Charlie had no problem with the concepts covered by the game, and I feel like this was an enjoyable way for me to check his understanding of what we've covered this year.  And we didn't have to use any of  those boring worksheets and quizzes!

Playing With Math

Charlie has finished his Horizons math books for the year, so while we're waiting for some new Life of Fred elementary books to arrive, we'll make good use of all those math games I have languishing on my shelves!

First up is Toss and Tally.  This is a a Discovery Toys game that I picked up a couple years ago from a woman who had a display set up at our local coffee shop.  It is a simple quick-play style game for reinforcing addition and subtraction facts.  

One side is tic-tac-toe style for addition, while the flip-side has you forming a triangle pattern while solving subtraction facts.

Easy-peasy and math is done for the day!

3.14

Monkey Island Academy is on spring break this week, but we couldn't resist a nod to Pi Day and a little tiny bit of math.  

First we read the highly amusing yet cleverly educational Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi  

Then the boys measured the circumference of several different circles with twine and then used that length of twine to see how many times it fit the diameter of the circle. 

Circumference

                                           

Diameter

Not surprisingly, it was always 3 lengths.... plus a little more.

Charlie with his 3 diameter lengths plus a little more.

For lunch we had pizza pi(e) with little pepperoni pi symbols.

Mmmm. Pi.

Afternoon snack was a Fruit Pi Pie Chart.  

Dinner will be Shepherds Pi(e).  I thought about making a homemade apple pie as well, but that seemed like a bit much.   

Yeah, my my Inner Geek was showing today.

Summer Studies Part 1- Math

OK, this is going to be a real homeschool curriculum type of post so if you suspect you may fall asleep, by all means please, feel free to move on!

Aside from camps and the beach and playing with friends this summer , we will aim to spend a little time each day delving into school subjects. First of all, and most importantly, we will keep up with math. No, math in the summer is not child abuse so don't be so quick to call the social services. Lessons are short and such a regular part of the morning that it is no big deal to continue.

Ben will continue to use Math U See. He really likes this program and I am so glad I found it. It really suits his style. Math U See (MUS) is a mastery program, whereas the the curriculum he was using before this had a spiral approach. With a spiral approach a concept is presented in a lesson, then has a few exercises on it, then the rest of the lesson is review of previous concepts. The next lesson is usually not on the same topic as the previous lesson. It jumps around tremendously. Ben was always in a panic because he felt he wasn't getting a chance to perfect the lesson. He suspected something was left undone, and for him, it was. He needed to be able to work on the same concept until it was solid and then he could move on. MUS does this for him. One concept is worked on at a time and plenty of practice happens before moving on.

I really like it for the same reasons Ben does, plus the amount of daily work is just right (in my opinion) and the pages are uncluttered, restful if you will. Ben can also watch short lessons on DVD given by the creator of the program, Steve Demme. Steve is a humorous guy, and explains the concepts clearly. The program is easy enough for me to teach as well, and the teacher's guide gives extra ideas for practicing math with topic specific games. There is even a convenient online drill page. Ben has refused to use the "U See" part of the curriculum (the blocks) from day one, though. He never has liked to use counters or manipulative helps of any kind. That's just Ben.

William hated MUS! For him, it seems, it was too difficult to master a concept in one bite so to speak. His way of thinking and his attention span demand more variety. Smaller bites of information that are slowly and incrementally reviewed over a long time until all the pieces finally come together. Oh, and he is really attracted to colorful, workbook-y style presentations. I looked at a number of different things to try to match up with his style. I finally settled on Horizons Math. Horizons is an incremental approach (similar to spiral, yet different) and each concept follows a deliberate pattern of introduction and gradual development. Will works on a few different concepts at a time and they are reviewed for a couple weeks, more concepts are introduced and reviewed, and then some weeks later the original concepts are revisited and reviewed. And of course there are colorful pages, but not too distracting either. There are no superfluous bunnies and kitties here! So far he loves his math and is doing well with it. Yay! He still does like to use the manipulatives from Math U See though, as those were the part he liked best about it!

So, two different kids, two different math programs. Ahhh, the liberties of homeschooling! I love being able to pick what will actually work for my kids and match things to their personalities!


On the left is Will's Horizons book, on the right is Ben's Math U See.



And here are some of our "extras" for practice and review.