The Curriculum Choice

Ka-Ching!

May 042012

One of the things I love to use for our living math lessons is games. I don’t know about your children, but mine can pick up skills they never knew they had simply by playing a game. When I taught my eldest how to multiply one of the things I started with was this very simple game called Ka-Ching! Instead of using the word “multiply” though I used the words “groups of”. My son had so much fun playing this game he had absolutely no idea he was learning a valuable math skill!

How We Use It:

When we’re having a living math day, I pull this game out and challenge my son to a round or two. It’s a very fast paced game all about buying and selling stocks. It’s really addictive to play as well!

Basically you set a game board up with the cards by laying them out in a 7×5 grid. Each person is given a certain amount of money {provided in the game} to buy stocks with. I give out money a little differently than the game indicates. I hand out one $10, one $5, one $2, & three $1’s to get the game rolling. Each player also gets one bonus card which can be paired, at any time, with any stock card from the grid. {We generally save it until the end!}

From there, on each turn a person can collect a card from the grid or they can sell stocks, the choice is theirs. The idea is to buy low and sell high. For instance, if you purchase a $3 card and a $6 card you’ve spent a mere $9, but when you sell them you get $3 x $6 for a grand total of $18!

You can see where this is going right? I didn’t explain this strategy to my child when we started playing the game. We simply played. I prefer to let them find their own strategies as they go along, it’s more likely to stick with them. That’s exactly what happened with this game! It took a few rounds of plays but he very quickly realized he needed the higher value cards in order to beat Mom at the end.

What I love:

I love the simplicity of this game. It didn’t take us an hour or a week to figure out the instructions. It was pretty open and go!
I love that this is made by Gamewright. Seriously! They sell some amazing, but quick, fun games!
I love that the cards are reasonably durable considering I play this with my kids.
I love the color! For anyone who’s visual it’s really eye popping to play, not to mention the pictures of the presidents on the money crack us all up.
The price. If purchased in the US, this game is fairly reasonably priced at a meager $9.89 + shipping from Amazon.

What I don’t like:

When sold overseas I find the price of this game a bit much. I bought it at a local shop in Tasmania for $20. At the same time, the game is fun, educational, and thus makes it worth what I paid.

Other than that I really can’t complain about this game!

Bottom Line:

We love this highly fun, extremely addictive, amazingly educational game. You really have got to try it for yourself!

Math On the Level

Mathematics No Responses »

Oct 312011

Math On The Level is a pre-K through pre-Algebra math program designed to accommodate families teaching multiple children of various ages. It is a relatively new curriculum on the home-schooling scene. The authors, Carlita and John Boyles, developed this wonderful math curriculum as they home-taught their own children. With advanced degrees in several Education fields for Carlita and Electrical Engineering for John, they are well-qualified to teach mathematics!

The philosophy behind MOTL includes:

Teaching math through real life
Teaching concepts when a child is mature enough to learn them
Continually reviewing previously learned material
Staying flexible to meet the needs of your family.

The curriculum is composed of 7 main volumes. Four of the volumes cover the bulk of the actual material, with the remaining three volumes containing supporting and record-keeping resources. The four main books cover Operations, Money & Decimals, Geometry & Measurements, and Fractions. In the supporting materials, Carlita and John have developed various charts and tracking tools to help you keep track of what each child has learned, what they’re still reviewing, and what topic to introduce next. The back-bone of MOTL is the 5-a-day review. Rather than learning a concept only to forget it a few weeks later, the 5-a-day review and tracking system provides a way to keep concepts alive.

I’ve used MOTL for one full year now, so here is what a day in the life looks like for me:

I collect the notebooks of my two children who are using MOTL (I have other older and younger children). Looking at the tracking chart I can easily see which concepts my child needs to review. The charts are all color-coded with four main books, making it easy to select the right book. Each book has lessons in the front half that explain how to present a concept. The back half provides a page of practice problems (with solutions!) for each concept. I select the problems I wish my child to do, copy 5 into their notebook (usually from several books – covering several review concepts), and let them start working.

While they work, I take note of the new concepts to be taught that day, and briefly familiarize myself with the way Carlita explains topics. I trade off teaching one child, then the other. Carlita has a handy “suggested teaching sequence” that I love – but you are free to veer from that.

What I Love -

I love that it takes virtually no prep work. Hey! I’m a busy mom! I love that the children are given manageable portions of review problems – and that they get review problems. I think the teaching instructions given by Carlita are phenomenal. If I find my child struggling with a topic I’ve been teaching, a quick review of Carlita’s instructions helps me see what I’m doing wrong (the fault is usually in my presentation) and clears everything up! The Yahoo Group is active and a wonderful resource – Carlita and John are active moderators and participants. I love knowing that I can ask a question and receive a timely reply.

What I Don’t Love -

Honestly, there isn’t a lot to say here, but I will mention some things that might be turn-offs to others.

First, the cost. If you consider the cost of the curriculum spread out over multiple children for many years, it’s very reasonable; however, the upfront cost may seem prohibitive. To help with taking the plunge, Carlita and John offer a great 60-day refund if you try the curriculum and are not satisfied. It’s nice to be able to take things for a test-drive before committing! Also, you can order the curriculum in chunks without affecting the overall quality (though you would eventually want all of it).

Second, the record-keeping, while thorough and very well done, takes some getting used to and can seem onerous. I honestly don’t do all of it and I’m fine with that.

Third, some might feel that 5 problems a day is not enough review. Obviously, you can do more. You can write more problems yourself, use more of the ones in the book, or print off free worksheets from the internet (or buy workbooks). I find the amount of work to be satisfactory for my children.

A Final Note –

If you favor a living books or unit studies approach, you will find that this curriculum would dovetail nicely as you can easily select books by concept and have your children doing problems of varying difficulty in that concept.

After I spent nine months wishing (and saving), I was able to purchase Math On The Level. A year later, my family still loves it. Both my children are at or ahead of grade level, and most importantly, math is a subject we all enjoy doing together. For more information, or to see samples of the program, please visit www.mathonthelevel.com

-Written by Kelly Richardson is the 9-year, accidental home-schooling mother of five amazing children (13, 11, 8, 3, 2). She is a voracious reader, regular break-baker, sometimes runner, and rare artist . Her passions are learning about education, home-making, and playing her piano, but her all time favorite thing is spending time with her husband and family, especially in the redwoods or at the beach near her home. She chronicles her family’s adventures at www.coastcrew.blogspot.com.

Have you met Sir Cumference?

Charlotte Mason, Literature, Living books, Mathematics 7 Responses »

Dec 312009

He’s such a wonderful person, along with his wife, Lady Di, and son, Radius. His friends can’t be beat either -King Arthur, Geo of Metry, Sym, Sir D’Grees, King Lell, Per, Countess Areana, Vertex, Sir Tangent, Sir Lionel Segment and others.

Living in Camelot under King Arthur, Sir Cumference and his buddies must work through many complications that require mathematical and logical thinking. During visits to such places as the Mountains of Obtuse, Angleland and the Isle of Immeter, people must be rescued, clues must be found and problems must be solved!

The stories are full of action and suspense that have kept my children enthralled time and time again. The author, Cindy Neuschwander, is an absolute genius in the creativity of these books! It’s beyond me how the books not only have a great plot, but teach math concepts within the storyline – and don’t lose any qualities of living literature in the process!

Depending on the book(s) you read, the following concepts are covered:

Circumference
Diameter
Radius
Pi
Angles
Lines
Measurement
Perimeter
Area
3-D shapes
Counting by 10′s, 100′s, 1,000′s

Any child 1st grade and above will enjoy listening to the stories, but older children (4th grade and higher) will most likely grasp the math concepts best. I used to check the books out from the library until I almost wore my card out rechecking them! Now, I’m the proud owner of each and every one. (A CM homeschool can never have enough living literature on the bookshelves, can it?)

-Written by Cindy, an eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of three.

Mathematicians are People, Too

Charlotte Mason, Living books, Mathematics 3 Responses »

Sep 162009

There are actually two Mathematicians are People, Too books – a volume one and a volume two. They both have the same format and style and are written by Luetta Reimer and Wilbert Reimer.

Recently on a forum, someone asked if these books are math books or history books. Well, that’s a great question. They are living books for sure. And because they are living, they are multi-faceted. They are math and history; you can certainly call them math history. But they also are good biographies. And they incorporate science and geography as well. So like any quality living book, they are hard to pin down to one particular label. This is the kind of book a Charlotte Mason educator loves – a book full of ideas to digest.

Each book has 15 chapters, and each chapter is a biographical sketch of a mathematician. Where each chapter begins, there is a full page black and white illustration on the left. Those images are great for photocopying onto notebooking pages for your math journal. The mathematicians are arranged chronologically within each book and include men and women from many nations. The chapters don’t try to capture every detail about the mathematician, running from birth to death in a boring list of facts. Instead they focus on one or more key narratives from that person’s life which illustrate his discoveries or his character. A real effort has been made to select humorous, exciting, and inspiring stories. Here is a complete chapter from volume 1 — Pythagoras.

Mathematicians in Volume 1

Thales, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Hypatia, Napier, Galileo, Pascal, Newton, Euler, Lagrange, Germain, Gauss, Galois, Noether, and Ramanujan

Mathematicians in Volume 2

Euclid, Khayyam, Fibonacci, Cardano, Descartes, Fermat, Agnesi, Banneker, Babbage, Somerville, Abel, Lovelace, Kovalevsky, Einstein, and Polya

These are math books with words, not numbers. So math concepts are the focus, not arithmetic functions. Of course, if you want to use Mathematicians are People, Too as a jumping off point for a study of geometry or algebra, for example, you certainly could! In fact, that’s exactly how I see these books. They are engaging narratives that encourage further investigation. As you read, you’ll see lots of tangents you can choose to explore.

How can you use these books? Well, if you’re already using a living approach to math, these volumes fit perfectly with a study of math history. If you desire to shift towards a living math approach but aren’t there yet, this book is also a good choice. You could choose any mathematician and read just one chapter. Your children could see that mathematicians really aren’t boring guys and gals! And math is actually much more than multiplying and dividing. Or these books could add a mathematical facet to a history study. Just read the chapters as you reach the time periods in your history lessons. If you need biography genre for literature, these short one chapter stories will serve you well.

For more ideas and lesson plans to go along with these books, visit the Ohio Resource Center volume 1 & volume 2. And for free notebooking pages for volume one, I’ve put together Printables for Mathematicians are People, Too.

Living Math Curriculum Review

Charlotte Mason, Mathematics 9 Responses »

Jun 102009

Living Math is a curriculum written by Julie Brennan, a professional CPA, a mom of four, and an obvious math lover. If you have heard of living math, you may think that this curriculum is full of hands-on games and puzzles with lots of living math books.

Actually it is more of a historical tour through time, looking at the mathematical developments of each period. Living books are the cornerstone of this curriculum although there are some puzzles and activities sprinkled among the readings.

pyramids

For example, you study Thales, the Greek Mathematician who was fascinated by pyramids and then do a hands-on pyramid measuring activity. (But these activities are not enough for a thorough math curriculum. In addition to the historical perspective Julie offers, you will still need to add the study of math facts taught through a skills or games based learning option. From what I’ve read on the Living Math Yahoo Group, most families use Living Math as a supplement to their existing math programs and textbooks.) There is a deliberate focus on integrating math into other subjects, so Living Math often crosses over into art, history, and science.

You can purchase the electronic materials online via Paypal, and Julie sends you links where you can download all the PDF outlines and activity pages. The curriculum is broken into four $20 units which are offered at three levels – Primary, Intermediate, and Advanced.

This is the outline for the four chronological units available:

Unit 1: Ancients and World Cultures
Unit 2: The Alexandrians and Medieval Math
Unit 3: Renaissance to Enlightenment
Unit 4: The Modern Age of Mathematics

(Sometime in 2009 a second cycle is supposed to be released. )

For each ($20) unit, you get a series of eight loosely organized lessons with a plethora of reading selections. Julie believes in “strewing” resources to create a learning buffet. That tendency is evident in her outlines. There are so many reading choices that it’s a bit overwhelming. It’s hard to know what is an essential book and which are supplementary books. It took me hours of poring over the book lists and studying Amazon.com to choose the best books. Because of the wealth of living books and emphasis on biographies, Living Math is a perfect fit for Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. You can add the mathematicians to your timeline, use real world problems to recreate what they discovered, and document it in a math notebook .

The Living Math units are not “open and go” curriculum. There are no schedules or boxes to check. It is more of an outline. Specific pages or chapters in each suggested book are listed clearly but you will not find a day by day schedule. For a math-challenged mom who is totally new to this style of learning math, there is some advanced preparation. Personally, I have to read over the lesson and mark the resources that I have on hand, preview them, and then try to schedule them. I also discovered that many of the activities are much harder than I anticipated. These are problem solving activities, often not the clear-cut “right and wrong” types of math I did in school. For example, we built a tower from straws and tape. Some of the activities and books have no answer keys, so if you don’t solve the problem, it can be a bit frustrating. To cope with this ambiguity, I’ve learned to approach the activities more as a time of fun exploration rather than a problem to solve.

According to the lessons themselves, “the pacing of the course is completely up to you. Much of the material in each lesson plan can be covered in two weeks.” So estimating two weeks per lesson, a unit should last about 16 weeks. In my experience, I would agree that two weeks per lesson is about right.

So, to make it more concise, for $20 you are getting reading lists, teaching notes, and some activities/handouts that can be used to supplement your existing math curriculum for approximately 16 weeks. Living Math is not a complete math curriculum but a study of math history through the ages using living books (which you purchase or borrow on your own).

Thales math notebooking page After using this material for about one semester, I do have some evaluations. If there were one or two unifying spines holding this curriculum together, I think Living Math would be more coherent. Because I don’t have the benefit of a strong math history foundation myself, I have to rely on the scattered chapters to do the teaching. In other words, I can’t draw up information from my own memory to teach about Pythagoras or Galileo. If the particular lesson relies on an out of print book that I don’t have, the lesson is weakened. Along those same lines, this curriculum works best for those who have access to a well stocked library. Purchasing all of the books listed is impossible, not just because of exorbitant cost but because many of the books are out of print.

Although I’ve shared some weaknesses in the program, I do strongly feel that for someone who does not understand the history of math (like me), Julie’s chronological outlines are immensely helpful as a starting point. So while we’re still using Unit 1, I have already purchased Unit 2 and plan to continue using her booklists and outlines.

If you are considering Living Math, I suggest you spend a few hours at The Living Math website. There is a wealth of free information that can point you in the right direction for your own studies. For example, the booklists for each level are free to download. With the booklists and an understanding of the philosophy, you could create your own math history unit. However, Julie’s outlines do relieve much of the planning burden. And if you’d like to read more about my own journey towards a more living approach to math, of which Living Math is part, visit Transitioning to Living Math. I also make some specific book recommendations there.

Written by Jimmie, Charlotte Mason flavored mom of one.