The Curriculum Choice

Games for Math: Playful Ways to Help Your Child Learn Math

Charlotte Mason, Elementary, Hands On, Mathematics 9 Responses »

Apr 072010

This is one of the first books I purchased when we began homeschooling, and it remains an all-time favorite of mine. I’m typically not a text-book kind of homeschooling Mom – except when it comes to math. It was always my weakest subject, and I don’t have the confidence to stray from my dearly beloved math curriculum. However, I do like to spice math up a bit so that it will be an enjoyable subject for my children.

Contrary to my need for a math curriculum, Games for Math by Peggy Kaye was the only resource I used when my oldest was in Kindergarten, and it nurtured in him a real enjoyment of math. Now it makes a nice supplement to our curriculum.

It includes games for Kindergarten through Third Grade, covering a wide variety of topics including:

Counting
Logical Thinking
Size and Shape
Addition and Subtraction
Multiplication and Division
Estimation
Geometry
Measurement
Place Value
The Number System (Base-10)

I have also benefitted from the author’s teaching experience, as she offers valuable insights into a child’s development, how they think about math concepts, and how she has used games to successfully teach math to children for over twenty-five years. Her writing style is conversational and makes for an enjoyable read. She really makes me think about how I interact with my own children when teaching math.

You can download some of the games from the book at Peggy Kaye’s website. (Please note that the math games are interspersed with games from her other books on reading and writing, which I will review in the future.)

If sampling a game or two whets your appetite for more, you can find her book at certain local libraries or an online bookseller.

I hope that this resource will help you and your children to have some fun with math!

Written by Shannon, who blogs about her family’s homeschooling adventures at Song of My Heart.

Prufrock Press Logic Resources

Mathematics 4 Responses »

Dec 142009

Rather than focus on one product this time around, I’d like to highlight an entire area of products from one company. Prufrock Press puts out super logic resources! I’ve had the pleasure of using five of their logic/critical thinking books for elementary children and would recommend them to anyone.

Logic Safari Books are leveled for 2nd/3rd, 3rd/4th and 5th/6th grades. They include traditional logic puzzles that use clues and grids to answer questions like the following:

Four friends went to the barber shop and had their hair cut by four different barbers. Use the clues and grid to determine which barber cut each friend’s hair.

I’ve used logic puzzlers such as these with my children since they were in the 1st grade. My kids LOVE these. We typically take one day a week during math time as a logic day. Puzzlers like these are some of the resources I’ll use and they literally beg me for logic days.

The Logic Safari books are progressive in that they start out simply and move to harder puzzles within and throughout the books. Black and white illustrations make the pages attractive to my children, while thorough, but uncomplicated explanations and clues are attractive to me.

You can see sample pages for each book by clicking on the graphic of your choice above. At $8.95 each, I feel like these are a bargain!

Lollipop Logic for grades K-2 and Primarily Logic for grade 2-4 are critical thinking resources. They provide worksheets that introduce and reinforce skills such as analogies, syllogisms, relationships, sequencing, deduction, inference, and others.

Again, the pages are clean and attractive to make these high-level thinking skills seem like fun. You’ll be pleased with the connections your child makes and the excitement that these books produce. These, too, are resources I might pull out on our logic days, and my children haven’t complained yet.

Again, you can find sample pages by clicking on the graphics above. With 64 jam-packed pages, the price of $11.95 each is very fair!

Prufrock Press products focus on gifted learners. Don’t let that scare you! As homeschool teachers, we have the awesome opportunity to introduce our children to all sorts of studies one on one. This means that what might be considered gifted in public schools will easily be grasped by our children simply because we get to sit with them and make sure they “get it”. Another awesome opportunity we have is presenting our children with lessons on their level – no matter the age or “grade”. If after looking at some of the sample pages, you feel like a particular book might be too hard – go down a level or two. Who cares? Don’t miss the chance to open your children’s eyes to the wonderful world of logic!

-Written by Cindy, an eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of 3. You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and Shining Dawn Books.

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.

Singapore Primary Mathematics U.S. Edition

Mathematics, Uncategorized 13 Responses »

Jul 162009

When I began to research math curricula before I began homeschooling, I had two main criteria. I wanted a program that would teach math in such a way that it is understood by the student, and I didn’t want to pay a fortune for it. I found several curricula that didn’t meet either requirement, a few that met one of my requirements, and one that met both of my requirements. My choice was Singapore Primary Mathematics.

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Mastery Based

Singapore Math was the official math program used in the schools in Singapore from 1982 through 2001. It uses a Concrete–> Pictorial –> Abstract sequence to teach new concepts. It also utilizes a mastery approach to mathematics in which one concept is introduced and practiced thoroughly before adding to it with a higher level concept. It does however, introduce all of the operations and various other concepts such as fractions and decimals in the most simple manner before moving on to another topic. Topics are then revisited in later books. There are also periodic reviews in the text. So it is not a mastery program in the purest sense, but would not be considered a spiral program.

Word problems

Singapore Math has an emphasis on word problems that sets it apart from other math programs. A unique visual method using bars to illustrate quantities enables students to solve problems that are more typically solved using algebra. The problems are widely varying so that students aren’t able to memorize a method, but need to think in order to determine the solution.

Ease of Use

For each school year there are two textbooks and two workbooks. Each lesson in the textbook is correlated with one or more workbook exercises. In our home, I go over the lesson in the textbook orally with my student before having him complete the workbook problems independently. The workbook exercises typically contain few problems per page. I have found the few problems to be a good fit for my children who are easily overwhelmed by long assignments. Also available are Home Instructor Guides that include additional explanations for the instructor, reinforcement activities, manipulative ideas and answers to the problems.

Low Cost

Each year of Singapore Math includes 2 softcover texbooks and 2 workbooks that retail at $9 each. The optional Home Instructor Guides are $16.50 each. That equals one year of math curriculum for as little as $36! Plus, the textbooks and Instructor Guides are non-consumable so they can be used for younger students, further reducing the cost of the program.

I have been extremely pleased with Singapore Primary Math. My oldest child has almost completed the series and has an excellent understanding of mathematics. I believe this series is terrific preparation for algebra and other high math courses.

For more information on Singapore Math visit their website, www.singaporemath.com. Included on the websites are tables of contents for each text, sample pages, and a placement test.

Written by Kristen, Math-loving mom of 4

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.

10 reasons to buy the curriculum guides even if you don’t use the Noah Plan

Biblical Principle Approach No Responses »

May 012009

The Noah Plan curriculum guides from the Foundation for American Christian Education are hefty tomes full of almost anything you need to know to teach a subject using the Biblical Principle approach. But those who use a different approach can still gain a lot from FACE’s work.

Time lines. While not comprehensive, their time lines are well done and informative, and highlight the use of the subject for the advancement of the Gospel. They are helpful for planning the history of any subject, and cross-referencing to see what was going on in other spheres at a particular point in history.
Resource lists. Especially in history and literature. They are a gold mine. In the history guide they are arranged historically. And their lists incorporate as many original sources and classics as possible for a book this size.
Charts, forms and graphs. Especially in English and the line maps in History and Geography. And they have sample notebook grading charts and other teacher tools.
The focus on Providential History. No matter what your approach, a Providential approach to history affects all subjects and shapes your Christian worldview. Each subject guide addresses that subject’s history
Research. In the literature guide, the information on Shakespeare is almost worth the price of the book. In each guide they offer original documents and a view of a subject that is hard to find in other homeschool resources.
Notebook examples. Even if you are not into traditional notebooking outlines and such, there are many examples of well thought out pages. They can inspire and challenge, or even help solve a problem.
The passion. The authors of each guide are master teachers, and reading their guides can spark an interest, rekindle an excitement or reinforce an idea. Anyone can get on board with doing things well, even if you aren’t keen on the specific methods.
The projects. Each guide offers ideas for projects that you can adapt to any unit study or textbook you may be using.
Tools. Things like word studies and the elements of notebooking are things that any teacher can use. Word studies will serve you well in elementary school through graduate school. It is an invaluable skill. And tools like sample notebook grading sheets can give you a place to start when creating your own materials.
Easy on the pocketbook. There is only one book to buy for each subject. It takes you from kindergarten through high school. All this goodness is wrapped up in one volume for each subject. The investment is only made once.

See samples of the guides here.

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