grandfather's family

This week we worked with the Enki Education 1st Grade Math story, "Grandfather's Family." Through story it introduces the concept of a "family" of three numbers, two of whom add up to the third, and you can subtract either of the two smaller numbers and get the other. (So, in other words, 2 + 8 = 10, 10 - 2 = 8, 10 - 8 = 2.) This week we just read the story one day, and recalled it the next, drawing the key scene where the two grandchildren sat down on the opposite end of the see-saw from Grandfather, balancing the see-saw without realizing it.


The following day we wrote out the key verse that labels the process. As J (whose picture is above, this one is Zoo Boy's) was writing out his verse, he suddenly gasped and said "Hey, I know what this has to do with math!! The two kids add up to one Grandfather!" I just love the discovery process!


The next day I pulled out a balance scale for our see-saw, and acted out the key part of the story, using a "10" cuisinaire rod as Grandfather, and a "7" cuisinaire rod as the little girl, and a "3" cuisinaire rod as the little boy. When the grandchildren sat down opposite the grandfather, the scale balanced, and I pulled out corresponding colored cards to build the equation "7 + 3 = 1o" in front of their locations on the scale. Then I stepped away from the scales and busied myself elsewhere as the kids, without any further explanation, dove in and created their own scenarios and equations with the cuisinaire rods and scale and cards. This photo shows one of their ideas.

This morning I woke up to hear J in the dining room reciting the "Addition Facts to 10" verse that we've been using this week to work on rote memorization. I snuck out to the room before he knew I was up to catch him creating his own fact families with the cuisinaire rods and writing equations on paper, both with numbers and with cuisinaire "trains" like on his worksheets.

My drawing, for anyone who might be interested.

Incidentally, I don't remember reading about using a balance scale with this particular story work, it just seemed like a natural to me, and I really like the way it brought the story to life for the kids and naturally worked in the number equation.

We've got a lot of games to explore in the next two weeks to solidify the fact family idea, and will start including subtraction in with the addition, but I think we're off to a great start with the groundwork laid this week!

what a week!

Wow, we couldn't ask for nicer weather in March! Despite all the flooding and mud, we've been getting out as much as possible. Enjoy some photos from our outing on Wednesday afternoon at a favorite (albeit flooded) walking locale:

in breath

It's time for a great big in-breath again. We started out our semester with a bang -- 4 weeks of fairly intensive, structured school work focused on Language Arts and Humanities. That was a great big in-breath. Then we exhaled and relaxed a bit -- a week of science, then a week "off" (from schoolwork, but not all of our "extras"). I have to say, it was much-needed, but also plenty long enough. We all were feeling the need to focus again, and this was the perfect week, as we wrapped up both the Ecumenical Children's Choir program (see two posts ago) on Sunday and our Monday Homeschool Class session with our Share Day festivities yesterday.

The above is a photo of my Revolutionary Days class (minus three students), who presented a public reading of the Declaration of Independence for our Monday Homeschool community. J is 2nd from the right. The kids took turns reading paragraphs from the document, and did a fabulous job. They also made "Independence Shortcake" (with strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream -- red, white and blue, you see) and "Freedom Tea" (red raspberry tea -- the colonists began drinking herb and fruit teas when they started refusing to buy tea from the East India Trading Company, and called any variety of non-caffeinated tea "freedom tea") to share with everyone. It was a big hit! (And very, very yummy!)

Later in the day the drama class put on their show, which I blogged about in my last post.

These events made for a great transition back into a more focused school day for us. We have a new element in our morning now, playing with (and training) the puppy. (And on that note, check out my latest project: http://labradorianlife.blogspot.com/ .)

The weather is starting to be consistently good enough to walk in the mornings. I've shifted our spin-and-fold cycle after our walk to a song that better meets the season. I'm using a song from the Enki Education 1st Grade Movement CD call "The Cuckoo" but I've modified it to meet our needs as a spin-and-fold activity. So I sing "Oh, the cuckoo is a silly bird, and she spins as she flies" instead of the usual first two lines as the kids spin down the hall all 3 times, finishing the first verse the way it is written. For the fold on the way back, I sing the second verse as follows: The first time I sing "Oh the cuckoo hops along the ground down by the crystal stream, and she sings as she hops along of the coming of the spring," and the kids hop on the way back. The second time I sing "Oh the cuckoo rolls in the sand down by the crystal stream, and she sings as she rolls along of the coming of the spring," while the kids roll down the hall. (Today J asked me if cuckoos really do all that, and I said only this one crazy cuckoo!) The third time I sing "Oh the fox stalks the cuckoo down by the crystal stream, but he never quite catches her, except maybe in his dreams," while the kids crawl back down the hall.

The kids' journal entries for today, J's above, Zoo Boy's below.

We're starting on three weeks of concentrated math work, while sticking with our Western European cultural theme. Today we read the "Grandfather's Family" story from the Enki Education 1st Grade Math curriculum -- it's the last little bit of 1st grade we need to finish up, and is about working with the math fact families.

For practice work, we've finally made it through the "alphabet-8s" lower case alphabet. J is more than ready to move on, he is now forming all of his lower case letters correctly 100% of the time, so for handwriting practice now he is writing stanzas of our poem of the week (I'll post it when he's finished with it in a few days). Zoo Boy has asked for a bit more remedial type help for a few of the letters, so besides that he mostly will be working towards weaning off those 8s by writing the alphabet every day until he's got them all down.

I surprised the boys today by making all of their answers the same on their 4 processes grids. We'll be reviewing some of the rhymes that reinforce the rote understanding of math facts, starting with all the combinations that add up to 10. A nice intro to our fact family work!

Also pertinent to our fact family work is the cuisenaire rod worksheets the kids have been working on during practice. In this sheet (this is Zoo Boy's work, as was the addition worksheet above), they were figuring out how many different ways you could make up "9". We'll be using the cuisenaire rod colors in many of our math games in the coming weeks. (Stay tuned to see that in action!)

With the weather being absolutely gorgeous after our rain-filled weekend, we just had to spend some of the afternoon outdoors. We took the puppy down to my favorite frog pond (just a few miles from the house in the state forest). We saw bunches of 2nd year bullfrog tadpoles, fresh from hibernation.

When we got home, the kids worked on a stained glass window type craft. I'll be showcasing our Western European crafts in a single post at some point over the next several weeks. We've been getting together with T and D (who are also working with the Western European cultures right now) to explore Italian crafts, and we've done a bunch on our own here at home as well.

All in all, we've slipped easily back into the groove, refreshed from our out-breath and breathing in deeply!

my little monkey

Yesterday was the much-anticipated homeschooled musical production of "Anansi and the Strange Moss-Covered Rock" at the Monday Homeschool Class's Winter Session Share Day. J was a monkey, along with his good friend D (both dressed in brown with monkey ears, holding bananas in this photo). The kids did a great job. Here's a video of their big monkey song from the show:

the christian experience

As a part of our Western European/St. Francis block, J participated in an Ecumenical Children's Choir at an area Episcopal Church. Today the program wrapped up with them performing several songs at the morning mass. I tried out my new Flip video camera (thanks, Leslie!), and will try posting below so you can share in our morning music.

J enjoyed participating in the singing, and both he and Zoo Boy were fascinated by the Christian traditions, the church itself (which is just gorgeous!) and the various parable stories they heard throughout the program (among them The Prodigal Son and the story of Jesus and the Fishermen). J was particularly interested in the whole bread and wine communion ritual that took place at mass today. It was a really nice addition to our homeschooling themes over the past couple of months!

Enjoy the videos -- these kids are all really cute!

fun in the woods

We're taking the week off from curriculum work (but not from all of our various activities) so that the kids can have more playtime with the influx of new toys thanks to Zoo Boy's birthday. So there won't be any schooly type posts this week, but for now, you can enjoy some photos from our fun afternoon in the woods yesterday with my friend Kyra and her son Fluffy (and their dog Beegu).

belated party pics

Well, it's taken me long enough, but here are the photos from Zoo Boy's birthday party, which was held on Sunday at The Children's Museum. Eleven of his friends and many of their parents attended, as well as his grandparents and a couple of aunts and uncles. The Boy chose several rooms for his guests to visit with our party guide, and they all enjoyed exploring exhibits and watching some very entertaining animals for about an hour.


Then it was off to our own private party room, where Zoo Boy had selected a chinchilla for his guests to learn about and pet. He was the ultimate host, refusing to pet the chinchilla himself so that his guests would have enough time with it. When I asked him about it later, he said "I've petted chinchillas lots of time, but I chose that because I thought that's what everyone would like the best."











Then it was time for cake and presents. Here's how the caked turned out (his name is under that gray bar). I wasn't too pleased with it, given that it took me several hours to make, I thought I could have centered things better. But everyone else was pretty impressed, and Zoo Boy absolutely loved it, so I guess I've just got to be happy with that!












Zoo Boy opening his gifts. I have to say, he handled himself really well, reading each card, laughing where appropriate, finding the giver and making eye contact with them to make sure they were watching him open the gift, and thanking them sincerely afterwards. Then they all went down to the planetarium to enjoy a show while I cleaned up with the help of a couple of my friends. Afterwards we handed out Bakugan toys (hand-picked by Zoo Boy) to each of the boys and wooden bead bracelets to the girls, and all the kids got passes for a return visit to the museum. It was a nice party, but a little chaotic. Zoo Boy was really happy with it, though, so it's all good!

One of my favorite things that Zoo Boy got, a hand-made card from my artistic friend Lori, with Kiri featured. We look forward to her cards at every birthday, she's so creative!

And the best gift of the day -- a home made bird chart from the boys' friend D. Zoo Boy plans to frame it and hang it in his bedroom.