Place Value Game

I've often noticed how many kids have a hard time with place value- understanding that a 1 in the 10's column is actually 10. We've used a lot of Math their Way games in our homeschool- one of the favorites is called Zurkle in the Math their way newsletter- (it's on page 8 as you scroll down) It's explained better in the Math their way book. (we found a copy on Paperback Swap) In the game you move cubes from the white "ones" side to the blue "10's" side, and regroup them as needed. The beauty of this game is that you play it with all different bases- not just 10's- so it's easy to get familiar with the concept of regrouping. It's a simple game- ring the bell, and add cubes to the white side then when there's the correct number- you regroup them and move them to the blue side. The catch is that with different bases- there are different numbers to regroup at- and not just 10. We've come up with our own silly words for each number- Roo decided to call 4- Bajonko So first we practice counting- 1, 2, 3, Bajonko. We also have silly words for all the numbers 3-9 and play with the other numbers too. I wrote the silly words down on the back of our blue/wite paper, so we don't forget the names we choose. Anyhow- Roo made a short movie to show how we play the Bajonko game.

Teaching Telling Time

We are still loving the Math their Way games for school- but since most of our math is games, with a few assignments that our math teacher Pam throws in (thanks SO much for teaching math!) We haven't really come across the "telling time" lessons in the math book. ;) But that's okay- because it's something that is simple to teach through life.

Doodle has been learning how to tell time. For a while now- I've occasionally put these telling time cards and teaching clocks in his workboxes. He has been enjoying the hands-on time telling. Some ways we've used them- 1- I tell him a time, and he makes his clock say that time. 2- I make my clock say a time and he tells me what time it says. 3- we pick a card from the deck and race to make our clocks show the same time as the clock on the card. 4- He picks a card, and reads the written time on the card, then makes his clock say the same time, and checks himself with the answer on the back. First we started with just telling time to the hour. Then added the half hour. Then when Doodle had counting by 5's figured out- we did down to the 5 minute.

I told Ben how good he was getting at telling time- so Ben came home from the store with this watch for Doodle. We simply ask him every few mintues "What time is it?" Or he'll tell us every few minutes what time it is.

This watch is perfect- as it has the minutes around the edge, so he doesn't have to stop and count by 5's every time. He knows how to count by 5's, but this is helping him to quickly know that if it's on the 3, it's :15, or on the 8 it's :40. He still occasionally gets mixed up on the hour- but he's having fun with the new watch. I'm sure the newness of the watch will grow old, but hopefully not before he has telling time totally figured out.

More Math their way fun and games

We are still enjoying the Math their Way games. I like the hands-on element- it is especially important for Doodle who is ADHD to have a way to learn by DOING- I can talk my ear off- but if actually moves and figured it out on his own, he is much more likey to learn and remember it.

We are doing lots of graphing- I love all the ideas to graph everyday things- We graph the temperature each morning- (ok- so it's not scientific- as we don't necessarily do it at the same time each day- rofl- but rather whenever we get around to math) But rather than read the numbers- he measures how high on the thermometer the red line is- and cuts a piece of paper to match it. We tape it in our folder, and evaluate- "Last tuesday was the warmest day so far" etc.He also graphs the weather- you can't see it well in the picture- but the top line is "Sunny" the 2nd one says "Cloudy", then windy, rainy, snowy, then the bottom 2 are less than 50 degrees and greater than 50 degrees. He just places a paper square in the correct weather boxes each day- then we evaluate- "wow- there's been 3 more sunny days than cloudy days so far" or "there's the same number of days warmer than 50 as there are colder than 50"

For his Math "class" with Pam last week- he was given the assignment to graph how many birthdays there are in each month. So we got out the calendar- and he hooked chains on to the month cards- Then they compared the different months to see which month had the most birthdays, and added them all together to see how many total birthdays were on our calendar.

We are counting the days we've "done math" Doodle makes sure we have the same of craft sticks- 1 stick for each day we've done Math. (LOOK!! Another use for Craft sticks!) Then count out that SAME number of cubes, and determine whether it's an odd or even numberEach day we also add a number to our number line- counting the math days- odd numbers are yellow- even numbers are green. Multiples of 5 are circled in purple, and multiples of 10 have a orange square around them.Then we count out that same number (this day was 25) in change- Doodle found some different ways to make 25.Oh- and one more fun game from Math Their Way (This one is in their Newsletter- page 8- called Zurkle) We added our twist- and since Doodle had practiced counting by 10's he had a bunch of cubes already arranged in groups of 10. I would ring the bell, when I ring it- he adds a cube to the 1's side. When he gets 10- he connects them, and moves them to the 10's side. When I knock on the table, he adds a group of 10. Then he reads how many 10's and how many 1's he has on his chart. "5 tens and 6 ones- 56"

I left the camera sitting on the table- and found these pictures on it:

Math games

The more I homeschool, the more I realize that it truly doesn't have to be "school at home" While I'm certainly not going to jump off the dock into unschooling- (Sorry Miranda!)- I've found a wonderful Math program- Math Their Way What's even better- I actually found it on Paperback Swap for FREE! Ben's Aunt Pam recommended Math their Way to me- she used to teach math and science in public schools, and said if I ever came across it to use it. Well, I looked a bit when Bug was little- but didn't see it, and just went with something more traditional. Since Bug has been going to "math class" at her house- she offered to teach Doodle math as well. Anyhow- Math Their Way is SO fun! We simply play games- Doodle spent over an hour yesterday playing math games, and then he said "oh, now I have to do math" and I said "NO! You already did math!"

Here's Doodle's Favorite Game- it's a variation of a couple Math their way games- He calls it In the Cave. We have a number we are working on that day- today was 7. So we each have 7 counting items- (he loves the transportation counters- a thrift store find.)
Then we hide a certain number of them in our cave (a bowl or cup- we used the counting Bears cups- Roo was playing with the bears- so we borrowed their cups.) Then you say how many you have inside the cave, and how many are outside the cave. (For example with 7 bears, I put 2 inside and 5 outside- then I say out loud- 2 and 5)

It's so simple- yet he realized quite quickly as we were playing with 7 today- if he has 4 inside he has to have 3 outside- every single time. If he has 6 inside there has to be 1 outside. With 7's 6 and 1 go together, 5 and 2 go together, 3 and 4 etc.. Then we played a variation on this- where I'd put some under the cave, and he'd have to guess how many are under there- but knowing I have 7 total- he was pleasantly surprized when he knew the answers. (Of course with Doodle- anytime I plan a game- he has to throw his little "twists" into the game- so we played with a dice to tell us how many to put under the cave- I'm okay with that- rofl- but I think his favorite part was zooming the dice across the floor to me!)

Another fun game was with the geoboards and rubber bands. I have a pattern of a geoboard in a plastic page protecter- and use a dry erase marker to make a pattern on it. Then he tries to copy the pattern onto the geoboard with rubber bands. This was surprizingly tricky for him.

Overall I'm pleased, we are having fun, and will be starting lots more fun Math Their Way games in the coming months.