Starting Multiplication

My youngest is so excited because he has started to learn his multiplication facts.  He already knows his 0's of course and his 1's.  He worked on his 2's and has those down too.  Now it's time to go into the 3's.  Ooohhhh.....he is having so much fun with it.  Well, sometimes anyway.  Sometimes his brain seems to fail him and in rushes the frustration but a little bit of tickle time and all is better.  

Talk about being proud.  He is excited to be learning his multiplication.  That picture was taken at the beginning of the school year but he still looks like that but now it is for multiplication.  He has such great expressions.     

The Chef-a-nator Working on Fractions

We have been busy this week with one sick boy.  He tested positive for that dreaded flu so school has been a little slow but I found a fun way for the little one to do fractions today.  

Here is my little Chef-a-nator as he named himself today.  I bought some wonderful smelling apples yesterday and suggested making an apple pie today and my baby was up for the task.  He dressed the part with his chef hat that a friend bought him.  

Here he is mixing. 

Here he is adding the yummyness to the apples.  We put it all in a pie plate and stuck it in the oven.  I set the timer and my little one would keep coming to check on it.  He jumped up and down when the timer went off. 

This was a good way to learn about math today.  We measured.  Talked about different size cups and teaspoons.  Today we had this extra math lesson on fractions and it is a yummy lesson.  

Off to go do a taste test...... 

School Break

We are taking a little break.  Boys had to get to lesson 30 and then a break.  So guess what?  They are happy to get to lesson 30.  So am I.  Middle son is doing Teaching Textbook and my baby is using Rod and Staff.  They are both on lesson 30.  Yippeeee!  They did it.

We have lots to do before vacation.  I'm finishing up with laundry then packing.  I have the cooler ready for ice.  Van needs to get the recall part put on and an oil change.  Clean and vacuum the van.  Gas and pack up the van. 


Deadline: Wednesday 1pm.   


Let's see, where shall we go?  East or West?  North?  Can't go much more South than we are without leaving the country. So 3 options. 

Excitement is building....... 

Living Math and Loving It

We gave it a try. I always go to Jimmie and her blog here and here when I want an idea of something I want to accomplish. She has a ton of info out there for homeschool. She has a ton of pages on squidoo also. Just in those pages and blogs I can find lots of what I need. There are a few other homeschool moms out there that inspire me. Sometimes, I just need inspiration.

The idea for this math lesson came about as I was IMing with a friend last night. She is doing fractions with a chocolate bar and I've been wanting to find a fun way to teach that. We have stopped at fractions in math for now. We have been doing Rod and Staff math for a few years now and I love it. My middle son finds it too tedious. The baby loves it and loves to see the progress.

Now that I gave all the credit where credit was due for today's math lesson I have to tell you that our lesson although a bit short today was soooo yummy and fun. No we didn't do the chocolate bar. I got up early today which is a nice change since like I said in my last post the medication I am on starts wearing off by Monday night. So, I got up early and went to the donut shop. Yep, we used donuts for our math lesson today. Oh and it was soooooo yummy. My baby picked up fractions very quickly but still needs some more instruction. I guess I will have to get something else to eat. hehehe As you can tell in the picture they sure did enjoy our math lesson today.

I cut that donut into 4 pieces. As they ate each piece I asked how much they ate and how much was left. This lesson didn't last too long though. It was gone and done with too quickly. At first they were not too happy that this was a lesson but when they learned this would take place of their math book today they were delighted.

Now that we started on fractions I saw this book suggestion on Jimmies blog called Family Math and we will do the Making a Fraction Kit on page 120. I got this book at the library but will be ordering it soon to add to our library here at home.

We'll be having more fun soon.

Math the Fun Way

Today we did math outside. How is this considered math? Well, let me tell you. We did measurements. We only had a 25ft measuring tape and needed something way bigger than that.

While at the homeschool convention this past week I was able to find a little time to sneak away from my booth to go looking around. I found this neat thing that I just knew would be a hit with my boys. It is called Blaster. It says it can launch a water balloon 150 yards. Now what kid would not enjoy this? We launched several from out in front of our house to our neighbors house which happens to be my brother and sister-in-laws. So I called her and told her to come out and look our direction. We launched several balloons at them. She preferred that I launch them in the direction of their garden. LOL

After the launchings we set out on foot to see what the distance was. We shot the farthest about 300 feet. That was awesome to see and it was a fun way for them to learn that you can count feet by counting the steps. We saw the measuring tape to see how far to step. Then came the steps and counting. I'm looking for something fun to do with fractions next.

My pictures didn't come out that great but you get the idea of what we did. It's hard to have my camera and an umbrella to shield me from the sun at the same time. At least I didn't have my cane with me or it would be really hard. Fun was had by all to be outside despite the 90+ degree weather.

Fun School Day

Monday's are always hard days to do school. For some reason the 'kids just wanna have fun'. That reminds me of a song about just wanting to have fun. LOL Anyway, we started off slow today. The kiddos got to go outside for PE. They ran around, rode bikes and just enjoyed throwing sticks. I'm so glad our extra TVs broke down and died. I see more creativity now in finding things to do since there is no TV to entertain them.

Our weather has been getting more spring like. If you live down in the southern part of Texas then it's time to start preparing gardens and planting. Not trying to make you Canadians jealous at all. hehehe So our project this year is to seriously start a garden. I've been looking at a blog at My Nature Journal which she shows square foot gardening. So that is what we are starting this year. I hope ours come out ok. We have just started so we will see how it goes as time goes on.

After spending some time outside we came inside and worked on our math lessons. It took us around 30mins and that was with me running back and forth from one to the other and keep encouraging to finish. We did finish and there was no crying about not wanting to continue.

We also did my notebooking page on Sergei Prokofiev. It was an easy page and just a page to review what he had already learned.

Oh and sometimes it helps for my son to wear headphones to keep him focused and to work faster. They were happy to have done this page. It will go into our Art & Music Biographies binder.

Then it was back to playing outside. AAHHHHH nice productive day!

A Little of This and That

We got lots done today. Well, I guess it would be yesterday since I am up late into the next day. For those that don't know, I am a night owl. Here are the boys doing their math. My baby is doing triple digits. He loves to see how he is doing big boy things.

Here is middle son hard at work doing his math.

We have also started a HOAC lapbook on Christopher Columbus.

Both boys are hard at work and so far we have finished up to 4 activites for the lapbook. These two are the only ones that like lapbooking. Our next lapbook after this is on Benjamin Franklin. I will print that out on colored paper. I've always printed them out on white paper so they can color but the lapbook on Benjamin Franklin is going to be done fairly quickly so colored paper it is.

Between our other work and the lapbook on Columbus we are starting on guess who? The pages give it away. Today I made up another notebooking page. The boys really enjoy when I read to them and they have a page to do.

When we get the other notebooking pages done I will be sure to post them on here for you to see. For now this will have to do. Today was a little of this and that day. Hope you enjoyed reading what we have been up to.