Kickbuttmama's Home Education

Lets face it, there are holidays and celebrations around the world just about every day. I was typing in a calendar before I found this awesome site that has the Earth broken down by day....is it Earth Day in Somalia? Is it New Years in China? Check it out!!!

"The Earth Calendar is a daybook of holidays 
and celebrations around the world.

For the purpose of this web site a "holiday"
is any day that recognizes a cultural event,
and not necessarily a day when businesses are closed."

This awesome calendar will not only give you a listing of what's happening today, but you can also separate holidays by country, religion, date & Lunar Phases!!

ENJOY!

Math shouldn't be as scary as many people see it. Really I find nothing as soothing as knowing there really is no unknown, there is a way to quantify everything..even the randomness of a leaf, or the size and structure of a forest can be defined by math. It's AWESOME.

One of the things that pushed me toward homeschooling my boys was the fact that I thought I was math retarded growing up...I thought I truely wasn'[t capable of understanding such concepts...then I got to college and had different teachers and realized it was how the information was presented to me that made me confused. I remember thinking, "Well, why didn't they just say that!" So, with my background in Physics and Geology, here are my tips for teaching elementary mathematics. I've placed them in the order I suggest you introduce them. There is a method to the madness...LOL.

1. Sorting: One of the earliest stages in mathematics is sorting and categorizing.
2. Counting: This is the core building block of understanding EVERYTHING in math! If you can't count accurately then you won't be able to add or subtract or (Gods forbid) logarhythims. We always start by teaching counting everyday things. How many shoes do we need to find? How many cookies do you want?
3. Skip Counting: Once children understand that numbers or quantities of things can be quantified with a number {* * * * * = 5} then you should begin to introduce skip counting, This is the next step to being able to perform mathematical equations. I would immediately make a numberline and place it in a prominant position on the wall. Show that 2 more than 3 is 5, 5 more than 5 is 10. This not only prepares them to stop counting on their fingers but it also prepares them to learn to tell time - as it's nothing more than counting by 5's. I taught counting by 2's through watching Thomas the Tank Engine. In the theme song they say - "There's 2, there's 4, there's 6, there's 8..".etc, for counting how many cars live in Sordor.  My boys loved the show and therefore learned to count by 2's relatively early.
4. Measurement: This concept isn't nearly as terrifying as it seems. Counting cookies is a form of measurement. Essentially, you have a standard. This is what you'll compare everything else to...it could be a ruler, your hand, a piece of string, whatever you want to use. Then you count how many of the standard it takes to measure your items. So you can use your foot, to measure the length of your TV, then the width of the door frame, the length of the room whatever...then you could measure the same things with a 12 inch ruler. Essentially the RATIO's (how the things relate to eachother) will be the same no matter what you use as the standard. The couch will ALWAYS be x times smaller than the width of the room yet y times bigger than the width of the doorway. (ie it might take 3 of your feet to go the length of the tv, 3 1/2 feet to go the width of the door, 6 feet to go the length of the couch and 12 feet to go the length of the room....so the door is 1/2 of your feet wider than the tv, but the couch is 6 of your feet smaller than the length of the room....then you switch to the ruler it might take 4 rulers to go the length of the tv, then 41/2 of them to go the width of the doorway....it's still only 1/2 difference between the 2. Cooking Measurements: I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Gallon Man, check him out and post it for your kids! Then bake a cake or some cookies to reinforce the concept!)
5. Telling Time: This, as I previously stated, is a matter of skip counting. Each number on the clock face stands for another 5 minutes that have passed. But it is also a form of measurement. Let's face it. Time is a very abstract concept to children....You need to associate it to things they comprehend. Daddy get's home from work at 5:25pm, then show them what the clock looks like. Introduce the Hour hand and the Minute hand. The next step is to identify the easiest time blocks: Hour, quarter past, half past, and quarter of. Work every day for a week with the teaching clock, showing them multiple times. At first you'll have to identify them, but after the week is up you can set the teaching clock and your child will be able to identify the time. Next, explain that just as every thing can be broken down into different measurements so to can time....the Day is broken down like this: because: 60 Seconds = 1 minute; 60 minutes = 1 hour, 24 hours = 1 day etc. I explain this with a star pattern. In the center I place 1 Hour. I use my teaching clock to explain that when the Hour hand points to the 12 and the Minute hand points to any number than this is the Hour mark. From the center of the star - the Hour- I branch off 60 arms, labeling them the Minutes. These further branch off 60 arms each for the seconds.  This is then led to the larger quantification: 1 Day = 24 hours = 1440 minutes = 86400 seconds...I place 1 DAY in the center drawing a circle around it. Then I branch off 24 arms, labeling them each 1 hour. Then each Hour arm branches off 60 times for Minutes then each minute branches off 60 times for the Seconds. We do this with a huge sheet of butcher block paper on the floor, with the kids drawing hte arms.   
6. Adding / Subtracting: Again this is a concept that should be introduced relatively early. Don't expect your 3 y/o to be able to perform it on paper, but they could probably tell you how many cookies they have left after eating one. If mom has 2 apples and Joey has 2 apples how many do we have in total. Once counting 1 - 20 is achieved, they can begin to answer prompted questions "How Many" "If you have___ an I have ___ what does that mean?" etc. I suggest using multiple means of achieving the answer. It's easiest for the child to use their fingers at first, because they KNOW how many of those there are, but as they get more comfortable, they should try tally's, m&m's, cookies, stars, etc. {NOTE: I strongly suggest using the proper terms when teaching addition/subtraction. This will make things go much easier when learning Algebra or Calc. Addition -> 1(Addend) + 2(Addend) = 3(Sum) ; Subtraction -> 3(Minuend) - 2(Subtrahend) = 1(Difference)  
7. Place Values: We use square, single blocks for Ones, Bar (or 10 squares) to equal the 10's place then a block to equal the 100's place (it's 10 10Bars or 100 squares).
8. Money:
9. Fractions: { 2/3... the 2 is the numerator and the 3 is the denominator} The denominator denotes the Total Number of Pieces an item has so a clock has 12, the Numerator is the number of pieces in question. Therefore the Denominator determines the words used to express the fraction: anything over 2 = halves; over 3 = thirds; over 4 = quarters or fourths; over 5 = fifths, etc. {check out Enchanted Learning}  
10. Multiplication: { 2(Multiplicand) x 5(Multiplier) = 10(Product) }
11. Division: {6 divided by 2 = 3; so 6(Dividend) / 2(Divisor) = 3(Quotient) }