Finding our math groove...

 Good morning!

The idea of teaching and learning with my girls excited me... with the exception of the prospect of MATH.  

What if I royally mess this up?

What if we muddle through it but I kill all interest and enjoyment of learning?!

I had so much fear and I still have a little residual anxiety BUT as with most new experiences, a little preparation and education can help quell that unease.  So that is what I set out to do.

At the end of the last school term we had become acquainted with khan academy.  A great resource for lessons on just about anything we wanted to know more about.. including math.  But with hubbyD working from home and ErinGirl learning virtually most days a week, our rural internet was chugging along...barely.  That, and 100% online doesn't suit our family overly well.  We are visual; we like physical items we can move and manipulate; AND I personally like paper and pen... even our family calendar is the "old fashioned" paper on the refrigerator type.  Haha

Although I had chosen and printed a math curriculum back in August andfound online resources to help show/teach the concepts, it still took us three weeks to find our math groove.  In that time, I also took a math masterclass on "living math" - ways to take it beyond the textbook and find real life connections.  This class excited me - I didn't grow up loving math or seeing math and I hope to give my girls a different math experience.

So what does our groove look like?  Well, as with all of our 'subjects" I have broken our year down into quarters; laid out a plan for what I would like us to cover in each of these seven and a half week periods, and then broken those down into bi-weekly and weekly learning goals.  That helps me set a daily learning list for both girls.

For Math, this looks like:

Monday and Tuesday - Textbook lesson 

Wednesday - digging deeper - this could be a puzzle question, logic and problem solving.  If making a life connection can help clear any confusion, this is where we look for everyday math.  Last week fraction review had us in the kitchen cutting scones.  ;)

Thursday - online practice/review - ErinGirl has face to face class in the morning so we can all jump on and use khan academy to review our math lessons - they have quick review questions and little quizzes that both girls seem to like.

Friday - Math games... my family loves games.  This week we kept it light hearted and mildly challenging with a game of spiral multiplication and learning "dutch blitz".

This is how we are grooving for now - as I am quickly learning, flexibility is a blessing and a must these days and I am sure our math learning will be tweaked multiple times before the learning year is through.

And if you are looking for learning idea for your family, be sure to peek at our Pinterest boards.

Thanks for popping in!

Jeanette