June 30, 2009

“I don’t like that!” 

“Is this what we’re having?”

“Why did you make this?”

Some of my least favorite reactions to dinner.  But, like most parents, I’m interested in having both healthy food, AND food the kids will enjoy eating, which isn’t easy. 

Here are a couple tips that helped me:

• Try my favorite recipe website:  www.Allrecipes.com   It’s like having everyone on your block (or in your city) try out a recipe, rate it, and write informative reviews before you invest your time and ingredients.
• Score recipes at dinner.  Give everyone a vote:  0 – didn’t like it, 1 – ok, or 2 – loved it.  Write the total right on your recipe and you’ll begin to collect high scoring recipes that appeal to almost everyone at the table.
• Let the kids cook a dish – they’ll have a harder time criticizing something they make themselves, and they’ll be a lot more appreciative of the amount of time and effort a nice dinner entails.  Not to mention the life and school skills that cooking teaches.

How about your house?  Do you have any quick tips to share with the rest of us?

Posted under Homeschool Life, Tuesday Tips

June 25, 2009

Teaching a child to read seems to be the first big scholastic hurdle for homeschoolers.  But there are so many books and reading programs available that it can be a bit overwhelming.

So, I’m asking you experienced homeschoolers if you would share  your advice with the rest of us – especially for those who don’t really know where to start.

Here are some of my ideas:

1. First is simply a book, The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise.  Instead of spending lots of money on expensive phonics kits, you can buy this book for around $20 and it will guide you lesson by lesson through a very complete and fun phonics program.  I’ve had great success with it and wrote a book review here.
2. My kids have also enjoyed the beginning readers set:  “I See Sam” – I really like that each book only uses words that have been introduced in previous books, so the child can read every word in the book, not just the ones teaching the current phonics principle.
3. Finally, the amazing phonics and reading website:  www.StarFall.com If you have an early reader, you have to check this website out.  It’s the best I’ve seen to grab a child’s interest while teaching reading at the same time.  And it’s all free – the Schutz family’s contribution to children learning to read.

Would you mind sharing some of your tips on selecting a reading and/or phonics curriculum?  What are your favorite books, early readers, and websites?  And why?

Posted under Books to Read, Reading Curriculum

June 24, 2009

Venn diagrams sound like a fancy and difficult math concept, but instead they make a great math activity for toddlers and up:

1. Grab a handful of candy, colorful cereal, a set of toys, or anything else you can think of that can be classified into groups.
2. Make two circles with shoelaces, cut-out from card stock, chalk on the sidewalk, etc.
3. Have your child start describing characteristics of your set:  colors, sizes, shapes, number of legs, clothing, etc.  Pick two.  Then start sorting them into the appropriate circles, with items that have BOTH characteristics in the middle where the two circles intersect.

Here are a few examples:

• Colors:  Blue candy in the left circle, red candy in the right circle, purple candy (it is BOTH red and blue) in the center where the circles intersect.
• Shapes:  Shapes with straight lines in the left circle, shapes with curved lines in the right, a shape like a heart that has both in the center.
• Toy animal:  Animals with hooves in the left circle, animals with tails in the right, and animals with both hooves and tails in the center.

More fun ideas:

• Eat the ones in the middle when you’re done.
• Close your eyes and the other person moves one item to the wrong section – see if you can figure it out.
• Sort without telling the other the criteria and see if they can guess your sorting rules.
• Add a third circle to make it more tricky.

Enjoy!

Posted under Homeschool Activities, Math Curriculum

June 23, 2009

Photo by Erin

If you’re looking for a different take on ‘conflict resolution’, look no further than your sock drawer (or toy box).

“Will you PLEASE stop arguing?”

“How do you think your sister feels?”

“Why can’t you be nice to each other?”

. . . and on and on.  It seems like conflicts between kids crop up all day and my tendency is to lecture ‘ad nauseam’ while my kids roll their eyes and pick up their fight as soon as I’m out of earshot.

Next time you have a few minutes (preferable when everyone is NOT hot and heavy from arguing), grab a few puppets or stuffed animals and:

• Using fake names, have them act out a typical conflict – exaggerate and add sillines to make it fun.
• Repeat the scenario with the puppets making better choices and resolving the conflict.
• Start a dialogue with the kids about what worked, didn’t work, pros and cons to the two scenarios, etc.
• Pass out the puppets and let the kids join in.

Puppets help kids respond well because they are switching from participating in the conflict to observing and analyzing the conflict . . . and it’s much more fun than the traditional lecture followed by stuck-out tongues behind your back

Do you have a quick tips for the rest of us?  Something helpful you’ve discovered that you’d like to share.  Please do.

Posted under Homeschool Life, Tuesday Tips

June 18, 2009

It’s summer.  The kids are going crazy.  We all want to do something fun!  Here’s what I need help with:

• Where do you find ideas for fun summer activities?
• Looking back, what did your family enjoy doing the most in the summer?
• How do you choose a vacation?  A location?  What to see and do on the trip?
• And even trickier:  How do you make it fun for the teens and the littles at the same time?

Would you mind sharing with me and the other readers?

Here are my ideas:

1. Get a science museum membership or share one.  A herd of stir-crazy kids cooped up indoors during a summer storm can be frightening
2. Pick up a local travel guide for the family from your library for your own neighborhood.  I’m amazed sometimes about the cool things right in my area I had no idea existed.  Try Travel Guides Free.com
3. Put the kids in charge of mini-vacations, not the 3-year-old, but maybe a 7-year-old with a lot of help.  Let them do as much of the following as they can:  (Here’s how this is school)

• Tell them if they can find a fun place to visit within a day’s drive, you’ll make a mini-vacation of it.
• You could do one a month in the summer with a different kid in charge each time.
• Research locations, events, and history for the trip at the library.
• Buy the tickets to any events or activities.
• Calculate mileage.
• Print the Google maps.
• Make online hotel reservations (WOW, Mom!  $100 for ONE night at a hotel?!?).
• Make a to do list
• Make a packing list
• Help younger kids pack and check their bags.
• Etc.

(I got tired just typing that list – kids just don’t appreciate how much work it is to make sure they have a good time!  They’ll probably think it’s all fun, for a while.)

I’d love to hear your ideas.  Thanks in advance for commenting!  Feel free to post a link to a blog article you’ve posted on the topic.

Posted under Field Trips, Thursday Topics

June 16, 2009

If you’re looking to get a membership to the local science museum or zoo, consider sharing one.

Call and ask, but many museums issue two cards to two adults and while they don’t usually advertise it, many are willing to issue the cards to say – two moms from different families. In this case, it does usually mean that Mom has to go on every trip to the museum or zoo, since Dad doesn’t have his own card.  But, since one parent is usually the taxi-driver to most of these types of activities, the occasional inconvenience may be worth the savings.

P.S. This will often also be allowed for major shopping club memberships that offer two cards with each account. Simply fill one out with a friend and split the cost.

Do you have a good tip for us now that summer is starting?

Posted under Homeschool Bargains, Tuesday Tips

June 12, 2009

Game Time!

With a ‘pentad’ of little kids running around my house, math works best as a game in our family.  What do you need to play some interesting math games?  Read on . . .

A Deck of Cards

John Golden presents an article Trig Rummy which includes a link to rules and a nice printable card PDF, posted at Math Hombre.

Don’t forget Denise’s popular article The Game that Is Worth 1,000 Worksheets at Let’s Play Math.  It was the first article I read on her great blog.

And an oldie-but-goodie, the “10-out” math game by Maria at Homeschool Math Blog.

A Few Magic Tricks

You know those illusions on the back of cereal boxes where your eyes trick you into thinking two identical objects aren’t? Well, Pat Ballew has a very interesting post on the subject, including links to video and some java applets that let you play with and manipulate the shapes. Check it out: Fool me once, Fool me Everytime? posted at Pat’sBlog.

And if you really want to confuse your brain and eyes, check out “A Pattern’s Math Magic” and Nick’s review of Tokolo Pattern Magnets and the math behind them at NYTimes Blog:  The Moment.

Oh, yeah, and some Instructions

Meaghan presents 10 Tips to Improve Your Math Skills Everyday posted at TutorFi.com.

Glowing Face Man gives all of us some encouraging ideas in his post, Five Ways To Be Better At Math posted at Glowing Face Man.

Erin suggests contacting textbook companies and their websites for free quality math practice material. Also, teachers often have resources they are willing to lend, including extra practice books from the textbook companies. Check out the article:Note from the Teacher: Free Tutoring posted at Note from the Teacher.

And if you’ve ever been curious about how many ways people have figured out how to multiply numbers together, you’ll enjoy Ξ (Heather)’s article, The First Bunch of Ways to Multiply posted at 360. Maybe I’ll teach a few to my kids. I can hear them groaning already. . . maybe if I make it into a game of Rummy

And to make your game a little more interesting:

Some Silver, or Gold

John Cook writes about The silver ratio, the gold ratio and its geometric  interpretation, posted at The Endeavour.

Finally, if you’re into coins and puzzles with them, you’ll find a wealth of brain teasers over at Physically Incorrect, like this “Yet Another Coin Tossing Game”.

I hope you enjoyed the carnival and help spread the word.  If you have an interesting blog post on math for K-12, we’d love to see it in the next carnival coming June 26th at the Homeschool Math Blog.  Submit your article here.

Posted under Blog Carnivals

June 1, 2009

photo by StuSeeger

Check out the latest edition of the excellent Homeschool Carnival over at Kris’s blog:  Wierd, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.  What a hilarious blog title

A blog carnival is a collection of articles from a whole bunch of blogs and you can read and sample – like going from booth to booth at a carnival.  Submit your blog article by June 15th to the next carnival and join the fun.

Posted under Blog Carnivals