Thursday, 1 July 2021

Math Resources for Home Education

Welcome to week 14 of  Blogging through the Alphabet 2021!I have had such a great week.  On Sunday Paul, Nathaniel and I had our  🇦🇺 Australian Citizenship conferred on us. Paul wrote a heartfelt poem about it that I shared on the blog on Monday. Today has been full as I've attended a Universtity Open Day as I'm trying to decide which degree to pursue.  

This week I am excited to share a little about Math Resources available for home educators and my co-host Desiree is sharing M is for Mindstorms.


I am always surprised by how the subject of math fills each of us with dread or fear and I often wondered why.  I don't struggle with math however I do have those anxious feelings whenever I think about math.  Over the years I've been curious about Math and teaching math and have done a little research.  

For me one of the defining moments of understanding teaching math came after I read the article History and Research on the Teaching of Math I highly recommend you read this article before you make a decision on your math curriculum.

Some interesting points I've discovered on the subject of teaching/learning math...

  • . . . early childhood may simply be an inefficient period in which to try to teach skills that can be relatively quickly learned in adolescence.  (Prime Time for Education: Early Childhood or Adolescence ? by W.D.Rohwer, Jr)
  • Mathematics in every form is a subject ill-fitted to the child mind. It deals not with real things, but with abstractions. When referred to concrete objects, it concerns not the objects themselves, but their relations to each other. It involves comparison, analysis, abstraction . . . (Cyclopedia of Education p.208 William H Burnham)
  • . . . successful school achievement in areas requiring use of concepts - such as numbers, classes, and spatial and causal relationships - correlated highly with mental age. Developing these concepts was especially associated with success in arithmetic, problem solving, and spelling. (Feyberg)
Over the years I've shared multiple thoughts on teaching/learning math, you can read more in depth about it here...

Scope and Sequence
When looking at changing math programs remember to take  scope and sequence into account.

  • Scope refers to the content.  In other words these are the topics covered (A to Z)
  • Sequence is the order in which the scope is taught (IE the order in which things are covered within the program)
It is important to know this about your math product or you might end up redoing math your child is already familiar with or you might end up skipping a whole lot of important content that your child needs in order to succeed at math.

Programs I've reviewed

I asked a few homeschool groups online to find out what my friends are using to teach Math and these are the ones they listed: 

Math Programs

 Pinterest

TED talks on math
I have enjoyed TED talks on the subject of math. They have helped me think through my preconceived ideas on teaching and learning math.

What are you using to teach math in your homeschool?

Blessings 

Chareen

Find the other ABC posts in this series here:

  1. A is for Art Lessons at Home
  2. B is for Books Where do You Purchase Yours? 
  3. Charlotte Mason a Round Up of Posts 
  4. Delight Directed Education
  5. Encouragement for Weary Homeschooling Mothers
  6. For the Children's Sake  
  7. G is for Geography
  8. Homeschool Bloggers  
  9. Instagramers to follow who are homeschooling
  10. Joy in Your Homeschool Journey
  11. Know Yourself - Stop the Comparison Game  
  12. Life Skills in Your Homeschool
  13. Math Resource for Home Education

Featured from Week 10 all things 'K'

 This Week over at Our Homeschool Notebook the topic is M is for Mindstorms. 

 

Please link up your posts starting with the letter M for this weeks ABC Blogging

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Monday, 28 June 2021

Celebrate with us! We had our Australian Citizenship conferred on us ...

Australian Citizenship Ceremony 🇦🇺🦘🐨 This has been one very long journey.  Hats off to anyone who has ever immigrated.  Upon pondering the road of life I realised that this is Paul and my fourth country of citizenship! 

  • For me its: 🇿🇦 South Africa,  🇳🇦 Namibia, 🇳🇿 New Zealand and 🇦🇺 Australia.
  • Paul it's been 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe, 🇿🇦 South Africa,  🇳🇿 New Zealand and 🇦🇺 Australia. 
  • Nathaniel it's not as long a journey, 🇳🇿 New Zealand and 🇦🇺 Australia.

For Paul and I we have given up our African heritages to build new lives here, and without the love and support of our friends and family I do not think we would have made it.  It's been a road full off tears, frustrations, love, support, encouragement and you.  So to you we say thank you!


 We're Aussies now g'day g'day.. 🇦🇺
I guess that means we're here to stay
..and should you have some wise advice, to share it would be very nice.. 🗣🙉
We've come, well, from the other side. Much further than the great divide!
A land where lions and leopards roam (that used to be our other home).. 🇿🇼🦁🐾🐆🇿🇦
We stopped a while across the ditch 🇳🇿 ..had one more child then made the switch..
"West Island" they said but what a guise they didn't reckon for its size!
..emus, roos🦘 and platypus seem to make a lot less fuss..
We'd love it if you'd all prepare to help us settle in right here.. 🏡
It's been a long and weary road and now it's time to shed that load..
We'll put down roots, tie up loose ends
and thank you all for being our friends.. 🎉💜💚🥳🍻🎊🥂✝️

Paul R

27 June 2020

---oOo---

Thank you to all who have been a part of our lives and multiple moving journey's you have enriched and blessed our lives in many amazing ways.

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Thursday, 24 June 2021

Life Skills in Your Homeschool

Wow it's been almost three months since I took up the challenge to blog through the alphabet!  Time flies when you're having fun.  I've had my head in the books.  I've recently decided to pursue one of my other passions that of Aromatherapy and started a course to be certified with the aim of becoming a Clinical Aromatherapist.  I love that God has placed within creation things to heal and support our bodies!  To that end I started a new instagram account and would love for you to pop on over and follow me.  I've called it Nature's Pharmacy Aromatheray. 

This weeks letter of the alphabet is L and I would like to talk about life skills.  My co-host is sharing a post from memory lane - L is for Legoland.  I can't wait to pop on over and read it as I've always wanted to go to Legoland!  

Life Skills

As home schoolers it's so easy to become focused on academics to the detriment of other just as important skill sets for our students.  Without life skills our children are going to flounder no matter how well they are equipped academically.  

Some life skills like banking will make navigating life easier however some life skills could literally save your life like learning to swim or first aid.  No one needs to have the proficiency of an olympic swimmer however being able to preserve ones own life and help another really does need to take presidence over academics.
 
Life skills are fundamental skills for daily survival. It is our job as parents to equip our children to enter the community as well rounded and capable adults.


What Every Child Should Know Along the Way is a must have book for reference regardless of whether you home educate or not.  Gail does a wonderful job of explaining which practical skill sets to focus on and at which age as well as the why behind the skill set. 
 
There are many blog posts and lists online so I'm not going to reinvent the wheel and list them here.  For more information take a look here: 

On the web

Do you do life skills with your children?

Blessings 

Chareen

Find the other ABC posts in this series here:

  1. A is for Art Lessons at Home
  2. B is for Books Where do You Purchase Yours? 
  3. Charlotte Mason a Round Up of Posts 
  4. Delight Directed Education
  5. Encouragement for Weary Homeschooling Mothers
  6. For the Children's Sake  
  7. G is for Geography
  8. Homeschool Bloggers  
  9. Instagramers to follow who are homeschooling
  10. Joy in Your Homeschool Journey
  11. Know Yourself - Stop the Comparison Game  
  12. Life Skills in Your Homeschool

Featured from Week 10 all things 'K'

 This Week over at Our Homeschool Notebook the topic is L is for Lego Land. 

 

Please link up your posts starting with the letter L for this weeks ABC Blogging



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