Math Made Easy - Addition Teaching & Learning -- Schoolhouse Crew Review

When I was a child I did not memorize my addition facts.  In fact, I can remember having "Math Minute" where for 60 seconds we would scramble to complete as many addition problems as we could.  My fingers (for counting, not writing) could only move so fast...and of course, by the 5th grade or so trying to hide your fingers under your desk slowed me down even more!  Needless to say, I was never very quick with the addition problems.  I am always looking for a program that will help my kids fly through math facts!  Thanks to Math Made Easy and the Schoolhouse Review Crew, we had a chance to review Addition Teaching and Learning Made Easy- Homeschool Edition.

About Math Made Easy:
When I first received this book I gave it a look-over and it struck me as an older type of book...like something I would've used in school in the 80s.  Comb-bound and very unassuming the first page tells the teacher right up front, "a new way to teach an old subject."  I, quite honestly, was thinking this was going to be like every other workbook I have picked up and never used.  Boy, was I wrong! 

Primarily recommended for kids in the K-2nd grade range, Addition Made Easy utilizes a teaching method that allows kids to easily memorize their first addition facts, then quickly start eliminating what they learn.   Once kids learn the addends to zero and one they can can start moving on to tougher word problems.  Teaching the communicative property early (4+2 is the same as 2+4) mitigates unnecessary busy work that children often deal with in typical workbooks.

Using an addition table children mark off what they have learned up to 36 math facts.  Recommended pace is learning 6 math facts per week completing the entire program, memorizing all 36 facts in only 6 weeks! 

Addition Made Easy offers a simple easy to follow lesson plan for the teacher, a pre-test and post-test, 45 worksheet pages, and several fun math-review activities including oversized flash cards and games.  You can get a closer look by checking out their sample pages.

What did we think of Math Made Easy?
-It is truly an easy way to memorize math facts.  A systematic and logical approach to learning.
-Unfortunately Kayley did NOT learn all of her math facts using this program.  I don't know if it was just her...or me...but we could not keep up with 6 math facts each week, but that is ok.  We are still progressing though the program.
-The top of each page was listed with days of the week...and while that is a good idea...we often skip school during a week day and do some school on Saturday or sometimes only school 4 days a week.  Listed as a Day 1, Day 2, etc...would've been a little less confusing for us.
-The "Math Problem of the Week" offered on Fridays were awesome!  Out-of-the-box questions that really had her using what she learned.
-Hands-On activities were different than any I had seen in other workbooks.  It's always fun to try a new way to learn the same old stuff! 

Purchasing Math Made Easy:

Addition Made Easy retails for $24.95 and can be purchased HERE.

Visit their website at:  http://mathmadeeasy.org/homeschool.html

Many of my crewmates also reviewed Addition Made Easy, but several also reviewed Multiplication Made Easy!  You can read their reviews by clicking the icon below:

Disclaimer:  We received Math Made Easy free of charge in exchange for an honest review.  All the opinions expressed herein are my own...

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop Day 4 - Co-ops

Today is already the last day the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop!  I've had a lot of fun posting about our homeschool experience and I'm grateful to those that stopped by!  Todays topic is Co-ops!  I've been eluding to this topic in several postings this week because this is a area that is about to change for us!

Some background:
The first year we homeschooled I tried to get into 2 different co-ops in our area.  Both rejected us due to the facts that we are Latter-day Saints.  Citing "incompatible religious differences" in both cases they told us in polite terms that we were not welcome there.  It was hurtful.  I cried.  It seems that many people (at least in this area) are concerned with the fact that Latter-day Saints are not Christian.  Excuse me?  For the record Latter-day Saints, (aka the Mormons) are really, and truly, Christians.  There is a lot of misinformation floating around in the media right now and a lot of mainstream church leaders and politicians are feeding the public fear of Mitt Romney and the evil Mormons.  Just for the sake of clarity, we believe in God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost and in doing good works & sharing the good news.  So.    If that doesn't make us Christians then I am confused as to how one defines a "real" Christian?  Well, either way, I digress and that is a posting for another day.

We did have one co-op offer us a spot but told me up front that we were welcome to attend as long I understood I would not be allowed to teach in any capacity.  Oh, well, ok then....  I wasn't really gunning to teach anyway.  In then end it was kind of a far drive and I wasn't sure how badly we needed the social interaction so we decided to just forge ahead - sans co-op.

The second year we homeschooled I said "no way" to co-ops.  I was enjoying the flexibility of not having to be anywhere on a certain day at a certain time.  It was also nice that I wasn't at the mercy of someone else's curriculum for a semester or more.

This year...Kayley and I had a heart-felt talk in which she expressed that she was lonely.  I can see why.  Her only little girl-friend in church moved away, leaving her in a class of boys.  And as she is getting bigger...she wants to do girly things and play dates with the boys aren't fun anymore.  I could have just as easily enrolled her in swimming lessons, music/dance, etc but in the end I decided to take a chance and try the co-op idea one more time.

What did we decide?
Well, long-story-short:  Classical Conversations.   We are Charlotte Mason all the way - but when it comes down to our options for co-ops in this area our choices are limited.  I had been looking at the Classical Method and there are some aspects of it that I really like.  Mainly that the kids turn out to be brilliant!   :)

We went to an open house for CC about a month ago and were blown away.  The hubby thought it looked amazing, I had been leaning toward it a bit in our homeschool anyway.  We had already started doing some memory work at home working on character qualities and the Articles of Faith and I was seeing the value of memorizing scripture and other sing/song things to help Kayley remember days of the week, days in a month, and so on.

At the open house the director told the group up front:  "We let anyone in regardless of religious affiliation.  Part of being a good Christian is sharing the gospel.  How can we do that if we don't let non-Christians into our co-op?"  BAM!  I instantly loved her!

We went home and prayed about it and signed up about 4 days later.

Classical Conversations:
We are pretty nervous.  Classical Conversations requires a lot of memory work and it will be very busy.  But-I think Kayley will love it.  She will have a chance to meet other kids - hopefully girls - and learn a lot in the process.  I hope I get to meet some other Moms and maybe even make friends.  Maggie will get to go too.  CC has a nursery for the littles.  I will be blogging about this new adventure throughout the year so check back to see how it is going.  We start mid-September!

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop 4: Our "Classroom"

Day 4 of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop is sharing what our "classrooms" are like.  I know when I first started homeschooling I wondered what homeschooling looked like in every one else's house.  Some people had everything from re-created classrooms, complete with desks in a row and chalkboard.  Some people used the whole house as their classroom with science in the kitchen, reading in the living room, spelling in the kitchen, etc. 

We've tried it both ways now and I'll admit that I much prefer to have a designated area set up specifically for school work...  When my girls are older and can work more independently I don't see any reason that they couldn't do their school work wherever they wanted, but for now, we will stay together.

Originally, we started out with school stuff in the spare bedroom, but we didn't like it, it was too dark and lonely back there.  Then we moved into the kitchen, and that worked out great but we found that we ended up packing everything up, and putting it away, to stop for lunch and then dragging it all back out again.  We were also constantly shuffling things/piles around once the day was over.  We couldn't add any more shelving because of the doors and windows in the kitchen.  I wanted an area that we could leave out art projects to dry or spread out our math, etc.  I also wanted more wall space for maps and a white board.  So we took over the dining room.  It wasn't being used anyway...we always eat in the kitchen unless we have company.

So, to make things interesting I thought I would give you a virtual tour of our dining room!

In the big picture you can see Mom Central on the left...  Back left is Maggie's School Shelf and back right is Kayley's School Shelf.  The view out our back door is awesome.  I finally had room for a whiteboard, map, chorepacks, bulletin board, and calendar.   Maggie has the booster seat and she is always thrilled to join us at the table.

Here is a closer look at Maggie's Shelf.

I described workboxes yesterday.  As the girls get done with their work they put it in the "turn in box" and move on to what is next in their workbox.   Even Maggie has this figured out now and it is so easy to keep everything together.  Plus I can walk away to fix lunch and the girls can just grab what is next and turn it in when they are done.  The school supply boxes are just plastic shoe boxes the girls decorated with stickers.  Inside you have typical supplies: pencils, glue, crayons, etc.

Kayley's shelf has a lot more stuff.

In fact, I guess she has 2 shelves.  We are at the tail end of Core A in Sonlight and about to move into Core B so the smaller shelf holds all of our living books for both A and B.  Kayleys workbox system is Blue, (Maggie's was red).  The file box color coordinates.  I have to have several teachers guides for Kayley's school this year...although I admit this is my first year using them.  They are really necessary for spelling and Sonlight. 

Here is Mom Central.  Of course, my desk becomes the dumping ground for everything else in this room.  You can see my cubbies are overflowing with...well...I have no clue exactly what is in there right now.  During school my swivel chair turns around and faces the table.  During other times of the day it faces the computer and gets pushed in.

I think that is about it!  If you want to know what other homeschool families use as their classroom have fun clicking through the links below!  I know I will!

A Perfect Brightness of Hope - Deseret Book Review

Are you or someone you know experiencing feelings of darkness and despair? Do you feel alone in your suffering? 

In this volume, A Perfect Brightness of Hope, author Davis S. Baxter brings light to those of us who feel beyond help and hope, reminding us that we are not alone, however alone we may feel. He testifies powerfully of the need each of us has to draw hope from the Atonement of Jesus Christ—hope for a future that's better than the life we're living right now.
Based on real-life experiences of family breakdown, disrupted childhood, severe financial trials, and life-threatening illness, Elder Baxter illuminates gospel principles and scriptural insights with inspiring stories from his own experiences. He describes how we can "act in hope" and outlines changes that will come into our lives as a result of that action. 

Through Elder Baxter's words and stories in A Perfect Brightness of Hope, you will find empathy, understanding, spirit-lifting counsel, and—most of all—real, lasting hope in the Savior, Jesus Christ. 

In this book Elder Baxter touches on a subject that is taboo to many people...Latter-day Saints included.  Depression and despair is very real, even in the church.  Even those individuals who have the gospel are not immune to Satan's lies that we are not good enough and that we should feel beaten down to the point of giving up.  After living a life of disappointment and abuse Elder Baxter created his own inspirational story by overcoming his despair and apathy and finding hope for the future.  This book provides insight into how you can do the same by taking advantage of the gifts of the Savior and finding peace.   A Perfect Brightness of Hope offers just that...a bright hope for those that are weary, discouraged and forlorn.  Well written and easy to understand all who read this will feel that enduring to the end is not only possible but desirable.  My husband and I read this together and enjoyed it immensely!

A Perfect Brightness of Hope retails for $22.49 at Deseret Book as a hardback or you can purchase the Bookshelf Edition for only $14.97.  You can also read the first chapter for free by clicking HERE.

Disclaimer:  Thank you to Deseret Book for providing me a free copy of A Perfect Brightness of Hope in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions expressed herein are my own.

 

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop Day 3: Planning

 

Ok, so many of you are going to think I'm a total geek when I tell you that I LOVE planning.  Oh...I was born to plan!  When it comes to planning I am actually pretty darn organized or close to it anyway.  I am meticulous when it comes to picking curriculum, books, supplies, and so forth.  Now, with that being said I'll admit that sometimes I go a little over the top.  I've been known to become frozen with the analysis paralysis while trying to decide full subject matters.  Take History for instance...whatever we choose for history will impact all our other subjects.  I view homeschooling as a piece of a whole, not just something we do for a couple of hours a day.  I freaked out over history for months before finally deciding on Sonlight.  It was rough!  LOL!  I've also been known to buy something, look at it for several days and return it or resell it because I decided it wasn't going to be a good fit for our family.  I absolutely refuse to use something that we are not going to enjoy.

Now, when it comes to planning our homeschool day I do NOT follow a schedule.  I wish I could, but I found myself stressing out over being "on time" so I quickly dropped the schedule idea and now I just follow a general "sequence of events."  So our typical homeschool day looks a bit like this:

7:00/8:00 Kids up & Dressed
8:30 Breakfast
9:00 Start Schoolwork
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Finish up any remaining schoolwork
1:30(ish)-4:00 Naps/Quiet Time
4:00-5:30 Free Time
5:30:  Clean Up
6:00 Daddy gets home/Dinner

You may notice that "chores" are not part of our school day.  Cough-cough...we are working on that.  Right now laundry gets done during breaks in the morning routine and other things just happen as needed.  We do have one morning a week (it fluctuates) where we have "house cleaning day" and start school a little later and sometimes a second morning where we run errands and go to the library.  We only do 4 full school days per week and on Fridays (for now) we usually only do Math, Spelling and Electives keeping school to about an hour.  (This will be changing in September when we join a (GULP) Co-op!!).

For me part of planning...is planning to be flexible.  But--I have to, absolutely HAVE TO, be organized or I will go into crisis mode.  Using Sonlight has been simple, they have a wonderful daily schedule to follow (but it's flexible, do a little or a lot...and it is NOT strict).  I do use it faithfully.  It keeps me on target and provides a great tracking tool for our file that shows what we have accomplished.  I liked the Sonlight planning pages so much that I created my own.  It looks like this:

 

So, tell it to me straight.  Am I obsessed?  ;)

Yes.  The subjects are color coordinated and do match up with same-colored folders and binders.  I couldn't help it.

Notice that I did end up naming our homeschool...  It was past due, everytime I filled out a Book-It form I was tired of just listing "homeschool" and I wanted to have a name on my Teacher ID for all the groovy discounts I get in town!  LOL.

Also notice that I tacked "classical" onto our name...  I think it is the wave of the future in our homeschool.  (A blog posting for Friday will explain all of this).  Like I mentioned in my last posting, we are Charlotte Mason lovers and will continue to use Sonlight...but we are definitely making moves toward a Classical Education.   Hence the Latin in our planner.

So, notice the planner page is NOT a schedule.  Merely a sequence of events and a great way to track what lessons we did on which days.  Here in Missouri we have to "do school" for 1,000 hours per year.  600 from Core Subjects (400 of which have to be in the child's home location) and 400 hours from Elective Subjects.  We have to keep a portfolio of the child's work.  Now, I know a lot of people who probably don't do this...but I do.  Just in Case.  You never know.

So, at this point maybe you are wondering how I keep the kids organized?

Workboxes my friends.  Workboxes.

 

I bought these handy little organizational dealies at Mardel about 2 years ago.  They are made out of a sturdy cardboard.  I load up the workboxes with schoolwork the night before and this gives the girls autonomy in getting their schoolwork done.  They can see, up front, all that has to be done and they have the gratification of watching their workboxes empty as they put their completed work in the "turn in box."  We usually tackle hardest subjects first then let them get easier through the morning as Kayley wears out.

I didn't forget Maggie!  She has her own workbox already too.  For 2 years old she has already gotten into the groove of joining us at the table for part of the morning.  She loves it!

Of course they are color coordinated.  I couldn't help it.  The file box on the bottom is for filing completed work.  At the end of the year I just stack it up, put a big rubber band around it, label it and put it in the big box in the attic.  So easy!

So now you know how I plan what we do each day, maybe you'd like to get an idea of how I plan our topics for the year?  That is the easiest part!  I try really hard to follow Kayley's interests.  I give her choices and run with it.  I do not sit down and plan out a whole years worth of material at a time.  I don't think they would make an eraser large enough to help me with all the changes I would want to make when we decided to run down a rabbit trail.  For example, in August in Branson the Titanic Museum offers special rates and activities for homeschoolers...so I think we will study the Titanic in August.  I may plan out a few weeks and that'll be it.  By September I may find something else that we want to do?  or Not.  Kayley has become interested in learning about Space so we will be trying out Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy series...  Maybe she'll like it, maybe she won't.  Child-directed learning is a good thing and I try to encourage it as much as possible.  Unfortunately for Kayley, some things are non-negotiable.  Like Math.  Spelling.  Reading.  Brushing Teeth.  But, I am flexible in areas where we can and I think it helps make our days more fun!

Well!  I think that about sums it up!  Tomorrow we will be blogging about our homeschool "classrooms" or lack of!  :)