At a homeschool meeting, I had the opportunity to talk to several dads regarding paths to imagine “Outside the Books”, when it comes to our homeschooling. I wasn’t recommending never keeping textbooks or altering programs, but rather, helping them understand that there are plenty of ways to “demonstrate what you know”. It is also vital for us to help our kids comprehend that valid learning occurs all the time, not merely while they are filling out worksheets or sitting at our faculty desk.
One way we have added a little bit of pizzazz to our homeschooling over time is with a weekly maths Lab day. On one calendar day I plan for us to leave the maths course on the bookshelf and do certain hands-on education by way of games, crafts, and so on. Maths Lab days are also great for using maths software you have sitting around, nevertheless may never get round to using. Or how about those mathematics games you have purchased, but usually hang about on the shelf collecting dust?
Just what kinds of things are you able to do on Math Lab Day? I am delighted you asked!
Babies
* Counting games with candy, Legos, or anything more you might have lying around.
* “War” with a regular deck of cards or make your own deck with numbers to a hundred and maybe a “wild card” or two to make things more exciting.
* If you have them, Snap Cubes ( a popular manipulative ) are great to play with, making “trains” of different color patterns. You start the pattern, and your kid adds on to the train following the pattern. Then let them start a pattern and you finish it.
* Any board game that requires dice and counting.
* Use standard and non-standard items to measure things round the house. “Hey, Mom, are you aware the cat is fifty paper clips long?”
* Kitchen – baking includes using lots of real life fragments – while you’re at it,how about sharing the “fruits” of your math lesson with a neighbor!
* Play store
Elementary thru Middle college
* maths with Literature! We like Sir Cumference, A Place for nil, Equal Schmequal, and other titles in the mathematics adventure series.
* Our favorite mathematics games are S’math and Knock Out! From Muggin’s maths – we just purchased their new fragment games, too.
* Board games, including Monopoly, PayDay!, Sequence and more.
* Card games like UNO and War. A favorite is to use flashcards with mathematics facts as our “war” deck.
* Videos : Multiplication Rock, cash Rock
* Play store and many of the other activities from the above list
* If you’ve got any of the handheld, electronic maths toys, Lab Day is a nice time to make sure they’re put to use
* Computer games – money Town, mathematics Blaster, etc .
* Shop for activities from “Family Math”, “Math for Smarty Pants” or “Games for Learning Math.”
* Plan a hypothetical trip and use a map to figure how many miles you’ll travel.
* For kids interested in the stock market, you can use Lab Day every week to track and check on 2 stocks, plotting their progress on a graph.
One new idea that we’ve implemented, not only for Lab Day, but as a method to add some more real life application to our maths lessons is the “Mommy Bank”. I gave every one of my kids a blank check or savings registry book. Their allowance is “directly deposited” into their Mommy Bank account. They have got to tally up the total each week. They also deposit cash received for their birthday, odd roles, for example. When they select something, I pay for it and we deduct it from their account in the Mommy Bank. Naturally, older kids often like to keep their money with them, but this works really well when they’re younger or for those kids who aren’t yet ready to tote around money.
The above lists are simply a couple of the things we have done on math Lab Day over the years. Writing this piece has reminded me that my private homeschooling has fallen into a little bit of a pothole. Sounds like tomorrow must be an “Outside the Book” kind of day! Find learn to read for kids software here.
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