Yo Math-U-SEE

Daughter this morning:

"Yo I'll never forget how much a paperclip weighs. Like it's completely in my brain. Like someday there's going to be a trivia contest question asking how much does a paperclip weigh in the metric system and I'm gonna be like, 'yo 1 gram!' and they're gonna be like 'Whoa how'd you know that!' and I'm gonna be like 'yo, Math-U-SEE, REPRESENT!'" 

Okay so yes, math is going well today. Grammar? Not so much lol. 

FREE on Currclick!!

Download this awesome pack on Currclick today! It is filled with activities that can either supplement a current study of the Revolutionary War or act as a launch pad for a unit on the war. Enjoy!

Currclick Revolutionary War Activities Click Here!

Funny Homeschool Video

Because I want to laugh. And who doesn't like to laugh about preconceived notions about homeschooling? Thank you, Tim Hawkins.

Teen Making Me Crazy!

I cam home from the store yesterday, exhausted from the rushing around to get as much shopping done as I could before the snowstorm and frigid cold hit. Younger teen went with me, teen girl stayed home. I was sure she stayed home for socialmediatizing. Yea, that's what I'm calling it.

I set all the bags down, then came around the corner to see teen girl sitting at the table, and she was doing something that left me stumbling backwards, grasping frantically  for something to hold on to for support, and feeling slightly faint. 

What was she doing? Oh, you are NOT going to believe this, she was...

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DOING MATH, and excitedly insisting that I check her work NOW so she could know if she was "getting it" and could move forward. How rude!

Math-U-See, you've struck again!

Some Quick but Thorough Homeschool Resources

Some are free, all are very low priced, enjoy! 

Currclick--Curriculum and Classes in a Click (disclaimer--yes, I am an affiliate  ) this "little, quick" lapbook is loaded with some pretty thorough info for just 50 cents! Browse around currclick for so many other free and/or low priced resources.

Grammar: Conjunctions Quick Lapbook!

LEGO homeschool! Oodles of lesson plans and more for every grade and subject --lots of really cool ideas and all FREE!

Enchanted Learning Curriculum Material Online -- Over 35,000 Web Pages and over 1,000,000 subscriptions!   Always free to use, although I do pay once a year to subscribe to get even easier printables. I think this is probably the best yet most forgotten about educational resource! Just about anything and everything you might need is there.

Homeschool Share--because many minds make light work! Yet another that I forget about! So many absolutely free lapbooks and notebooks and unit studies.

Confessions of a Homeschooler--many free printables available. 

Amazing Handwriting Worksheet Maker--this one is free and works beautifully!

FREE Middle School Science App for Kindle

Who doesn't like free? Let me apologize in advance if you do not like free stuff, cause today's Amazon Kindle App is **free**. Did I mention it is free? ;) Enjoy!

Free Middle School Earth Science for Kindle

Education Freebies!

A couple great free resources were posted on one my local homeschool groups today, so great I had to share them! While I can't vouch for what will be received because I just signed up today, the potential for what will arrive is terrific!

First is from the Nutrients for Life Foundation http://nutrientsforlife.org/ . You can order the FULL CURRICULUM, in all or any of 3 levels: elementary, middle school, high school. You can order a hard copy and/or a flash drive loaded with the curricula. Below is from the "What Your Students Will Learn":  

• How many elements are essential to both plants and humans?
• Why is it important to improve the health of our soil?
• How much of the world’s land is available for food production?
• What can farmers do to preserve our environment’s forests and other fragile resources?

There are posters (including a poster of the periodic table of elements), postcards, workbooks (again, for all grade levels), recipe cards, bookmarks and lots more. You can order as many as 75 of some items! All items are available for download AND hard copy orders, and all are free. This is fantastic for all types of schools, co-ops, and homeschoolers. 

UPDATE August 15, 2013--We got our box and it was even more than I imagined! As far as I know they are still accepting requests. So, GO! Nutrients for Life Website

Next is from NASA. Do I need to say anything? I hear free things from NASA and start drooling at the mouth and just about jumping out of my chair in excitement. Today's offer is three FREE DVDs, available for instant viewing or hard copy mailing:

• 3D Sun 

• Journey to the Stars 

• Cosmic Collisions 

When you go to the website NASA Educator's DVD Collection you can select "view online",  or order hard copies of the DVDs.

**********I just found out that the DVD's are no longer available, along with many other resources formally available, however you can still watch online.

More Math Tears and Tales

"You are allowed to not understand, but NOT allowed to not learn."

Summer has arrived in our house; my college courses finished a month ago, public school and even many homeschoolers are wrapping up their school years. These things are always harbingers of the start of more formal schooling in our household. Naturally the joy levels in the house are through the roof as Mom puts her foot down and holds it down. I make sure to place it in semi-permanent cement, tough enough to hold it there but leaving just enough flexibility to wiggle out as needed.

Math has been the biggest obstacle recently: M had been creatively avoiding doing math for the past week. She had been zooming along previously; and with her requests to shower, go to the library, walk the dog, and even take her little brother to the playground, I unwittingly fell right into her avoidance tactics.

Until today. (duh duh duh duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh—ya know, that dramatic music as the plot thickens…)

I asked her if she had taken the Lesson test yet; she replied with "yes! At least, I think I did. Wait, did I?" I asked her if she needed me to check her lesson work. She replied "I think I checked it already. Wait, I think I did."

"Hmmmmmm," thought I.

I asked M exactly where she was in her book and received equally vague answers. It was time for me to look things over. The work wasn't horrible but it was clear something wasn't clicking. This was a lesson that Mr. Demme ( Math-U-See )gives several options for solving the problems, which further increases my love of this math curriculum because the main focus—the ONLY focus—is complete understanding and mastery of each topic. I could see that even on several problems M answered correctly she took a long route that had far too many bends and curves and even got her lost a few times. The concept of "how" was missing.

As I backed her up to go back to go over a couple of the problems, her frustration flared almost immediately. She was instantly angry and insisting that she do it only the way Mr. Demme showed on the video. We've been doing MUS long enough that I knew if the teacher's manual answers were showing alternative routes to the answer, then there were alternative routes presented along the way. I wanted her to do one of the pages that included a "Quick Review" and she was furious and just wanted to move forward. Voices rose, tempers flared, and I knew it was time to defuse when I heard the dreaded "I CAN'T DO THIS, I JUST CAN'T DO THIS!" (and some typical teen "whatever" and eye rolls and, well, I’m sure you get the picture) I gave M the job of clearing the dining room table, while I defused by hitting Facebook and played Bejeweled Blitz. ;)

Tears and further statements to how she could not do this ensued, including "did you ever think that maybe this is just something I CAN NOT DO?" She did not want to look at what she was seeing as a new or different approach to tackling the problem. I kept telling her of course she could do it, and of course she'll move forward, and of course she was smart enough. This brought more tears; calmer tears, but still there. Her last outburst about math was that she just wasn't smart enough.

My response was, "You are allowed to not understand, but NOT allowed to not learn." Where those words came from is anyone's guess, though I'm certain they were heaven sent J

I had M leave the math for a bit and move on to science. She quietly and quickly got that accomplished and then moved back to math, but there was still some reluctance. I reminded her that this was not a test and not an exam—she could have me right with her to work it through, so that's what we did. About halfway through the 2^nd problem the tone in her voice picked up, and by the 3^rd problem there was even a hint of optimism. I got out some of the Math-U-See manipulatives to show here even more alternatives and, although she almost shut down, she stayed open and not only saw it but grasped it! I reminded M that people that are willing to learn are the smartest of all, and that she is one of those people.

I am forever grateful for days like today. I'll take all the frustrations to witness these moments of learning and understanding; there's plenty of hair dye in the world to color the grey hairs the sprout! 

LEGO Lapbook!!

We finished another lapbook, finally!! Zach was reluctant at first, he feels like he knows all there is to know about Legos and there was no reason to do actual, gasp--ASSIGNMENTS! Once I got him to really look at the ideas for this fantastic lapbook from Walking by the Way and we spoke a little more about the great thinkers who are quoted in this project, we got to creating! Most elements are from Walking by the Way, I will notate the things that we got on our own. We found the awesome Lego stickers at Joann's, and ovbiously we used our own pictures of Zachary's personal creations throughout. :)

The cover. Zachary created the collage on the computer!

Inside the first side, and the "map" opened.

Side flap open (the flap with the map), mini books open
There were 4 words but we lost one!
The picture all the way to the right is one of many firehouses he created.

The blue "Mission and Vision" flip flap book (important to Zach to have this in his Lapbook)

Top left & right: middle flap flipped over and Lego Fun facts fanned open
Bottom left: Famous Thinkers Quotes (cover) and Minifig Timeline minibook
Bottom right: blue flap flipped open and mini-fig timeline open, that was Zach's idea,
we used readwritethink.org to build a custom time-line!
The photos here are 2 different HUGE Lego ships Zach built.

Famous Thinkers Quotes Copywork

Under the Famous Thinkers Quotes "book", and the Lego Math minibooks

                                       

Picture of Z's Ectomobile, above the Lego Graph

                                 

Lego Math Minibooks open

Back Cover Lego Timeline from http://www.lego.com/

Seeing Math!

When the topic of kids having issues with word problems came up on a homeschool yahoo group I'm on, my reply was definitely draw, draw, draw! ;) [This is most likely the reason I have always loved Math-U-See

My kids would get so annoyed/frustrated, with my reply of "Draw it!", when they would be stuck on a word problem. I would tell them,  "Just draw it, if you see it, you can solve it!" 

**insert teen eyeroll**

Their reply was always,  "MOOOOOM! I don't learn the same as you!" and I would say, "Just draw it, if you see it, you can solve it!"

**insert teen eyeroll**

Next would come, "It's NOT going to work/help!" and I would say, yep you guessed it, "Just draw it, if you see it, you can solve it!" 

**insert MAJOR teen eyeroll so enormous I'm surprised the eyes came back down**

Eventually, either he/she would draw it or I would draw it. Suddenly the solution would become clear as a picture (haha, see what I did there??), and the problem would be solved. I would give my usual, "I told you so," and hear "I totally solved it my own way." Yes, yes you did darling.

**insert chocolate cake into mother's mouth**