Old Electronics

Old Electronics

This weekend we turned off the screens for the day.  I won't even get into the evils of too much TV and media. Another day, another blog. What resulted was a really fun day. As a matter of fact my oldest built a catapult out of household items. Fortunately I interrupted his plans and her forgot to return to them. When I went into my room that evening there was a big X marked out on my floor with electric tape , as I closed the door to check out the situation the doorknob had been rigged... there on the floor was a note to me. It said if I was reading this I had walked into a trap. I looked over and there was the catapult set up with a bucket of Lego ammunition beside it. Oh the joy of living with boys.

My middle child is very inquisitive. He is the kids who takes apart toys and reinvents them. He has quite the analytical mind ! So I've started to save him broken down electronics. What's the worst that could happen ? They might get fixed. Or he might create something new. Or he might learn how things work. Or he might just have fun. It's an all around winning situation. His latest project is he is trying to figure out how to x-ray a rock to see inside it. Of course at the moment I am not giving him anything that can be plugged in for his own safety ! 

Dissecting the camera

The tools....

Hands on Math

Hands on Math 

I remember when I was in school math being a very difficult subject. One of the ways I try to make math learning easier for my boys is to provide the same hands on approach to learning as I would any other subject. I try not to skip steps and we only move on when the basic concepts are mastered.Speed drills are a daily must, as is memorizing basic math facts. It's really frustrating for the student to struggle with learning area or perimeter when his process is interrupted trying to do basic adding or multiplying. So for that bit of daily groaning over drills they will be glad they did it later when the work gets more complicated. That being said we can make learning the concepts of math easier by creating interest early on and even integrating it into unit studies that they are excited about.  Here's a compilation of some of the activities we have tried in the past.

Here is another activity to match the numbers

 The value of the number is already represented for the child so all they have to do is match it.

Lots of different ways to recognize numbers with the drop box

Matching the numbers using a unit study

Basic adding and subtracting using a unit study

What about as they get older ? 

The fish in this activity are colour coded for odd and even numbers
One side is the number and the other the word
You can use this for a number or concepts including skip counting, adding/subtracting , counting , odd/even and more!

Making sums

Here's our money tree from our Chinese New Year unit. It was really exciting to add up the coin values on each of the leaves to see which was greatest/least !

Calendar time is a daily event and has so many benefits. You can incorporate concepts of skip counting , patterns in charts and other basic counting skills.

This activity was from our Gingerbread Man unit and focused on the concept of symmetry.

      

And older still.....

Volume and Capacity

Allow opportunities for discovery. Games are often a great way to enforce math concepts.

This next activity I used with my grade 4 child who has lots of trouble writing. I have found that it is better to remove the writing component as much as possible from other subjects in order for him to focus his learning on the concepts being taught. I treat writing as a separate subject.

Great visual learning tool  

Creativity at work

Another fun way for children to get excited about area is to have them design their dream bedroom. Of course, don't tell them they have to work out the area until after they have made the blueprint !

I hope you have found that helpful ! Treat math with the same enthusiasm you would any other subject.

St. Patrick's Days of Old

St.Patrick's Days of Old

Did you like my clever title ? These pictures are from last year's St.Patrick's Day album. I am planning on adding to it this year but I know some of you might like to have some ideas earlier.

The great thing about this cutting activity is that what's left can be added to your sensory tray.
When you are working on your child mastering cutting skills don't limit yourself to just paper.

 Scooping is a fun activity for toddlers. Make it interesting by matching the colours to your theme. Then your activities will all tie in together.

 Here's a pre-writing activity for your young child. Have him copy letters, lines or shapes into a tray 
or plate of coloured sand , again to match your theme.

If you prefer a more colourful theme for St. Patrick's Day there are so many other ways to include colours in your unit. Here's a homemade xylophone your kids can have making their own music with. I used the leftover water to make coloured ice cubes.

You know the saying "A man's heart is through his stomach"? Well, I have five boys and a husband I can tell you they sure do appreciate it when there's food involved with the units ! Last year I made this rainbow cake for the family. You can make it as high with as many colours as you like ! Just make up some white cake and separate the batter into batches. Use food dye to add colour and bake them separately. When they cool, put some white frosting in between the layers and then finish the job !

I hope that gets your creativity off to a good start ! Come back in a bit to see what we do this year !

Here's some of our activities from this year ! 

Great for sorting and counting !

Lots of texture !

Here's a simple twist on playing with playdoh. Adding some coins for good luck ! 

Playing with textures

A math activity for all the kids. My 2 & 4 year olds learned to sort the shapes.
My 6 year old learned to read and record information on graphs.
And my 9 & 11 year olds used the information to answer questions and plot the information on different types of graphs.

Sorting the information

A math activity with a tasty ending !