Playing with Math

I embrace math as one of my favorite subjects, but I know that it is one that a lot of other parents dread. There are so many great resources for math play in the early years!

RightStart Math - this is our main math curriculum. RightStart teaches using manipulatives and games. The curriculum is scripted, which can make it easier for math-averse parents to feel comfortable. The approach is a blend between Singapore/Asian math methods and Montessori.

Toss Up! - This is a strategy dice game. Each die has red, yellow, and green sides - green rolls are worth points, red sides can make you go bust. The goal is to score 100 points faster than your opponents and the math is primarily in the scoring.

MathStart series by Stuart J. Murphy - These books are divided into three levels. In general, the first level is preschool-kindergarten math, the second level is K-2 math, and the third level is grades 2-4. Short, easy reads, with each book covering one topic.

Fill or Bust - a combination of cards and dice. The cards give you a goal or a potential reward for each turn, the dice are the scoring mechanism - 5s are worth 50 and 1s are worth 100, goal is to reach 10,000 first. I have adjusted the scoring for younger players to divide the typical scoring by 10 - 5s are worth 5 and 1s are worth 10 in this system, and you play to 1000.

Time-Life I Love Math series - each book in this series covers a wide range of math topics and problems.

Can't Stop - requires adding of single digit numbers, and you end up learning a bit of probability as you go along. This is an older game, no longer made; I grabbed the board my mother had from when I was a child.

Math Dice and Math Dice Jr. - you roll a target number and then try to match it using the other dice and any math operator you wish.

"Just let her play!"

Anyone who has spent much time on a homeschooling forum has seen people ask about early education. Or perhaps they have asked the question themselves. And inevitably some portion of the responses are "Just let her play!".

But what does this mean? A common translation of play-based early learning is to do no instructional time. Others translate it as no formal instruction or no curriculum use.

I offer another version, and that is that "play" can be defined as "any activity the child enjoys". If a child enjoys learning to read, that can be a form of play - even with formal lessons. If a child enjoys numbers and math, there is no reason not to teach place value and mathematical operations. If a young child is enjoying reading and math, but doesn't want to do them today, don't do them today. This is really a pretty simple concept - and parents of young children should be further trusted with these decisions rather than continually being told only to "let them play".

NaNoWriMo 2014

The Critter heard me talking about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and decided that this was meant for her. With some encouragement from a forum I regularly participate in, she is now officially signed up and has set herself a word count goal of 1500. My husband and I will be scribing for her.

While I have no desire to participate in NaNoWriMo, I've decided to challenge myself to writing a blog post daily for November. I'm horrible about keeping up, and not altogether sure I have 30 days worth of anything to say, so I'll have to see how this goes. If nothing else, maybe it will help me decide what I really want to focus this blog on - a narrative of what my daughter is doing? Homeschooling information? Gifted education? Parenting stuff? Random other? I definitely will not be setting a word count goal, as I have difficulty enough being brief!

Kindergarten Literature List

For the most part, picture books are for The Kid to read aloud to me. The chapter books are for me to read aloud to The Kid.

Picture Books (listed from lower reading level to higher, we will read them in this order with exceptions for some seasonal titles)

Lucky Ducklings by Eva Moore
The Dot by Peter Reynolds (we will read some of his other books as well)
Two Times the Fun by Beverly Cleary (four longer stories in one book, less pictures)
Zen Shorts by Jon J Muth
George and Martha by James Marshall
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
The Lion and the Mouse by Bernadette Watts
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Andy and the Lion by James Daugherty
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert
Story of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff
Three Little Pigs by Paul Galdone (we'll read a variety of other folk tales by Paul Galdone as well)
Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott
Frida by Jonah Winter
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Three Questions by Jon J Muth
A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
Abuela by Arthur Dorros
Chanticleer and the Fox by Barbara Cooney
The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie dePaola
Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss
Alexander and the Terribly, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Diego by Jonah Winter
Eyes of Gray Wolf by Jonathan London
Island of the Skog by Steven Kellogg
Princess Knight by Cornelia Funke
Elizabeth Leads the Way by Tanya Lee Stone
Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting
The Girl Who Spun Gold by Virginia Hamilton
The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter
Dogteam by Gary Paulsen
True Story of Stellina by Matteo Pericoli
Woman Who Outshone the Sun by Alejandro Cruz Martinez
Koko's Kitten by Francine Patterson
Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni
I Can Hear the Sun by Patricia Polacco
Verdi by Janell Cannon
How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning by Rosalyn Schanzer
Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
Toy Brother by William Steig
Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau
Sea Chest by Toni Buzzeo
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems
Dragonfly's Tale by Kristina Rodanas
Going Home by Eve Bunting
How the Stars Fell Into the Sky by Jerrie Oughton

Longer/Chapter Books 
Minpins by Roald Dahl
The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett (there are sequels to this)
Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
Bunnicula by Deborah Howe (there are sequels)
Stuart Little by E.B. White
Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelance (there are sequels)
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner (there are sequels)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary (there are sequels)
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
Tumtum & Nutmeg by Emily Bearn (there are sequels)

Accelerating All About Spelling

We will be finishing up level 2 of All About Spelling soon. The Kid is an early reader and a fairly good speller, but she wanted to be "taught" spelling. I chose All About Spelling because the letter tiles made it easy to adapt for a non-writer. However, we learned fairly quickly that the letter tiles are also s-l-o-w. I started having her spell the words aloud and then we moved to having her type out the words and sentences on the iPad. Sometimes we use the letter tiles for new teaching, sometimes I simply write on a whiteboard.

I discovered early on that the program starts out pretty simply. For some students, this may be a great confidence booster. For other students, this may create boredom. The Kid fell into the latter camp. We've accelerated the program in two ways.

Acceleration Option #1:
Complete only a portion of work from each lesson. We generally settled on all of the new teaching, 1/2 the main spelling words, none of the extra words, and 1-2 dictation sentences. Review was limited only to rules she had more difficulty with. We generally covered a full step in one lesson this way.

Acceleration Option #2:
Pretesting. I know that some people pretest using the full list of words for each step, but I wanted a quicker assessment. For each step, I choose 2-3 words from the main spelling lists that are great examples of the rule being taught. Pretesting 5 lessons at a time therefore has a list of 10-15 words. I do include ALL of the rule breakers that are covered in any lesson. If she gets the 2-3 words from a lesson correct, then we put a sticker on the progress chart for that lesson and we're done with it. If she gets any wrong from that lesson, we cover the lesson on another day. If a rule breaker is correct, we move on; if a rule breaker is incorrect I teach it along with any lesson coming up. We would cover a step in one lesson.

Here is an example of how Option #2 worked for us in practice:

1. Pretested steps 10-15 in Level 2. (Step 11 contained a word bank, but no new rules, so this covered five steps of new rules.)
          Pretest words: rule, June, size, rise, grapes, hoses, been, queen, deep, cold, child, her, super
2. Look over pretest. She missed grapes, hoses, been, super. These are from steps 12 and 15, plus one rule breaker. I went ahead and taught the rule breaker immediately. We marked steps 10, 11, 13, and 14 as completed on the progress chart.
3. The next week, we covered step 12. I taught the rule for pluralizing vowel-consonant-E words, then dictated three phrases and two sentences for her to spell.
4. Next lesson, we covered step 15. I covered the new teaching, dictated three phrases and two sentences.
5. Next lesson, we did a pretest for steps 16-20. Repeat as above.

Anyone else accelerated All About Spelling? How about with higher levels?

Pre-history Year

Kindergarten is a great time for learning about dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals! I wanted to start with the Big Bang and go through early man - basically everything before Ancients.

Resource List: Books 
(I bought the first four on this list, the others were obtained through the library)

- Usborne Encyclopedia of World History

- The Story of Everything: From the Big Bang Until Now in 11Pop-up Spreads by Neal Layton
- Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and Other Sea Monsters by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart

- Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Dinosaurs by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart
- Life Story by Virginia Lee Burton

- When Bugs Were Big, Plants Were Strange, and TetrapodsStalked the Earth: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life Before Dinosaurs by Hannah Bonner

- When Fish Got Feet, Sharks Got Teeth, and Bugs Began toSwarm: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life Long Before Dinosaurs by Hannah Bonner

- When Dinos Dawned, Mammals Got Munched, and Pterosaurs TookFlight: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life in the Triassic by Hannah Bonner

- Evolution by Joanna Cole

- The Human Body: How We Evolved by Joanna Cole

- Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story by Lisa Westberg Peter

- Bone by Bone: Comparing Animal Skeletons by Sara Levine

- Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution by Steve Jenkins

 Resource List: Videos

(all available through Netflix)

Walking With Monsters series

Walking With Dinosaurs series

Walking With Beasts series

Walking With Cavemen series

The Planned Sequence for 36 Weekly Lessons 

1. The Story of Everything: From the Big Bang Until Now in 11 Pop-up Spreads by Neal Layton
2. Usborne 14-17; Dissect owl pellets and discuss how it relates to how scientists deduce information about the past
3. Life Story by Virginia Lee Burton
4. Usborne 18-19; Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story by Lisa Westberg Peters
5. Usborne 20-23; Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution by Steve Jenkins
6. Usborne 24-29; Walking With Monsters: Water Dwellers
7. When Fish Got Feet, Sharks Got Teeth, and Bugs Began to Swarm: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life Long Before Dinosaurs by Hannah Bonner
8. Usborne 30-33; Compare megalodon and great white shark, including comparing their sizes using a sidewalk and chalk. (Activity from Intellego K-2 unit on Evolution)
9. When Bugs Were Big, Plants Were Strange, and Tetrapods Stalked the Earth: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life Before Dinosaurs by Hannah Bonner
10. Usborne 34-37; Walking With Monsters: Reptile's Beginnings
11. Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and Other Sea Monsters by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart
12. Usborne 38-41; Walking With Monsters: Clash of Titans
13. When Dinos Dawned, Mammals Got Munched, and Pterosaurs Took Flight: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life in the Triassic by Hannah Bonner
14. Usborne 42-43; Walking With Dinosaurs: New Blood
15. Usborne 44-47; Walking With Dinosaurs: Time of the Titans
16. Usborne 48-51; Walking With Dinosaurs: Cruel Sea
17. Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Dinosaurs by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart
18. Field trip to zoo, focus on reptiles and birds, discuss evolution
19. Usborne 52-55; Walking With Dinosaurs: Giants of the Skies
20. Usborne 56-57; Walking With Dinosaurs: Spirits of the Ice Forest
21. Usborne 58-59; Walking With Dinosaurs: Death of a Dynasty
22. Bone by Bone: Comparing Animal Skeletons by Sara Levine
23. Field trip to museum to see fossils, including dinosaur bones
24. Usborne 60-65; Walking With Beasts: New Dawn
25. Usborne 66-69; Walking With Beasts: Whale Killer
26. Usborne 70-73; Walking With Beasts: Land of Giants
27. Usborne 74-77; Walking With Beasts: Next of Kin
28. Field trip to Wild Cat Sanctuary, discussion of evolution
29. Usborne 78-81; Walking With Cavemen: First Ancestors
30. The Human Body: How We Evolved by Joanna Cole
31. Usborne 82-85; Walking With Cavemen: Blood Brothers
32. Field trip to the zoo, focus on primates, discuss evolution
33. Usborne 86-89; Walking With Beasts: Sabre Tooth
34. Usborne 90-93; Walking With Cavemen: Savage Family
35. Usborne 94-97; Walking With Cavemen: The Survivors
36. Usborne 98-101; Walking With Beasts: Mammoth Journey

Kindergarten Curriculum and Resources

The Kid has decided that she wants to start kindergarten. Next week.

*shrug* Okay. Whatever you want, kid.

She says the difference between kindergarten and what we have been doing is that some stuff will be required instead of optional and she will get to do "trickier math".

Reading (3x weekly)
Read alouds from a mom-made reading list at her ability level

Math (3x weekly)
RightStart B
Time-Life I Love Math series
MathStart level 2 books by Stuart J. Murphy
Considering a subscription to Dreambox

Spelling (1x weekly)
All About Spelling 2 and 3, with adaptations for handwriting

Science (1x weekly, but she'll request more and do these much more than "planned")
Lego Education Early Simple Machines
The Private Eye
The Happy Scientist videos
Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding
Caterpillar-to-Butterfly kit
Child-friendly Microscope
Various Thames and Kosmos sets 
Memberships to local children's museum and the zoo

Spanish (1x weekly)
Salsa Spanish
DuoLingo This moved too fast for my daughter and she became frustrated. She asked for something that we did together and not something online. So we added:

Risas y Sonrisas

Handwriting (1x weekly)
StartWrite software

History (1x weekly)
Mom-made Prehistory year (Big Bang to early man)

Art (every other week)
Usborne Big Drawing Book
Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas
Artistic Pursuits preschool level

Music (every other week)
The Story of the Orchestra

While we are taking the summer off from lessons, in the fall she will likely continue swim, gymnastics, and violin.