Money Math

Short post for today as we've been repeating the same activities all week. K has been very Math focused this week and we have spent much of our time counting and adding and beginning subtraction. We've been playing Monopoly Junior before bed, and K has easily taken on the banker role; adding together the bills and making change for The Daddy and I. 

I put together a money game to help K begin to learn how money works (5 pennies = 1 nickle, 2 nickles = 1 dime, 2 dimes + 1 nickle = 1 quarter, 4 quarters = $1) We took turns rolling a pair of dice, adding the numbers together and taking the appropriate amount in change (ex. 6 + 5 = 11 = 1 dime + 1 penny) we exchanged coins as needed (ex. 5 pennies were exchanged for 1 nickle) and kept track of the total amount of coins we had collected. The goal being to make it to $1.00. K and I played a couple times together helping each other add and exchange coins. 

(When he realized he had rolled enough to make $1.00)

K and The Daddy played together before bed while I was putting T and Ky to bed. K took on a banker role and added The Daddy's dice rolls, counted out and exchanged his coins as well as his own. (And mine! K set a spot for me so I could join in when the girls were sleeping.)

We also worked on counting past 109 (K likes to count to 1 million by counting 108, 109, 1000, then from 1008, 1009, 1 million!) I printed out a few Hundreds Charts and made them out to 500. I put them up onto the fridge and let K check them out. We counted to 200 together and he was able to pick up on the pattern.

 (5 Hundreds Charts)

 'Til Next week!

Kataky's Mama 

Money, Dice and Catapults

Hope all my Canadian friends enjoyed the Family Day long weekend this week! We spent the weekend with K, T and Ky's Bella and Poppa and Auntie C and Uncle E just relaxing and enjoying each others company. 

This week K seemed to be quite focused on developing his math skills. He took out his money that he has been saving and wanted to know how much he had. He sorted out the coins by type while I got out his 100's board. He put a penny in each spot until he had all 100 spaces filled. We emptied the board and he counted out the remaining 42 pennies on the board. Next we moved onto the nickles. I helped him place the first 3 (on the 5, 10 and 15 spaces) then he was able to easily figure out the pattern and place the remaining nickles (exactly $1.00!) We practiced counting by 5's up to 100. K was able to figure out where to put the dimes without any help from me, and easily counted to 100 by tens. Once he had counted all the coins he added them up and got a grand total of $2.72. (Math)

(Later he was able to take it to the store where he picked out something to spend it on, and count out how much he owed at the counter.)

K made up a game while playing with T, Ky and I this week using stones and dice. We took turns rolling 2 dice, adding up the numbers and counting out the same number of stones and putting them into a pile. Once the stones had been piled up K counted out the number of stones in his pile. (Math)

K watched an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy this week. It was about Simple Machines (i.e. Levers and Pulleys) This sparked an interest in creating catapults. He started out by using a spoon at the edge of the table (after dinner) and using various projectiles.  The next morning I gathered a few different levers, and projectiles and K set about experimenting. He tested to see which levers launched which projectiles the furthest. (Science)

A few more pictures from the week:

 (K's building- Math, Science, Art)

 

 (Building a wooden firetruck- Problem Solving, Fine Motor Development)

 

 (Balancing dice- Science)

 

 (Colour mixing and painting with yogurt and food colouring- Art, Science)

 (K's baking experiment- Life Skills, Science)

 

(K the Spy- Creativity, Imagination, Observation Skills, Dramatic Play/Arts, Writing)

Kataky's Mama

Skunks, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Grocery Store Math

We are expecting a lot of snow overnight (so we are planning a very busy Snow Day. Especially since Daddy has the day off!) and we have had quite a busy week so I thought I'd share some of the highlights of our week a little early. 

We started out Tuesday with a cool surprise:

I had accidentally left the green bin open the night before (oops!) and we were greeted by some "mysterious" footprints (and one piece of stale bread left on the ground). K was very excited to figure out where it had come from and who it belonged to. He followed the tracks to the road and we lost them there, however across the street were a couple different tracks. K was able to determine that they probably belonged to a dog and cat. After talking about which animals like to get into people's garbage K decided it was probably a skunk or raccoon. We googled the different footprints and determined it most likely belonged to a skunk! (Science)

 Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE to bake, but K wanted me to buy some chocolate chip cookies (crazy eh!?) I suggested we make some instead. K helped me measure out the ingredients and pour them into the mixing bowl. I suggested he write down the ingredients we used and we could compare them to store bought cookies when we went grocery shopping. (I'm also a "real food" advocate.) K recalled the ingredients and sounded them out as he listed them all. When we went to the grocery store he read out the ingredients as we compared them to the highly processed, chemical filled cookies that line the grocery store shelves. (He still really wanted the rainbow chips-a-hoy, but I think he understood when we counted the number of ingredients and additives in the bag compared to the 7 total in our cookies.)  (Math, Writing, Life Skills, Nutrition/ Health, Science)

I wanted to help K be involved when we went grocery shopping so I created his own shopping list for him to read and shop for. Prior to the shopping trip K sounded out and drew a picture beside each word. When we got to the grocery store K was excited to help! He located the apples and compared the prices between the different kinds. He figured out which ones were the least expensive. After picking out a few, he weighed them and I calculated how much (approximately) they were going to cost. He wrote the price on his list and as we weighed and added the items from his list to our cart he added the prices together. (I helped the first few, but he caught right on and did the majority on his own!) Periodically during the rest of our shopping trip I'd ask him to help me add some numbers together as I was tallying our items too. (Reading, Art, Life Skills, Math)

K enjoyed adding at the grocery store so much that after dinner he started creating and answering his own addition questions! (I got out his hundred board to help him visualize each question if he needed that little bit extra)

I'd say that's a success in itself!


A few more pictures from the week:

 (Making homemade chocolate pudding)

 (K's hotel that he designed first on paper and tried to recreate with blocks)

(Playing in Goop with T and Ky- 2 parts cornstarch to 1 part water)

We are still getting into the home school groove, but The Daddy and I have noticed how much more at ease K already is, and I have noticed a huge improvement in his behaviour and manners.("Thank you for dinner Mommy." Like, Really!?!) And K's daily meltdowns have all but vanished.  I managed to take the 3 kids grocery shopping (for 3 HOURS!!!) on very little sleep (between T and Ky I was up EVERY hour between 8:30 and 7. Ugh!) and we're all still smiling!  :D We must be doing something right!


Kataky's Mama

Day One

We made it through day one! What a busy day! Ky wasn't feeling so well so our "lessons" didn't quite go according to plan. However, I have to say it was quite a successful day. We started out reading from a couple of the Shark books we had borrowed from the library. After reading about a few different types of sharks K wondered how long a Great White Shark (His favourite!) REALLY is. We got out the measuring tape and K measured out 25 feet in the living room. He then proceeded to measure his sisters and needed himself measured to compare to the shark's size. (Reading, Math)

 

Once he had had enough of measuring. K decided he wanted to write a story. He dictated his whole story to me as I wrote it down. He then illustrated each section of the story and sounded out the words for each page of his story. I helped him bind it together with string, then he decided his book needed a picture and title on the front. (Art, Writing)

(We went to the store to get a game)

A quick trip to the grocery store was a "real life" math lesson as K added together the prices of each item we picked up and kept a running tally for me. (Math)

As I made lunch K went up to his room and built a car with his Lego. He had placed a pair of wheels on the top of his car "just in case." K brought his car down and experimented with different ramp scenarios to see when the other set of wheels would be needed. (Science)

After lunch we played Shark Tooth Site Word Hunt. I had gone through some sight words with K and I wrote a few that he didn't know on paper shark teeth. I hid them around the room and as K found them he read them out to me (or I helped him with them.) After a few rounds of the game K was able to consistently read 5 out of the 10 words! (Reading, Gross Motor, Observation skills)

The most fun we had though was the indoor snowball fight. K really wanted to go out and build a fort to throw snowballs, but we don't have enough snow for that right now. So, instead K built a fort by flipping over the table and I found some Styrofoam balls that we were able to use as snowballs. K played for almost 2 hours with the balls. He threw them at me, T and Ky. Once his sisters had had enough he threw them off the walls and over the fridge, and when our friend P came to visit they took turns hiding them around the house and finding them. (Physics, Math, Observation skills)

 

It amazes me how many curriculum areas we managed to touch on in our first day. I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!

KaTaKy's Mama

Our Adventure

Today is K's last day in Public School. On Monday we are set to begin our Home School Adventure. The reaction we have had from family and friends has run the gamete from "Congratulations! That's so exciting" to "Are you sure you are doing the right thing? What if he falls behind?"


Let's address the concerns. Can I say with certainty that we are doing "the right thing" for K? Well, what is the "right thing"?

Is it the "expected path" that everyone takes? or the path that is best for our child? The path where learning outcomes are predetermined and scheduled rather than letting a child develop at their own pace. (Why is it we trust babies will learn to sit, crawl, walk and talk when they are ready, but force children to learn to read, write and add on a timetable?)  Where a child is expected to sit and be taught rather than use their natural curiosity and wonder to explore and learn.

Anyone who knows K can attest to the fact that he doesn't quite "fit the mold" so would a one size fits all approach be the best for him or one that he can help direct?

So, are we doing the "right thing" for K? I sure think so. Can I be completely certain? Of course not. But, what do we have to lose? I'll let you answer that question.

I prefer to ask "What do we have to GAIN?"

Follow along as I document our Home School Adventures with K, T and Ky.

KaTaKy's Mama.