ugh......what's behind Door #1...?

It's August.
We're due to start school in a few weeks.
I HAVE NOT BOUGHT MY CURRICULUM yet....!!

I know I am behind schedule. I don't know about your house, but in MY house, every penny counts. And I am VERY cautious about where I am spending this year. I have to buy Math, Science and possibly Spanish.....and I want to invest in just the right programs.

Because that's what it is: an investment...

So am I talking to myself? I wonder if anyone is reading. If you are here, gimme a shout out and telling me what you're using this year. We'd love to hear from you! One thing's for sure: I gotta get movin'!!

girls and Math

I have one son, Adam, who's REALLY good at Math.
Freaky good.
And his sister, Micaela, age 8 (almost 9)...not so much.
She has fragile x, full mutation. (If you are the curious sort, you can look at the Fragile X Syndrome Checklist for more info...) But long story short, it makes math VERY tough for Micaela.
Especially when she sits beside the Math Wizard...

So I often split them up. And spend some one-on-one time with her, gently hammering away at the Math Facts. That's why she loves the interactive nature of

Online Math Curriculum - Time4Learning

It's completely non-threatening.....and colorful. (Color matters a great deal to my budding fashionista....so it engages her mind, and I'm all for that!)

And sometimes, I'll admit, I push Math more for Adam than I do for Micaela. He's just so darn comfortable with it and she's not. But then I ask myself, "Am I cheating her? Am I short-changing her by NOT offering it more often?"

So our compromise is to tackle Math with

Time4Learning.com and a whole bucket loads of freebie sites that offer a wide range of ideas and fun for her.

Because Math SHOULD BE FUN, shouldn't it? Next week, we're doing CAMPING MATH. (Don't ask me what that REALLY means, I'm totally wingin' it.....)

almost July

Anyone have goals for Summer Math?
I do. Adam was SUPPOSED to be done with all of his 2nd grade work but the summer sun is distracting him...greatly. Since he's more than a year ahead of his peers, I probably shouldn't hassle him too much, but he's lollygaggi'g. And I don't care for lollygaggin'.......

So our new goal is to knock out the remaining Units before the 4th of July.

It has been action packed around our house. Adam took a flying leap off the top bunk on Sunday night and had a nice trip to the ER. During whole drive in, my husband (smartly) was asking him math questions.....he knew as long as he was cognizant enough to do basic math, he probably would be okay. He escaped with a concussion and is presently resisting the doctor's order to lay low. My son doesn't DO laying low very well.

So our laying low includes Living Room Floor math. With many, many, many rounds of Math Bingo. My kids LOVE Math Bingo. And it's a FUN way to reinforce basic math skills. My kids detest flashcards but they BEG for Math Bingo. There are a million different sites where you can print off Math Bingo sheets. Give it a try for your kids and I bet they'll love it.

is Math music to your ears??

While most of you are loading up for trips to the Beach, we are getting ready to kick off The Summer of Science!! (which is such a misnomer, because it's HEAVILY involved with MATH, too...)

I have been busy combing the 'Net for the coolest project, funnest worksheets, and yes, the most memorable songs. One the things that Adam and Micaela dig about the

Time4Learning.com site is the cool music. (He still sings that song about logging....)

So I was thrilled to discover this site:

Math Songs: Teaching Math Facts & Concepts (Addition, Subtraction ...

For my daughter, information is FIRMLY implanted in her memory if she associates it with music. I think most of all of us are wired that way. I mean, look at commercials and jingles! I'd love to hear from other parents how you taught multiplication songs.....that's where we are headed. I don't know....maybe Math Drills would be more fun if it had a beat and you could dance to it...

Music could help you get your kids over math anxiety, too...

whatcha doing?

It's mid-June and the (infrequent) sunshine is distracting my kids.
It's summer and that makes it challenging to hold my kids' attention...any of you have that issue? The sunnier it is, the shorter that attention span.....

While I am talking and teaching about the finer points of multiplcation, they're just thinking "How long until I can go ride my bike?" I just know it....

So in my class, I try to use tools that will engage them. Make them WANT to learn.
Which is why we turn to http://www.time4learning.com/ as one of our online tools and it serves us well...

For Adam, who is 2 grade levels above his age range, he is very 7 and all about Science and Math, he enjoys all of the lessons in Science. There was some silly song he learned about logging that he sang for WEEKS. Drove me batty, but hey, he's learnin'.....I like that T4L doesn't hold him back, it sets him free to learn what HE wants to.

For Micaela, who is 8 and very much the girly-girl, she struggles still with reading. She has special needs (has fragile x syndrome, to learn more about that, click on the link below....)

Symptoms of Fragile X Syndrome

Micaela poses my bigger challenge. I can turn Adam loose and let him run. But Micaela is easily overwhelmed and when she doesn't immediately succeed, she's crushed.... For her, T4L is a confidence builder. It's non-threatening and fun and at a pace that she can tolerate. She's such an amazing kid and I have seen her gain skills while we've been homeschooling. It's not as scary to her as public school was.

So what are we doing this hot, sticky summer? Well, The Summer of Science, of course!
(Here's the Mom-trick that I didn't reveal to them: it also involves lots of Math, Reading and Writing...but Summer of Science sounds so fun, they eat it up!) We're going to have weekly lessons, vocabulary, spelling tests, experiements and public speaking: all under the umbrella of The Summer of Science!

I'll be posting here from time to time. I promise the blog will be more active! But if you can't wait and need a fix of homeschooling wit and money-savings tops, you can catch me at my personal blog....send in a comment, a suggestion, we want to hear from you!!

Just a bunch of nothin'

What about autistic children?

I want to go back to something I touched on in my last post. More and more we're hearing about autism, especially with many people believing there might be a link between the disorder and vaccines. I know this scares many parents, including myself, who actually considered postponing some of my little one's vaccines. However, the cause of autism is still unknown.

We know children with autism don't follow the same pattern of development as other children.
I've even read that many individuals believe that autistic children have no feeling or understanding of others emotions and that it needs to be taught. The Crazy Carrots game I mentioned last time helps children learn about emotions. It's something I never really thought of, but can make such a difference, even if your child isn't autistic.

So what do you do with an autistic child when it comes to school?
Homeschool, regular school? I've heard/read horror stories about autistic children in regular schools. Stories that will make you cry. The thing is, autistic children need more time than other children to start a new activity/subject, and since some don't function as well socially, many are bullied and made fun of by their peers.

As tiring as it can be for a parent, it is much harder for the child. Autism and school don’t always mix well. A typical day in school for a child with autism is like pulling double duty – not only does he need to learn his academic subjects, but he also needs to adapt to the classroom environment – often on a daily basis – the sounds, smells, or lights of the classroom, the interaction with other students, adjusting to changes in the daily routine, and more. It can be exhausting.

Those wild and crazy carrots

Learning is such an awesome gift. I don't think people actually stop and think about this. You can learn something anywhere at anytime. Maybe you don't even realize you learned something, or maybe you think it's trivial. And it's not just things like, 'Oh, I just learned the state capital of Hawaii!' It's other things, like learning about people's thoughts and feelings. I found this amazing game that helped me realize this and how important it is for young children to be aware of others emotions.
It's part of a preschool curriculum and the game is called Crazy Carrots. It's extremely simple and the carrots have different facial expressions that the child needs to identify. For children at a young age, sights and sounds are crucial in keeping their attention and this game does just that.

Time4Learning is an easy-to-use online preschool curriculum for young learners, featuring animated activities with fun characters and sound effects. The characters in the learning games guide children through the steps of the learning activities, making it simple for pre-readers to follow and enjoy.

I realized that learning isn't just cognitive, it helps others, in the case preschool children, learn about feelings. In general, this helps them when dealing with their own feelings and helps them understand why others act a certain way, thus inciting feelings of empathy. This can be especially important for autistic children, who many think have no awareness of others emotions.

I found a ton of information online about research done on emotional education. Like I mentioned earlier, learning isn't just about geography, math and spelling, it's also about learning and growing socially and emotionally--everyone knows that. Notice how so many people have street smarts but not book smarts and vice versa. Yes, some people are just built like that and that's what they are good at, but for others, there is the possibility that they didn't get enough of the other. I've met people that are so incredibly smart, Mensa material, and seem uncomfortable and awkward when in a group setting. Then on the flip side, I've met some who might be considered 'airheads', but are so incredibly funny and social. We all know people like that. Then of course, there are those who have just the right combination---which of course, is what we would ideally like our children to be.