Living Math

Living Math is a term coined by Julie Brennan, who also owns the Living Math website. She does an amazing job and I have learned a lot from her. Our lives have definitely been enriched by her efforts. There is also a great yahoo! group that she maintains which is very active and full of ideas. I will be posting some ideas that I find from Julie and from others who are in what amounts to this new movement and will also be posting some of my own ideas inspired by her and the people around her.

Thank you, Glykeria!

I allow our 3 year old to play with the cuisenaire rods while the 7 year olds uses them during math. The 3 year old made these rod combinations and called them her "hot dogs". She is quite fond of making them now and doesn't realize that she is doing math. Great fun! I love moments like these during our school days.

Geography Day 6

We built on what we did before and put Africa and the other continent blobs together today.

This one was done by our 3 year old. She gets the idea at least!

This one was made by our 9 year old. He has a hard time drawing so we have decided to let him concentrate on making blobs. Paul makes dots for him to reach for when making the blobs.

Our 11 year old made this map. We asked her to make Africa as accurately as she could and then begin to give the other continents some shape.

And finally, our 6 year old's map. She made blobs this time. When she gets frustrated she tends to scribble a bit.

Our new timeline!

We also have book timelines for the kids' individual History lessons but they asked to do this. They remember when we used to have one on the wall a long time ago. So we went to the teacher's store and I let them pick out a roll of bulletin board background paper. This paper was the compromise! I have to say, it looks a little better than what would look like a piece of butcher paper in my kitchen!

We are continuing the Geography lessons and will have the next lesson up soon. Sorry for the delay!

Geography Day 5

Today we added Africa. We made the same lines on the page that we made before and then carefully copied Africa so that it lined up with the Great Five Circles and the Prime Meridian.