martinzoo

I alluded to the fact, last week, that I was going to try and relax our homeschool. And math is one of those areas where I really need to lighten up. If I don’t, GB is going to hate it. I’ve been reading Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World. And I feel as if GB could be a poster child for this book.

This week we have been working on his visual techniques for easy mental math. He has always wanted to do math mentally, and now I’m really trying to let HIM lead ME. So far, he is loving it. He really loves it when I am astonished at how he comes up with answers. Yes, some of it is an exagerated response. But he doesn’t know that, and he is really eating it up.

I also downloaded the free trial for Kidspiration, which is a visual math program. It was really great to see how using manipulatives could make problems clearer for him; even with regrouping.  I think I’m going to have to order some real math manipulatives.

He has also enjoyed playing with the games on this page. 

Some of the games are pretty dadgum hard, so they really get him thinking. And THAT is a good thing.

But when he shuts down, he’s done. And I need to learn to respect that point.

I am so behind on my blog!

Monday we went over to a homeschooling friend’s house to meet up with our new co-op for some Christmas craft making.  Nancy is unbelievable. All on her own, she was able to make, bake and put together about 10 gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate. I have to give her props because I know that *I* would have been a basket case after doing all that baking.

Hilary, one of the other moms, brought supplies to make some snow globes and another three or four houses. There are a lot of kids in this group.  Adena brought lots of candy to decorate the gingerbread houses. And I had the easy task of bringing pizza to keep the masses fed. I’ll have to do better at the next get-together.

In this pic, the kids are working on their snow globes, which were made from recycled glass/plastic jars. We brought a peanut butter jar. They then used a tiny branch from a fake Christmas tree (or wreath) and glued it onto the cap of the jar to look like a teeny, tiny tree. Then they decorated the trees with really small ornaments and put little Santa/Snowman figures around the tree. All got hot glued into place so that it wasn’t going anywhere. Then we sprinkled colored sprinkles into the jar, filled it with water, and screwed the cap on. Voila! You can see our finished globe in the last picture on this post.

Here is GB decorating his gingerbread house. Now that’s concentration.

Craft carnage! After the kiddos had finished decorating the moms spent about 30 minutes playing around with some of the houses and then cleaned up the mess. It was really a fun time.

I can’t remember the last time I got a shot of GB using his teeth for a smile. Kind of adds to the sparkliness, don’t you think?

………… Game Day!

I’m sorry. But it is C O L D outside. It’s too cold for Park Day with the homeschool group.  But that doesn’t mean these little kids (never mind the moms) don’t want to get together. So we moved Park Day indoors to one of the bravest mom’s houses in our group. And we turned Park Day temporarily into game day.

GB really loved having a chance to play his games with kids. I keep making the mistake of saying that he doesn’t have siblings to play with. He does. BUT his siblings are both gone to college……. and don’t really want to play anyway. Jabem will tolerate a chess game here and there. But Aquagirl is just not into it. So this was a great opportunity for him to play. He’s also joined a chess club for homeschoolers within our group that meets once a month.

Homeschoolers were ALL over the house! They were at every table, nook, and crannie. And I will tell you, they were cute! I mean, look at the faces in the photo below.

The moms were pretty into it, also. Some of the moms had never played Mancala, so it was a new experience for them.

I needed the day out, too. It was a good opportunity for me to vent some of my frustrations with this school year. This year hasn’t been as good for GB and I. And I want to make a bold change, but I’m scared. It really requires the “homeschooling commitment” to make change like that.

If you are willing to say that you are definitely going to homeschool for the next several years, then you can feel a certain freedom to try radical things, like I’m thinking of. BUT… if you are thinking, in the back of your mind, that you may want to put your child back into a regular school setting (public or private), then you will want to make sure that he is learning the same kind of things that his peers in p-schools are. This requires a true decision.

I vented with my homeschooling mom peers before even springing this radical thought process to my dh. Mostly, because I wanted to see what their thoughts on the subject were. It was wierd because a lot of them were feeling the same things. Maybe it is GB’s age. Maybe at a certain age you need to change to adapt to a different kind of learning style.

Luckily, last night at dinner, my dh was very supportive. He trusts me. So that gives me some comfort to go ahead and change what we’ve been doing for the last 3 1/2 years and tweek our days in a major way for a trial period.

I’ll post more on this subject as I get more comfortable with the ideas floating around in my head.

Do I sound pathetic if I admit that I am obsessed with this little simulated business game?

Johnny Money

Jabem and I were playing on one computer and GB was on the other one. GB finished his game while Jabem and I were unable to finish because we both had obligations elsewhere to finish. But I want to go back and see if it’s even possible to beat GB. He began the game with $50,000 and 24 months later (each month is like a level with different challenges and consequenses) he ended the game with over 71,000,000!

From the web site:

Johnny Money Online Game is a FREE Internet-based small business simulation game that engages students as they explore the risks and rewards of business ownership. It was created for the NFIB (National Federation of Independent Business). The game’s length is a minimum of 45 minutes, and it can be paused at any point to provide multiple completion options–complete it in one day or spread it out over a few days.

Goals/Objectives: Students will be able to:

•  Utilize experiential learning as a tool to aid in retention of entrepreneurial concepts
• Create, maintain, analyze and influence the essential factors in a successful virtual small business
• Experience, engage and interact with entrepreneurial decisions and events in a virtual setting

This is like the Lemonade Stand game, which is also fun, but not on the level of this game. The lemonade stand is great for smaller kids. Johnny Money is intended for 13 years and up, but I fudged GB’s age and let him give it a go.

It’s good to play alongside your child because there were several things that I had to explain to GB in order for him to understand long-term business decisions.

Go ahead. Give it a try. It’s cool. You’ll like it!