Math Class

I was in a mood to shake things up a bit today.
That, and I was just going through the games closet, realizing how many we haven't touched in years.

So I brought down Yatzee. Or, as Bekah read it, "Yangtze." (she loves "The Story of Ping.")

We had a great time! They liked to "Shake it, Pinky, Shake it" with each roll. It extended the game quite a bit but they loved it.
They added up their scores on the abacus. They used lots of logic and problem-solving skills to play the game.

And for the first time ever, I won on a game I taught someone else!!!

Math

I haven't talked much at all about math. Which is a shame, because we love the curriculum.

We're using RightStart (link is on the top left of the Blog page. Too lazy to get it myself, knowing you can see it now). Jasmine's still using the kindergarten level because we bought it for her last year, but she's going through it more quickly because of that.

Bekah's in the room for most lessons. We try to do math when Hudson's sleeping because he's just too much "help" with the abacus and place cards. But he's heard enough that when I said "six plus one equals" he chimed in "what?" and I've heard him call the abacus a "ten" (there are lots of "tens" in the way they teach counting.

It's a completely different way of doing math from what we traditionally do in America. I always loved math and did beautifully in it, but I liked the way this goes about it. It's closer to the way children in Japan are taught, but it doesn't put them at a disadvantage when they're tested using Western exams. It's just a different way of looking at math.

I'm not going to try to explain it all. If you're interested in seeing what it does, check out their site. I'll just tell you that we love it and it's done an amazing job.

And to prove that, here's Bekah's worksheet from this morning. (I will note that there are very few worksheets in their system. This is #15 and we've done more than 40 lessons).

(by the way, her 3s are blowing bubbles. My children don't lack any creativity!)

First Day

Today:
The sun was shining. A perfect 70 degrees. The birds were chirping.
The kids bounded out of bed, excited to start the day.
We flew through everything, watching their eyes light up as they learned.

Well, that's how it looked in my head, anyways.

That sun is probably shining somewhere. It sure isn't doing much around here. I think we've had a total of one day of sunshine since "spring" started (which is why my tulips *still* haven't bloomed). The birds might have been chirping, but as it's raining, we don't have the windows open to hear them. Our parakeet, named Casey by B, was happily chirping. So that's something!
B woke up sad because H was already out of bed. She doesn't like to think she's alone when she wakes up, and she can't see J in the upper bunk so doesn't realize she's not alone.
The kids went up after breakfast to check on J, not realizing she was still asleep, and in the process woke her up. Never a good start to her day!
We started with math. They've already done the first 8 lessons (we're using RightStart math) so we jumped into lesson 9...after I found the abacus and tally sticks in odd places around the tiny room.

Bekah had fun "hiding the table" with the popsicle sticks I used until the tally sticks were found.

We got through science (today was just reading about what science is), and Bible ("I already *know* this story!)
We'll do the rest of it tomorrow. We all need a little time to get used to the routine and what's involved in school. She's a little nervous about the first book we're reading, thinking it's a little on the hard side. But she'll get it.