What Have We Learned This Year?

As I complete weekly reports throughout the year, I ocassionally purposely slip in a little math, just for the record.  But really, this year, I had been feeling that we hadn't done a ton of math.  SpiderGirl never mastered the multiplication tables, worked much with area and volume, or advanced in fractions, all things that had been on her learning plan.  BatBoy has been exploring many mathematical concepts, but still, not much to go into a report.  So I thought.  When I began working on their final reports for our Distributed Learning school, I realized just how much they have learned this year.

Math Fever

For the most part, the kids practice their math here and there, for short periods of time.  Their skills, while not lightning quick, are pretty competent for their level, and their depth of understanding is much better than what they would attain through drill-and-kill methods.  And every once in awhile, for some reason, one or both of them will spend large concentrated periods of time playing with math.

BatBoy and Sum Dog

In general, I'm not a fan of video games for young kids.  It's not that I don't like games -- I do -- but when my husband and I were growing up in the 80's, the number and accessibility to games were far more limited compared to today.  Neither of us started playing until we were in our tweens.  Now, with my husband working at home as a video producer, in addition to being a game and gadget geek, we are simply surrounded by computers and other sources of electronic entertainment.


BatBoy, being very like his dad, loves games.  However, lately, I've realized that his love of video games partially stems from his love of games in general.  He loves board games, logic puzzles, Rubik's Cubes, jigsaw puzzles, sports games, pretend games -- all kinds of games.  In the virtual world, he doesn't have to worry about making a mess or encountering physical difficulties due to his age.  The rules are clear and there is always a virtual personage there to cheer him on.  He doesn't realize that the more time he spends on video games, the more he thinks about them.

The Little Things

Most of what we do when it comes to learning math is not blog material. Not every task contains an 'ah-ha!' moment; not every activity is new or surprising. This post lays out some of the little things we do to support mathematical thinking and learning, and some things that we don't do yet, but are in the works.

Number Twister

What do we do when the weather is wet?  When we need some exercise for our brains and bodies both?

Number Twister!

At first, we played with just me calling out addition problems.  Then we made dice.  Regular dice, integer dice, six-sided, eight-sided, twelve-sided dice...  The possibilities are endless!