How Baking and Christmas Cards Can Cover A lot of Math, Science, English and Art

I love everything about Christmas. As soon as November 1st hits and the mall turns into a wonderful display of commercialism, I start thinking about cookies and Christmas cards. This year is the first year my kids can read and write and so I figured it would be great idea to create a Christmas "project" that would not only hit all the right "schooling" buttons, but leave me with enough cookies to last until New Year's!

I decided to let my children create all the Christmas cookie and card gifts this year-one for every neighbor, friend and dog we know.

They each came up with a unique card for every person on our list, not only showcasing their magnificent art "skills" but also allowing them to practice their printing, spelling and writing skills. I only had one request-that they try and come up with one unique personal message for each card.

They then used the computer to look up all the addresses we needed, addressed each envelope, slapped on a stamp and put them in a pile by the front door.

Then came the super fun part-making lots and lots and lots of yummy Christmas cookies. For those of you who bake, I am sure that the following sentence is of no surprise to you:

Baking can have a heck of a lot of math and science in it. 

When we made our cookies we started with measurement-cups to mL, teaspoons to grams and the idea behind doubling and tripling recipes as the additional of another group (or two groups respectively) of whatever we needed.

We then revisited solids and liquids and I introduced the idea classifying substances by their various properties-wet and dry, sticky and greasy, hard and soft, crystalline and amorphous. We also talked about following a method to ensure consistent, fluffy cookies and discussed the reasoning behind a method or a recipe.

We used cookie sheets and cookies to show groups of 4 and 5 as well as played a little with visual multiplication and division. I used various amounts of cookies on a sheet, let's say 12 for example, and then had them determine things such as what half the cookie sheet would be, two cookie sheets and so forth. We made up questions like "if the littlest one ate 4 cookies, how many would be left"  and just generally had fun playing with cookies. 

Then we ate a whole heck of a lot of them and spent the evening lying down in a cookie induced coma. 

Good food, good fun, a good day even including the time the kids were bouncing off the walls in a mom-induced sugar high :)

I love Christmas!

The Moment I Knew He Wouldn't Be Going To Public School...

Last week I went to teach a math, science and technology (MST) class at a middle school (I teach from time to time) in my city and left my children with their father. I spent my entire day trying to get 13 year olds to research a topic and analyze and interpret the results. A tiring task to say the very least as they had a lot of difficulty with critically examining a piece of information and creating a way to share their thoughts and interpretations with others. When I got home, frustrated and defeated, I saw this on the wall going upstairs:

I asked my son and daughter what it was I was looking at, my son looked at me as though I was born last week and said "its the solar system-can't you see that?"

I replied with the obvious "is that what you guys did with daddy today?"

To which my son replied "no daddy was working so I read my Big Book of Space and then made my own solar system and taped it to the wall...do you like it?"

Of course I ignored the fact that it guaranteed a fresh coat of paint would be needed next spring and replied "I love it, did you do it all by yourself?" because in all honesty, I was completely shocked at what I saw in terms of the amount of detail that went into it-the relative size of the planets, the colours, the moons and the correct placement-and felt as though he must have had help...

He then said that his little sister had helped him with it a little bit-which delighted me even more because it meant that not only did they manage to do what I was desperately trying to get my grade 8's to feel comfortable doing-but also that they (somewhat) collaborated on the final product, a great bonus!

I wonder if the reason I had so much difficulty trying to illicit the same response from a middle school classroom was because they are not privy to the same opportunities that my children have been. At the beginning of the year, I went out and bought a boatload of books-all levels, a variety of topics, a variety of genres-and then just dumped them in the center of the living room and waited. Slowly but surely my little sponges pick up book after book and taught themselves-about nature, dinosaurs, provinces, rocks and minerals, seasons, mannerisms...and apparently planets as well. The opportunity they have to pick and choose at their leisure (mostly) what to read, what to learn, and what to do with what they have learned has allowed them to flourish in ways that I couldn't have dreamed up even using every "great lesson plan" that's floating around on the internet!

All children are born with an innate curiosity and desire to learn about the world in which they live in-I'd argue that it's part of what makes us such a dominant surviving species. I guess what I learned that day is that if you create the right environment, one in which learning is fun and not forced, resources are varied and plentiful, and give them the time they need, then there exists the possibility of true education.

I also knew that day that I could not risk taking this amazing gift away from my children by putting them in public school. I knew in my heart that this side of them would get lost in the midst of forced assignments, tests, and curriculum guidelines. And that left in that situation they too would end up in grade 8 without having the ability and desire to be able to first determine what it is they want to learn, then learn about it, then communicate their knowledge with others in a creative way.

That was the day I decided to truely sign myself over, heart and soul, to the education of my children. I'm all in baby.

Dairy Day-Why it Never Ever Hurts to Ask!

I know one of the concerns that I hear all the time under "the problem with homeschooling" is that kids will miss out on field trips and get-together's with other kids, so I decided to share a wonderful experience in the hopes that some of those misconceptions may be laid to rest!

When I went to my city fall fair this year, I met a woman (lets call her Beryl) from the Dairy Education Program. This program is run through the dairy farmers of Ontario and according to their website is a "free service to teachers and provides interactive, curriculum-connected in-class workshops for elementary schools in Ontario". My kids were naturally enthralled by the presence of a mechanical milking cow and decide on their own to become her newest students by firing questions at her in rapid pace, barely waiting for an answer before firing again. I took this opportunity to ask her if she had ever done a homeschooling workshop (she hadn't) and if she would be interested in doing one. 10 emails and one month later she was at my door, complete with blow-up cow, a mechanical milker, videos, props and displays ready to teach our city homeschooling group all about the wonders of dairy!

We choose to focus on the basic path of milk from cow to store and on the concepts of solids and liquids. She started with the habitat and diet of cows, which came complete with actually straw, hay, corn and seeds that we passed around in our little learning circle. This was followed by videos of dairy farmers that were parodies of current pop songs, including one that remained stuck in my head for about a week called "Farm it Maybe" that my daughter absolutely loved.

We then moved on to states of matter-otherwise known as solids, liquids and gases-which was wonderfully illustrated with the use of actual dairy product examples complete on a Velcro board and appealed to our wide range of ages and learning levels.



The piece de resistance though was our final activity-making butter with cream! We discussed the state of cream (liquid) and its contents (fat and water) and then through physical separation techniques-i.e. shaking the crap out of the container-we turned our fat and water liquid into solid butter in a mostly water liquid! We then separated the butter out and put in on crackers and ate it all up! It was deliciously fresh and remarkably fun and easy to do!

I guess the point of this blog post is to illustrate the concept "it never hurts to ask". There are many resources available within a city that are just waiting for someone to come along and ask. A fellow homeschooler I know organized a fire station visit, another one a Halloween party, myself a dairy day. I guess what I am trying to say is that homeschooling allows the opportunity for a wonderful educational experience-but just like anything in life, one must seize the opportunity! I encourage you to explore your city and its surroundings and ask, ask, ask! Most people love to share their knowledge, especially
with the ever-rare child who wants to learn! And if anyone has any similar experiences they would like to share, please do as I would love to seize another opportunity!

Fun With Fall Using an STEM Framework (Science, Math, Technology, Art)-STEP 1!

We started our "Fun with Fall 2013" project today with...drum roll please...step 1!

To integrate Nature of Science concepts when we out to collect our leaves, we discussed which trees the leaves fell from as well as why they fall in the fall and then took pictures of them for later research . Science Made Simple gives a great straightforward explanation for kids as to why leaves change colour and fall that I plan on using later when I ask them to do their own research-and bonus, it also has easy fall experiments!

When we got home we knew we had to bag them so they would keep, so I integrated a little bit of math by having them sort the leaves. That's all I said, just "sort the leaves" in order to let them sort in whichever way they wished. Given their ages, I expected them to sort by colour-and colour is what they did:

That's as far as we got the first day of "Fun with Fall 2013", but we could have gone one step higher and sorted by shape or size within colour as well.

The entire outline of "Fun with Fall" can be found here. Our next step will be to spend some time counting them-things like the total amount and how many colours of each and I will use that to very briefly introduce the mathematical representation of a fraction with a brief discussion with the not-so-littlest one as to what parts of a total are. The littlest one and I will discuss more and less with connections to physical and numerical representations of each. I may get her to also do some adding and introduce some "word problems" along the lines of "how many leaves are not red"? etc.

To be honest, I haven't figured out just how far I will take this yet, I plan on basing it on how they respond to each idea on a day-by-day basis. But I guess that's part of the advantages to homeschooling; that I have the option of being able to take it day by day and cater it to what and how my children learn. And yes I know, all teachers everywhere do with their students, but I don't have the same constraints they do-I am free to alter as I see fit, and my children are free to learn as they see fit!

Stay tuned for part 2-T.B.D.

Fun With Fall-Incorporating Science, Math, Technology, and Art-A Full Project Outline!

One of my favorite things about Ontario is fall-the crisp morning air, the delicious smells and the beautiful colours. I find it remarkably difficult to spend time inside once the leaves start to turn, so I tried to come up with a project that would maximize the time I could be outside. I was thinking of the kids as well, but in all selfish honesty, I was mostly thinking about me! 

I entitled my project "Fun with Fall 2013" and here's how it breaks down. 

Step 1-Collection

The first step is to, you guessed it, go outside! On a beautiful fall day spend 2-3 hours collecting leaves. Find as many different leaves as you can-different colours, different shapes, different sizes and different patterns (in the middle of changing from green to yellow versus from yellow to red for example)-and get a few of each to use for different purposes. If you put leaves flat into Ziploc freezer bags, they will stay moist enough to use for weeks! Take pictures of the trees that the leaves came from to use later on in your students research. 

Step 2-Curriculum Integration

I figured the best way to illustrate how you can use leaves and autumn in general in your teaching would be to break it up by "subject" and then leave it (hahaha, get it?) to you, the readers, to decide on which aspects would work for your students. For those of you who want to know where each particular concept fits in the Ontario curriculum  I have also included the subject, grade level(s) and specific strands so you can adapt them to your liking. So here goes:

Math:

Sorting by colour, shape and size (Grade 1:Geometry and Spatial Sense)
Counting both the total amount and amount of each group (Grade 1 Number Sense and Numeration)
Patterning (Grade 1, Patterning and Algebra)
Graphing of each leaf group made earlier when sorting-either pictorially or numerically (Grade 1 Data Management and Probability)
Percentage and fractions (Grade 2/3/4 Number Sense and Numeration)

Science:

Classification of the leaves and their corresponding trees (Grade 1/2/3/higher, Needs and Characteristics of Living Things)
Plant food production and how it relates to the colours of fall (Grade 1-8 Life Systems)
The influence of climate on plant species (Grade 2-8 Life Systems)

Research and Technology:
Using the internet as a tool to research the names/families of the trees/leaves and where else in the world they are found and why
Creating a graph with MS Excel after pictograph/handmade graph is done.
Use Ms Excel or similar software to create a pie circle to introduce/reinforce the concepts of percentage and fractions.

Art (Grades 1-8, Visual Arts):
Rubbings and tracings
Create a painting incorporating leaves
Creating leaf stampers to make a colour collage
Creating a collage in the shape of a leaf, using leaves

I think that this could by a great cross curricular project that would incorperate enough topics to make it a truly valuable "fun with fall" experience! I plan on trying everything and will write about it-the good, the bad and the ugly-as we try it!

If any of you give any of this a go, or have something similar, please comment/share with me, I would love to here about how you had "fun with fall"!

Discontinuity, Fragmentation and Isolation-A Critical Glance at the Current School System

It interesting to think of the concept of units-especially in mathematics. I view numeracy as a skill and, just like any other skill, I see the value in practice. When teaching my son to ride his bike, we practiced a little bit each day. Not for hours, some days for only minutes, some days more, but the point is that while he was mastering this skill, we attempted to give him the opportunity to practice every day-until he reached the point where we could skip a day or two because he had become that comfortable getting on the bike. What I find interesting about the concept of units, especially in mathematics, is that more often than not, the introduction of a new unit leaves behind the skills-even if only briefly-that are still being learned in the old one. Now I am aware that every teacher attempts in every way possible to create some sort of continuity between units, building on the ones before, but I am also aware that when a new unit is introduced, there is an inherent "introduction period" complete with new terms, diagrams, and history. That lag time often results in hearing the following sentence at least once in a classroom: "I don't remember what to do here", followed by "go back to the last chapter and look again". I guess what I am trying to say is I can't seem to see how every student can be expected to master basic numeracy skills when their learning is fragmented into units, broken up every 2 weeks to a month with little explicit, direct continuity between each one. Add on the fact that the school year itself is designed to fragment the learning process every June through to September and it seems almost impossible for anyone to master basic numeracy skills in a coherent, continuous, reasonable time frame. I think it is even worse in terms of discontinuity the farther down the educational line you go. I often think about high school where the following situation occurs just as frequently as not:

A grade ten student has second semester math. He/she had grade nine math 1st semester the year before. In total, that student has not had any sort of formal math instruction in 13 months and, given the nature of high school courses, has probably not seen much to any math in any of his/her other classes. How does one master a skill only practicing and building on it in short, intense, 4 month spurts followed by a year of dormancy? To take it even one step further, how are we as teachers suppose to relate a student's education to their real life if the schooling system itself is the furthest from "real life" as one can really get. Where else in life is everything divided into such neat and tidy compartments? Classes are isolated by "subject", as if "social science" did not influence and was not influenced by the "science" of that time period. Students are isolated by grade, as if life was a series of cohorts grouped by year of birth. Even the history we teach is still largely biased in the direction of Western America, as if it was not part of the rest of the world or, to put it more accurately, as if the rest of the world failed to exist in terms of historical, medical and scientific significance and advancement until recently if at all.

I find it interesting that there are a few schools, most notably in B.C., that have introduced the concept of a full school year with the hope that it will reduce the typical "review period" a.k.a. the reteaching and reinforcement of the material of the year before. The debate surrounding a full school year is not a new one, and according to a paper by the Canadian Council on Learning (2008), it is estimated that students lose as much as one month's learning during summer vacation, with those who come from poor economic status suffering the most. I suppose there may exist an argument that some students need to work in the summer, but for the elementary grades, I cannot for the life of me understand why, in their most formative, suck-everything-up-like-a-sponge-years, we feel that a 2 month break of all formal instruction is of benefit to our students. I also wonder how packed the curriculum would feel if the first month of every year was not spent having to review and reteach the material of the year before. I think about how I feel on my first day back, as if I have been transplanted to a new "life" that is so far removed from my summer "life" and how it takes me a good few weeks to get back in the swing of things. I think about how my students must be feeling if this is the way that I feel...and then I think about what a huge amount of time is wasted on reorientation, review, and reteaching when we have an already jam-packed, almost impossible to cover curriculum. I wonder how things would change if there were small breaks throughout a full school year...would teachers, administration, and students feel less stressed? Would the incidences of mental distress at the high school level decrease? Would student retention increase? Would the school feel more in touch with the rest of society or have the ability to become more integrated with its community? Would the curriculum feel less impossible to cover? Would all people involved be happier overall?

Why Every Teacher Who Teaches Elementary Math Should Have A Big Container of Beads!

Beads, beads, beads-what can't you do with beads? I think that beads are one of the most versatile manipulatives you can use in math for the early years-and, given the latest research on gender gaps in math and science, it doesn't hurt that beads also (usually) cater to (and hold) the interest of girls while allowing them to explore the nature of mathematics and numeracy in general. I acquired a humongous bead set from a friend and promptly went home to devise a series of lessons around using beads. We started with patterns and pattern recognition-in the form of making bracelets and necklaces for various friends, neighbours and stuffed animals-but they quickly grew bored as they apparently had mastered the art of pattern recognition long ago.

So we moved on to grouping, multiplication and division-the meat of the wonder that beads can do! For the littlest one, we first found a group of beads that were her "favourite ones" and then started with grouping them into groups of 2-10, which quickly progressed to addition and subtraction using them as manipulatives;

For my littlest one, she is quite comfortable adding 2 numbers but is still at the point where she must count every one in order to sum. We are progressing towards the recognition of addition as the concept of adding more to a finite number. In other words, we are working away from 4 + 4 is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, towards 4 + 4 is 4 plus 4 more...i.e. start at 4 and then add 5, 6, 7, 8.

As for the bigger one, he is comfortably unaware that he is beginning memorizing his times tables simply through constant reinforcement and is at the point where he can take a "question" and use his memorization until he gets to a point he does not immediately know and then figure out the rest of the way by counting up. So I figured it was time to formally introduce the concept of division. We talked about how to split things up fairly as I introduced the mathematical symbols associated with the process of dividing. He was able to answer some questions without any "thinking time" so to speak, and commented briefly that he was just grouping backwards...good enough for me!

I always try my best to have a continuous "theme" or at the very least, continuous use of manipulatives, running whenever I can (see my post on discontinuity and fragmentation in the school system for more thoughts on this http://canadianhomeschooler.blogspot.ca/2013/09/discontinuity-fragmentation-and.html), and in this case I will be using beads through patterning, multiplication, division, addition and subtraction for the biggest one and patterning, grouping, addition and subtraction for the littlest one. I like the idea of incorporating them into different aspects of the curriculum-currently I am thinking of using them as an art medium somehow, and possibly tying in some history of beads/jewellery but haven't really flushed out a lesson just yet. What I do know is that within those lessons there is guaranteed to be some sort of mathematical reinforcement snuck in there somewhere-and if anyone has any great lessons using beads, please send them my way!

Making a Snail Habitat for Virginia and Leavy the Snails!

Rainy days always leave me wondering how we are going to fill the day, especially in the summer! My littlest one is obsessed (really, truly, obsessed) with snails-she loves to find one and have it crawl up her body while I watch in a mixture of disgust and amazement. My not-so-littlest one pointed out one day that snails only come out after it rains-and suddenly, a science lesson was born! Upon perusing the Internet, I realized that making snail habitats is a common activity for students in  Grade 1 in Ontario- my guess is it is because snails run rampant around here-more so than students in certain parts of Ontario, I'm sure! I decided to take the opportunity to highlight a set of different literacy skills in this "science-based" activity as I always try my best to create multidisciplinary lessons whenever I see the opportunity. In this case, I found a blog post describing how to create a snail habitat and had my students (children) pick apart or analyze the "story" for the key pieces of information we needed:

I decided that given the emphasis on the new "Bloom's Taxonomy" for a digital society, http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom's+Digital+Taxonomy, to approach this lesson in a way that allows the opportunity to research a subject, analyze the information provided and come up with an appropriate course of action in building our "snail habitat". Since all of the P.D. days I have attended (not to mention to the courses I have been lucky enough to participate in) have emphasized that "learning in a digital age" requires both the ability to research and analyze the information found, I believe that any opportunity that I can find that helps to facilitate the learning/mastering of this skill set should be exploited.

Once we figured out what we needed in order to make our snail habitat, off we went in search of materials in true scavenger hunt-like fashion, crossing things off as we "acquired" them:

When we had everything we needed, snails included, we headed home to make our first habitat, which, if I do say so myself, is a pretty fine looking habitat, fit for even the best of snails:

Our habitat is currently occupied by 2 snails, Leavy the girl-aptly named because she likes to eat leaves, and Virginia the boy snail-no explanation given for that one. I figure I will wait to discuss how some things on earth have both boy and girl parts! As of today, they have survived 4 days in their new home-personally I figure if they last a week, which is longer then most of our fish do, then this project will be deemed a success!

Toronto Reptile Zoo-Turtles and Cobras and Nile Crocodiles, Oh My!

When I saw an advertisement in my local paper for discount tickets to the Toronto Reptile Zoo, I immediately thought of the easy connection that could be made to the Grade 1 and Grade 2 Science and Technology Curriculum: "Understanding Life Systems" Strand. In this science teacher's opinion, if you have never been to the Toronto Reptile Zoo, it is definitely worth the trip! I must admit, I was a little skeptical as to how amazing a zoo located inside what is essentially a large commercial building in a industrial strip mall type setting could be; but after going through their website and visiting the place, my skepticism was laid to rest. They cater to those who do home school and offer sessions that directly teach aspects of the Ontario Science and Technology 1-8 Curriculum in a hands-on, interactive manner. They offer live feedings and live shows every hour on the hour that discuss aspects such as cold-blooded versus warm blooded, the food chain and food web, habitat, diet and mating, along with characteristics specific to each reptile and reptile family. Although I truly expected a show focusing on the "wow" factor of these scary things that creeped, crawled and swam, the focus was completely educational-a 15 minute (roughly) blurb about the reptile, at least 15 minutes devoted to questions, and, the best part, 15 minutes devoted to actually being able to touch, smell and watch the reptile move without the separation of a pane of thick glass!

To prepare for our visit, we spent some time learning about some of the different reptiles that were at the Toronto Reptile Zoo using a variety of different media. We read dictionaries and encyclopedias, devoured National Geographic's website and watched videos of reptiles in action. I created a little worksheet for a few of them and had both the littlest and not-so-littlest one answer questions about diet, habitat and characteristics in order for them to practice both their printing skills and more importantly, their ability to digest information, analyze and make sense of it, and then communicate their understanding through writing:

When we discussed habitat, we used a globe and discussed where each reptile was found in the world and what characteristics of that particular place made it an ideal place for that reptile to flourish, and, in some cases, even went as far as to discuss the similarities and differences in locations in the event a species was found in more than one part of the world.

When we returned home, we talked about the "habitats" that existed in the reptile zoo for the species we focused on and how they resembled (or didn't resemble) the natural habitat we learned about. I decided, due to the sheer volume of diverse species found at the Toronto Reptile Zoo along with the sheer amount of different ways I could connect this zoo to the Ontario curriculum using a multidisciplinary approach-science and technology, geography, history, sustainability, and even mathematics (think graphing, Venn diagrams and percentage)-to pick up a few more discount tickets...stay turned!

Chore Charts, Money and Decimals

About a month ago the kids started asking about money and how much things cost, so we decided as a family to introduce the concept of an allowance and of chore charts. I know there does exist some controversy around the idea of chore charts and an allowance-that introducing a monetary reward for tasks around the house may contradict the idea that tasks around the house are to be done as part of familial upkeep, leading to the possibility of children only helping out around the house if money is the end result. I am keeping this thought in the back of my mind as we try out this idea, but for our family personally, I see it as a way to introduce the concept of income and reinforce all mathematical concepts associated with money by using it as a application platform for counting, addition, subtracting, grouping, multiplication, number scales and even decimals as their knowledge builds.

There are numerous free chore charts online that anyone can use and we choose a different one every week depending on the mood of my children at that particular moment. I then print them out and have them print out their chores for the week:

I have found that my son is a "reluctant printer". That is to say that he truly detests any sort of worksheet making him rewrite the same letter or word over and over again-as do I. So I try to find ways (at least one) on a daily basis to incorporate printing into something he enjoys doing-in this case, getting set up to make more money.

When we put them up on the wall, they are accompanied by a second sheet that has the value of each chore on a per day basis:

They have a visual to look at every single time they go near their chore chart that contains the image of the coin, the written denomination, the name of the coin and its decimal or numerical value. Although neither child understands the concept of decimals, they do understand that "after the dot means cents, before the dot means dollars". In other words, they are gaining some prior knowledge based in a mathematical application that will fair them well when they are ready to learn all about number scales and decimals.

At the end of every week, we add up how much money they have made, denomination by denomination and then as a sum. Depending on how the day is going, we also group them, stack them, and play a game called "trade you" where they cash in their denominations for another type of coin-right now they are both obsesses with Toonies, so they count their allowance up until they reach $2 and then trade me for a Toonie.

I know it may seem like an awful lot of work both for them and for me-typically there are around 10 lessons surrounding the concept the numerical skills associated with operations of money up to $100 and 8-10 lessons on decimals (including fractions) in the grade 4 Ontario curriculum (Number and Numeration Strand)-and of course there is some introduction in grade 3 and building on concepts in grade 5 and onward. However, one of the biggest complaints surrounding the public school curriculum is the lack of time allotted to teaching key concepts in a inquiry-based deeper understanding kind of way. I figure if they even grasp some of what we are doing week after week, month after month then they may have, at the very least, the prior knowledge and experience needed to navigate through this rapid-fire curriculum they may encounter in the future if public school becomes part of their educational pathway! So as long as they enjoy it-and they really do right now-then I will continue to cash in their interest!

To The Toy Store We Went!

Much to my dismay, my children decided that this beautiful sunny day was the day we would go to the store and spend the money they made from their freezie stand. I figured that since they may be counting up to $40 in mostly quarters, we should probably go very early in the morning.

They spent approximately 2 hours deciding what to buy. During that time they learned a few harsh lessons:

1. Toys cost a lot of money
2. The amount of money they had was finite
3. They could not buy the whole store and had to choose what they truly wanted

...and finally

4. That Mommy would not "top-up" the amount they needed for a toy that cost more than the amount they had!

They took their time picking and choosing, adding and subtracting as they figured out how much they wanted to spend. My son wanted to spend as little as possible because, as he so eloquently put it, "I still want to have lots of money" while my daughter was quite content to spend every last cent she had earned.

When we finally arrived at the cash with our very, very, very, carefully chosen toys, I warned the cashier that they would be giving her the money. She gave them a look and then me, one mixed with slight annoyance and disbelief, but I chose to ignore it in favour of my children having the full experience of choosing and then paying for something they earned themselves, by themselves.

I don't know what was more thought provoking for me, the fact that no one seemed to mind the line getting progressively longer and longer as each of my children counted out almost 30 dollars in mostly quarters or the fact that the high school cashier needed to count each one twice as she messed up the first time for each child respectively. She joked that no one uses cash anymore, I joked that it was because no one knew how to count anymore.

We were there for 2 hours and 37 minutes in total before we finally left the store.

I buckled my son into his car seat with his chosen prize-a great white shark made by Animal Planet-and then went around to buckle my daughter in, only to hear a sad little voice say "mommy, my shark has a tear in its mouth"

F***!

He said that it would be fine and he would play with it anyway, but then I asked him if he would be truly happy with his shark or if we should go in and exchange it for a new one. Now my son is the type of person who will do just about anything to avoid confrontation, including accepting something that he is not happy with, so this became yet another learning opportunity along with a way to round out the total time at the toy store to a good 3 hours.

So back in we went, him clutching his shark and his receipt, begging me to deal with it for him. I refused, not because I was tired, hungry and sick of the toy store, but because I wanted him to learn that he can stand up for himself and be okay.

He went up to the man and said "I bought this 5 minutes ago and noticed in the car that its mouth was ripped. Can I get one that is not ripped"?

And the man was so surprised with the little boy who could barely reach the counter that he offered to go with my son to find a perfect one.

And they did.

And my son was happy, "100 percent".

And so was I, because just as its important to learn numeracy, it is also important to learn how to stand up for yourself and be comfortable in confrontation with the goal of amicable resolution in mind-a lesson my son learned today that made him stand a little taller and walk with a little more swagger.

Counting our Freezie Stand Money!

After our month of freezie stand sales, it was time to finally determine the fruits of our labor! They grabbed their piggy banks and eagerly ripped the bottoms open knowing that once they knew how much money they had, they could finally buy their own toys.

They first grouped them into their respective denominations-reinforcing the physical characteristics of money grouping and discriminating for both:

For each one, I made a table so they had access to a visible numerical value as we were counting in order to continue to make the connection between the coins and the numbers they represent:

I know that they are both a little young to grasp the concepts of decimals just yet, but just by having them there to see it becomes an informal introduction to decimals with the association of money-theoretically making it easier to introduce formally later on as they have some sort of previous knowledge of them going in-even if it is as simple as seeing them before!

Although I recognize that my littlest one may still be working on the actual concrete representation of adding 5 more or counting by 5's (or 10's etc.), this activity is, at the very least, numerical pattern recognition for her along with the concept that objects can hold numerical value:

For the not-so-littlest one, he is still working on counting quarters but has just reached the point where he does not need to group them into 4 to count by dollars. The rest he can no do with ease, so we are working on adding multiple sums both verbally and on paper. We do them one after the other, so the numbers on paper hold a concrete physical representation in his head.

The verdict?
Littlest one-$39.80 and Not-so-littlest one-$41.09

This included their allowance, maybe a few dollars if that, him a little more than her by nature of their responsibilities.

The conclusion they ended up coming too?

"We make way more with the freezie stand, you should give us more money for allowance or we should just do freezie stands and not chores"

Dammit.

The Monthly Calendar-Better Late Than Never!

The "feels like 34" forecast of today made it the perfect day to make our monthly calendar-that and the fact that it was 3 days overdue. The littlest one picked out her favorite "summer colours" while the not-so-littlest one grouped them into groups of 2, 4 and 8 when she wasn't looking. Being a science teacher with a very strong math background, when I see him doing things like that it makes me think that sometimes I may overdo the "math is in everything" mantra, although I must admit it always makes me smile!

Starting:

The reason I like doing the calendar every month is for the sheer amount of teacher opportunities it presents. Not only does it reinforce the days of the week and months of the year but they also get to practice printing all the words and letters (JK-Grade 1 Language and Math Curriculum). Not to have a single day without some sort of numeracy skills, today we had the littlest one practicing counting by 2's writing the even days in July and the not-so-littlest one counting by 2's writing the odd days. I will admit that it takes a good hour and that when we started it took more like two and a half, but it was the dead of winter so it became a great way to pass the time! We finished it all off by drawing all the plants we see in July (SK Science and Technology Curriculum)

Finished Product:

Bike Riding, Measuring and Mud Chicken!

So its the 2nd of July and I have started full throttle with my campaign to start the most fun "educational" summer ever! We started the morning off as per usual:

Me: "what do you guys feel like doing today"?

Them: "Dunno, bike ride, something fun, a field trip"

Me: "Dammit, I really should have planned something"

So I did what any good parent/teacher would do..incorporated their suggestions into an on-the-fly day focused on measurement and plants and of course, the necessary D.P.A.-bike riding.

We grabbed a bottle of water, 2 rulers, post it notes and a pencil and headed out.

For the littlest one, I decided to focus on getting comfortable using a ruler, assigning a numerical value to objects, organizing objects from biggest to smallest and connecting the numbers associated with those objects to the concept of ordering numbers (SK Numeracy Curriculum).

For the bigger one, we focused on measurement in cm versus inches, assigning a measurement to objects, ordering objects based on measured size and graphing the resulting numbers (Grade 1/2 Math Curriculum).

The objects they chose were the bike seat (22cm), leaf of a willow tree (9.5cm), a dandelion (11cm including stem) and a stick (16cm). We discussed living versus non-living things (SK Science and Technology curriculum), dandelion goo and brown sticks versus greeny/brown branches.

We then finished off the day by stopping off at our favorite restaurant (a set of bleachers belonging to a beat-up old baseball diamond) for some mud "chicken" which I paid for by counting by 5's, 10's and 2's...

Tomorrow's lesson? The power of bleach?