ofamily learning together

Decimal pages

Posted on November 29, 2017 by ofamily

One of our new Maths topics this year has been decimals. The way I first explained decimals to my daughter was that is was like different handwriting styles for fractions. So just like if you can write the word hello in capital letters, in lower case letters or in cursive, it always means the same thing – hello, it is looks different. So a fraction and a decimal means the same thing but they just look different.

I liked using the Twinkl Circle puzzle pieces for this. We have had our fraction version for ages and found them really useful so I asked Twinkl if they would make a decimal version and they did. It is a great visual way of showing the kids that the fractions and the decimals are the same.

$Decimal and fraction circle puzzles from Twinkl. Combine the two together to help show kids that decimals and fractions are the same thing$

We started with tenths. How 3/10 equals 0.3 and we practiced that quite a bit mixing it up, adding in whole numbers as well so 4 and 5/10 = 4.5. But we stuck with tenths for a while. We added decimals together, rounded decimals and just talked about lots of different examples. Once she has confident with tenths we went on to hundredths and thousands quite quickly.

While she was practicing converting fractions into decimals we played around with some matching cards. The first was a straight forward matching the fraction to the decimal (did not include mixed fractions) – Converting fractions to decimals.

$Decimal and fraction matching cards from Twinkl. Great for students to use when practicing converting between fractions and decimals$

And the second was actually a place value set. I liked this set as she had to read the description and match it to the correct number – it is a great way of making sure they get the difference between tens and tenths. – rainbow place value matching card set (it is a big set so I just selected different cards from the set for her. This set includes hundredths and thousandths as well).

I do think making sure the kids are very confident with converting fractions into decimals is important. So we stuck to our Maths recipe of explaining, make sure the kids understand and can explain it back to me and then practice, practice and practice some more.

Your kids also might like this fraction, decimal, percentage wheel

All Twinkl products mentioned in this post are part of their Classic range (which is included in their Core package). The Twinkl ranges / packages mentioned are valid at the time of writing this post. For any queries on the different packages offered by Twinkl please contact them directly.

Posted in maths ideas | Tagged converting fractions to decimals, decimals, fractions, home education, homeschooling, Key Stage 2, Twinkl | Leave a comment

Santa is coming to London – Children’s book

Posted on November 27, 2017 by ofamily

I bought this book for the kids about 4 years ago and it has been one of their favourite Christmas stories as it is based in London (we lived in London for a few years and now live just outside of London).

The story itself is sweet. The kids love the small elves carrying the massive sack of toys

and the youngest reindeer munching the carrot but the real winner for my kids was that throughout the story it mentions areas that they know.

They loved the fact that the sleigh gets caught on St Paul’s Cathedral and that they mention Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park. Throughout the book different area of London are naturally brought into the story.

It is a lovely story for children who live in or around London or possibly kids who are going to be visiting family in London over the festive period.

The story is sweet, the graphics are fab and all in all it is a sweet book and well worth the £4.99 is paid for it 4 years ago.

After I bought Santa is coming to London I noticed that there were a few other versions of the story

Santa Is Coming to Richmond

Santa Is Coming to Kingston upon Thames

Santa is coming to Surrey

Santa is Coming to Oxford

Santa Is coming to Leeds

Actually on searching amazon I can now see LOTS of different versions, if you are in the UK it is worth having a look to see if there is one written for your town / area.

I love this idea as the kids can get a book based in the area that they live in. I think small changes like that really can make books come alive for kids and help to build that important LOVE of books and reading.

I have included Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we love.

Posted in Book Ideas | Tagged children's book, Christmas, Christmas Books, home education, homeschooling, Santa is coming to London | Leave a comment

The Big Book of 100 Little Activities

Posted on November 23, 2017 by ofamily

I LOVE idea books. Because let’s be totally honest, there are times when you are just stuck for inspiration, especially when the weather starts becoming a bit miserable and the garden is not as inviting any more. And Yes I know these days you can find lots of inspiration on Pinterest but the thing about an activity book is you can hand it to the kids and let them page through it themselves and find something that inspires them. And sometimes they will want to do the exact project they spotted on a page and sometimes a project will be a springboard for a completely different idea.

So what do I like about this particular activity book – the ideas are doable and realistic and not some amazing photo of something that is totally unrealistic. And Yes some of them may require you to buy some supplies and do a little bit of forward planning but so far I have not found something that was totally unrealistic.

And Yes we have actually already done a few of the activities in the book and if you searched Pinterest for long enough you would probably find all the ideas there. But this is for those times when you want to leave the computer alone get on the couch and find and activity that both you and the kids want to do. In my opinion the book is a family time idea book. One for the parents and the kids to get inspiration from and have some fun together. No perfect outcome needed, but fun for the family (I would say the activities are aimed at younger kids – preschool / foundation stage ages).

The Book is split into 8 different sections.

1. Nature Lovers – ideas around plants and animals like a nature mobile, potato porcupine, bird feeder.

2. Messy Makes – salt painting, how to make cornflour goop, play dough recipe

3. Rainy Day – felt pictures, weaving, rain drop pictures

4. Sunny Day – sun catchers, making a kite, ice painting

5. Little laboratory – giant bubbles, flying planes, DIY light box

6. Paint and Print – ziplock painting, making tape picture, fireworks, pom-poms

7. Playing and Performing – peg monsters, home-made drum, box camera.puppets

8. Dressing Up – crows, jewelery, super-hero mask.

I think The Big Book of 100 Little Activities is a lovely compilation of ideas to inspire the parents and the kids and get everyone off their screens.

The authors have also written a few other themed craft books. The Space Craft book, The Pirate Craft Book and The Knight craft book. This is a quick look inside the The Space Craft Book: 15 Things a Space Fan Can’t do Without!.

I did approach GMC Publishers and requested a different Art book for a review and they kindly sent me the book I requested and a few others. This is one of the other books that they sent. The opinions expressed in the post are mine and my kids

Posted in Book Ideas | Tagged activity book, children's book, craft books, craft ideas, home education, homeschooling | Leave a comment

Maths Basket

Posted on November 20, 2017 by ofamily

One of the new maths successes we have had lately is our Maths basket. We started it as a way of encouraging the kids to practice more Maths in a relaxed manner and it seems to be working. The basket is kept in our main lounge area but it does move around the house. It contains a mix of items which I do change for time to time but I always try to have something in there that is for my daughter, something for my son and something that we can do together as a family.

I thought I would show you what we currently have in our basket and also explain why I have included them.

Foam Dice and Bean Bags (the foam dice are from Tiger UK and the Bean bags are very old but originally from Early Learning Center). These are currently the only two “permanent members” of our basket and it is purely because my kids often use them for games that they create. And it does not have to be complex games. Just throwing the dice and working out sums. Throwing the dice and then throwing the bean bags and the two dice that the beans bags land on are added together or multiplied together. Combining the bean bags with loop cards that might be in the basket or combing the bean bags with some toys. My youngest has been working on ordinal numbers so we had a game where he set out his cars and then he threw the bean bags and he had to tell me which position car the bean bag was closest too.

Loop Cards. I have mentioned before that my kids like Maths Loop Cards so I am currently trying to keep at least 2 sets in the basket at all times. One set for my youngest (doubling and halving numbers at the moment) and one for my daughter (currently improper fractions). Sometimes we do end up with a few more sets in the basket. The loop cards work well as it something that the kids can do individually or together with someone.

Also some matching cards – The Ice-cream place value set for my son and a decimal numbers matching set for my daughter (both Twinkl platinum classic). The decimal matching set was not included the video clip I shared on facebook as my daughter had taken them upstairs.

Dominoes – honestly just a fun game for us to play together and whenever we play it the kids are always working on numbers.

Dive into Shapes set – this is in the basket mainly for my son but both kids love the set. They follow the designs on the cards and they often design their own items. I have already written two separate posts about this set – dive into shapes and extending our 3D shapes into drawing and shared a video on our facebook page just because my kids use it so often.

Rainbow Fraction Bingo Set – in the basket as my daughter is working on fractions and the equivalent fraction side of the game is great revision for her.

The contents of our Maths basket changes but the purpose always stays the same. A relaxed way of encouraging both kids to practice more Maths. For us this means the kids can take items out of the basket whenever they want, they can combine the items in the basket with other items or they can use them as intended. We also use the basket in our more formal learning activities. If I am spending some one-to-one time with one of the kids I sometimes ask the other kid to select something out of the basket to do. It works well in both instances.

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged fractions, home education, homeschooling, learning resources, loop cards, maths basket, maths ideas, Twinkl | 1 Comment

Advent Colouring Books

Posted on November 19, 2017 by ofamily

Last week we received a lovely little package of books in the post from the editor of Activity Village. And inside the package were two Advent Calendar Colouring books –Advent Calendar Colouring Book for Kids: 24 Numbered Christmas Colouring Pages for Advent and Advent Calendar Colouring Book: 24 Numbered Christmas Colouring Pages for Adults and Older Children

The kids and I immediately had a quick page through and my daughter declared they would be perfect for family colouring in, so that is exactly what we are planning on doing. Family colouring is something that we introduced a few years ago as a way to encourage my daughter to colour in as she was not a fan and struggled with pencil pressure and weak hands. We would set together at our kitchen table (normally with a few snacks) and she and I would chat and complete a picture together. We started with simple pictures but she enjoyed it so much that years later we still do it only now we work on detailed pictures together. And it has grown to include whichever family member is around (even their dad who normally tries hard to avoid art activities joins in).

The two books have the same themed pictures for each day but the adult/ older children version is more detailed with lots of smaller colouring sections (very similar to the mindfullness colouring pages that you find these days).

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I do agree with my daughter that the two books work well together because the days have the same themes. So my youngest could work on the kid version and my oldest could do the adult version and then everyone else could join in (the grandparents are coming out for Christmas so I have no doubt they will get drafted into some family colouring in).

And something that I really like about the books, they have not printed pages back to back. I LOVE that as it prevents colour coming through from the picture behind. And it also means you could remove the pages from the book and hang them up.

My son has already decided that his favourite page is day 9 – the cat

and my daughter loves the last one day 24 the Santa sticking out of the chimney.

I think our two new advent colouring book are going to be great addition to our Christmas activities. I really am starting to get a bit excited about Christmas.

Update : I thought I would include a few pictures of completed pages

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