ofamily learning together

Flower maths

Posted on June 5, 2014 by ofamily

Pink loves flowers, she loves looking at flowers and she loves doing activities with flowers. We have done a number of flower crafts before, and we used flowers when we where learning about sh, ch and th (she loved that) so I thought I would try something similar to that activity but using maths. (post re sh, ch, th flowers).

We started off getting the kids to help me trace / draw the parts of the flower that we needed (Blue even tried to to help by tracing around a tip-ex bottle to get a circle).

Then both kids got to cut out the shapes – we did not worry about the funny shaped petals and leaves that emerged as the kids were having fun and they were doing all the cutting for me.

I then wrote out some addition sums on the petals and subtraction sums on the leaves. Pink had to then put the flower together using the petals and the leaves that give the same answer.

I also did one where I wrote the number on the flower and got the kids to stick the correct number of stickers on the flower.

There are a number of similar flower type activities on Pinterest – we might give some of those a go next week as this proved to be a great activity for both kids.

Posted in Homeschooling, ks1 maths | Tagged flower maths, home ed, homeschooling, ks1 maths | 4 Comments

Fractions as per my daughter

Posted on June 3, 2014 by ofamily

So today while we were waiting for our muffins to bake Pink turned to me and said ” mum my tummy is half full” and pointed half way up her tummy to show me what she meant. I was sitting at my desk busy making her some hand drawn worksheets so I quickly turned the page and made 3 stick people for her (wearing a dress as she had a dress on today) then I asked her to come and show me. So she showed my on the stick people what half full verses full verses a quarter full would mean.

But then I asked what about a third full. Pink was not happy with this so we turned the page and did some basic rectangles and coloured in what one half, one quarter, one third and one whole would look like. Very simple but Pink got the idea that half is bigger than quarter and that a third is bigger than a quarter but smaller than a half.

A bit later on I was helping Blue upstairs and Pink called me down to show me the drawing she had done for her dad (Pink likes leaving a drawing or a note on her dad’s computer every day as she is normally asleep when he gets home from work).

Simple but effective. Totally not what we had planned to do today but so much better as she directed the learning.

Posted in Homeschooling, ks1 maths | Tagged home ed, homeschooling, kids fractions, ks1 maths | Leave a comment

Write those reviews and help others

Posted on June 2, 2014 by ofamily

I buy a lot of the books and kids stuff on the internet which means I read those reviews that all the other buyers leave but I have to admit I often feel rushed and do not spend the time to leave my own reviews. Between trying to plan what homeschooling activity we should be doing to trying to remember what I need to buy who has time to write reviews ? That would be me. Last night when I was grumbling to hubbie about wasting 25 pounds on a kids mat that lasted all of one week before it got ripped I reminded myself that maybye I should spend some time letting other potential buyers know this. So this morning instead of catching up on my friends news on facebook and reading the latest homeschooling blogs I spent some time logged onto Amazon, JOJO’s and the bookpeople and left my 2 cents worth.

I am not sure if it will help someone else but I know that when I am trying to decide between which toy or which book to buy the kids I read those reviews and they do affect my ultimate decision. So some quick thoughts.

Ikea rocking chair for kids – great for sensory kids – worth it !!!

Snap cubes – one of the best Maths tools that we have ever bought. We use them lots.

Little red train book series – great for train mad boys and girls. Lovely books, we love them.

The ark adventure books – Great childrens books

Alex mosaic kit – love it. Blue just managed to do his first mosaic picture all by himself – he was so proud keeps showing everyone his picture – so here it is.

Our super big road mat for JOJO’s – lovely huge road mat (on the first day) but after just 1 week of kids playing cars and trains it is ripped in a number of places. Would not recommend.

I have tried to include postive and negative comments and I have included the ages of my kids in the reviews (I am always looking for the kids ages when I read other reviews) and I have only written the reviews after we have used the item for a few weeks as often the kids love it on the first day and then by the end of the week they actually have changed their mind.

So if you have bought something lately and you loved it, hated it, or just thought it was okay please let a review cos chances are at some stage I will be searching the internet to buy it and would love to know what you thought about the product.

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged book reviews, home ed, homeschooling | Leave a comment

Kids gardening and watching worms

Posted on May 31, 2014 by ofamily

We now have our own garden – we have had courtyards and communal gardens before but never our own garden, never our own space to grow things in. And it is already proving to be such a great learning space. This afternoon both kids where out in the garden helping their dad to weed and get a flower bed ready for planting.

And naturally as they dug in the soil so they noticed all the earthworms (we have some huge ones) and so the questions started. They asked why the earthworms kept going back into the ground, did not worms not like the sunshine, what did the worms eat, how do the worms move when they have no legs……………… They asked questions, we discussed their questions, they watched the worms for ages and yes they learnt about worms today. They learnt without having to sit inside and do a worksheet. I am not anti-worksheets we do worksheets but I know that when they learn by doing and experiencing life they really learn and it sinks in. (Plus my bookcase is yet to arrive and our homeschooling books are still in boxes.)

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged home ed, homeschooling, worms | Leave a comment

Maths activities and printouts we are using and loving

Posted on May 29, 2014 by ofamily

Maths often seems to fill people with fear, but I am determined that my kids will not be scared of numbers. We have a great workbook from SA which we are working through but most of our Maths learning comes from real life living and doing some fun activities which I search the internet from. So I thought that I would share some links of our favourites (all printouts that I link to will be free printouts).

Our bead/ button sensory bin. We have a plastic container which is filled with Hama beads and buttons. The kids love this container and often get it out themselves to sort the buttons/ beads or use the buttons and beads in their imaginary play. We also use this container with our letters and numbers. I have on a number of occasions hidden our magnetic numbers (bought from ELC in the UK) in the tub and the kids have hunted for them. In the latest activity Blue hunted for the numbers to match them to numbers which I had written on a scrape piece of card and Pink hunted for the numbers as answers for some simple addition sums.

Both kids have also been loving these petal counting and petal addition pages from 3 Dinosaurs. I printed off the colour pages and laminated them so that Pink could do them more than once and so that Blue could scribble on them (and believe me she has done them over and over). We also printed off the black and white pages and then Pink used different colour crayons to draw in the petals and colour the flowers in.

Pink loves stickers, she is sticker mad. So she likes it when we use stickers as part of our “school work”. And it can be just a simple thing like building a number line, using stickers in her maths, filling in missing letters from words, it really does not matter how we use them, stickers are always a winner. We found these number stickers at our local Tesco’s for just over a quid (think we are now on our 4th pack).

We also love these great addition cards from the measured mom. We printed ours onto card and laminated them which is just as well as they have been used a lot. Pink actually loved using these cards to pretend teach Blue, it is very cute to watch and I have been amased at how much Blue has actually picked up from these “teaching sessions”.

We have also used the colour by number and colour by sum pages from mamas learning corner. Just love these. Pink is not big on colouring in but she has loved the bug colour by number pages as has one of her little friends. Big winners in our house. We have not yet tried the colour by subtraction pages yet but we will give them a go at some stage.

And don’t forget one of the best ways of teaching addition/ size and measurement is by baking with the kids. We love baking together. It is often messy and we have made a few flops but both my kids enjoy it and as a result of all the time helping me in the kitchen they are now trying new foods. So a winner all around. If you would like some child friendly baking ideas and have a look under the category Baking with Kids. Give it a go it is great fun for all.