This week was super wet, so we spent a lot of time indoors. I just recently started going to The Well Trained Mind
forum. Oddly enough I have never read The Well Trained Mind. Since then I have seen several
discussions on using
Cuisenaire Rods for math. I had heard of them before, but never really thought much about them. We have been making a point of doing hands on math over the summer, so I figured why not give them a try. I bought a set off of
Ebay for like 12 dollars. It came with rods, a stack of game cards, and a instruction manual. Once I got over the goofy 70's pictures we were off. The kids love the rods especially
Sweetpea. We have spent some time playing with them, and doing some of the game cards.
Cuisenaire rods are by far the best math manipulative I have used or seen. The learning possibilities are endless, and the kids don't even realize it is school. Other than playing with the rods we have done some
MEP (followed by
Sweetpea begging to do more), and started reading The Jungle Book. I have been reading A Charlotte Mason Companion, so far it is a great book and I highly recommend it. I also have attempted to get Buster to do narrations this week from The Jungle Book. Attempted is the best word I can use to describe it, so far it is like pulling teeth. I have no idea how to get him to do it right. When I ask him to tell back to me what I have read he will just tell me a
handful of key points. I then instructed him to tell it back like a story, and he went into describing the Movie "Jungle Book" instead, which by the way was not like what we had read. If anyone has any narration tips I'm open to suggestions. I was able to get him more into it with "Owl at Home" I had him read the first chapter then I narrated it to him, and then he gave it a go. It went a little better that time, but I guess we just need to practice. I signed both Buster and
Sweetpea up for swimming lessons yesterday, and Buster will have his last soccer match of the season tomorrow.
Making pictures with the rods on graph paper.
Counting
Making a staircase pattern
More counting! It was quite funny when I came in the room to
Sweetpea playing with the rods yesterday. She had a blue rod(#9) and a white rod(#1)
"Hello 9 I'm 1 if I stand on your head we will be 10" This was totally
unprompted and so cute.
She loves her new pillow.
The guys tearing of the T-111
Stay tuned for the after shots!
Summer finally arrived last weekend, then it promptly went back into hiding after about three days of sun. We bough the kids a pool, and they had a blast in it all weekend. This week I spent finally doing my spring cleaning. Just in time, because Summer officially starts next week. We didn't do any school this week except for Buster reading Mouse Tales to me. He really enjoyed reading it, but I noticed the level two books are getting pretty easy for him to read. It is about time to jump into some harder books. We are having a garage sale tomorrow, so hopefully we can get rid of some junk, and make some money too. Next week my husband is on vacation, and we will be working on the house. The two big kids are going to VBS in the mornings, and my sister and I are going to work on some projects inside, while my husband and his brother work on the outside of the house. Stay tuned for some pictures to come. I have also been contemplating changing math curriculum next year. I'm still up in the air about it so we'll see.
Little Mozart!
Sweetpea's
Tuesday: Buster woke me up by reading the rest of Owl at Home to me in bed, since he couldn't watch TV. We spent quite a bit of time outdoors between raindrops, and in raindrops. We also did some fun math together using the new dry erase board I bought. I read some more Jungle Book, and the kids took turns reading. Tuesday evening the kids started swimming, which means we all had to spend about 2hrs at the YMCA.
Wednesday: My sister and her kids came over to play. Buster has been trying to catch snakes all week, and he had to show his cousins their hiding spots.
Thursday: We had another great math session. The kids continued to play outside, and with all their army toys. I found Sweetpea outside chasing Buster around with a greater than less than sign trying to eat him. Gotta love MEP. Buster finally caught a Cicada and got to look closer at it. Once again we had swimming. Sweatpea's class is first, and she swam the width of the pool. Between classes we went to the park for a bit. Then came back for Buster's lessons. Daddy and Buster almost finished Zoology 3. I'm told they will be done tonight.
Of course the girls had to have some too!
This week was super wet, so we spent a lot of time indoors. I just recently started going to The Well Trained Mind forum. Oddly enough I have never read The Well Trained Mind. Since then I have seen several discussions on using Cuisenaire Rods for math. I had heard of them before, but never really thought much about them. We have been making a point of doing hands on math over the summer, so I figured why not give them a try. I bought a set off of Ebay for like 12 dollars. It came with rods, a stack of game cards, and a instruction manual. Once I got over the goofy 70's pictures we were off. The kids love the rods especially Sweetpea. We have spent some time playing with them, and doing some of the game cards. Cuisenaire rods are by far the best math manipulative I have used or seen. The learning possibilities are endless, and the kids don't even realize it is school. Other than playing with the rods we have done some MEP (followed by Sweetpea begging to do more), and started reading The Jungle Book. I have been reading A Charlotte Mason Companion, so far it is a great book and I highly recommend it. I also have attempted to get Buster to do narrations this week from The Jungle Book. Attempted is the best word I can use to describe it, so far it is like pulling teeth. I have no idea how to get him to do it right. When I ask him to tell back to me what I have read he will just tell me a handful of key points. I then instructed him to tell it back like a story, and he went into describing the Movie "Jungle Book" instead, which by the way was not like what we had read. If anyone has any narration tips I'm open to suggestions. I was able to get him more into it with "Owl at Home" I had him read the first chapter then I narrated it to him, and then he gave it a go. It went a little better that time, but I guess we just need to practice. I signed both Buster and Sweetpea up for swimming lessons yesterday, and Buster will have his last soccer match of the season tomorrow. 
