Passing along a freebie...

Over on the WTM forums a member suggested a website that you can download a tangram booklet and other math resources for FREE.  Here is the webiste.  (click on the underlined text to follow the link)

This is my plan...

I thought that I would detail a little more how I'm getting started with Living Math.

• First of all, I'm going to put away RightStart for a couple of weeks.  This is really hard for me, because **I** love RightStart.
• I wanted to get something really super fun for the kids to do to bring their attention back to math and have them looking forward for "the next thing that Mommy has up her sleve."  So, I ordered some tangrams.

  

• Then, I ordered some pattern cards to go with them.

•  After ordering tangrams and some pattern cards I knew that the kids would be satisfied for a few days while I figured out what I was going to do with our math.  So, I went searching for more information on Living Math and how to incorporate it into our Family Learning.  When I searched, I found quite a few resources.  Maybe too many resources. My favorite resource BY FAR for learning about Living Math is this squidoo page by Jimmie.  I love just about any squidoo page that Jimmie makes.  I have learned a ton from her.  Thank you Jimmie! 
• I definately plan to use a lot of Jimmie's ideas and planning strategies for our Living Math.  I just hope to put them a little more in perspective to a pre-k or Kindergartner.
• Next, I ordered Family Math.  I ordered both the younger book and the older aged book, so that I could compare them.  From what I have been told by my sister and multiple other online resources, these books are amazing and are worth every penny.  I've been told that they can take your boring, drab math and turn it into your child's favorite subject.  I plan to base most of my living math off of the activities in these books. I'll let you know if everyone is right when I get them in the mail!

• The last thing that I bought was a few of these living math books.  These books are awesome for incorporating math literatured math games into your home.  I just bought a couple of them, and I only bought levels 1 and 2 even though there are at least 3 levels.  I also went onto my library's website and found out that they have quite a few of these books available there.  So, that is why I only bought a few of these right now. 

These books have a great, fun little storyline that incorporates math in a gentle way that your children won't be turned off by, and then at the end of the book they have games or activities and ways to expound upon those math skills.  How fun!

• So, a few of those books and the tangrams is what I will be using for the next week of two while I wrap my mind around this whole Living Math thing.  It will also give me time to look over my Family Math books, and come up with an outline of where I would like for the rest of the year to goas far as math is concerned.

In a later post I will share some of the resources that I will be using to come up with my plans.  I won't be making a strict schedule.  Just an overview that will allow for all of those bunny trails.

I hope you come along on this journey with me and discover how to make math fun for your children!

First Post

I decided to start this blog to chronicle my journey towards living math.  I'm excited about it!  I am a complete novice when it comes to living math, and I am definately not a math whiz.  I hope to share the steps that I take to make living math part of our daily lives.  I will be sure to share both the successes and the failures and also any interesting resources that I find.

I have always felt very strongly that living math using tons of hands-on fun stuff is the way to go.  That's why I purchased RightStart Math A when my children turned 4 and 5.  Unfortunately, it isn't something that my kids LOVE to do.  I have to convince them to do RS.  They like it when we are doing RS, but I often see their eyes glaze over and see that they really aren't enjoying it as much as I had hoped.  I may still use RS, but just do at most 2 lessons per week.

We also have Singapore Math Earlybird A and B.    My daughter absolutely loves Singapore.  She's a workbook kind of girl.  So, most likely I will use the Singapore along with some elements from RS, Family Math and all of the fun games and resources that I can find on the internet.

I hope to make a weekly post listing all of the links, resources, books, and fun games we used that week.  Well, that's the plan at least.  Later, I will come back with more details fo what I have done so far.  Come join me on the journey!!!