Saturday, February 27, 2010

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!

3 comments:

  1. Such fun! Looks like good times w/math are a comin' your way!

    BTW, I almost bought those pattern block cards too! We already have a few tangram sets, so I ended up buying the Tangrams: 330 Puzzles book that I'll probably cut the binding off of and place in a binder.

    http://www.amazon.com/Tangrams-Puzzles-Ronald-C-Read/dp/0486214834/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267311769&sr=1-1

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  2. My boys love the Murphy books. I also put the pattern blocks idea into the gparents head for my 3yos upcoming birthday. We already have and love Mighty Mind so I thought these would be a safe bet.

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  3. I'm so glad that my transitioning to living math page has been helpful. I found that a lot of math minded people who understand this process/concept aren't verbally gifted at expressing it well enough for non-math people (like me) to get it. I hope that I've articulated it all well. I actually think there is very little out there that explains the living math concept clearly. I'm not sure that I totally understand it. But I chronicled my journey at least.

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