I get a bit tired of the various memes [definition: things to blog about when you have no ideas of your own, a state with which I can easily identify!] that float around the blogsphere—songs from A’s iPod, irrelevant things that nobody knew about B, or C’s favorite TV commercials… But Dana at Principled Discovery has a new meme that actually looks interesting.
Objective: Share ten of your favorite posts, although they went largely unnoticed in the broader blogosphere.
Oops! No Alexandria Jones post this week. My writing time has been overtaken by the monster school supply catalog (“Mom, haven’t you ordered my books yet?!“) and by yesterday’s co-op planning meeting and today’s 13 (so far!) follow up emails.
Planning a homeschool co-op is a little bit like juggling kittens. No matter how careful you are, something is going to get scratched. Several of the classes I was hoping for did not draw enough interest in the public polling, but of those that remain, I would like my students to study:
dd#1 — drama, photography, sewing, Spanish, writing, guitar, and biology lab
ds — drama, photography, writing, Spanish, guitar, PE/health, and maybe biology
dd#2 — art, sewing, cooking, music, science, and maybe PE/health
[Wouldn’t you know it, not a single one of my kids wants to take any of their mom’s math classes. 🙂 ]
Problem: We only offer three class periods. And dd#1 plans to teach karate during one of those time slots.
Well, whatever else works or doesn’t work out, I sure hope we can get the lady who took these pictures to teach that photography class.
Our whole family is coming down with something again. What a nuisance!
Since I don’t feel up to real cleaning, I guess it’s time to spruce up my sidebar. If you haven’t posted since November or December of last year, you’re outta there. And for those of you who use Blogger — well, I’m sorry, but if I get a persistent “Blogger: 404 – Page Not Found” then you’re gone, too. If you are still actively blogging, please send me an email.
Sometimes I laugh when I read the search engine terms that have led people to my blog. Other times I’m left scratching my head. What in the world are these people thinking? So, for your reading pleasure, I present a few phrases that must have meaning to someone:
Well, it sound more dramatic than the cannonballs and flying arrows we used when I took physics.
As in, “I’m crazy about math”? Or is it, “Math drives me crazy”?
Here is another highlight from my “To blog about it someday” folder: the Shakespearean Insulter. What fun!
There’s no room for faith, truth, nor honesty in this bosom of thine.
It is all filled up with guts and midriff.Taken from: Henry IV, part I
And if you are interested in actually studying the bard, here are some links you may enjoy:
Shakespeare. Yes, again. And again.
Advice on teaching Shakespeare to children.Bardolatry
Many links to teaching advice, book recommendations, and more.
There is no reason to put off Shakespeare until your student reaches high school. My then-kindergardener enjoyed the Trevor Nunn version of Twelfth Night so much that she wanted to get her hair cut, “So I can pretend to be a boy.” This is homeschooling at its best: each of us learning at our own level — and loving it.
I described in a previous post our family tradition of hiding one present on each child’s birthday. Today’s hidden present rhyme was more successful than recent ones — the birthday girl was temporarily stumped and needed a hint from her older sister. Can you guess where they found the gift?
As always, the outside of the envelope is the same:
I’m your last present.
Can you find me?
I’m hiding some place
That you can’t see…
You know it’s winter when you drive the kids to karate practice, and along the way they alternate between arguing with each other and singing along with the radio — and when you come out after practice, before you can drive them home, you have to scrape the frost off the inside of your windshield.
Feature photo (above) by Jimmie via flickr. Photo (right) by Old Shoe Woman via Flickr.
Nearing the end of Miquon Blue today, my youngest daughter encountered fractions greater than one. She collapsed on the floor of my bedroom in tears.
The worksheet started innocently enough:
In playing around with my sidebar organization, I noticed that I had only posted one article under the “Resources” category. Actually, I had forgotten I made that category — but it’s a good idea. There are a ton of great math resources out on the Web, and I’d love to introduce you to some of my favorites.
So I spent the last two days sorting through several folders’ worth of bookmarks to find the best math resource links for my sidebar. (Scroll down to “A+ math resources.”) Most of these are the math websites I find myself turning to again and again for teaching ideas or just for personal pleasure, though a few are ones I haven’t used but that looked very interesting. In the future, perhaps I will take time to write about them individually, but for now, I invite you to click and enjoy.
And please, share your own favorites with me! I’m always eager to learn more about math.
These links were later expanded to become my Free (Mostly) Math Resources page.
Well, I didn’t get any takers with the last story problem challenge. But school is in full session now, and we’re doing story problems in Math Club this Friday, so I thought I’d try again.
Here’s the challenge: Can you and your students make up some original math problems?
In Math Club, we always start by reading part of the book Math by Kids for inspiration. I can’t print those stories here, however, because of copyright rules, so I’ll share some of the stories my past students have made, arranged in roughly increasing order of difficulty. After you solve a couple of these problems with your children, encourage them to try making some of their own.
And please, share their gems with us!
The problems below are now available as a printable handout: Story Problem Challenge.
![\frac{1}{2} \times 8=\left[ \quad \right]](https://s0.wp.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cfrac%7B1%7D%7B2%7D+%5Ctimes+8%3D%5Cleft%5B+%5Cquad+%5Cright%5D&bg=ffffff&fg=303030&s=2&c=20201002)
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 