This past Saturday I went to the homeschooling conference put on by KWCHEA. it's the biggest quite local homeschool conference and reasonable in price so attending is something I do once a year.
While there I attend seminars. Went to two, plus attempted a third. One of the ones I went to was called math and art. It was fascinating. I really enjoyed it came away with good ideas about how to do art with my seven year old and math at the same time.
As I was browsing the books (as that's a big part of the day) I came away with two thoughts.
1. Some companies seem determined to nickel and dime you for everything. They charge you the teachers text, the student text, the additional worksheet text, then the exams text, and then separately from that... the answer code. Makes me NOT want to do business with those companies. I'm sure there are good reasons for it, but I find it incredibly irritating....as you need to figure out exactly what you need with the hold over your head of "just what if you need it" or ACK...what if I forget something important.
2. some books are VERY good for inspiration.
I saw a book called speed math or some such. It was for drilling math facts. The book well, cost more than what I'm willing to pay but it gave me the idea for helping the lad learn his math facts. he doesn't want to do flashcards, so I'll get him to practice his math by doing a worksheet everyday. I went to Softschools.com for some help in printing off sheets. I was able to put an upper and lower limit on the numbers I want used and then I printed off the sheet. Gave the lad two minutes to get the sheet done. Once he's getting a whole sheet done in two minutes then I'll give him 1 minutes 45 seconds to get it done. And eventually get it down to 1.5 minutes which would be 3 seconds per question which is what every program I've seen uses as a goal.
While there I attend seminars. Went to two, plus attempted a third. One of the ones I went to was called math and art. It was fascinating. I really enjoyed it came away with good ideas about how to do art with my seven year old and math at the same time.
As I was browsing the books (as that's a big part of the day) I came away with two thoughts.
1. Some companies seem determined to nickel and dime you for everything. They charge you the teachers text, the student text, the additional worksheet text, then the exams text, and then separately from that... the answer code. Makes me NOT want to do business with those companies. I'm sure there are good reasons for it, but I find it incredibly irritating....as you need to figure out exactly what you need with the hold over your head of "just what if you need it" or ACK...what if I forget something important.
2. some books are VERY good for inspiration.
I saw a book called speed math or some such. It was for drilling math facts. The book well, cost more than what I'm willing to pay but it gave me the idea for helping the lad learn his math facts. he doesn't want to do flashcards, so I'll get him to practice his math by doing a worksheet everyday. I went to Softschools.com for some help in printing off sheets. I was able to put an upper and lower limit on the numbers I want used and then I printed off the sheet. Gave the lad two minutes to get the sheet done. Once he's getting a whole sheet done in two minutes then I'll give him 1 minutes 45 seconds to get it done. And eventually get it down to 1.5 minutes which would be 3 seconds per question which is what every program I've seen uses as a goal.
Other work done today
We did some reading - George Brown class clown, a bird book and our devotional time. We didn't have time to read the paper together today.
We did adventus - he continues to improve in his musical understanding, today he learned more about how notes are different lengths and they are introducing what those notes are called, target the question - today's challenge really made him have to play attention and think his way through the problems. and Tutorsoft math -. The lad was working on learning shortcuts in multiplication today. He found it a bit of a challenge but we'll continue to work on it.
We did adventus - he continues to improve in his musical understanding, today he learned more about how notes are different lengths and they are introducing what those notes are called, target the question - today's challenge really made him have to play attention and think his way through the problems. and Tutorsoft math -. The lad was working on learning shortcuts in multiplication today. He found it a bit of a challenge but we'll continue to work on it.
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