October 30, 2009

FOR TODAY

October 30, 2009

Dawn's Daybook


Outside my window... Beautiful Snow.

I am thinking... about how easy it is to forget to just "play" and be with your own children.

I am thankful for... A warm home, warm clothes and crafts.

I am wearing... jeans, white t-shirt, button up shirt...cabin clothes. ;)

I am remembering... the stories I told my children last year about St. Nicholas, the meaning of Christmas, and family stories thanks to Karissa.

I am going... to finish one christmas gift today. The girls are also working on one.

I am reading... not much today. Mostly instructions for crafts. Tonight likely the Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe for our Math talk.

I am hoping... my husband stays warm and happy this weekend.

On my mind... the holidays.

From the learning rooms... Sewing today. Math at dinner: dyad. The number 2. Polarity. Light and Dark. Positive and Negative. Mobius strips after Dinner.

Noticing that... my 7 year old has a fantastic memory! She recited back the story of St. Nicholas (the real one) she learned last year in our studies during Advent.

Pondering these words...
Psalms 150
1
1 Hallelujah! 2 Praise God in his holy sanctuary; give praise in the mighty dome of heaven.
2
Give praise for his mighty deeds, praise him for his great majesty.
3
Give praise with blasts upon the horn, praise him with harp and lyre.
4
Give praise with tambourines and dance, praise him with flutes and strings.
5
Give praise with crashing cymbals, praise him with sounding cymbals.
6
Let everything that has breath give praise to the LORD! Hallelujah!


From the kitchen... Baked up a storm yesterday (4 lasagnas!) so we'll have leftovers for lunch. Not sure about dinner..

Around the house... It feels like the cozy holidays already.

One of my favorite things... crafting with my children.


From my picture journal...

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Games

We're always in search of new games to play to teach concepts. Here are a few of our favorites so far:

MATH:

Go fish to... This is played like the typical Go Fish game, except that pairs are made to a certain number. For instance, you may Go Fish to 10. In this game, remove all of the face cards and 10. Make pairs in your hand or on your turn, as a fellow player for a number that will sum one of your own cards to 10. The player with the most matches wins!

Money Math. Each person receives a die (or you can just use one). The child rolls the die and receives the number of pennies that appear on the dice. The first to 1.00 wins! In our house, the first to $1.00 gets to put the dollar in their savings bank. DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS

Grocery Math. Create an imaginary special occasion (and how many people to feed) and give your child a budget to follow. Use the circulars, or take your child to the store write down the cost of the items. Can he stay within his budget? DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS

GEOGRAPHY:

Great States Jr. (ages 4-7) This is a favorite of ours since we can all play together (even my three year old plays). We reduce the time to 5 seconds for the adults to answer and 30 seconds for the children (a minute for the littlest ones.)

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Lesson Plan: Thanksgiving Math

Lesson: Thanksgiving Math

Ages: 6-15 (by varying the difficulty)
Materials: Printable Worksheet, Grocery store circulars/trip to the grocery store, Play Money (optional), Math Manipulatives (optional)
Concepts: Money math, Multiplication (quantity X amount), Comparison shopping, Calculating Tax (older children), Money management, Charitable giving
Increasing the difficulty: Increase the difficulty by having the child calculate tax, reducing the budget ($150, for example), shopping at only ONE store (deciding among brands), calculating actual servings from the nutrition information from the label and buy as close to 12 servings as possible, calculate total calories per person if one person ate all of the items on the menu (the exception being only one or two desserts instead of 4, like ours)

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This lesson has been adapted from THIS LESSON.

Instruction: The students will have $200 to buy enough groceries to feed 12 people for a Thanksgiving feast. The child can look through the circulars (or take a trip to the grocery store) to choose the food for the feast and record the cost on the worksheet. For the older children, have them run the balance as they go, calculating actual dollars and cents and adding in the local tax rate (if any) on groceries at the end. For the younger children, rounding will be more helpful. For both groups, it's helpful to also use the play money to "pay the grocery store." This will allow the children to check their work on the datasheet, comparing the money spent and the subtraction.

Remember, this is a feast for 12! Help your students understand servings and quantities.


Happy Thanksgiving!
Update: We completed this activity in 2 hours. The 6.5 year old did all of the writing and math and our 4.5 and 3 year olds chose the food from the circulars.

Tips: Our 6.5 year old had some difficulty remembering the concept of the hundreds, tens and ones and applying them to whole dollars (for this activity, we rounded; for older children, I would definitely have them calculate cents and even tax rates). To help, we used the Math-U-See manipulatives to subtract as we calculated. Once she could visualize the numbers, it was easy for her. The girls did a great job finding the 'greatest bargain' from the circulars this week.

To check our work, we compared our totals to the money totals (we used monopoly money). We were actually $1 off and figured out that somewhere along the way $1 was confused (probably among the mess of circulars and manipulatives around the table).

From the balance sheet (the running substraction) our 6.5 year old calculated the money we spent: $200-balance=spent. We bought turkey, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, 2 shrimp ring appetizers, stuffing, sparkling lemonade, and pineapple salad ingredients for a grand total of $114.

What to do with the money left over? Maisie decided to buy 12 dinners for the homeless through the Denver Rescue mission ($1.92 per meal, total of $24 rounded up--which we will actually donate). The remaining $62 (she calculated as well) will be put in savings.

We also determined that it cost us $9.50 per person for our Thanksgiving meal. The Denver Rescue Mission provides a meal for $1.92. Maisie was amazed at how much better the Denver Rescue mission is at providing low cost food. :)

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Book Recommendation: Games for Math

GAMES FOR MATH

We use Math U See and Montessori math, but I've found the best way to reinforce Math is to use a variety of methods. Games are a favorite around here, so I checked out this book for ideas.

Yesterday, my six year old and I played pyramid--similar to the traditional card game but you make pairs that add up to a specific number (you predetermine per game). She had a great time making pairs to ten. We've also tried this with "Go Fish" and instead of pairs, you are using a specific number that your two cards must equal. We also made a game board where you throw two pennies and add up the total. The person with the highest number wins!

I also decided to peek ahead to the more difficult math (the book covers games for K-3) and found a great multiplication game. You start with a blank piece of graph paper. Roll the dice: the number you get starts your rectangle. If you roll a 3, trace 3 squares on the graph. Roll again. If you roll a 6, trace 6 squares in a right angle. You now have the rectangle: two sides with the length of 3, two sides with the length of 6. Count all of the squares in the rectangle for the answer (you now have 6 X 3. My six year old hasn't quite grasped what we're doing, but she understands how we're building the equation and getting the answer. She LOVED this game!

If you get a chance, check it out at the library. I'm now purchasing it and the lowest price I found was on amazon.com.

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Money Math Game

Supplies: One Die for each ChildApprox. 30 pennies, 15 nickels, 15 dimes, 12 quarters, 1 dollar bill

Ages: 2-7
Ages 2-3 Counting
Ages 4-5 Counting and basic money exchange
Ages 6-7 Money exchange, counting by 5's, 10's
Older Child Varation: Use two dice, have the child add, subtract or mulitply the two numbers. You may have to change the upper number to two-five dollars, instead of one dollar.

Time: Approximately 20-30 minutes, depending on ages.

Play:Taking turns, each child rolls the die once. The banker (usually the parent or an older child) gives the child pennies equal to the value on the die.For a 2-5 year old, the challenge is to count the number on the die and then accept the correct number of pennies. The pennies will start to pile up. At the end of each turn, ask the (older) child to prepare and amount to exchange to the bank (or help the younger child count up enough for a nickel or a dime). Have the children exchange for nickels and dimes first. The 2-5 year olds may not understand the exact exchange, but will understand how to count the number of pennies. The 6-7 year olds will easily exchange for the nickels and dimes but will have a tougher time counting by 5's and 10's.Once the child has enough for quarters, challenge him/her to exchange nickels and dimes for a quarter.The first one to 4 quarters can exchange for the single dollar bill and is the winner!In our house, we let the winner put the dollar bill in his/her piggy bank.

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Raising Financially Fit Kids

One of our goals as parents is to teach our children about money. Personally, I didn't "get" it until recently and I still feel like I have miles to go. My parents are very wise financially--they have amazing credit scores, pay off their debt, have savings, investments--and I really admire them.

However, they didn't really talk to us about money. They were rather overindulgent and wanted to give us what they didn't have growing up, but honestly it didn't help me when I became independent. I've had to learn about credit and saving the hard way so I'm attempting to help my children into a better transition to adulthood and independence.



I found a great book called "Raising Financially Fit Kids." I bought it one day out of the bargain bin when Maisie was only 2 years old for less than $5. I've always been the type to try and "look ahead" and buy things in the bargain bins with information I'll need to educate the girls; this is probably the best purchase I've made in such a way.

I first read it a couple years ago and I was pleasantly surprised at the information. I've always thought an allowance was about earning money around the house, but this book presents it in a completely different light. It outlines that an allowance is a way to teach about money, not pay your children for chores that are part of being a family.

I could go into detail, but that would take more time than I have right now :) I highly recommend the book; I love it! Not everyone will, but I think it makes perfect sense.

We started step 1 with Maisie today. Our schoolwork was learning about the value of money and where it comes from. I asked Maisie "Where do we get our money?" She said, "The bank!" I asked her how the money gets to the bank and she was at a loss. That's the mystery I think many kids miss--HOW does the money get there?

We talked at length about how I work at home and I don't get paid. It's very VALUABLE work, but no one is paying me factual money for it. Then we talked about what daddy does and how he earns the money from a company by working hard. We talked about how the money gets to the bank via daddy's paycheck so that we can use the money to spend (pay bills, buy food and clothes and some other fun things) and to save for emergencies. We also talked about charity and how we use some of our money to give food to the less fortunate or donate clothing.

Then we created our money jars. I didn't want to leave Dani out, so she made one as well to put her money in when Papa, Nana, or we give her pocket change. Maisie then made her 3 jars: Spend, Save and Give. We talked about how much to put in each and what we might do with them. I also drew (poorly) pictures of the money she is to put in each until she gets the hang of it.



Eventually, I want to take Maisie to the pottery place and make real pottery jars with her, but that will have to wait for a special mom/Maisie day in the future.

The book also outlines money personalities and how to help them develop. When I asked Maisie about dividing up her money into the jars, she wanted to put it all in the save jar. I'm curious to see if she really is a hoarder or if she doesn't realize she will have her own money to spend--then how will she react with money in her wallet to spend?

And as our Math lesson, we talked about the value of a penny, nickel, dime and quarter comparing them to how many pennies each are worth. We'll have to work on that one more--she was a little confused that a tiny dime is worth more than a big nickel :) But aren't most people? LOL

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Great day for schoolwork :)

Last night on the way to music class, my car lost power in the middle of the road :( Fortunately, it restarted and I got around the corner and into a neighborhood. The check engine light was on, so I called to see who could come help and dad was closest. He switched us cars so we could at least make it to the last half of music class (thank goodness!).

Today, he ran the code, found the problem and replaced a faulty sensor. The car is running great! But it's already 3 p.m. and we've missed Spanish, Kids' Club and Drama, unfortunately.

On the upside, though, we did manage to get a bunch of schoolwork done! We literally sat for 2 hours and did Science (finished up our weather chart and talked about the 5 senses; Maisie drew a picture of herself in her favorite weather: snow!), Writing (practicing numbers for Math), Math (we skipped ahead to lesson 9--place values tens and ones since the lessons were too boring for her), and now the kids are enjoying some cutting, pasting, and coloring time.

It's been a nice pleasant afternoon. I finished up some lesson plans and tomorrow we'll work on Geography, Writing Strands, and Art. I'm sad we missed our activities today, but relieved to get so much done.

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Kindergarten Math

Today, after dinner (our celebratory last fast food meal for a month), we had two fortune cookies. I didn't want any, so there were 4 people to split 2 cookies.

I asked Maisie: "If you have two cookies, but four people want to eat them, how much does each person get?"

Without hesitating, she answered, "one-half, mommy!"

Then she and Dani split them up to share.

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