Wow … check out all these cool upgrades! Thank you, Andrea and Ron, for all your hard work. You guys rock.

I’m going to try doing learning logs again, and see how it goes. It really does help me think things through in the midst of our chaotic lives. And since my kids don’t do a lot of written work, I need the portfolio fodder. Besides, there’s always a chance that someone will stop by and glean something useful or leave some helpful insights and suggestions.

Though this seems like unschooling blasphemy, I had James sit for a few reading and spelling assessments. I want to put together a portfolio so we have the option not to give the kids standardized tests. (And this year, I may actually follow through! Hope springs eternal.) Though James is a “right brained” learner who doesn’t read or write much yet, he tested at or above “grade level” (he’d be in about 5th grade). Why is that? Well I don’t know, but he did point out to me that the reason he knew some of the harder words on the reading assessment is that they’re in the narrative for one of his fantasy role playing games. Thank God for video games and Calvin and Hobbes, eh? The McGuffey Readers of the 21st century.

Recently he told me he wants to learn math — “the math I’m supposed to be learning.”

“What are you supposed to be learning?” I asked.

“You’re the mom!”

This from the kid who was a vocal advocate for unschooling. So I’m writing a “fifth grade” curriculum. It’s basically a story with math strewn in it, a bit like the Life of Fred books. It’s a wacky fantasy story. This is actually a technique I tried with Sarah for years before I ever heard of the LoF series. I thought this would be a catchy title page   : Math Cover

James and Trishy had an imaginative play with toy animals.

James is having a sleepover with one of his BFFs, and he’s THRILLED, of course. They may even get to sleep out in the tent.

We all did some cleaning today (I call that “life skills.”)

Sarah surfed the Netflix and Blockbuster sites, read some movie reviews, and e-mailed her granddad. She and I also started reading Al Capone Does My Shirts together. Wow … has that book won a LOT of awards or what? We talked a bit about the ’30s, the rise of gangsters, and prohibition.

Trishy and I played Ten Days in Asia and Ten Days in Europe. These games are recommended for ages 10 and up, but she already has the strategy mastered. Why? Because she wanted to keep up with the older siblings of course. It’s all about having the right motivation.

Remember how Trishy wants “Homeschool that is REAL school?” Well, apparently, one of the things “real” homeschoolers do is math treasure hunts. I used to do this with James to “drill” his math facts. I’d simply make a trail of flashcards across the room, and there was a small prize (usually a Hotwheels or Matchbox car) hidden at the end of the path. Follow the trail, solving the problems as you go, and claim your prize. James LOVED this, and wants to do it even though I’m no longer asking him to memorize math facts.

Trishy has been really fascinated with multi-digit numerals recently. The other day, she numbered all the pages in her spiral notebook. She took some creatively liberties. At first, the pages were numbered sequentially, despite some reversals. Then she got into a new pattern … 700, 800, 900 … *LOL*

She wanted to do some treasure hunts today, so I dug up some little counting cards. One set had single-digit numerals and numerals in the teens and 20s. She was asked to read each numeral (“8,” “16,” “25″ …) This was very easy for her; she didn’t even have trouble with reversals, which surprised me. Then she had some cards and was asked to count the objects on each card. She can almost count up to 25 objects — she missed “17″ a few times.

Though I didn’t ask her to, she estimated the number of things on each card before counting them. I thought this was great. She was doing a pretty good job, too!

At one point, I checked to see if she was “conserving for five,” because that’s one of those developmental readiness markers to look for.

I showed her a card with five beach balls, and asked her “how many balls?” She quickly said “5″ without counting. Bingo.

I have become a big believer in understanding math in a holistic, visual way. Instead of just working out
that 7 + 3 is 10, it helps to be able to “see” 7 and 3 fitting together to make 10. I think this makes
math conceptual and 3-dimensional rather than something to be learned by rote. I don’t know how to explain this clearly. But it is something that’s always been hard for me (until recently), and it’s very challenging for my older girl with NLD.

To better explain what I’m getting at: I am a BIG fan of Greg Tang’s books. He was inspired to create his math picture books after visiting a classroom. He noticed that a child had put a pencil mark beside each dot on a domino, and he realized kids had difficulty SEEING a set of numbers holistically instead of simply counting. He felt this held kids back, and he wanted to help them think about math more creatively and dynamically. Here is an example of his picture puzzles.

I’ve worked through these books with the older kids. We had fun with them, though it took some coaching to get them to “see” the answers to the puzzles.

During her treasure hunt, Trishy counted the 25 jelly beans on one card.

Then she looked at another card:

And quickly saw, without counting, that there were 21 (4 less than 25)

Then she did the same thing here:

One less than 25 = 24.

VERY cool! Being an unschooling or homeschooling mom is the BEST job in the universe Not because of anything in particular that I accomplish (I mostly flounder around and overthink everything ), but because I get a front row seat for discoveries like this!

Later, she wrote and drew a story, using some words in standard English which I spelled for her; the rest of it was in her own cryptic language — a string of letter-like marks. I could tell from her chatter, as she was writing, that is was quite an imaginative story. She also wrote out a lot of numbers and asked me to solve equations for her. (“What is 2+2?” “What about 2+2+2?”) The she asked “what is 1-2?” I answered her, then I tried to tell her what negative numbers were, but I don’t think I was able to explain it in a way that made sense to her. I wonder if there are any books aimed at younger kids that introduce this concept?