Finding Your Tribe

I love to people watch. I also enjoy meeting people who are completely different than me. I think it is where my love of blogs comes from. I like to read/hear about how people live their lives, especially when it is completely foreign to how I live mine. Really, who doesn't like to watch 

The Duggar Family do things? 

But when it comes down to daily things, I get by with a little help from my friends. There are other moms that I just need to be around. We are on the same team. They can challenge my beliefs and motives, but always with the goal of making me better, not putting me down. I need to know that we share experiences and challenges that put us in the same boat, so that I don't feel like I am rowing alone.

It's not in the details, it's in the big picture. Hearing someone say that what I am doing matters and what I struggle with is understandable fills my tanks with the fuel that keeps me going.

Thank you if you are someone who does this for me, you know who you are. Now get out there, and find your tribe.

Math Happens

We don't own a math textbook or any type of math curriculum. But that doesn't mean that we don't do math. Often, math comes up as a course of everyday events. Everyday math is everywhere! Many topics come up without my direction everyday - how do you 'average' something? What is a unit price? What are income taxes? How can I double a recipe? How much allowance do you owe me?

A cool way Gavin had found to explore math concepts is through literature. Books like the Sir Cumference series cover topics like Pi, geometry, angles, place value, perimeter, area, and other math concepts. They are considered 'math adventures' and are a totally different approach than that of a lesson plan.

We also came upon a series called Math Quest. Gavin compared them to the 'choose your own adventure' books, only they correct you if you make the wrong choice. He stumbled upon them at the library and promptly devoured all four of them. It was neat to watch him pull out scrap paper to work the problems, or see him bringing them up to bed. Happy reading, Gav.

The Pythagorean Theorem, Geometry and multiplication can all be all be spiced up by a story line - a little like historical fiction.

Mikey prefers hands-on activities like Cuisenaire Rods. Our set has a series of 'activity' cards that teach mathematical concepts. These do not present at all like 'math'. Numbers are not even involved. Mikey, who struggles with rudimentary math in a workbook, can complete simple algebra when the rods are involved. Sometimes when I ask Mike what he would like to do he says, 'play rods'. Please don't tell him it's 'math'!

We gets lots of good ideas from my friend at Toadhaven homeschool and you can too.

We also love games. Simple games like Yahtzee and Triominoes have reinforced lots of mathematical concepts. Payday, Rummikub, Mastermind, Monopoly, Uno and Battleship, and Blokus require adding, subtracting, counting, recognizing patterns, and logic and reasoning skills.

There are tons of online resources including Gavin's current favorite at Khan Academy.

This website allows you pursue all types of lessons, brain teasers, practices and lectures in a methodical, self-directed way. It uses a 'spiderweb' to link concepts together and the topics progress in an order that builds on previous concepts. The site awards points and rewards for time logged and practices completed.

We've watched documentaries like Between the Folds and The Story of 1. We enjoy learning by watching and even Sean is on the action with Leapfrog and he and Mikey enjoy their time with Reader Rabbit.

This is only a tiny snapshot of what is available to our kids - not just to 'learn math', but to learn to enjoy discovering math for themselves. From books, to video games, online resources, iphone apps, and tv - think outside the box! At least, think outside the textbook.  

Flat Fun

My friend, Jennifer, over at Toadhaven got us interested in 'flat' activities. Flat Stanely is an adorable children's book that then lends itself to very fun activities involving 'flats'. You can make a 'flat anything' - yourself or characters from other books - we've even seen flat peaches (think James and the Giant Peach).

A teacher from an Arizona middle school contacted Toadhaven because of her blog posts about flat activities they have done. The Arizona teacher was looking for someone to take the flat crickets her class had made into Times Square, NYC, after reading A Cricket in Times Square. Jennifer knew just who would be interested!

Flat Gavin & Flat Mikey (with Jack & Annie from Magic Treehouse) got to do alot of fun things in Arizona.

The Sonoran Desert

A 'flat' playdate!

We took 4 flat crickets, each representing a class full of 4th graders to Times Square. It started on the train.

We took the crickets to see the sites.

Empire State Building

NY's Finest

Rockefeller Center

M&M Store

Heart of Times Square

NYC Newstand

We enjoyed showing the crickets around. We would enjoy being tour guides to some more flat friends anytime. I will also be getting our flats back to send them off to more exciting destinations. Are you going somewhere cool that our flats can visit with you?

A Weekend Worth of Fun

We saw the Lorax on Dr. Suess' Birthday at the Dunellen Theater. That was two treats in one! The movie was good and if you haven't had a chance to go to the Dunellen Theater and eat pizza on their coffee tables while you watch, you are really missing out!

Saturday, it was on to the Big Apple Circus. We have been attending this circus for about 10 years. "Grandma the Clown" has been somewhat of an institution in our house. Ethan has at times 'been' Grandma the clown, wanted her (um, him) over for dinner, referred to all of us as "GrandmaClown" and pasted pictures of her (him) up in his room. He uses the words "GrandmaClown" and 'circus' interchangeably. We have received free tickets to this circus, gotten great deals and attended with Scouts at a deep discount, but when Dennis was able to secure some front row seats I was particularly excited. I told Dennis the only thing better than sitting front row, would be getting picked to 'participate' in the show ;)

I only wish I got better pictures when the very funny, very blonde, and very scantily clad entertainer in the show planted her self in Dennis' lap several times during the show! She also serenaded him by violin. It made my day!

It was Sean's first circus...does this say it all, or what?

complete with blue cotton candy on his cheeks

On Sunday, some factors came together that would allow me, Gavin and Mikey to head into NYC. What was so nice about this trip was that although we had tickets to Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, we had no other agenda!

We visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, during mass, and heard a recitation of the Apostle's Creed. It was truly fantastic. I hope the library has a bunch of books about catherdrals! We visited the M&M Store and left with $25 worth of chocolate! We found an Earthcam that we waved to Dennis (and some tourists' from France's family) from.

Ripley's was all that we hoped for complete with taxedermed two-headed animals, illusions, real shrunken heads, the Devices of Torture Gallery, and a huge collection of oddities and facts about strange things.

While we were in Times Square we completed a very 'flat' project

we had been wanting to do for some time. Stay tuned!

This is where I'd like to tell you about the exciting outing we took, or neat experiments we did, or the cool places we've been lately. But really, we've just been here. So that means I do laundry and make food and pick up pieces of what-not that occupy the boys while we breath each other's air.

We read, they read, I read, puzzles are done, youtube is watched, games are played and we do whatever it is that we are going to do that day. We run errands and go the usual places, but always against the backdrop of a grayish sky and leafless trees. It's March, and I feel like enough's enough. Winter never does me any favors. 

The house is dirtier, my kids are crankier, and I am not the me that I am when the forecast says sunny and 80. Some days are like that, even in Australia.

Every mile is two in winter. ~George Herbert