Hands On Learning

  If there is one thing I say for sure about our homeschool, it is that we are a very eclectic homeschooling family. I feel that every child learns a different way at different stages of their lives and learns differently based on the subject. But on top of that I believe that there needs to be a certain amount of "traditional textbook learning".  So how do you meet the needs of the kids while also having some of that tradition? There are many ways to do this and today I am going to share with you our most recent way.

                                        

                                        MATH

Math is one we sometimes love and finish in a matter of minutes and other times.... well, it can take all day! A lot that has to do with the way we are learning and our attitude.  For math both kids are using Horizons by Alpha Omega Publications. So we are sticking primary with the "traditional text books" for math.  But my kids (at least at this point in time) are not liking this way of learning so we are mixing it up. We do our work-pages plus I find an activity or two to help reinforce what that lesson was teaching.  

As you can see from the above photo we are counting by 3's. For Goober this is the very beginning of this concept for him but for RizzyRoo she knows the basics of it.We are working on the speed and really mastering this as it will make multiplication much easier(and that is coming up for her in just a few weeks).  So we had fun separating a bunch of buttons into sets of 3 and counting them as we go. We also sang during this. So we started with 3 and added another set to make 6 then another to make 9. We sang the song over and over as we added to our pile we also added to our song. So the song started with just 3,6. Then 3,6,9 and so on until we got to 54(that is when we ran out of buttons).  The kids had fun singing the song as loud as the could then as softly as they could then as fast as they could. When daddy came home they sang it for him. And every day their workbooks covered counting by 3's we did the song and those pages became easy and fun. 

After we did our math lesson the kids wanted to keep playing with the buttons so we practiced some letters. 

Buttons like these are very easy to find and make for great manipulatives for school. You can do so much with them from counting, shapes, shorting, colors, addition and subtraction, spelling, and so much more. You can find these ones at Hobby Lobby or similar ones at most craft stores, Target, Walmart, and teacher stores or even online. I don't remember the cost of this set as I got it a while back but I think it was like $7 for a bag of  over 100 of them. 

**We are LOVING Horizons Math so far but here is a tip for you if you are thinking of using it. Even if your child is only in preschool it is worth it to get the teacher books because they are packed with lots of ways to help teach the lessons. There are many tips and tricks that help make the learning processes more fun and not just a textbook.**