Hands On Maths.

Thrusday 20th February 2014

Miss Personality and I haven't been home schooling for very long.

We discovered it when we lived in Australia. We did 6 months of it, before I started to freak out. Miss Personality and I were going through a difficult place with finding a method that worked. It was all it took for me to lose faith in myself, so I sent her back to school. 

Then when we moved back to New Zealand, and I decided that we would return. The issues we were having at home, did not change at school. So I was reaffirmed that it wasn't me, that she was struggling with, it was learning in general.

Any way we have been using work books, after a couple of pages Miss Personality resists. She is not a big fan of writing in general, and it doesn't seem to change that when writing numbers.

We tried some on line stuff, she got bored with that too, rushed through the videos, and just took random guesses to find the answers.

Maths just isn't my thing, I hated it at school and as soon as I could use a calculator, I thought what was the point to learning all this stuff any way. I probably just needed a different way of being taught this stuff too.

I have been researching today for ideas. I quiet like the idea of Montessori, but I know nothing about it, apart from your child becoming an independent learner, it is hands on too.

I found websites, blogs, and then I found the You Tube has it too. There are so many videos to help you learn how to teach in a Montessori way, it was amazing.  

So now I am all juiced up on ideas, with no way to put them into action right now.

So I will be off to the shops tomorrow, finding some bits and pieces to make my own resources.

Hopefully I can set this stuff in motion and Miss Personality will enjoy it and love doing maths, well more than I did at school.

Will keep you posted with photos as soon as I have put things together.

What way does your child or children learn best with Maths?

Do you enjoy it?

How do you help your child progress as they get older?

What way do you teach Maths? 

Geography Matching Game.

Thursday 20th February 2014

For some people geography is interesting enough on it's own. But when you have a child who's eyes glaze over if the book has too much information in it and not enough pictures. Trying to find a way to teach this topic can be difficult.

So I had a light bulb moment and came up with a interesting way to teach this. More hands on and I guess inspired by some of the Montessori research I have been doing lately.

I found pictures on google of basic maps, flags, currency, of about 9 different countries. Then wrote down the word 'Hello' from the language of those countries too.

So her task is to find the map, flag, currency and greeting from the same country. 

When she thinks she has guessed right, she puts them on a tray (or and upside down lid).

Then she turns them over to see if they all match. If they don't match (meaning not all from the same country), then she puts the ones that don't match back and has another guess till they all match.

On the back of the map, is interesting facts about that country. Like capital, largest city, famous buildings, famous people, lakes or rivers, highest mountain, favorite sport, national animal, that kind of thing.

On the back of the flag, is population. I found this was a great way for Miss Personality to practice reading out the number, as in thiry three million, four hundred and three thousand, and three hundred and six people.

On the back of the currency, is the name of the currency used and then I compared it with our currency. Then we talked about whether the currency of the country that was matched up, was more or less than our countries currency.

On the back of the greeting, was what language or languages were spoken in that country.

The great thing about this game is you can keep extending on it in any way you want to. Like pictures of famous buildings, favorite sport, national animals, where ever you would like to take it.

Miss Personality enjoyed it so much, she asked if I could add some more countries of her choice to the mix.

So for now I have found a winner. Will keep using it as long as there is an interest and keep adding other pictures to it too.

Modifying Our Day's Plan.

Monday 17th February 2014

I had decided last week, to change things slightly.

I was going through one of those moments when I thought I wasn't teaching her enough.

You know that panic that slowly creeps up you, until you go OMG!, what if I fail.

I don't have those moments very often, and hadn't had one for a while. But for some reason I was thinking about her getting older and feeling doubtful about being able to keep extending on her in a way that is like school.

Then I have to remind myself - THIS IS NOT SCHOOL! STOP COMPARING!

Any way Miss Personality had a late start as usual, but with an added attitude that comes from staying at grandma's for the weekend. We all went to grandma's for the weekend and she had got to spend time with her big sister, big brother, his girlfriend and their gorgeous little baby girl. The excitement of staying at grandma and grandad's as well as being unsettled in a bed and house that wasn't what she was use to. Added up to a little girl that didn't go to sleep till 11pm every night we were there. But that's okay, doesn't happen very often and now we are home, we can get back into our own kind of routine :)

By the time she had breakfast, done her personal jobs and was ready to start her day of learning, it was about 11am. 

She read off the list of planned activities and chose to start off with English. I have divided her activities up in to some of the key learning areas of the curriculum, so that I feel reassured she is doing enough :)

I have found she likes to have a planned day to a certain degree, but she gets to chose when she feels like doing it. We both win :)

She did some literacy on the website - Study Ladder. She chose to do some reading and comprehension, by reading a short piece on 'The Legend of Santa'. It stated where Santa's office was, so Miss Personality had to find it on the world map on the wall. After she read the short piece she then had 10 questions to answer.

She went on to do some spelling and vocabulary exercises on word families 'ick and eck'. Grammar on nouns and then did a list of words related to her butterfly unit study on the website - Spelling City.

Miss Personality moved on to Geography. On the website - Study Ladder they have a section on languages and culture and then another section on maps. For languages and culture, she got introduced to Spanish and counted up to 10, then had to match the word with the number. Then for maps she had to study a map that was given, that had the name of each country and the capital. Then it asked 10 random questions. Miss Personality found this hard to memorise every country. So we modified this activity. For each country she was asked to identify the capital, we used google maps to find the country and then found it on our wall map. Then she used google maps to find the capital and then identify it out of the 4 options she was given, and chose the right one. She enjoyed this process so much that she wanted to do the 10 questions twice, as each time they asked a different 10 questions.

Miss Personality then moved on to Maths, but after she started realised it was lunch time, so we stopped for lunch.

She then did Study Ladder - Maths and did some practice on the 3 times tables. She got bored from this and moved on to Science - Butterfly Unit Study. She had to answer the questions, how many different kind of butterflies in the world, then how many different kinds in New Zealand. She chose to put these into a word document. Then she had some small maps of different countries that I had printed out, and she had to match the pictures of the butterflies from those countries, after looking at the website I have found this information from.

I noticed she started losing enthusiasm for this, as to her she had HEAPS to cut out. I have noticed if visually she notices something, like too many pages or too many words, she starts telling herself that she can't do it. I tried to keep encouraging her to finish cutting the pictures out. Then she went on to the websites and started matching the butterfly pictures to the maps. She was really waning now. Asking if she could do it tomorrow. I tried to keep her motivation going. But after she had slowly sorted 3 maps out, in transferring them to another table, she dropped them on the floor, getting them all mixed up again. That really tested her motivation and she was very disheartened. I got her to pick them up and then she kicked the same little toe on the same foot that she has kicked so many times in the last week. She lost it then, ending up in my arms crying with despair.

I took this for the signal that it was, and that was she was still tired from the weekend. After she had her cuddles I suggested she finish her apple she had been eating, in bed, with her feet up and watch a dvd in her bed.

As much as we have a plan (kind of), there is always room for change, as there is no point pressing on if the momentum is lost.

Tomorrow is a new day :)

Blended Families And Becoming Grandparents.

Monday 17th February 2014

On the weekend I got to see my lovely grand daughter who is a month old. She is my first grand child.

It is the most amazing thing watching the transformation happening in our family.

My first born son, has not only grown into a man, but now a father.

His girlfriend and him are young, but still way older than what I was when I had him.

I am in awe of him, every time I see him and his little family.

Watching a person that you helped create, cuminate everything that he has seen or been a part of, into creating his own style of parenting, and doing a fantastic job of it too, might I add.

The foundations of this all, is a blended family.

Now no two families are the same, and they are even more different when you have blended families.

For us what worked for us will be different to how it works for others.

It has been interesting for us, to see how our choice to be a  blended family, has had an affect on not only the children we entered the relationship with, but also our daughter we had together. As well as a chain reaction to other family memebers like aunts, uncles and grand parents. It's something we never thought about. 

When you enter a relationship, your main concern is how you and the new partner, get along. But when one of you or both of you have children as well. You are also concerned about them getting along with your new partner as well as the new children.

Then you have the ex's, to juggle and negotiate what situation of sharing the children, will not only suit the ex, but also the new partner and new children.

It can all seem hugely over whelming when you think about it in great detail, but when your in it, you just jump on the rollercoaster ride and go with it. Some days can be a challenge, other days can be lots of fun. Most of all, you are just trying to form a family. It doesn't matter where all the family members came from, as long as you all feel like you belong and are loved in your home.

We thought we had this blended family thing pretty sorted. 

Mr Confident lives with his girlfriend and their little girl.

Mr Affectionate, still lives with his dad, but is working and pretty much doing his own thing.

I know longer have to negotiate with their dad over how much time I can have them each year, as they decide for themselves, and I now have to share them with their job and girlfriend (if they have one).

Christmas's and birthdays can still be difficult to negotiate, but what I have learnt the most is you just make the most of the time you have with them, when ever that may be, and for how ever long it may be.

Miss Blondini still lives with her mum, but she is nearly 14 and her dad can negotiate directly with her now, and then double check with her mum. Still making sure we respect her interest in gym and her teenage need to hang out with her friends. But we also know she loves every chance she can get to hang out with us too.

There has always been an element of sharing with grand parents as well. 

Because of course, why should they miss out. They miss the shared grand kids as much as everyone else does. But they also don't have the same level of understanding that comes with sharing. Sometimes they can be lead to believe that you don't care enough because you are not prepared to 'fight harder' for as much time as you can with your child. I know they are only operating from their own desire of missing their grand child. But sharing a child with an ex, is not about fighting over them, or treating them like an object of possession. But understanding that this child has every right to spend as much time as they can with both parents. If the other parent is providing a safe and loving home, then there is no reason why the child can't spend equal amounts of time with each parent. But sometimes heart and logic don't always go hand in hand, and emotions get mixed up in there and then things can get messy.

Now we have become grand parents, we are seeing an extension of that complication.

My in laws, who are not my boys biological grand parents. Who have tried their best, given the circumstances, to treat them the same as their biological grand children. We are now observing an un forseen arkwardness in regards to becoming great grand parents. And it is hard not to feel a little offended by it, but then I still have to remind myself that this is their emotions, and they have every right to feel them, no matter what they are.

Our blended family is all happy about this transition. Becoming young aunts, uncles and grandparents.

 But there are still a few of the family that doesn't know what this new transition means for them. Or how to deal with the situation without offending someone.

I have had my ex's wife, say that she is just the step grand parent. I said yes that may be the official title, but as far as I am concerned she is just a grand parent like me. Just so she knew that she wasn't stepping on any bodies toes by having that title.

Then my husband has experienced someone tell him that he is only a 'step grand parent' and it's not the same as when your own child has a baby. When as far as my husband is concerned he is a grand parent and proud of it.

Even though the juggle can be hard and I am sure a lot of people who are still married and all their children are biologically theirs, would read this and go OMG! that is just way too complicated, I could never live like this.

For us this is just what is means to be a family, and I wouldn't want to have it any other way.

Our children know they are ALL loved by us and we will do anything we can to spend as much time as we can with each and everyone of them.

This is our family and we are poud of it :)

Miss Personality And Her Computer Day.

Wednesday 12th February 2014

Today I decided to give Miss Personality a computer day. There was a catch though, she had to stick to her educational websites like -  Study Ladder, Brainpop, Model Maths etc.

The other catch was that she had to write down everything she did and on which site. Mum's sneaky way to get her to do some hand writing :)

She started off with watching some animated movies on Brainpop. They are usually about 5 minutes long and have quiet a lot of information, that isn't over explained. But gives your child enough information as a bit of an introduction to a topic, or revision if they have already covered it before. 

Here is the link if any one is interested -http://www.brainpop.com/

It's american and you have subscribe to use it.

Any way Miss Personality chose to do - Blood, Urinary System, Bruises, Burns, Chicken Pox, Small Pox, Dinosaurs, Adolf Hitler and Anne Frank.

She also played some games of Build a Body, Pyramid Panic, Flower Power, Build a Meal.

Then I asked her to do some maths on Study Ladder. Study Ladder is based on the New Zealand curriculum. They do a little test at the beginning to assess which level they start at, then off they go. There are short movies to teach a concept depending on what topic you are doing. Then there is online questions to answer to practice what they have learnt. There are also educational games. They send out certificates every now and again to your email account. I like using this website as another way of teaching maths, but they cover all key learning areas. 

This the website if anyone is interested - http://www.studyladder.co.nz/?lc_set. 

Again you have to subscribe to be able to use this. Miss Personality resisted this right from the word go. Didn't want to do it at all. I managed to get her to do one activity before she moved on to something else.

Miss Personality then chose to do some Maths Models - http://www.multiplication.com/games/play/math-models

This one is free and you practice your times tables. We came across this one, by researching on google. For each round of sums you get right, your model gains an item, which get put on your model at the end of all your rounds. Miss Personality likes this game because she gets to dress the model.

She did her 11 & 7 times tables today.

Miss Personality moved on to the ipad next.

She chose a couple of guitar apps, where she not only got to practice how to play a song, but she could also sing along to it. I tried to encourage her to try it out on her own guitar, but she said it was too hard. She is wanting guitar lessons with an instructor. But at this stage it is not in our budget. But we will keep it in mind for later on in the year if the interest is still there.

Miss Personality also chose to play Motion Math Hungry Fish.

This a cute little game where they get to practice their addition and subtraction. There is a fish with a number on it, swimming around. Then these bubble start appear. For the addition one, these bubble appear, you have to add two together that equal the number on the fish. Then the fish will eat the bubble. The better you get the faster the bubbles come out.

Then it was lunch time. 

I like watching on Netflix a program called The Duggar's 19 and counting. Miss Personality has started liking watching it too. It's an American program on a family that home schools, and they like having lots of children. It is interesting to watch how they do things in their lives.

Then Miss Personality packed a bag with things she thought she might need for the afternoon as we were going to catch the bus. It drops us off, not far from hubby's work and then Miss Personality rode her scooter the rest of the way. Miss Personality loves going to dad's work as it is in like a little alcove of shops who sell similar things. She has gotten to know a few of the shop owners and goes and visits them. They are of different nationalities, so Miss Personality is learning about their different cultures as well. 

I like this little picture below, as it reminds me that just because Miss Personality did do any set activities, doesn't mean she did learn anything today. 

20 Gadgets For Living Off The Grid.

Wednesday 12th February 2014

Who's heard of the term 'living off the grid'?

I have recently been drawn to this concept, but I am sure it has been around for a very long time.

If your anything like me and my family, we have started thinking about it, because we are just sick of what it costs to live. It shouldn't cost so much to have a roof over our heads and have food. But for some reason we, as a society, have all been drawn into the trap of working in a job, sometimes 2, to earn money to pay for the possessions we believe we need to be happy. We are constantly in debt, and striving to own things that we never have time to enjoy, because we are all so busy working. While we miss out on enjoying that one thing that should matter the most, and that is spending time with your family. I know this all depends on what you as a family consider as 'must haves' and things you could do with out. But every time we watch a tv commercial or flick through that cataloge that comes in the mail, we are all tempted to buy things we really don't need. 

Well any way, we are sick of it. We want to create a way of living that costs less. So that hubby doesn't have to work so much and we can all just enjoy life.

Now I know this isn't dream land, that the reality of 'living off the grid' is going to require some hard work to get us there. But we are prepared to do it.

So for now we are researching how to create this 'living off the grid' lifestyle.

While researching I came across this interesting article on facebook. 

Yes facebook does have interesting articles on there believe it or not. Aside from  the numerous selfies, posts on what you did today, and posts of what Justin Bieber or Schapelle Corby are up too.

Any way it lists gadgets that are helpful when 'living off the grid'.

http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/2012/08/old-fashioned-kitchen-gadgets-that-will-come-in-handy.html

Cast iron cook ware - yeah I get this one. Lasts for years and can be used on an open fire.

Grill toaster - sounds like a practical idea, get it from a camping shop.

Percolator -  if you need your morning cup of coffee, then this sounds like a great investment.

A couple of things I was a bit surprised at that they even needed to be put on the list.

Manual Grater -  thought every home had one of these.

Manual Can Opener - yes, another thing I thought every home would have already.

Manual Potato Masher - again, what else would you mash potatoes with?

This article looked like it came from America. But really, have we got use to using electronic gadgets so much that we no longer own manual graters, can openers or potato mashers.

Well at least I have 3 things off the list. I can slowly start collecting the other stuff, for the big day that we finally get to 'live off the grid".

The Rest Of The Day...............................

Tuesday 11th February 2014

After everything calmed down, the rest of the day just flowed, with Miss Personality just getting on with what was expected. She was still in charge of making her own choices off the list. I doesn't matter what order they are done in as long as it gets done.

I was using the computer first things this morning, so Miss Personality chose things off the list that didn't require the computer.

First was doing a word find out of her book of 'Furry Critters".

Then she chose to do a page out of her maths work book on adding up double digit numbers. Again this is more revision for her as we have done it before. The great part is that while doing these two activities she didn't need me to sit with her, like she has in the past.

Then she played a round of mum's fantastic multiplication card game :) Can you tell I am proud,lol.

By the time she completed this it was time for lunch.

She had left over butter chicken and rice from the night before.

She then chose to read to me a story out of the book I read her yesturday on Maui and the Sun. 

Then it was mum's turn to read a book. I chose Excalibur by Hudson Talbott.

Since the laptop was free, Miss Personality moved on to checking her butterfly questions from yesturday. She used the internet to research each answer, just to double check she had got them right and included enough information for each answer. Then she attached it to an email to dad, so he could print it for us. Miss Personality is presenting her butterfly unit study in a book. So these questions will get put into her book. We decided this would be best, as before we had done big posters to present her studies, and they are hard to store after they have been taken down and put away. Thought that a book would be easier to store. 

Since Miss Personality got everything completed in plenty of time. I was okay with her spending some time on the ipad before she went to her Musical Theatre class. She has a fascination with watching minecraft tutorials on you tube. Any one else have a minecraft addict in their house?

Later after Miss Personality had finished her dinner. She went outside to check on our swan plant. We have a few more baby caterpillars again. I have been going out and picking off the eggs, so our plant can catch up and grow some more leaves. But I must have missed a few. Any way Miss Personality took off with my iphone so she could take this picture. The iphone takes such awesome photos. This chrysalis will emerge sometime tomorrow. But it is interesting to see so much details of what is going on inside, even though the chrysalis has a lot of green in it and hasn't gone see through yet.