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Looking to do some *relaxed* math here, want to share ideas?


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My ds9, who has always loved math has recently decided he doesn't like it at all. I've tried making it harder, easier, shorter, different format no matter. The only math that he doesn't hate right now is games and such. I've tried talking to him to figure out what is going on but I've not made any progress.

 

My guess is that the more in-depth problems were taxing his weak working memory(tested) and I think he was tired of being frustrated. I know I could be the tough mama and just make him do it but him enjoying math is a higher priority, math has always been his greatest strength and he literally squeals at the mention of STEM, which obviously requires Math. 

 

I'm thinking we will continue working on fluency through games- we can work on +/-, x/div, per/frac/dec w/ our RS games. I was also thinking about establishing a little store for school time to work on money, % and decimals.  Maybe letting him work part of the grocery budget. Perhaps, work on some building projects for practice measuring? He has a Popular Mechanic for kids book that has several projects he wants to do.  I mentioned these ideas this morning and he was super exicted about it all and wanted to start right away. 

 

Any other ideas- I was thinking I'd google later today.

 

I'm hoping to get back to it being fun and increasing his fluency and speed w/ his facts to make things a bit easier. We've hardly taken any breaks from Math and he tested well so I think we can afford to take a bit of time. We're a bit over half-way through our main math program for this year- RSE. I thought about taking a full break but I think that would be worse in the long run as it is hard for him to build fluency to begin with and I I don't want to make things harder as Math is obviously not something we can just stop doing long term.

 

ETA- This is the list I've compiled so far of various resources:

Living Math Books

Murderous Math

Penrose the Cat

The Multiplying Menace-

Sir Circumference- Several in this series

Mummy Math- Geometry

The Grapes of Math

What’s Your Angle Pythagoras- Pythagoras and the Ratios

Bedtime Math

I Hate Mathematics- I Hate Mathematics- free online and Math for Smarty Pants- Math for Smarty Pants free online

The Book of Perfectly Perilous Math

The Number Devil

Sideways Arithmetic

Moebius Noodles

The Secret Life of Math by Ann McCallum- history of numbers plus activities

 

DVD's:

Mathmagic Camp DVD by Aurora Lipper of Supercharged Science (45 lessons with fun activities covering several areas of math)

Mental Math Secrets  By MathTutorDVD.com 

youtube- there are many more episodes of this- addition/multiplication etc.

The Story of One DVD The Story of One youtube 

 

 

Math Project/Game Books- Books for Mom

Hands-On Math Projects with Real-Life Applications, Grades 3-5

Designing Playgrounds: Math Project Series

Amazing Math Projects- book and website- Amazing Math Projects

Peggy Kaye’s Games for Math

Kitchen Table Math- from pre-k to algrebra- wrote to the parent to teach them how to teach the concepts of math

MathART progjects and Activities by Carolyn Ford Brunetto

Math Wise! by Jim Overholt and Laurie Kinchelo

 

Living Math Websites

livingmath

letsplaymath

educationunboxed

mathfour.com

boxcarsandoneyedjacks

legomath

http://mathforlove.com/blog/- Resource for teachers 

 

Online Math Games

Math wire

Top Marks UK Math Games- Variety of different formats- from age 3-14

Math Play- Free Online Math Games from Elementary to Algebra

sumdog

ixl- $10-monthhttp://www.ixl.com/

 

 

Math Card/Board Games

Muggins Math Games Age 4- Nuclear Physicist :)-

Zeus on the Loose

Albert’s Insomnia

7 ate 9

Lab Mice Game

Math Noodlers

Number Ninjas

Sum Swamp

Sleeping Queens

Math Dash Game- practice adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing

Money Bags Board Game

Pizza Fraction Fun

Dino Math Tracks

Buy It Right

Head Full of Numbers

Hogwart's Shopping GAme HP themed shopping cards and lists along with suggestions for various games to play

Real World Math: Unexpected Events by Teacher Created Resources

 

Math “Toysâ€

Geometry- Zometool

 

Out of the box -fun Math curriculum Or Supplements

Simply Charlotte Mason- Your Business Math- Gr. 3-6- Learn Math through running your own pet, book or sport store

Verbal Math Lessons

Beast Academy Math- Grades 3, 4 and 5 (in progress set to be finished March 2017 and gr 2 to be started summer/fall 2018)

Patty Paper Geometry

Danica McKellar Series- Math Doesn’t Suck (middle school), Kiss My Math (pre-algebra), Hot X: Algebra, Girls Get Curves (geometry)

Real-World Algebra

Challenge Math and Primary Grade Challenge Math

Hard Math

Family Math -Family Math Website- Info about all the Family books there are several in the series- from pre-k up to jr. high

Life of Fred

Hands-On Equations- Learning Algebra through the use of manipulatives

 

Edited by soror
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Well, searching hasn't led to much so far. I've found some games at various sites, which he may or may not like, it seems he prefers to play games w/ me. Today we played various games for at least an hr and it was well enjoyed. 

 

When searching I keep finding articles about why I shouldn't even be teaching math to begin with, sigh. Anyway, hopefully I can look more into starting some projects this weekend and then we can continue on practicing our facts through games.

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We're taking some time this year, maybe half a term or so, to mess around with math.  I'm going to go through some books I have like Life of Fred, Borac math book, Time Travel Math, family math and math art.  Maybe some other puzzle type books.  During this time I want to start a math journal with both my older kids and slowly start to introduce the next level of Singapore with the textbook and working in their journal.

I'd like to go through some other living maths books like Anno's, Sir Cumference, Youth Math etc. and journal about them.

 

Mostly, I'm doing this to fill in the time until Beast Academy 4B is released!  Shipping is too expensive to Australia to buy one quarter of a level at a time!

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I have a math-loving dd and we are constantly looking for new ways to let her play with math. She is very young, but seems to truly crave math...which I believe has mostly come about as a result of the 'games and living-books' approach'.

 

I see many of the things we do listed above: LoF, Penrose books, Murderous Maths, apps, RS games, board games.

Just off the top of my head, have you tried the Bedtime Math book? My kiddo loves it, and there is a website (bedtimemath.org) with lots more questions and ideas. This is the book:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1250035856/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1388804935&sr=8-1

And a second:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1250040965/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1388804994&sr=8-2

And my kiddo's current favorite game is 60-second sweep. I will try to post the YouTube video that has a printable with it, but basically it focuses on very rapid recollection of multiplication tables in the reverse, making it perfect for learning division facts concurrently. The goal is to get through them all in 60 secs or less. I have even seen challenges where kids do it and post their videos for other :)

 

 

 

 

And of course, about a million math board games!

 

One thing we do that is probably a bit young for a 9 yr old, but I will add it to this post for anyone following. We do math-themed baths. Different concepts for different baths now, but we have done fractions, measuring, decimals, all operations with window markers in the tub, conversions, you name it. It is SO much more fun in the tub!

We have a big tub full of math toys for the bath. Measuring cups, plastic ruler, fraction foam circles that stick to the wall, fraction cylinders with decimal correspondents, window markers, foam numbers, measuring spoons, a floppy measuring tape, a plastic balance, 3-D shapes, a clock, plastic coins, almost any manipulative in plastic form!

Really cool, and we usually just listen along, maybe asking directing questions, but mostly letting her explore and figure it out:)

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Oh, I'm so excited to see the responses. I  forgot that I do have the Kitchen Table Math book. I was just thinking of checking the library for some math books as well, we haven't done that in a while, I'll have to write done all the suggestions here.   I have the Challenge Math book as well but I'm pretty sure he'd resist that right now. He did enjoy the Sir Circumference books when we read them before.  I have one Life of Fred book, I  bought Apples a while back but he wasn't much interested and now it is under him. I wish I had someone to borrow some more from to see if they are working any better for him now. 

 

We don't have the Zome Tools but lots of Legos, he builds all the time on those and with the EV3 Robotics kit. I'll have to look into scaling the models, I don't think he's done that before. I was thinking last night while we were playing Catan that surely we can do some probability work there :)

 

I forgot about the Let's Play Math Site, I'm sure there are lots of great ideas there. 

 

We do a lot of cooking together. I like the ideas for games, we need some fresh ideas.  Anything timed doesn't work well though as his processing speed is slow compared to his level of computation, same w/ his working memory.  I think that is likely the big problem to begin w/ when your brain doesn't work as you need it has to be frustrating. Now that I know more details of his strengths and weaknesses I can do a better job at tailoring what we do towards what works for him but I think he got a bit burnt out as I wasn't modifying some things enough. 

 

Ds has always loved math and begged to do more but right now he doesn't even want to do Beast Academy. I'm thinking we'll  to take 2-4 wks just playing and having fun w/ Math. 

 

He is at an all day STEM class today, which he was very excited about, so hopefully they do some very cool and exciting activities.

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Random books/games/etc for you to look at.

 

Moebius Noodles http://www.moebiusnoodles.com/TheBook

 

Sideways Math http://www.amazon.com/Sideways-Arithmetic-Wayside-School-Mindboggling/dp/0747569126?creative=392969&ie=UTF8&link_code=btl&camp=213689

 

Number Ninjas http://www.amazon.com/Haywire-Number-Ninjas/dp/B0040UUMT0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1388861855&sr=8-2&keywords=number+ninjas

 

Boxcars and One Eyed Jacks http://www.boxcarsandoneeyedjacks.com/

 

Mathwire http://www.mathwire.com/games/games.html

 

I Hate Mathematics and Math For Smarty Pants http://www.amazon.com/Hate-Mathematics-Brown-Paper-School/dp/0316117412/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1388862009&sr=8-2&keywords=math+for+smarty+pants

 

Games For Math http://www.amazon.com/Games-Math-Peggy-Kaye-ebook/dp/B0070O5EG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388862173&sr=8-1&keywords=games+for+math

 

Math Games http://corkboardconnections.blogspot.com/2013/04/mathgames.html

 

Time Life Math Series http://www.amazon.com/Right-Your-Own-Backyard-Nature/dp/0809499622/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388862251&sr=8-1&keywords=time+life+math

 

Function Machine http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2013/03/monday-math-freebie-function-machine-fun.html

 

Giggle Math http://www.gigglelearn.com/

 

Lego Math http://boymamateachermama.com/2012/09/18/teacher-mama-lego-structure-math/#_a5y_p=1008512

 

Vedic Math. Particularly chapter two on circle patterns http://www.iskconeducation.org/download/Math%20-%20Bindu%2002.09.2006.pdf

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004TGPPOC/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1388866307&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40

 

Logic puzzle a Penguin on Ice http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004TGPPOC/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1388866307&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40

 

Lab Mice http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0043AM3E4/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1388866687&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40

 

Zeus on the Loose. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000GKD470/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1388866840&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40

 

Math Without Words http://www.lulu.com/shop/james-tanton/math-without-words/ebook/product-17439362.html

 

 

Best of luck!

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Seconding Murderous Maths and living math books in general - Penrose, The Number Devil, How to Be a Math Genius, Figure It Out, etc. - all fun and light.

 

Seconding more math games.  We just got Mythamtical Battles and like it.  24 is fun.

 

More math apps.  Dragonbox, of course.  But there are so many good ones for practicing facts as well.

 

We liked The Book of Perfectly Perilous Math.  And we've found Primary Challenge Math to be fun too.

 

Hands on Equations has been fun for us.

 

I've been thinking about Designing Playgrounds, but haven't hit buy on it yet.  I think I may use it this summer and have us do a longer unit on geometry together...

 

 

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Thanks farrar- 

Designing playgrounds sounds great I mentioned something similar to dh for our current physics study but he looked at me like I had 2 heads as he is busy right now! I'll have to check it out though. 

 

I like the book recs I think those will be the biggest hit right now.

 

We have Hands on Equations and Dragon Box but those aren't real big hits right now either.

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There are some great suggestions in this thread!

 

We received a new math game for Christmas, Albert's Insomnia, and are loving it.

 

I would put it up there with Zues on the Loose and 7 Ate 9 for fun and fact practice.

Oh, wow, I am betting my kiddo would love it as the other 2 are faves. I think I will have to order it!

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I met a woman at a convention last year that has a site called mathfour (math is not a four letter word is what it stands for) and she is SUPER enthusiastic about math.  She has lots of math ideas on her website.  I am starting to try and dig through everything on her site (I had forgotten about her until I started digging through old convention paperwork, to be honest) to try and apply some of her fun math stuff at home.  Looking at this thread, I thought it might help your quest if I posted the link but if it doesn't work (the link) just type in a search for Bon Crowder.  Very dynamic, funny, mathy lady.

 

http://mathfour.com/

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I met a woman at a convention last year that has a site called mathfour (math is not a four letter word is what it stands for) and she is SUPER enthusiastic about math. She has lots of math ideas on her website. I am starting to try and dig through everything on her site (I had forgotten about her until I started digging through old convention paperwork, to be honest) to try and apply some of her fun math stuff at home. Looking at this thread, I thought it might help your quest if I posted the link but if it doesn't work (the link) just type in a search for Bon Crowder. Very dynamic, funny, mathy lady.

 

http://mathfour.com/

. Bon Crowder? Why do I know that name? I've never seen her site before but I know I've seen her name before.
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Holly, I was looking at that curriculum this weekend, I think he might like it and it would make it easier for me.

 

I've been going through the various sites and book recs. I couldn't hardly find any books at our local library. I do have 2 books by Marilyn Burns on hold though, I Hate Mathematics and Math for Smarty Pants, interesting combo huh? I'm hoping I can make it there this week in order to try and ILL some of the other books. 

 

We've just been playing various games and I can see already that his stance is softening some, he told me today he doesn't hate all of math, just some of it :)

 

I'm still not sure of long term plans here as I don't want to end up back in the same place. So, my thought now is looking through the scope of the rest of the book and finding different ways to teach that will be engaging and effective for him. I started looking through it the other day, mostly I see a lot more work w/ fractions/decimals/ and percents, more long division and geometry. Anyway, for now I'm focusing on getting the foundation stronger, bringing the joy back and increasing speed and fluency- while having fun. I'll have to make another post when I get more time to make lists of all the books and various sites, I've started a paper list.

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And I need to stop reading this post.  I have about 10 things in my Amazon cart already after reading back through this post earlier today, and I have to decide what to dump.  Now I like the look of the Muggins math game, too.  Stop the madness!!!  :lol:

 

Great ideas, Ladies!!!  And a great thread, soror!  :hurray:

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I haven't tried this, but it looks really fun!  They try running their own business: pet shop, bookstore, or sports store.  I plan on using this if we ever need to stretch out our math program.  http://simplycharlottemason.com/store/your-business-math/

Seriously looking at this but I don't want to have to print out yet another lengthy set of materials if I go with the e-book format,  At the same time, I also want to be able to print out extra pages in case the kids make mistakes and want to correct them (one has dysgraphia so this is a real issue).  Can we copy?  It doesn't appear that if you get the hard copy you also have access to the digital format.  Does anyone know?  I will call tomorrow, I guess, but I thought I would check.

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I haven't tried this, but it looks really fun!  They try running their own business: pet shop, bookstore, or sports store.  I plan on using this if we ever need to stretch out our math program.  http://simplycharlottemason.com/store/your-business-math/

 

 

Seriously looking at this but I don't want to have to print out yet another lengthy set of materials if I go with the e-book format,  At the same time, I also want to be able to print out extra pages in case the kids make mistakes and want to correct them (one has dysgraphia so this is a real issue).  Can we copy?  It doesn't appear that if you get the hard copy you also have access to the digital format.  Does anyone know?  I will call tomorrow, I guess, but I thought I would check.

 

I used this with my dd a few years ago.  She did the Pet Shop one and loved it!  I needed something to give just a bit extra practice on the basics and this worked.  She actually learned quite a bit about running a business, as well.  I bought the paperback copy and I do remember having to cut out several pages that I then cut into little slips of paper that she would draw from each day (I kept them in envelopes).  They would tell her things such as how much money she made or lost that day and if there were any problems, such as the fact they were paving the parking lot and people had a hard time getting into the store that day so sales were down.  I do not remember having access to a digital format along with our paperback.  For what it's worth, she would work on a spreadsheet type page.  You could possibly just copy this page before he starts on it, just in case.

 

It really was a fun book.  She would work on it as her "warm up" for the day.  I highly recommend it.  Ds was a bit older then, but he even said he would have liked to have tried the sports store.

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I used this with my dd a few years ago.  She did the Pet Shop one and loved it!  I needed something to give just a bit extra practice on the basics and this worked.  She actually learned quite a bit about running a business, as well.  I bought the paperback copy and I do remember having to cut out several pages that I then cut into little slips of paper that she would draw from each day (I kept them in envelopes).  They would tell her things such as how much money she made or lost that day and if there were any problems, such as the fact they were paving the parking lot and people had a hard time getting into the store that day so sales were down.  I do not remember having access to a digital format along with our paperback.  For what it's worth, she would work on a spreadsheet type page.  You could possibly just copy this page before he starts on it, just in case.

 

It really was a fun book.  She would work on it as her "warm up" for the day.  I highly recommend it.  Ds was a bit older then, but he even said he would have liked to have tried the sports store.

Ordered the printed copy.  Thanks for the feedback.

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Ordered the printed copy.  Thanks for the feedback.

 

You are welcome.  Did you get the Pet Shop one?  I took a quick look for my copy, but I think it is in our storage barn with dd's work for that year.  I would say it was about three years ago that she did it.  She really did enjoy it.

 

I do remember making a few extra copies of pages with the items she would "draw" from the envelopes each day.  Also, I vaguely remember something about copying a page for dd here and there for her to use side-by-side with the spreadsheet.  I know this does not make much sense without seeing it, but as you start working it, I think you will know what I mean.  Dd was having to turn back and forth to get information for her spreadsheet, and I would just copy that page so she could lay it next to the book.  It made life much easier.  

 

Hope your dc have fun with this.  We did!  Even I would look forward to what great revenue boost she would get or whether some calamity would happen to make business a bit hard that day (like someone leaving the snake cage door open)  :001_smile:

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You are welcome.  Did you get the Pet Shop one?  I took a quick look for my copy, but I think it is in our storage barn with dd's work for that year.  I would say it was about three years ago that she did it.  She really did enjoy it.

 

I do remember making a few extra copies of pages with the items she would "draw" from the envelopes each day.  Also, I vaguely remember something about copying a page for dd here and there for her to use side-by-side with the spreadsheet.  I know this does not make much sense without seeing it, but as you start working it, I think you will know what I mean.  Dd was having to turn back and forth to get information for her spreadsheet, and I would just copy that page so she could lay it next to the book.  It made life much easier.  

 

Hope your dc have fun with this.  We did!  Even I would look forward to what great revenue boost she would get or whether some calamity would happen to make business a bit hard that day (like someone leaving the snake cage door open)  :001_smile:

 

Yes, we got the Pet shop one.  Both kids wanted the pet shop one.  We have 10 pets, so.....

I have recently started Math on the Level and my kids are liking that a lot. Sorry to not really describe it but I bet search on here would bring up more thorough explanations than I could! I'm on this thread to get ideas, really!

We own Math on the Level and there are aspects of this system that I LOVE .  I just found myself floundering a bit when my DD would struggle.  She is probably dyscalculic (no one in our area can diaganosis this though...).  I still keep the system around and use the checklist and the 5 a days and some of the ideas for teaching the concepts, but I had to move to other systems to help DD.  I think Math on the Level is wonderful, though, and wish we could have stuck with it as written.  Truly innovative.

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The oldest two are taking a break from their usual math for a bit and doing the Simply Charlotte Mason Pet Store math. I have found them both much, much, much more willing to do math when there seems to be a purpose. My oldest seems to think that he'll be set to open his own business when he's done this. We were floundering with math before. Conceptually he has no problems with math, but it was like pulling teeth every single day. We needed a break. This has been a lovely break. I have recommended it to a couple friends.

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Ds' attitude continues to improve! We've been playing a lot of games, I just received Zeus on the Loose and Albert's Insomnia. Zeus seems will be fun practice to do w/ dd and Albert's will be a good game to play w/ me, it is actually somewhat like a game I made up here today- although I didn't know it at the time.

 

I usually play war w/ him, well today I decided we would do division war and the lowest score wins. Well, not very far in I realized that we were having plenty of combos that didn't divide evenly, well he decided he would divide it anyway as he wanted to win so we got lots of work w/ fractions in- well we finally ended up w/ some combos that were a bit cumbersome to divide into fractions and I told him we could do any operation we wanted, well he started doing subtraction w/ negative numbers, so we practiced multiplication, adding, subtraction, division and fractions all in one game and he had fun at the same time. I read some BA with him this week as well, this was some we had done b/f but it was a good review and low pressure. 

 

He told me last night that he wasn't liking math b/c he doesn't like the drill sheets (RSE has them doing mult/div drill sheets) and he hates anything timed. Well, I don't care that he does the sheets I just want the speed and fluency we can gain that through games and such. I hardly ever timed him and if I did I always gave him a ton of time, so I'm not sure where that came from but I can certainly cut that all that out. 

 

I talked to him about the SCM math but I'm not sure if he is interested so I'm still looking to doing that on our own here. I found some info on doing that online but haven't researched it enough yet to get it setup, I should have more time this weekend though. It is looking like for now we will have lots of game and BA together. It seems this break has already helped him realize that he doesn't hate all of Math, just some parts.

 

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Ds' attitude continues to improve! We've been playing a lot of games, I just received Zeus on the Loose and Albert's Insomnia. Zeus seems will be fun practice to do w/ dd and Albert's will be a good game to play w/ me, it is actually somewhat like a game I made up here today- although I didn't know it at the time.

 

I usually play war w/ him, well today I decided we would do division war and the lowest score wins. Well, not very far in I realized that we were having plenty of combos that didn't divide evenly, well he decided he would divide it anyway as he wanted to win so we got lots of work w/ fractions in- well we finally ended up w/ some combos that were a bit cumbersome to divide into fractions and I told him we could do any operation we wanted, well he started doing subtraction w/ negative numbers, so we practiced multiplication, adding, subtraction, division and fractions all in one game and he had fun at the same time. I read some BA with him this week as well, this was some we had done b/f but it was a good review and low pressure. 

 

He told me last night that he wasn't liking math b/c he doesn't like the drill sheets (RSE has them doing mult/div drill sheets) and he hates anything timed. Well, I don't care that he does the sheets I just want the speed and fluency we can gain that through games and such. I hardly ever timed him and if I did I always gave him a ton of time, so I'm not sure where that came from but I can certainly cut that all that out. 

 

I talked to him about the SCM math but I'm not sure if he is interested so I'm still looking to doing that on our own here. I found some info on doing that online but haven't researched it enough yet to get it setup, I should have more time this weekend though. It is looking like for now we will have lots of game and BA together. It seems this break has already helped him realize that he doesn't hate all of Math, just some parts.

Yeah, Mom!  You rock!  And you have provided a great resource for other parents.  Truly a win, win scenario....

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Oh, and I was thinking about Beast Academy for my 9 year old son.  We started at the beginning of MM in November since he had some gaps when we pulled him out 2 years ago and I think I made things a bit worse over the past two years.  Things were a little inconsistent when we brought him home (curriculum hopped trying to find something to help DD and he got dragged along for the ride).  He has done through parts of what amounts to 3rd grade math with Math on the Level and a little MUS and part of TT 4, but like I said, he has gaps, so we went back to skim through MM starting with 1st grade material in November and just whip through a few problems a page, several pages a day, unless he stumbles.  No significant issues with math  at all like his sister, though, so far.  Just gaps.  Would he start from the beginning with BA?  He likes math but he does get bored with lots of drill type worksheets.  BA looks like it would be more interesting for him.

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Did you see the readiness assessments? They have different ones for each book, which might be perfect for you guys since you've done some here and there, he might be ready for all or just some but since it is mastery based it would be easier to jump in where needed. I'd buy one book and one guide after you do the assessments and figure out which one you think would fit him and be the most interesting. 

 

Thanks for your encouragement as well. I'm still not sure on the long term plan here, at all but at least we are making progress :)

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Alright, I have to update with a review. We received Math for Smarty Pants from the library and have been using it this week. We love this book. It starts off talking about the meaning of math smarty pants and how some kids are really fast with figuring out math problems but then there are also kids who are good with shapes and some that are really good with strategy and logic- all of them are math smarty pants, not just the one who is fast (which was great as speed with his facts is his struggle). It then says that in order to be good all you need is to believe you can be good and practice. The problems and Math puzzles have been such fun, while practicing our math facts. Yesterday we ended up going over our math time 20 minutes as we got involved with trying to figure out one of the problems.

 

We've been playing Zeus on the Loose and I have Albert's Insomnia but I haven't tried it yet- hopefully today. We are playing lots of strategy games; newer ones and Chess as well. He did some scaling work with his legos like 8 mentioned above. I still want to open a store here but haven't had the time to get supplies, I considered as well giving him some seed money and letting him work on making some type of little business, letting him only spend the money on supplies or such and then keep track of his profit, that is just a loose idea though.

 

 I just ordered a new game as well- Mythimatical Battles(there are 2 games- Greek/Celtic and Norse/Egyptian)-it is a dueling card game and you have to use your multiplication facts to figure out what your cards are worth and how you are doing in battle (it seems similar to Pokemon or Magic- I've not played either but I think it will be a huge hit). Oh, and if you cannot figure it out you can consult the "oracle" aka the multiplication fact sheet.

Here is the description from Rainbow Resource(which was FAR cheaper than Amazon)

 

One way or another, those multiplication tables have to be mastered, and you can either plug away with the ol’ flashcards, or take part in an epic clash of the titans with this engaging, yet educational card game. Each game includes two decks of cards: Norse and Egyptian or Celtic and Greek. It’s a duel between two players, each of which “battles†with one deck from the set (if you have both sets, you can mix and match). The deck consists of gods, monsters, heroes, minions, weapons and magic cards, each of which has an attack and defense value, or another special attribute. The game begins with both players drawing five cards from their deck and playing as many of them on the central “field†as possible. Character cards can always be played, but weapons must be attached to a character to be played. The first player then uses their cards to attack their opponent’s cards. To do this, they’ll need to keep close tabs on the attack values of their own cards, and the defense values of their opponent’s cards, which are stated as a multiplication problem such as “7x8.†A player can attack an opponent’s card if their attacking card has a higher attack value than their opponent’s defense value… but the ability to use several weak cards to “gang up†on a higher-value one and the special instructions on “magic†cards make this much more than a game of multiplication war. The game continues until a player has depleted their draw deck, and the player who has “plundered†the most cards is declared the victor. Besides the “battle†aspect, kids and adults alike are sure to enjoy reading the tidbits about the various gods, heroes and monsters depicted on the cards, taking in a little mythology along the way. My only complaint? The somewhat vague instructions. Although I’m sure the designers wanted to keep it simple, you will have to read between the lines and perhaps make up some of your own rules to apply to various situations not addressed in the rules. Now gather up your army of mythical creatures, raise your banner and charge! – Jess

 

 

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Adding links on and as I was looking today at some links I found more Family Math books, I didn't realize there was more than the one book. I see they have 2 specifically for Middle School.

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention we got a math dvd from the library this week as well which focused on fractions and decimals, ds thought it was way corny though (and I'd have to agree) it was good reinforcement but not something we would watch more than once.

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Alright, I have to update with a review. We received Math for Smarty Pants from the library and have been using it this week. We love this book. It starts off talking about the meaning of math smarty pants and how some kids are really fast with figuring out math problems but then there are also kids who are good with shapes and some that are really good with strategy and logic- all of them are math smarty pants, not just the one who is fast (which was great as speed with his facts is his struggle). It then says that in order to be good all you need is to believe you can be good and practice. The problems and Math puzzles have been such fun, while practicing our math facts. Yesterday we ended up going over our math time 20 minutes as we got involved with trying to figure out one of the problems.

 

We've been playing Zeus on the Loose and I have Albert's Insomnia but I haven't tried it yet- hopefully today. We are playing lots of strategy games; newer ones and Chess as well. He did some scaling work with his legos like 8 mentioned above. I still want to open a store here but haven't had the time to get supplies, I considered as well giving him some seed money and letting him work on making some type of little business, letting him only spend the money on supplies or such and then keep track of his profit, that is just a loose idea though.

 

 I just ordered a new game as well- Mythimatical Battles(there are 2 games- Greek/Celtic and Norse/Egyptian)-it is a dueling card game and you have to use your multiplication facts to figure out what your cards are worth and how you are doing in battle (it seems similar to Pokemon or Magic- I've not played either but I think it will be a huge hit). Oh, and if you cannot figure it out you can consult the "oracle" aka the multiplication fact sheet.

Here is the description from Rainbow Resource(which was FAR cheaper than Amazon)

Thanks for sharing!  I've been interested in the Mythmatical Battles game but have yet to buy it.  Let us know what you think about it.

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