Comments on: you spin me right round, baby, right round

By: patricia

patricia — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:40:59 +0000

I *love* sharing ideas and resources! Lori of camp creek http://www.whiteoakschool.com/
would say that’s a good thing: better to share with other parents than unleash my teaching tendencies on my kids!

By: patricia

patricia — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:38:19 +0000

Thanks so much for stopping by, Dawn. And it’s always nice to learn how people find their way here! (Molly is the best.)

By: Carrie Pomeroy

Carrie Pomeroy — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:25:35 +0000

Thank you, Patricia, for taking the time to respond in such depth to my question about the math books. You didn’t know you were going to be thrust into the “Answer Gal” role with this post, did you?

Thanks again!

By: Dawn

Dawn — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:31:00 +0000

Hi there,
I came over from A Foothill Home Companion…you have a really great blog! I will stick you in my favs and be back for sure.
Take Care,
D

By: patricia

patricia — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:15:26 +0000

Sure, if the kids are up for it! It’d be fun to see how they’d want to divvy up the spinners, if they were planning to let different creatures “race”.

By: patricia

patricia — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:12:00 +0000

If you’re squirreling it away, does that mean I’m a nut?

By: patricia

patricia — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:07:16 +0000

Carrie, I decided to respond in the comments, in case other people might be interested. If you want to chat more, please feel free to email me.

I changed the Math Solutions link above, to one which makes it easier to find the books I’m talking about. The link now takes you to an index that allows you to browse by title. Look for titles that start with “Math by all Means” or “Teaching Arithmetic”. Both of those series use a similar format.

The website has sample lessons from the books, so you can see if the books would appeal to you. If you click on any of the titles, you’ll get to a page for the book, which usually includes a “lessons” tab. Click on that and you’ll get sample lessons from the book, often more than one.

The lessons are definitely geared toward classroom teachers; I often read through a lesson and then adapt it for my kid. I’ll simplify it, or give Mr. T more freedom with what he can do, like he did with the spinner above.

Even though the lessons are wordy, I think you can learn a lot by reading through them, especially if you’d like to learn more about teaching methods for math. They help you see what’s important to look for in your kids’ math thinking, beyond the rote memorization that I remember from my childhood. Even the “Teaching Arithmetic” books are about comprehension over memorization.

For B., I’d try any 1-2nd grade book in either of those series. The geometry and probability ones are both fun. The only one that seems a little silly for homeschoolers is the money book! I’m betting they get plenty of real-world experience with that.

If you’re interested in reading more in depth on sound math philosophy, the book About Teaching Mathematics is a classic and very good. It has lots of lessons for kids grades K-8. I think it’s better as an overview. The lessons are so wide-ranging; I find it easier to use one of the other books with lessons clustered by age and topic.

Also, the “Minilessons for Math Practice” books are good for homeschoolers. They’re designed to be quick lessons that take just 5-15 minutes, and are often mostly conversational. For us, that’s often plenty for a day!

You can often find these books used online. I also just got a discount code from Math Solutions for 20% off of a $50 or more purchase, until 10/31. The code is 9GBP7.

Phew, that was quite a ramble. Hope it helps!

By: Carrie

Carrie — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:57:48 +0000

Oooh! Can we make spinners at our next creature club meeting?

Carrie

By: Carrie Pomeroy

Carrie Pomeroy — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:36:06 +0000

Patricia, could we do a little email exchange about these Math Solutions books? You have me intrigued, but when I looked at the website, there were so many choices, I wasn’t sure where to start, and you could spend some serious money fast. Any books you’d especially recommend for an almost-7-yr-old with very little formal math experience but a decent beginner’s grasp of addition, subtraction, and multiplication (mostly from playing lots of Monopoly)?

If you don’t mind taking time from reliving the glorious hits of our youth, I’d sure appreciate some boring old curriculum critiquing. Thanks!

By: melissa s.

melissa s. — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:06:13 +0000

Brilliant. Don’t you just love those little-firecrackers-shooting-out-of-their-eye moments? And (borrowing your words again) I am squirreling this away for future use!