Every single day, we are making stuff in this house. Â And I don’t just mean messes. Â Every day, we are using our hands and our brains to put things together. Â Here are our favorite projects this week. Puzzles It has
What We Are Building
Fair Play
I was playing backgammon (or tavloo, as the Armenians call it) with my three-year-old last night. This game is excellent practice for math skills like counting pips, number sense (reading a group of dots on a die without counting them),
Working Lunch
When you work full-time and are also trying to teach your kids some stuff, you need to make good use of your time at home. For big brother and me, that often means doing a lot of learning while little
Area of Mixed Polygons
In 7th grade math, we’re working on area. Â We’ve gone through all of the basic formulas with careful attention to how they are related to one another — the triangle being half of a rectangle, the trapezoid being a combination
Get Yourself Some Unifix Cubes
… or something similar. These simple blocks are perfect for an endless variety of activities, particularly for math. Kids love the bright colors, and they stack together and come apart easily enough for little fingers. Left to his own
Going Green
When we consider the financial impact of home schooling, a lot of factors come into play. Obviously, losing my income is the most critical, but we’re also looking at savings — tuition, daycare, the gas from my substantial commute. The
All Aboard!
Albert Einstein said, “Play is the highest form of research.” Â This is most true when our children play with toys that allow them to create, experiment, and solve problems. Our three-year-old is enchanted with his wooden train set these days.
Unifix Letters
Today the “extra duties as assigned” part of my contract obliged me to visit our 1st grade classroom to deal with some technology drama. I love going out there to see what the littles are up to. Today they were
Dice Challenge
Looking for a new game for your middle kids? Â Make a dice tower. Â They are allowed to walk around it but not to touch it. Â The goal: Find the sum of all the faces that cannot be seen. This begins
Snake Eyes!
Working with dice enhances number sense in young children by training them to look at a group of objects (the dots on the dice) and recognize how many are there without counting. As children grow familiar with these common arrangements, they