Making Maths Moments.

A friend asked me today how I do Maths at home?  I was stumped.... how do I explain what we do?  I'm not very consistent about teaching maths....most of our maths happens through day to day experiences, not seat work. 

I'm still battling with my teacher conscience and the reality which I see playing out in front of me daily: do I follow a progressive curriculum or do I let the learning happen naturally?  

I loved teaching Maths at school.  I used a problem solving method which, in theory, is taught through real life experiences....... make maths relevant.....make it relate to what you're learning....let the learner discover their own method of solving a problem.  However, there was always a progressive curriculum you needed to complete within a year......I'm not so sure there is really a need to tick off every progressive step anymore.

But I do believe in making Maths relevant.  Using materials which we use in everyday life, like a calendar.

Charlotte Mason speaks of a Calendar of Firsts in her Nature Study notes.  (The idea is to record when one sees something in nature for the first time in a season and as the years go by you add your finds to it.)

With this idea in mind I introduced the calendar to my kids this year....maybe one day we'll get to that Calendar of Firsts, but in the mean time this is what we do....

record the weather, birthdays and special events....(the kids do the drawings most days)

Maths? Yip, data handling.  And a whole lot more....

Number recognition/concept: find the day/date, what came before, after?

Time: what day is it? what is the date? which month are we in? (Sometimes we even sing a days of the week/months of the year song-with actions!!) Which season? What day will it be tomorrow? Yesterday? Today?

Which month came before? Will come after?

Counting: How many days in the week/month?  How many have we had?  How many are left? Counting forwards, backwards, from a number. Introducing ordinal numbers (first, second etc.)

Jenna has been interested in Afrikaans lately so we've also used the calendar to learn the days of the week, months and counting in afrikaans.

You could also use it for:

• making a graph of the different weather types-a simple picture graph or bar graph.
• counting in 2's and 5's (seven's if you're adventurous)
• recognising odd and even numbers
• how many sleeps till? since?

As you can see we haven't been very fancy with colours-I'm not a frills kinda gal-but I do get bored with the same old, same old so next month I think we'll colour code the weather types.  A step up in recording and data handling skills ;-)

We've also, just this week, started another calendar on which we are recording the daily rainfall.  I'm thinking of using it for:

• comparing numbers (more, less, same as)
• problem solving (adding totals, how much more rain fell on...?)

This is probably one of our more consistent activities we do daily..... nothing fancy, but a whole lot Foundation Phase maths, and it doesn't take more than 15 minutes.  Which is great because that means on good weather days we can head out the door a lot quicker!

Thoughts that run around in my head....

Knowledge of the world is not a yard stick by which I'd like my children to be measured or assessed....

Geography, history and science are interesting facts to read about, but they don't teach my children where their true identity and purpose lies.

What I do wish for them, or rather hope for them, is that they would have roots which go down deep. That when the stormy times in life come they would know who to lean on, not what to lean on....

And in the good times they'll know who is really worthy of all praise.....

That they will know that when they are thirsty for knowledge there is only one teacher that they need to turn to.

And that He is always willing to quench their thirst.

After a week-end at my first CHE Winter Workshop I'm feeling a little restless again....

Am I really listening to My teacher?

Am I really following His lead?

Routines are easy for me.  Lists to tick off make me feel my work has been done.  But is it really what works for us as a family? Am I doing what works for me....or everyone?

How do we as home school parents break away from the fears? (because if I'm really honest that's what they are)  The what if's?  The comparisons?

Why is it so difficult for me to feel ok when I'm feeling different from the norm?

I don't have the answers....yet....but I do know that I believe in a God who asks me to not be like those of this world....

And when I'm sitting with my children doing our devotions book and we read:   "Learn from me" Matthew 11:29, I'm reminded again of the one thing He has said for me to do....follow Him and He will show me what we need to learn.

Because for us, this home school thing isn't about what I teach my children but rather it is about how we learn together, our relationships.  It isn't about knowing all the facts but rather it is about learning to be in relationship with the One who caused all those facts to be put into place in the first place.

The moments I love the most.

Although we're following more of a school routine this year, well most days, these are the moments I love the most:

When she designs her own garlands, bracelets and outfits.  I love her creativity.  To others her dress sense may seem different but I love that she has the freedom to "design" her own outfits and has a definite reason for each design..... who knows, perhaps someday she will become a designer who cooks food in space.  Well, at least that's what she said she wanted to be when she turned six.

Or when she sees something her friends have made at their home and she comes home and tries to work out how to make her own one....

and then teaches her little brother to make one too.  Isn't that what all designer's do?  "Steal" with their eyes and then go and teach their apprentices?

When he recreates what he has heard read at Bible time on his own initiative:  Jesus on the cross (the sword) with the soldiers standing around him.  

Or when she insists that she must have her "time to be alone with God" to read her Bible and he joins her with his own little Bible to tell his own stories.

When I decide to skip school plans and ask if they'd like to join me in making lunch and supper for the day. And when they enthusiastically join in-no negotiations needed-and then real life lessons are learnt.

When he sits quietly entertaining himself for at least ten minutes....

leaving her to create on her own for a while-sometimes big sisters need a break from being the teacher too.

....and finally, a Nature Club Walk!

Our Nature Club had a wonderful morning at the Silvermine Dam last Wednesday when all the little ones became fisher folk for the morning.

Carla is looking quite serious here, but actually she has all the children captivated as she's about to take her Googly Fynbos finding eyes out her pocket to start the hunt for Fynbos.

The view of the dam. 

This is an awesome place to visit.  We started off here and walked around the dam to a sheltered spot way over there on the other side.  Can you see it?  It's just between those low bright green bushes.
Along the way the children spotted King Proteas, Ericas and lots of Restio reeds. These are pictures of different King Proteas we found: the top one is already dying but the bottom picture is a new bud about to bloom.  I never used to appreciate our natural flora before-spending more time around and in it has definitely helped me to appreciate it more.  I'm falling in love with the beauty of these plants more and more everyday.

As you walk along the path you pass some very interesting spots for having braais.  Some are right on the rock ledges just hanging over the dam!

Crossing the bridge we checked for any fish-but alas, I think the choppy wind was keeping them from surfacing in the cold weather.

This was an interesting find: an ant nest in the trees!  There were actually three of them filled with busy little ants going about their hard work.

We thought these were Red Hot Pokers-they look so much like the aloes which also flower at this time of year.  Nature providing us once again with those all important skills of discriminating similarities and differences.

Once we found our sheltered spot we all settled down to listen to the story of Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish.  Amazingly the fish we were hoping to catch are called Tilapia-according to internet sources it was the same fish that the disciples caught and the same fish that had the tax money in its belly!

And then it was time to fill up our buckets and wait patiently to catch a fish!

 A little bit of bread throwing to attract the fish.

 When you're too little to wait patiently for That One Big Catch you must find other fun ways to entertain yourself.  Water play-the best fun ever!

And if catching a fish is taking a little longer than you expected you can always get innovative and use the fishing nets as jump poles.

But what a great reward it was when that first (or those first) two fish were caught in one swoop of the net!

Soon everyone else was on a roll scooping them out of the water. With shouts of: I've got one! floating across the dam.

This sweetie pie is never going to miss out on a learning moment-but when you've had a hard morning's work exploring all sorts, a snug spot in prime view position, is the best place to be!

Absolute delight!  The wonder of discovery-such a blessing to be able to share these learning moments with all of the special children in our group.

And when you didn't have the patience to catch one of your own, you can always become the teacher of those younger than you.  Look Deeky, this is how you must hold it-very carefully, see?

I know that Nature Journals are intended to be drawn in on location, but we find that it's rather difficult to sit still and quietly draw when you've got all that nature to explore and your friends to share it with.  So if Jenna is interested in drawing in her journal when we get home again she either draws a treasure she was able to bring back with her or we find a picture to copy.  My goal, at the moment, is rather that I encourage a love for nature and an understanding of journalling her finds and thoughts.  This is her entry from our fishing experience:

She draws first and then we discuss what she wants me to write for her about the experience.

Out and about in Nature with the whole family.

Our week-ends have been busy lately.  Or it's been raining so we haven't had much time to get out on family walks.  But two week-ends ago we took the gap between rain showers and discovered a new nature treasure just around the corner from us-Sand dunes.  I knew they were there but I didn't know how to get to them.  And then we happened upon them quite by chance.  Along the dirt road behind the Silverglades Sport's Fields there's a trail that leads to this......

Jenna loved climbing to the very top and rolling down again!

It's like we're walking on the moon mom!  Except of course for the wind which can have this effect on nature:

(Ooops, I should have rotated that one!)

One bonus of having Ray with us is that he captures the photos I just can't seem to take!  Must be that artistic eye. 

This was named The Fort,

which was great fun for all

 yes, even I ran down it!

It was windy in some spots and sheltered in others, cold too. A light rain started to fall as we made our way home but despite all the "bad" weather we all had a blast!