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Tag Archives: Homework Help
Butterfly Salad
Math on a plate.
Today my 4-year-old and I got out Cooking Is Cool: Heat-Free Recipes for Kids to Cook
Here’s our version of Butterfly Salad. The actual recipe called for dyed cottage cheese, which I thought was gross, so we used grapes instead.
Ingredients:
- lettuce leaf
- pineapple rings
- cottage cheese
- grapes or berries
- celery stalk (the body)
- 1 olive (the head)
- a carrot or bell pepper (the antennae)
Math Skills Involved:
- counting
- fractions (cut the pineapple rings in half)
- comparisons (more cottage cheese, less cottage cheese)
- ordinal numbers (first you do this, second you do that, etc.)
- symmetry (the goal is to make the wings look the same)
This recipe took about twenty minutes to make. My daughter and I both had a lot of fun!
Why this Kindergarten teacher is confused by Kindergarten
Here’s my “I Brake for Moms” column from today’s Everett Herald. We decided to register our daughter for half-day Kindergarten with an intent to Afterschool.
Afterschooling Plan for Working Moms
Afterschooling isn’t just for stay-at-home parents. There are a lot of ways you can provide meaningful instruction to your children using what would otherwise be dead-time.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot to offer teens yet, but here are some ideas for K-8:
- Carschooling –so easy, so effective. Ask the grandparents to buy CDs for Christmas, or else check them out from your local library.
- Dreambox Math –perfect for K-5. Have your kids play Dreambox while you get dinner on the table. Consider making 15 minutes of Dreambox a requirement to earn screen time.
- ClickN’ Read Phonics— K-3 phonics curriculum on the computer. I haven’t tried this, but it gets good reviews.
- Bedtime read alouds –be sneaky! For young readers, Bob Books can “unlock” stories you hate. For older readers, try using the CIA approach on your next chapter book.
- Hands On Equations –definitely worth the time. For older kids, if you can find an extra twenty minutes a week, Hands on Equations is really worth it. It will give them such an advantage in algebra, that you won’t believe it. Of all the math things I’ve blogged about, this is the curriculum that impresses me the most.
- Science Kits by mail— be a cool science mom, without having to plan anything. Seriously, almost everything you need (including a script) comes in the mail, ready for 30 minutes of fun. The catch is the kits are expensive, so you should wait for a Groupon or good deal on Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op. Sign up for my Facebook page, and I’ll keep you posted.
- Highlights Top Secret Adventure Kits –project based geography that come in the mail. Your 7-12 year-old solves puzzles, looks for clues, and reveals the villain while learning about that month’s county. Unfortunately, like the Young Scientist Club Kits, these are really expensive, so you’d want to watch for a special deal.
- Story of the World Audio CDs –history kids probably won’t get at school. SOTW is a borrow from the homeschooling world. A college professor named Susan Wise Bauer has written four volumes of world history specifically for children. They cover ancient times to the present century. These CDs can be used grades K-8. I want my kids to listen to them every two years. I have a strong suspicion SOTW will help with AP tests someday.
Strapped for time but with a plan, that sounds like an awesome mom to me!
An Afterschooling Plan for Half-Day Kindergarten
In our neighborhood, full-day Kindergarten costs $3,600. Half-day Kindergarten is free, but is only two hours and 40 minutes. All of the research I’ve read says that full-day Kindergarten makes a difference. I have an “I Brake for Moms” column coming out next Sunday, explaining the issue.
If you’d like to take a look at the research yourself, here you go:
Education.com’s Full-Day vs. Half-Day
Fact Sheet from the Children’s Defense Fund
Full-Day vs. Half-Dad Kindergarten; In Which Program Do Children Learn More?
In our neighborhood, if you take out all of the minutes from lunch and recess, full-day Kindergarten means 5 hours and 15 minutes of instructional time per day. Half-day Kindergarten is 2 hours and 25 minutes. (Please note, I don’t mean to be dismissive of the importance of recess. Children learn a lot on the playground.)
So if we were to chose half-day Kindergarten, could I somehow Afterschool enough to get in the extra 2 hours and 50 minutes a day? Yes; definitely! Here’s how:
An Afterschooling Plan for Half-Day Kindergarten
Language Arts Block, 60 minutes
- 5 minutes parent read aloud
- 5 minutes Bob Books or equivalent
- 5 minutes parent read aloud
- 5 minutes Bob Books or equivalent
- 5 minutes parent read aloud
- 5 minutes Bob Books or equivalent
- 10 minutes All About Spelling
- 10 minutes Handwriting Without Tears
- 10 minutes independent reading in cozy corner
Choice Time, 30 minutes
- Full-day kinders would likely be getting this at school. This thirty minute block would be a chance for my child (and I) to unwind while I got the next activities set up.
Math, 30 minutes
Specials, 30 minutes
- Monday = cooking, Cooking Is Cool: Heat-Free Recipes for Kids to Cook
- Tuesday = Art, 123 I Can Paint! (Starting Art)
- Wednesday = Go to the library with a big basket!
- Thursdays = Science Kits or Magic School Bus videos
- Fridays = Logic games or perhaps the Highlights Travel Kits.
Homework (from school), 20 minutes
TOTAL TIME = 2 hours and 50 minutes!
The cost of this Afterschooling plan would be about $350, including the uber-expensive science kits. I could splurge and get the Highlights kits too, and still come in way under $600. Or I could go the other way, and do the whole plan for practically nothing. I’d just swap about the math section for this page of free activities here.
What’s half-day Kindergarten like in your state? Are you stressing out about registering your child for Kindergarten too?
5th Grade Algebra and Candy
If you’ve read the recent article My Daughter’s Homework is Killing Me, then you know that parents all over our country are scratching their heads, wondering when homework got so dang hard.
I think that part of the reason is that complex concepts (like algebra) are being introduced in earlier grades.
In an ideal world, an early introduction to algebra would help prepare students to master advanced math in middle school and high school. It’s scaffolding for the future.
In the meantime, parents look at their kids’ homework and go “Whoa.”
Here’s a trick that might make homework easier. Add candy to the equation!
To show how this can work, I’m using an example similar to what you would find in the 5th grade Houghton Mifflin Math Expressions textbook, which the Edmonds School District uses.
Problem: Mrs. Garcia’s neighborhood has 28 pets. There are twice as many cats as hamsters and four times as many dogs as hamsters. How many of each pet are there?
You could use guess and check to figure this out, which would take forever. Or you could use algebra. Or you could use algebra and candy…even better!
One piece of candy corn equals the number of hamsters. Two pieces of candy corn equals the number of cats, which is twice the number of hamsters. Four pieces of candy corn equals the number of dogs, which is four times the number of hamsters. In all, the total number of pets is 28. That would mean 4 hamsters, 8 cats, and 16 dogs in the neighborhood.
Once you introduce candy into the equation, math homework becomes more fun. Just don’t forget to have toothbrushes on the ready.
