1 March 2012
Today we reviewed skip counting by 3's. As I said before, Ra has 3-30 down pretty well and when I asked her today if we could try to go to 60 she went all the way to 99! I am so impressed. I really could hardly believe she needed very little help to do it either! But because the pattern repeats itself and we talked about it as much as we did she picked up on the rest of it like it was a cake walk!
When we finished our counting review I let Ra play some more on the computers with her brothers and I watched a YouTube video on Jean Peaget's theory on kids reinventing math. I had never heard of this idea before but it make complete sense after seeing it in action as it is on the video I watched. Here it is so you can see for yourself what you think. I was amazed. (This is the first part of a three part video)
When I was first teaching Ra math in K and 1st grade using the Utah Virtual Academy K12 program I wanted to explain to her all of the different ways I see the problem to make it easier to add or subtract. But this isn't how the text books taught and so I believe I was sending my poor little girl too many mixed signals about how to solve a math equation.
After watching this video I pulled out a chalkboard and chalk and sat down with Ra and went through some similar exercises. I wrote an equation and had Ra answer it, then I would have her explain how she came up with that answer. I would then explain to her what I do to get the answer. This is a much more fluid way of teaching math and it also helps improve cognitive thinking, deductive reasoning etc. Very fun exercise, it would be fun to do with a few more kids involved though.
Ra decided she wanted to make some money so she started drawing pictures to sell. She is becoming quite the little artist. Her pricing method was creative, if not a little exaggerated. She counted how many colors she used in the picture and then charged a dollar for each color. So if the picture had six colors it would cost $6.00.
The rest of the day I spent cooking, cleaning and balancing our budget for March.Not my favorite day, but it kinda is too. I like budgeting, it gives me a sense of control and stability, though I also get to see all of the frivolous mistakes we made with our money over the past week(s).
We didn't read anything tonight. I am getting behind on everything with the hubby being home. Hopefully I can get caught up on Monday. This weekend is super full and I know I will not be able to get caught up then, I will just be lucky if we don't get more behind.
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