Golden Ratio

Or "That Fibonacci Thing"?

While walking on a trail, we found these beautiful tree cones on the ground. My son takes a look at one and says, in a breathless, awe-inspired voice, "Ohhhhh, it's a giant Fibonacci thing!" My smile was felt all the way through to my toes. It's definitely one of those moments where you feel that all you are doing is making a positive difference in your child's world. And you are reminded that they actually do listen when you're talking.

We also revisited Newton's Laws of Physics while visiting an amusement park. These explanations came in handy when realizing why we didn't need to worry about falling out of the restraints on some of the scary rides!

Put On Your Thinking Cat!

Pets become a part of the day.

There is a section in the math program we use (Math in Focus by Singapore) called, "Put on Your Thinking Cap". We alway make a joke when it comes time for this section. We think the title for the section is goofy, so we act goofy when we get to it.

One day, someone posted this pic and we laughed and laughed at the "I've got my thinking cat on" caption with the photo of a cat on a dog's head. Our joke only got more funny and we continue to laugh each time we get to this section in math.

Often, while we are working on our math, the family cat climbs onto the table to look out the window while we work. Other times, she will sit right ON our work. Here, she sat right between my son and the student book, making it nearly impossible to work or put our "thinking cat on!"

Saxon Math didn't work for us

What we like:

Very easy to use. For the first grade, it even gives you the complete dialog to have with your child. Just read out loud, allow your child to answer and voila, you're teaching math. There are very clear instructions on what materials you need for each lesson (most of which you can find in your own home, a few manipulatives you may want to purchase separately) You can go off script, of course, but if you don't know what to say, or feel uncomfortable teaching math, this is a very good curriculum for you. It was a great curriculum for me to get my feet wet.

What we don't like:

Saxon Math is VERY repetitive. Very. Very. Very repetitive. Get it? This is why I bought it. I thought my kids would benefit from repetition. However, it turns out they didn't. They rolled their eyes at having to answer the same questions in lesson 50 as they answered in lesson 1. That's not to say my kids are experts and know it all perfectly, but they got easily bored with the format and would stop answering all together. For a month, we fought, there were tears and we were not doing well. I finally gave myself permission to skip pages, skip dialogs, and once I saw they got the concept, we'd skip the practices and breeze onto the next part. Once I did this, the kids were much happier and so was I.

What are we doing now:

We did decide to change our curriculum away from Saxon, however, it's hard for me to just stop using the books we already have. All I see is dollar signs. I realize, in the bigger picture, it may be ok to just abandon the curriculum and go with the new one. But I can't quite go there. So, we are going through the rest of the books quickly, only concentrating on concepts that are new to us or need a little practice. Once we are done with the current books, or when I give myself permission to skip the rest (which ever comes first) we will begin using a form of Singapore math called "Math in Focus". I've talked to a lot of other homeschooling moms, Singapore is one of the curriculums I hear about most. We'll see if it's for us!