Math Instruction

This week I am discussing math instruction for each of my three boys.  Above are a few snapshots of several math lessons from this week.  Many people ask me how I manage to teach all three.  Here’s what works for me.  Combine as many subjects as possible history, art, science, geography, drama, bible/character study etc.  Then I tailor each assignment within these topics to the boys needs.  In traditional school setting this is called differentiating your curriculum. 
The 3 R’s are taught separately for each child.  This is when each child gets individual one on one instruction with mom while the others are playing or working on independent work.  The younger two have very, very brief instruction time. I don’t push them. When they are ready to work we work. Once they have had enough they are free to go play. I keep several things ready so when opportunities present themselves I can cover material outlined on each child’s agenda.
Christopher has a big year ahead of him but I wanted to slow things down a bit with our math instruction and solidify his foundation.  A solid foundation is a must in mathematics and so we are reviewing a ton before we move forward.  This week we spent some time deepening our understanding of the vocabulary and signs of addition.

• Addition- joining two or more numbers together to find their sum.
• The + plus sign, shows you what you need to do.  This sign is called plus because it means more. 
• The = sign, is the sign of equality.  When = is placed between two numbers it shows that they are equal.  Ex  2+7=9  The numbers on the left of the = sign are equal to the number on the right.
• Addends- Numbers being added together.  3+6 are addends
• Sum- The result or answer.  3+6=9 9 is your sum.

Lastly we continue our work with Roman Numerals and I am teaching Christopher to read cursive writing in our math lessons as well.  He will not begin cursive instruction until next year.  We will continue to work on his mastery of print first before we tackle cursive. 
Last year there was some debate about whether or not cursive was still relevant in today’s education.  In fact many public schools no longer require children to learn it.  I will not get into that debate, but my boys will learn cursive.  How else will they be able to read all of my hand written notes for crying out loud.  I had to learn it and so will they. 

Emmanuel reached his goal of counting to 100 this week.  He would not let me rest until he reached 100.  Way to go Emmanuel, now we will begin working on math facts 0-4.  In preparation for math facts we compared more or less this week.  We sorted M&M’s by color and of course we ate them afterwards the best part.

Joshua is counting to twenty and sometimes beyond.  I place number cards on the floor and he calls them out one at a time. We also use our mini trampoline to help us count our jumps.  I wanted to include several videos of the younger boys and their math lessons but they were not loading properly.  Blasted technology never works properly when you need it the most.  We incorporated a beautiful book from the library this week Art 123 Count from 1 to 12 with Great Works of Art by Stefano Zuffi.  Each number was paired with a picture and we counted the items in the picture. Above is Dance by Matisse and in the book it was paired with the number five.  So we counted the five dancers. I included a better picture below. Great book I really enjoyed the opportunity to bring great art into our everyday life. 


As you can see I am teaching math to all three boys but on their own level.   Emmanuel is now counting to 100 but Christopher is counting to 100 backward and forward.  Christopher can also count by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s and 100’s.  He can identify even and odd numbers, identify operations etc. This year he will write all numbers to 1,000 and much, much more.  Christopher can write figures and number words where as Emmanuel is just now beginning his writing instruction.  Joshua is just now learning the verbiage.  Each child has a different level of number sense and each year I evaluate where they are and come up with a plan for the next year.  Essentially how to get child from point A to B.  Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of math time here at our home.