Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching ??….thoughts/discussion

This article isn’t directly related to math, but it is an example of “the thing, is the thing.”

http://www.charlottemasoninstitute.org/beyond-dust-particles-an-experiment-in-sunday-school-by-amy-fiedler/

While it’s concerned with Sunday School methods, I wanted to note that the author realized that all the bells and whistles assumed necessary for Sunday School were actually standing in the way of The Word. I think of Jesus saying, “Let the children come to me.”

For math, I see it this way. In the early years, don’t fret over workbooks and texts. (I’ve only had one want a textbook early on…our youngest….most likely because she’s always seen her older siblings using books for math.) I’m not knocking Ray’s, or Right Start, Rod and Staff, or MUS, Singapore, or any other resource. I’m just mentioning that if these aren’t available, disaster is not right around the corner. Every day life offers so many ways to find concrete examples of math.

When our children were tiny, I bathed them in the tub with me. I sang songs to them. “Jesus Loves Me,” nursery rhymes, and we counted. Counting fingers, toes, hands, feet (“one foot, two feet,”) shampoo bottles, tub tiles, toys… As they grew bigger, we counted more things. None of this was tied to written numbers. Outside, swinging time was a very deliberate routine for me once they were big enough to be pushed in a “big kid” swing. I pushed them 100 times every time we went to the swing. Guess what? This “rule” was how I helped them learn to count to 100.

At the same time, we also used living math books and board books that were related to math topics. I remember one math board book being read over and over and over. It only covered 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Pointing and counting. Counting and pointing. That connected those numbers with amounts previously understood concretely in the tub. A bit later, bigger numbers, understood on the swing, were discussed with written numbers.

I have my kids cook and bake with me from very young. They count eggs, use timers, measure ingredients, and more. They have almost learned these forms of math completely prior to tackling them with the abstract texts/workbooks. The light is usually already on by the time they study these concepts with formal textbooks.

How does this look on a schedule? Short lessons. Math each day. Choose a topic, decide on a real life activity that can introduce the concept, and practice it off and on for a few weeks, or longer. Then, demonstrate it through the text/workbook. We’ve usually waited until about 3rd-4th grade age before using formal texts. Our youngest began using Rod and Staff at 5…the first grade workbooks were used over a two and a half year period. She’s 7 and will move directly into their 3rd grade text next month. (2nd grade R&S is basically a year of facts practice, but she’s had that as part of her life for quite a while through sing song habit and xtramath.org.)

I’m hoping that this moves from philosophy to practical application. I did not mean to sound confusing. I’ve been so excited about the change our 13yos has seen just through moving it from the practical (which he’d begun to view as mundane) to the spiritual. He’s at an age to make that leap. I am at a place to be able to “see” how I could have approached is much differently for him and for our older children much earlier on. So, I’m hoping to do that with our youngest.

This conversation is helping me to understand so much more. Thank you for starting this thread!

Oh, I can be Becca, or TailorMade. It makes no difference to me. At times, I forget to sign my name, or need to send and get busy with other things. I don’t always remember names if they aren’t part of posts. So, if I direct a reply to a particular person within a conversation, I use their avatar name if I don’t see their name name in the post. ;0)

@Richele, where is he??  Good question.  I don’t really know, but I know I need to find out.  He seems to have a hard time with the 6’s, 8’s, and probably a few more.  In some ways I feel we need to start over and just do some brief review to make sure some things are understood, like: place value and some addition facts.  We are on to multiplication and I believe he understands the concept but just can’t repeat them quickly, but he does enjoy yelling out sums when he is proud of his computations 🙂  I think sometimes he is guessing and just gets lucky, other times I think they are memorized or he skip counted quickly.  How do I go about knowing what he knows for sure??  Would just going down the line, 0x1, 0x2, and so on, and filling out graph paper with the correct answers to create a multiplication table “show” what he does know?? We could then work on the ones he doesn’t, then fill them in as it is solidified??  I really don’t know how to help him build confidence other than use an online drill, like MUS, so he can gain instant gratification.  I try to keep his lessons short, but I think he is getting bogged down and needs a break from our traditional text.  He would love some oral work, but I succumb to the ease of pulling out the text, I’ll admit. 

I will continue to read the handbook and look into Ray’s.  Thank you in advance.

Many thanks, Richele. This is all so helpful. I’m going to give Ray’s a try with my 3 oldest this week to see how it translates to our real life. 🙂 My children have used MEP and Life of Fred, but MEP was much much to time intensive for *me* … not that I don’t want to sit and teach each child, but I was spending about 2 hours a day teaching math. We transitioned to LoF solely, and while I like the math, I am feeling that there is more story than math in these early years and my oldest is not being challenged, but we can’t really move ahead or the story is lost.

Over the summer I read Mathematics: An Instrument and I was so completely taken with its beauty and logic and simplicity. I’ll be rereading this week. This has been such a good thread.

Our experience with tables comes from a Montessori background. We didn’t have Montessori specific materials (they tend to be costly,) but did do some floor work with objects in a similar fashion from time to time. I’m not sure this will be well received as some do not see CM and Montessori methods working well together. They do at our house.

Here’s a YouTube video that demonstrates the multiplication board with Mspecific materials. You can use cereal. ;0)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN5zKYXCtpY

I’m not trying to send you in a Montessori direction. This is just another activity that we’ve used at home. I tend to use a variety of hand’s on activities in the early years. This is one that worked well when we used it. It’s just a formal grouping activity.

No promises but I hope to be back soon to attend to the questions on the forum as well as post on multiplication on ye olde blog.

Just wanted you to know erin.kate that I saw them.

…It is joy unspeakable and full of glory…

R

Okay, the first multiplication post called Multiplication using Charlotte Mason’s Methods is up. 

erin.kate, I’m with you. Had someone told me in highschool that Geometry was the art of measurement or shown me the Fibonacci sequence I think I would have been inspired to work harder. Thank you for your encouraging words.

If your daughter is ready to start fractions, go on ahead. As for review, CM began each year with a review and then daily reviewed what was learned in previous lessons during the last five minutes of class as well as another 10 minutes scheduled at a different time during the school day. 

The suggested grade levels are just that: suggested. I have one child “ahead” and one “behind” but am content to go at their pace while being sure to be consistent with them. The teacher’s guide (not correlated with the SCM handbook) shows Primary – Grades 1 & 2, Intellectual – Grades 3 & 4, Practical – Grades 5 & 6, and Higher – Grades 7 & 8. Since Ray’s isn’t numbered, we should feel comfortable placing our children according to their needs.

@greenbalts, Multiplication is laid out in the chapter titled “Elementary Arithmetic” of the handbook. The child first constructs a multiplication table using manipulatives (pennies being the preferred object) and works with that before the teacher guides them in how to construct a written table. A table is shown in the book and each number gets its own table. There is a partial picture of one in my child’s math notebook in that blog post I just posted as well.  I haven’t looked at Thompson’s book yet.

All my best,

Richele

Richele,

Can you explain why your highschool curriculum choice so far isn’t Ray’s? I was planning to order the geometry one soon for my high schoolers.

thanks!