I always loved school. I love the look, feel, and even the smell of a brand new textbook. I was transported back to my own public school days when I received the 3rd grade enVisionMath textbook from Pearson Learning. You know the stamp in the front of a textbook that has a place to write…
CapJaxMathFax Review
Learning math facts brings up images of studying boring flash cards. And I don’t just mean boring for the kids! I really do think drilling math facts is important, but it has not been something that I’ve made enough time to work on with my kids. It takes time and my time is spread really thin…
Balance Math Teaches Algebra!
I don’t think I’ve made it a secret that I’m a math geek. I love algebra, especially word problems. And even though I call(ed) myself a classical educator, I’ve differed in my philosophy of math education. I’ve always stressed conceptual understanding over computational skills. (In hindsight maybe I should have stressed computational skills and memorization…
K5 Learning Review
K5 Learning is an on-line program for students from kindergarten through grade 5. Designed to be used by students for after-school practice, it is also works well in a homeschool setting. K5 provides lessons in reading, spelling, math, and math fact drill. I selected my almost 10 year old son to test K5 Learning. Officially,…
Thinking Mathematically – How I Choose Math Curriculum
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through an affiliate link, I will receive a small percentage of the sales price. As an elementary student I don’t remember being too fond of math. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t particularly like it either. I do remember shedding tears over division of fractions.…
Big IQ Kids #hsreview
Drill. It’s kind of a dirty word to students and some educators. It invokes images of tedious copying of spelling words or rote recitation of math facts. And in all honestly, it’s not something that has been a strong point in our homeschool up to now. I’ve got some “good” reasons. (Or maybe I should…
Amazing Mathematical Card Trick
This is my son’s latest video. It is a card trick that he figured out himself. What I think is even more amazing is that he came to me with the algebraic formulas he had figured out because he wanted to show why it worked! I had to show him how to solve the equations,…
Using a Stopwatch to Help a Child Focus
Last week was standardized testing in our home. The next day I accidentally discovered something that has been very helpful to my younger son (8 years old) who has difficulty concentrating on his assignments. I had left the stopwatch sitting on the table, and my son picked it up while he was doing his math.…
Math Galaxy
When I look back over this year on the Homeschool Crew, I’ll always remember it as the math year — the on-line math year. I have had the opportunity to review lots of math products this year, and Math Galaxy was somewhat at a disadvantage with its review being later in the year. When I…
Math Practice
I’m planning on having my son work one addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problem daily just to to make sure that he remembers the methods. We’ve fought and fought over him doing most of his math in his head. It might not be so much of a problem if he got all the problems correct.…