A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

homeschool

Practical Math

By 17 Comments

My son and I have … A struggle with math and I have to admit that I am not always sure what to do with it.   He’s been getting a bit weary with the struggle (as am I). 

We had picked up a math program last year that I thought would work well for him but it has proven, over time, to be far too easy for him, yet I know he has gaps in his learning (as evidenced today when, to my surprise, I learned that he doesn’t really get what fractions are)…yet he has done lots of fraction work and done it well!   So… I’m currently feeling a bit floored and flummoxed.

So anyways, the point of this post is about math.. practical math as you can see from my post title, and how needful taking a day away can be.  Susan from Homeschooling Hearts and Minds is hosting the Virtual Curriculum Fair this month and math is the focus this week.

Recently I had to bring a bunny to London, a person from Toronto was planning to come by to get the rabbit, but we live in South-western Ontario where we are prone to winter storms, so bunny needed to travel in something that would hold for a few days, if their person couldn’t make it.

ERGO enters a practical math problem.

Our issues:

  • Normal rabbit carrier is frozen solid from an unexpected leak
  • Bunny will be staying at gramma’s so tidyness is very important (measuring lower side height)
  • bunny needs sufficient room to move around for health and mental outlook (area)
  • Needs to hold food and water dishes for continuity of care (perimeter)
  • needs to open and close easily to avoid confusing gramma.

 I’d heard about rabbit carriers being made out of rubbermaid containers so thought that might be the route to go.

Canadian Tire had a sale on containers so off I set.

We came home with two containers (in case we made an oops).

 What we needed:

  • a drill with two different sized bits
  • jigsaw
  • wire for the side
  • wire cutters
  • zipties
  • rubbermaid container
  • very sharp knife
  • markers
  • straight edge

My son asked me “How is this practical math if we aren’t actually doing measuring mom?”

I said “Math is more than measuring, it’s doing estimation and lines, learning how to use a straight edge and stuff like that”.     So we used line of sight, hand measurements, estimation and approximation, and so forth.

He was happy.. he got to use a drill once I showed him how to do a quick up and down with the bit.  He learned how slippery plastic was to cut and so learned to slow down so he wouldn’t take mom’s fingers with it.

I have to admit, that even though my lad is very good with knives I didn’t allow him to do any cutting.   Cutting plastic can be temperamental and using a really sharp knife is a must.  As it was I got nicks taken out of my fingers.

First up.   Taking one piece of wire (taken from an old bird cage) and eye ball it to see what we have to cut back.  It was too wide and a touch too long.

We needed to consider having room to connect it, maintain the stability of the container, and not waste the wire we had.

Using the wire cutters with the wire was pretty easy though dad had to lend his strength to cut through the thick wires.

Cutting through the plastic had dad helping with drilling holes into the corners.  We learned quickly that regardless of what markers I used they didn’t hold well on the plastic making it difficult to see the lines, so after helping cut one line with the jigsaw and not being able to see the lines he left me to cut the rest with my sharp blade.

We needed to put two holes close together to hold the wire onto the sides.

We discussed if it was better to put the wire on the outside or inside and had differing opinions until Dad called from across the room.. put in on the inside…keep the rabbit from nibbling on the plastic.  That cemented the decision-making for us.  🙂

It proved to be a two person job to attach the wire.   Working from opposite corners we managed to get the job done.

The lad completed the job by trimming off the excess ziptie (to keep bunny from thinking…ooh.. free nibbles here!)   Yes, bunnies can be silly.

This took us about a half hour from start to finish, including installing bunny in her temporary home.

Does she look content?   Hay given, water and pellets when she gets to gramma’s.   She should do well eh?   Opens from the top as well as the sides for ease of access.  Turned out to be a good thing as gramma couldn’t figure out the side panels at all.

The bedding for those curious, is a mixed shaving and straw bedding.  Safe to use with small animals.

My math weary child was so delighted to use this project for his math work, it inspired him back to doing “regular” math… even though fractions proved more problematic than we thought they would.  🙂   go figure.   Sometimes taking a day to do practical math.. even without actual numbers .. is just what a lad needs.

This post is part of the Virtual Curriculum Fair, it’s math week .. having fun with numbers.

Please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are talking about
Discovering Patterns: Math and the Mathematical Sciences this week:

Finding Our Math Equilibrium: Our Plan for 11th, 7th, 5th, and 2nd Grades + Free Printables! by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds
Math Resources and Programs for All Ages by Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool
Math (doesn’t) Stink! by Jennifer King @A Peace of Mind
When Math is NOT Your Thing by Michele@Family, Faith and Fridays
Math U See and All the Supplements by Laura H @ Four Little Penguins
Discovering Patterns in Our World: STEM Studies by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World
Junior High Math by Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life
Science & Math for Struggling Learners by Yvie @ Gypsy Road
Maths: a subject in progress by Sarah @ Delivering Grace
Taking Mathematics out of the Textbook by Dana Hanley @ Roscommon Acre
Maths for a Very Maths-y Boy by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home
Practical Math by Annette @ A Net in Time
One of the greatest benefits of homeschooling by Kim @ Good Sweet Love
Math, How I Loathe Thee by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed
Math and Logic in Early Elementary and Preschool {virtual curriculum fair 2017} by Meghan W @ Quiet In The Chaos
Low Stress High School Science and Math by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
Are these toys or manipulatives? This is math? by HillaryM @ Walking Fruitfully
When You Don’t Have a Math Plan by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart
Clear Horizons by Lori H @ At Home: where life happens
A Few Thoughts on Teacher Math by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

An InLinkz Link-up

This post will also be linked up on January 25 with the Canadian Homeschooler. 

Mom, thank you for teaching me…

By 10 Comments

I’ve heard that expression a lot this week.  “Mom, thank you for teaching me.”

When I re-taught him the continents and where “Canada” fell into that mix.
When I helped him understand that fractions were actually division statements.
When we looked into a microscope and saw what blood looked like and then saw the blood cells MOVE.
When we sat down together to edit chapter two of his story.

It’s been a bit of an odd thing hearing this so frequently.  I’m guessing the lad missed learning things when I was so ill before Christmas and then having two weeks off over Christmas.

It’s SO good to be feeling mostly back to normal again.   So very very good.

So what has our week looked like?

Monday: 

  • Most of his schooling he did before he got to grammas, why you ask?   Because my lad has taken up the cause of sewing lately and his gramma helps with cutting out pieces.   They sit and sew and chat together.  Little stuffies are born.  Veritas Press history and bible, math, human body, astronomy, all done.
  • He did his reading at Gramma’s and played a game (chess I think though it might have been sorry).

Tuesday:

  • Learning about Canada … we started with where Canada was in the world.   On the 3rd largest continent, 4th most populous continent, two mountain ranges, a great plain etc.   All the basics.
  • We worked on difficult angles in triangles and learned a disconcerting fact, the lad is VERY determined that fractions aren’t a division question or problem, they are just parts of numbers.  Still working that one through.  🙂 I’m going to guess though it’s a terminology issue though as he does his fractions quite easily and he has a tendency to be very particular about words and how they are used.
  • We had a great deal of fun editing the second chapter of his book.   Complete with misspellings and horrid punctuation.  He knows better with the punctuation but is too lazy while he’s writing to worry on it because “I can always edit it with you mom”.     (me rolling eyes)
  •  

  Wednesday

  • Foodbank day so no on-line materials done.   He’s required to do his
    schoolwork and to help when asked.  Today he mostly did his schooling
    but also helped with putting away potatoes, onions and tossing mis-given
    food (food that should have tossed but went to foodbank instead)
  • Math…
    today fractions into mixed numbers, percentages and decimals.   I was
    mixed up with my percentages today (head not into math) so we had an
    animated discussion about how if I was teaching in a school I would
    deserve a stern talking to.  🙂
  • at home we did our astronomy
    because “Mom, I know you like to learn this too but if I read it
    out-loud to you it takes too long!!”
  • Our breakfast book “Tirzah”
    we read at lunch time since breakfast didn’t happen at home today.  We
    scavenged at the foodbank.  🙂
  • Excitement prevailed when … Mom
    scratched open a scab and we looked at blood under the microscope.  BOY
    fun times!!   Dad even got in on the action.   We managed to even get
    it hooked up to the computer which was cool.

Thursday

  •  Astronomy was a source of fascination today.  We have picked up our
    study in Apologia’s Astronomy course again.  Today we were learning
    about real-life comets.   This video fascinated and elicited an “OH WOW” from the lad.   We spent longer with the wow factor that we didn’t move on as far as I had planned
 
  • We started an art project based on the Canadian Rockies.   The
    project we wanted to do didn’t pan out much to my lad’s delight, so he
    did what he really wanted to do.. a mountain that will be coloured using
    pencil shading.   He’s gotten the outline done, we’ll work on it more
    tomorrow, and I started an experiment in using tissue paper to create an
    abstract mountain art. 
  • He worked on the grammar part of
    chapter one of his book.. ACED it.  🙂   It was like a test to see if he
    could see what changes we made and why we made them.   When it came to
    making one of his sentences run more smoothly we had a good discussion
    about what sounded better and why.
  • Math was a lesson I pulled up
    from Khan academy but I couldn’t find any practice tests to go with it
    so kinda just said “That’ll do” (he didn’t complain one iota!)   We are
    looking at a different free math program called MEP Math.   A quick look
    has me thinking it makes more sense… easier to figure than Khan
    anyways.  Anyone familiar with it that can give me some ins and outs?
  • Here’s the start to my abstract art project.   It’s
    going to be few layers thick I think.. I want to do a silhouette on it, add some sticky out flowers and a boat to it as well..it’s a way for my
    boy to see different art in action without worry that something he will
    do will be a bomb (and ergo wasted time in his opinion and therefore a hard nut to crack at times).    Be mindful
    of this…. it is still a work in progress FAR from done.

    Friday

    •  I LOVE our Fridays.   So relaxed yet busy.  
    • Today we enjoyed the cats being silly with the birds at the feeder.   You should have seen his tail switching and twitching and the jumping at the windows.
    • we made a DaVinci clock and worked more on our art projects.

    • we also fed the snake whose been out wandering today.  She eats MUCH less in the winter than she does the rest of the year so we only feed her when she’s out and about wandering.   She doesn’t eat as much at one time either.  

    Reviews
     Out of the Spin Cycle: Devotions to help the busy mom.
    Trials, tears and triumphs.   I reviewed this for a friend.
    SchoolhouseTeachers.com.   Homeschool Crew Review

    Word Prompt
    Monkey in the Middle

    Devotions
     Sidon Be warned.
    King of Tyre, Lamented, Destroyed.

    Variety
    Art Series: Beatrix Potter: A great art book all about Beatrix Potter
     Recipe: Scotch Scones.  I like them the lads are less enamored.
    Introducing Blogging the Alphabet.   A linky Amanda and I are hosting.
    Hymn Study: God of our Fathers.
    Field Trip: Ontario Science Centre.  
    Connections and Thankfulness. blog posts I liked and things I am grateful for
    2017‘s here, what’s in Store. goals for the new year

                                     Linking up at the people below.

    Homeschool Coffee Break

    Weird unsocialized homeschoolers

    homeschool show and tell


    http://www.rockyourhomeschool.net/family-friday-8/

    2107 It’s here…what’s in store?

    By 2 Comments

    The Crew Round-Up this week is all about Goals for the year.

    I have to admit, I don’t tend to make a lot of goals.   I tend to take the year as it comes and make plans in my head about what I want, but you know how plans are?   They build upon each other until you reach overload (at least that’s how it tends to work for me).

    So I make longer term goals with small steps leading up.

    This year goal planning is in flux because hubby is needing to find new work, we may end up moving by year end, my life might end up looking quite different.   So most goals are dependent upon that.

    1. My Rabbitry Goals:  I think I’m going to sell off my polish and just focus on my hollands.  I like my polish and think they are great little rabbits, but my current crop is proving hard to breed and my one doe has produced flighty youngsters that I’m not keen on.   I only have a couple of does so fighting with them when I may have to drastically reduce my rabbitry…. doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.   Admittedly, it’s hard to reduce my rabbit herd and to think of letting my polish go… it’s HARD.   At the same time I was raised to be practical (it’s a Dutch thing!).  Do one must do what one must do and not look back.

    2. Business Goals: I want to start creating more ebooks and hopefully start to sell them.   Using Currclick or teachers pay teachers or something.   Make some longer and shorter books, maybe sets that go together.   Focusing on animals at first (as that’s a natural thing for me) and moving into geography or history or something.   Go slowly and see how it goes eh?   🙂   Part of that goal is to increase blog readership which from what I’ve read means I need to build an email list and start sending out emails to folks about what I blog.  I need to get over a mental hurdle about that and see if I can figure out creative ways to do a email list.  BUT FIRST I have to get a email server that let’s me in to use it.   It’s a mild source of vexation.

    3.Personal Goals: To remember to be patient and trusting of God to be mindful of us over the next year as Jim locates new employment.   Otherwise…what other personal goals?    There are always the standard ones: lose weight, grow deeper in my faith, exercise more, and what not.  They are just life issues more than goals though.

    4. Spiritual Goals: To finish the book of Ezekiel for my devotional time and then to find a new book of the bible to go through.   To sort through what church we’ll be attending over this coming year. 

    5. Homeschooling.   To continue teaching my boy as long as I can.  To enjoy the journey that we are on.  Learning and growing together.  Seeing new delights in the world that God has given.

    See what some of the goals other members of the Homeschool Review Crew have.  CLICK HERE.

    http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/goals-for-the-year-ahead-link-up/

    Review: SchoolhouseTeachers.com

    By 2 Comments

    Affiliate Links are used in this post. They cost you nothing & help me with my family needs. 

    I’ve been a member at SchoolhouseTeachers.com for so long I can’t even really remember when I started, I know it was from before I started working with the Homeschool Review Crew.    I have used different program with them throughout the years and each year they add more courses to their Yearly Membership.   

    Recently I wrote a post talking about the courses I am planning to use with my son this year, You can find that post here.  It will be good to round out our studies with these interesting courses. 

    I got to reading through some of the other courses, looking for anything that might interest me and guess what?   I found a couple.

    This one on Digital Art and Product Designs for Small Business. 50 Lessons once a week to put my creative skills to good use learning to make better graphics for my blog posts.   Doesn’t that sound great?   I feel rather inadequate sometimes as I lack confidence and natural eye for making graphics.

    I have a lad who enjoys history so I’ve been questing around for a history program I can use once he’s gone through all the Veritas Press history program.    To that end I’ve discovered a what I think will be a good gap program.   This Day in History.  Learning on new history fact a day/week depending on how I use it.   Just the kind of thing to intrigue the lad.   

    It’s actually rather hard to choose as there are over 300 courses that you can take.   ALL for one low yearly fee.

    Just look at all these different categories!

     
    Divided into Elementary, Middle School and Highschool for your ease in finding courses that interest you.    I am thinking they might want to offer some adult courses as well, though I have to admit those grade 12 courses are intriguing.  🙂


    SchoolhouseTeachers.com has never let me down in the quality of what they offer.  They have so many different courses to choose from, that you can even use one to compliment another.

    Their recent upgrade lends itself to a beautiful website, that is easy to navigate. One of the nicest features is the “can I help you” customer support button.   Ready and willing to help you at varied times throughout the day.  One night I was working at it was past 9 pm. and someone was there to help!  I was stunned!   Kind helpful people willing to help you find just the course you want.

    The Homeschool Review Crew has been busy reviewing this company and it’s yearly membership.   Do check them out by clicking the image below or by following this link.

    http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/high-quality-self-paced-online-homeschool-resources-schoolhouseteachers.com/

    Social media Links: 
     Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SchoolhouseTeachers/
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOSMag/
    Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tosmag/     
    Google+:  https://plus.google.com/118111005169451277551/posts

    Discount Promotion Graphics

    Beautiful new look, easier to use and over 300+classes and tutorial videos to help you get started.

    Join during SchoolhouseTeachers.com’s Super Christmas Sale and Save!

    Use Code:CHRISTMAS for $9.95/month or CHRISTMASYEAR for $90/year.

    50% discount on upcoming price increase ends: 15 January 2017

    In
    mid-January,  SchoolhouseTeachers.com is having a price increase. The
    promotion is to LOCK IN NOW at the $9.95/month rate so that you save 50%
    on the NEW prices. In about a week and a half this same monthly service
    will be $19.95/month–approximately twice as much!

    So if you are considering membership.  Click here.  Please don’t delay, you don’t want to be stuck with the higher membership fee.  🙂

    January 11th edition of Connections and Thankfulness

    By 8 Comments

    Starting a new thing, not sure how often it will run, probably bi-weekly.   Showing some posts I liked during the past week or two, along with listing moments of gratitude.

    Connections with Others

    1. UsSchooling.  I love the tone and the thought in this blog post.   Instead of calling your style eclectic… call it US schooling.  

    2. Friday Boxes. I used to, with my lad, write down one thing we were thankful for every day.  Became part of our routine but sometimes it was hard to come up with something.  I really like this idea of writing down one good thing (or more) of each week on a slip of paper, saving them and then reading them out at the end of the year.   I think we’ll start doing this.  Will be lovely to do I think.  🙂

    3. Making a Change.  I liked this post of Lori’s…I love her flexibility in how each of her children operates best.   Made a lot of sense to me it did.  🙂

    4. Is reading Hereditary.  I just thought this was an interesting question to ask.

    5. Loving Languages Every Day.   I just liked this post.   Just keeping reading eh?

    Moments of Gratitude
    1. “Mom, can I help you with anything?”   I love hearing those words from my boy.  or even better “Mom, is it okay if I vaccuum?  Mom, can I sweep the floor”?   Why do I love that more?   It means I don’t have to think of some way to honour his words, he’s come up with the idea on his own.  🙂

    2. Snow and Cold.   I know it’s odd.. but snow and cold mean health.  Means germs die.  Means no funerals or extra meals.  Means nothing is fretting people wise.

    3. Clothing and it’s options.   The fun of watching my boy run around in the snow… with SHORTS on!!!   Makes me smile and shake my head and be glad that everyone has been created differently.  AND it creates conversation starters with other people… like the fellow at the foodbank asking “what’s with the shorts?” and the lad talking with him about how he loves shorts and loves the cold because it means he isn’t hot.

    4. A talkative husband.  Oh my… it’s so interesting seeing the stress start to roll off his back and he talking it seems all the time.  I’m having a bit of time adjusting to that.  It’s just so very odd.  I like it, but it’s a bit of an adjustment.

    Want to join in?   Go ahead and link up.   Be polite and link back to THIS post.   Visiting others and commenting is always a welcome thing. 

    Interesting Courses through SchoolhouseTeachers.com

    By Leave a Comment

    Hey, I don’t know if you have heard about SchoolhouseTeachers.com yet…but if you haven’t, you are missing out on an excellent resource, SERIOUSLY. Imagine a place, where you can get over 300 courses, NO additional fees, all for about $10 a month….OR if you bit the bullet.. $90 a year. 

    I don’t know about you but I’d be thinking.. Pretty good deal.. what’s the catch?

    Get this.. NO CATCH. Well okay.. One catch. You have until January 15 to lock in that price.  Cool eh?  Do note that I use affiliate links in this post which help my family and don’t hurt you one bit. 🙂

    You can learn more here:

    Schoolhouse Teachers Half Price Discount

     So let me tell you more about this wonderful resource.

    As you may or may not know, my son and I have a on again off again study of Canada going.  Each year we start in a different place, go like mad for a while and then things change or get forgotten or complaints about methodology start and we stop.   I want to STOP that cycle.

    To the end this year I bought a comprehensive history of Canada.   It’s a fairly boring text but comprehensive.  I thought I could EASILY supplement and I can!  WOOT WOOT!!!!

     To go along with this book I plan to use a variety of hands-on learning options and worksheets and discoveries that I have picked up around the web BUT I have found THREE (and there will more than likely be more).. areas in SchoolhouseTeachers.com that I will be able to use.

    First off:
    EveryDay Explorers: Canada.

     This course walks us through every province of Canada, listing some highlights, 20 days to explore each province, with loads of sights to see, history to learn and geography to explore.

    Add to that:
    EveryDay Easels.

    A big part of my hope is, as we finish each province, to use an artist study to capture something about the province that we wish to remember.   There are 5 and 10 day lesson plans in this course and you can jump around as you see fit.

     Daily Discoveries was an exciting find.

     My son loves all things animals and exploratory so adding a learning component is just awesome.

    Anyways, as I said earlier they are having a great promotion on right now.  You really need to check it out.  Over 300 courses for 50% off with no additional fees.  It’s a rock solid investment.

     Don’t delay!   This special ends on January 15th.

    Language Arts: Our Style

    By 8 Comments

    Welcome to the Virtual Curriculum Fair 2017 week two.  This week we talk all about language arts, how one plays around with words.   Our host is the lovely Susan.  You can learn more about the VFCF2017 right here.

    I have to admit, it took a while to figure out a system to study Language Arts in our home.
    Knowing that my boy (like his mother) tells stories as easily as breathing I thought, why not use that.

    So I grabbed this freebie book from the library discard pile and off we set.

    First he needs to draw a picture of the story he wants to write.  He spent days at this, getting all the details right and NO, I’m not allowed to show you.  🙂

     Then you develop your main character.  This was harder than the lad anticipated.  He thought he could just do yellow, pointed ears character.   Then I asked : so how tall is he?   Does he eat meat or vegetables?   What makes him laugh?   Does he ever cry?   Does he have friends or is he a loner?

    Once he had the character nailed down a bit better he moved on to writing his story.  Bit by bit he adds to it.  And bit by bit he learns.  Every day a 1/2 hour of work is required.

    Each time he gets a chapter done, we sit down and we edit it together.  We make the changes right in his story, discussing spelling errors, word usage, sentence structure and all that fun stuff.

    And you know what?   He’s learning.  It’s not a battle.  It’s a sitting down and talking and learning together.  Sometimes I’ll read a sentence and not know what it wrong with it, so I’ll ask other folks and they’ll show me what’s wrong and then the lad and I both learn something new.

    It’s good to do this.  🙂

    I have to admit, I getting curious about what treasure his character is going to discover…

    Anyways, this book has a variety of stories one can write out, from adventures to mysteries.
    Draw it out, write it out chapter by chapter and just work your way through it.   We’ll be working our way through it for a good time to come yet.  🙂

    I admit that we are taking our time with it, and we did get side-tracked when I was ill so are rather behind, but a new week is dawning and a lad will learn and grow, and I’ll be there with him.

    This post is part of the Virtual Curriculum Fair.   I do hope that you’ll join us in reading through what some of us have put together.   Here’s the list of the gang.  🙂

    Please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are writing about Playing with Words this week:

    All posts will be live by Monday, January 9th at noon EST.

    Delight Directed High School English by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

    Act Your Part Well- 2017 VCF by Lisa @ Golden Grasses

    The Search For Language by Michele@Family, Faith and Fridays

    Our Top Picks for Language Arts by Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool

    Multiple Approaches to Language Arts in 2017 by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World

    How We Cover the Language Arts in Our Homeschool by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

    Use Your Words by Laura @ Four Little Penguins

    The Art of Perfecting Macarons by Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life

    Loving Languages Every Day by Jen K @ A Peace of Mind

    Speech Therapy & Elementary Latin by Yvie @ Gypsy Road

    The Readin’ and Writin’ Part of Homeschool by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed

    Children Who Love Books by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home

    Customizing High School Language Credits by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

    A Poetry Feast by Sarah @ Delivering Grace

    Teaching Language Arts without Curriculum by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart

    I know your pain and it is worth it! by Kim @ Good Sweet Love

    Language Arts: Our Style by Annette @ A Net in Time

    Words! Words! Words! by Lisa M @McClanahan 7

    10 Wonderful Word Games (+1) by Lori @ At Home: where life happens

    What About Reading Comprehension? by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

    Teaching Grammar and Writing Through Discussion by Chelli @ The Planted Trees