Some Children Hang from Monkey Bars...

...Mine hangs from stilt walkers.

How to Add and Subtract on a Number Line

I've been using Mathematical Reasoning (Level B/1st grade) with my preschooler. (I LOVE Mathematical Reasoning. Best math books ever! We used half of Beginner 1, all of Level A, and are now using Level B.)

Mathematical Reasoning teaches children how to add and subtract using a number line. This is also something my public school fourth graders need to be able to do to meet Common Core standards, except instead of whole numbers, my fourth graders are adding and subtracting fractions.

The problem? When I surveyed my class, half said they'd never explicitly been taught how to use a number line. So, I taught my students how to use a number line the way I taught my daughter to use a number line...

Put your pencil on zero. That's the "starting line."

Make a BIG JUMP to the first number. (For example, in 4 + 3, the BIG JUMP is from 0 to 4.)

Next, make TINY HOPS (to the right for addition, or to the left for subtraction). (In the example 4 + 3, from the number 4, you make 3 TINY HOPS to the right.)

The number you land on is your answer. (In the above example, you land on 7.)

...BIG JUMP & TINY HOPS. That's all there is to it. (You can even do this on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk and make it like hopscotch for your kinesthic learners.)

The half of my class that hadn't known how to use a number line smiled and made comments like, "Oh, now I get it!"

Here is yet another problem with Common Core: We roll out new standards, with the "expectation" that students in all grades will be able to meet those standards with the teaching they receive that school year.

But let's talk Charlotte Mason for a minute... Let's say you hadn't been a CMer with your child for grades 1 through 3, and then, in year 4, you made the switch. You had never taught your child to narrate, and - all of a sudden - you ask your child to narrate. Would your brand-new-at-narrating student narrate with the ease of a child who had been practicing this skill for three years? Or would your student find it difficult to organize their thoughts and give you more than a one sentence answer to "Tell me about the story."

I'll tell you that, from my own experience, it's work to teach fourth graders who aren't accustomed to narration how to narrate. Public school students are horribly used to being asked questions with single sentence answers, or being told how many sentences a paragraph must have, or being told what page they will find the answer to the question, or being given the answer "Yes" when asked "Is my work/answer good enough?"

We cannot expect students who do not have a foundation in New Program X to be successful in New Program X. It would be less unfair to start New Program X with a group of kindergarteners, and the next year have the first graders continue New Program X, and the year after that have the second graders continue, etc.

But to anyone just reading this because they were never taught to add or subtract using a number line - I wasn't - and is just curious as to an easy, fun way to teach it, I give you BIG JUMP & TINY HOPS. Happy hopping.

Make a Splash 120 Mat Floor Game

This game, from Learning Resources, has inflatable dice. The way we were playing, my daughter rolled the blue dice and found her number on the mat. In the picture above, she rolled 4 and 3 and then put the t-shaped frame on the mat with the number 43 in the center of the frame. Then she rolled the orange die. The orange die has -10 (look at the square above your number), +10 (look at the number below your number), +1 (look right), and -1 (look left).

Other info:

• You have to inflate the dice each time you play (if you want to pack everything back in the box). 
• Re-folding the mat reminded me of folding a road map - at which I am so completely terrible. I have an irrational fear of road-map-folding. I did figure it out. I didn't enjoy it. 
• If a die gets a hole, the box includes a tiny adhesive piece to patch it up.
• Static: every little speck clings to the mat. Vacuum the floor before playing.

That said, my daughter loved this.

She wanted to be a giraffe...

When asked why she decorated her leg with spots, my three year old told me that she wanted to be a giraffe.

Painting Lesson

My three year old with artist Patrick McGilligan

Our friend, Patrick McGilligan, let my daughter help paint the window of our neighborhood video store, Vidiots, last night. He let her choose the entire color scheme. He asked her what color she thought the teeth should be, and she said blue, so blue they are. When asked what color his face should be, she chose her favorite color: green. An artist can paint things whatever color he or she wants them to be...

When Preschoolers Learn About Death

Two nights ago, my three year old burst into tears and hugged me. "I don't want you to die," she said, "I don't want you to die." I can't remember what prompted it because I was so shocked that she had come to the realization that I'll die. We hadn't been reading a story including death, or watching a movie including death. Letting her watch Big Hero 6 last week didn't help, I'm sure.

But she said it again last night. I was standing on a chair, trying to reach something up high, and she said, "Be careful Mommy. I don't want you to get hurt because I don't want you to die." She wasn't crying the way she had been the night before, but she was serious.

"What's making you think about me dying?" I asked. "You talked about not wanting me to die yesterday, and now you're talking about it today."

"It's because I don't want you to die."

"I'm not going to die any time soon."

This morning, my husband and I talked about it. I asked him if she'd said anything to him about D-E-A-T-H. He said she had, and that he told her he wasn't going to die for a very long time.

"But why is she thinking about it right now?"

My husband thinks it's because we're nearing Easter, and while Easter is about resurrection, it's also about death. You can't have the resurrection without the crucifixion. It just doesn't work that way.

I try to make sense of this moment, of the the lessons we taught her that led to this. Look both ways when you cross the street. Don't talk to strangers. There is danger in the world. God gave you Mommy and Daddy to keep you safe.

Children have to learn about death. I know. But that doesn't lessen the pain of seeing your child suffering with the idea of losing you.

Your own experiences?

Magic School Bus Solar System Mobile

Here is Daddy helping Daughter assemble her Magic School Bus solar system mobile. The kit was $10 from Scholastic and it came with the book The Magic School Bus Blasts into Space, and some glow-in-the-dark star stickers. Daddy did half of it, and Mommy finished up. I had to use tweezers (and a reading lamp) to knot the fishing line. It was "knot" easy.

The finished product. :)

Daughter LOVES it.