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kbfsc
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| Posted: Jan 27 2012 at 6:09pm | IP Logged
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During our years homeschooling I have been so naturally drawn to a CM approach and natural, hands-on learning. Math is the exception! I have been very afraid to let go of a traditional curriculum or workbook-y approach because I fear I'll miss something. My oldest and I have had our fair share of math drama over the years (old posts will prove it  ), and now my second-grader, who is generally very eager and easy when it comes to school, doesn't want to DO math. (She has been doing MCP C.) I wonder if I should let her try her big brother's Teaching Textbooks 4 because she's really bored... or perhaps go back to a second-grade something (she already completed two) because she just needs it to be quick and easy... or just throw in the towel because I lack confidence that we're on a good track! 
Obviously that's not really an option - so maybe it's time to look more closely at a living math approach? She does love a hands-on approach, and a good book always captures her attention. I read lots of old threads here and found a handful of recommended books at our library, especially the I Love Math series. They look wonderful! And I especially love the idea of adding these books to our morning basket - so we can all be learning together.
So I guess I am just looking for encouragement. Will it be enough? If I use our MCP C (or some other "what your second-grader should know" kind of resource) as a guide, will it turn out ok? Any better recommendations? Thanks, ladies!
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Kiera
happy mama of ds '02, dd '03, ds '06, dd '09 and little ones in heaven
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Jan 27 2012 at 6:40pm | IP Logged
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The I love Math books are huge here. My kids *love* them. Our math read alouds really add that extra fun touch and help get us through math as well.
My dd (7) is also not a big math fan, but she loves to play math games.
Sum Swamp and Money Bags are two of her favorites. CHC has their Catholic math games that are also fun... Counting with Father Abraham has been a favorite with both my dc. Rightstart also has a math games book with many fun, easy games.
One that we love is the "shaking hands game." DD lines up two rows of beanie babies, lego people, wooden saints... whatever she is in the mood for  . Then each animal/player gets a card. The ones that add up to ten get to "shake hands". Don Bosco with an 8 gets to shake hands with Mother Cabrini, who has two. Or we play with elevens, 12s, etc. They never get tired of this. Go figure.
Lastly, I confess that lately I have been keeping Math Chocolate in a drawer. For some reason I acquired a huge amount of chocolate and different candy this year as gifts during the holidays. So I tucked it all away, and anyone who gets through math without fussing can have a Math Chocolate. These are very small pieces, and still no one fusses any more. Ever. Bad me... but whatever it takes!
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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kristacecilia
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| Posted: Jan 27 2012 at 8:49pm | IP Logged
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We do a lot of living math stuff!
We use the *I LOVE MATH* series, too.
Also, the Life of Fred series is soooo loved here!! My 5 year old and my 7 year old LOVE them. We do the activities orally so there is no stress.
We have also been using Math Mammoth a couple times a week for the second grader. He just does 15 minutes (with a timer!) of work. Sometimes he doesn't even get through a whole lesson but that's okay.
There is a great list of living math books and activities here: http://www.livingmath.net/
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God bless,
Krista
Wife to a great guy, mom to two boys ('04, '06) and three girls ('08, '10, '12!)
I blog at http://kristacecilia.wordpress.com/
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JuliaT
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| Posted: Jan 28 2012 at 7:09am | IP Logged
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I just wanted to add 2 math games that we have acquired over the last few months that would be very good for a 2nd grader: Flip 4 and Math Magic. My 3rd grader loves these games.
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Julia
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MamaFence
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| Posted: Jan 31 2012 at 10:23am | IP Logged
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This thread is great! I found some good math games at education.com, as well. Lots of different math skills in card games. We have started using these for a fun twist to drill and practice!
I am going to get some of the books mentioned. We need some more living math in our home. My second grader has been saying she's not liking math, seems bored and frustrated.
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Gina, mother to 4
DD 7yr (11.04)
DD 5yr (6.06)
DS 3yr (6.08)
DS 2yr (11.09)
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kristacecilia
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| Posted: Feb 01 2012 at 7:13pm | IP Logged
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Gina, have you looked into the Life of Fred series? I am impressed. They are pricey, but not consumable... at least that is what I keep telling myself when I need to go back and buy the next set. EVERYONE here loves Fred. I am even super impressed. It has covered different things in addition, time telling, pre-algebra, astronomy, grammar, geometry... oh gosh and like a dozen other subjects. It's so fun to read. And silly. I have heard a lot of parents with kids who 'hate' math say it has really helped.
http://lifeoffredmath.com/
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Krista
Wife to a great guy, mom to two boys ('04, '06) and three girls ('08, '10, '12!)
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MamaFence
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| Posted: Feb 02 2012 at 9:20am | IP Logged
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Thanks, Krista, I am going to check it out. :)
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Gina, mother to 4
DD 7yr (11.04)
DD 5yr (6.06)
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DS 2yr (11.09)
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TracyFD
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| Posted: April 09 2012 at 9:04pm | IP Logged
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Krista, do you use Life of Fred as a supplement or your main math curriculum. I perused several levels today at a home school store, thinking it would be just the thing for my 6th grader who went from crying every day with Saxon to being ok with math using Math U See. Real life usage is crucial for her.
But for my younger ones - 4th & 5th next year - which book would we start with? Do students really master their math facts? Does it work on their ability to do longer multiplication and division problems? Math U See is not causing tears around here or anything, but is not sparking a love of math either!
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Tracy
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kristacecilia
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 11:28am | IP Logged
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I have used it as both, but I think it works really well as a supplement. It brings that silliness and real life experience and literature into math. It says it can be a stand alone program and I think they are probably right, but I feel more comfortable having daily drill practice, too.
So we use Math Mammoth a few times a week and LOF a couple times a week. The kids definitely prefer LOF, learn a LOT from it and have greatly benefited from my purchasing it. I would start with the first book, Apples, even though they are going to know a lot of the math already. It just covers it in such a different way, and a different variety of topics, that you would not regret starting from the beginning, I think. You could probably move pretty quickly through the first few books, but it will cover more than just addition. It covers sets, cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers, properties of math, graphing, basic algebra, it even touches on calculus and other very advanced math very briefly. It is just such a unique program I don't know that I am describing it very well.
We have only worked through the first three or four books and we are still covering addition and subtraction as our only operations, so I can't speak to the multiplication or division yet.
It's definitely our favorite math program and I think it works well balanced with a more "boring" math program that cements operations and other formal math subjects in a less than exciting way.
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Krista
Wife to a great guy, mom to two boys ('04, '06) and three girls ('08, '10, '12!)
I blog at http://kristacecilia.wordpress.com/
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AmandaV
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 2:05pm | IP Logged
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Are there problems at the end of each section in Life of Fred?
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Amanda
wife since 6/03, Mom to son 7/04, daughter 2/06, twin sons 6/08 and son 7/11, son 1/2014
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 2:30pm | IP Logged
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I do what Krista does and agree. I would start with Apples and just move quickly with an older student. In fact, I think that this is what the author says, too.
There are problems at the end of Life of Fred chapters, but only a few. I think that having practice so that the basic facts are memorized and not merely understood will serve them better later on, and Math Mammoth is easy to pick and choose so that it is coordinating with the concepts covered in LoF. I don't know Math U See, but if you already have it, I imagine you could skip around and use it to practice the concepts covered in LoF.
Life of Fred is a good fit for us, at least for my oldest. He is fiercely independent and likes to learn on his own. Somehow, my teaching him something upsets him. He feels like I'm *doing it for him.* He wouldn't even let me read him books until he was 3.5.  I really like Right Start math conceptually, but with it being so reliant on me (almost nothing can be done independently), his independence and my lack of discipline made it difficult to implement.
My son LOVES doing Life of Fred and has fewer questions about the Math Mammoth exercises as well. He's often enthusiastically sharing all kinds of things he's learning from it.
So, unlike Krista, my 2nd grader does Life of Fred on his own, but I think that I will start doing it aloud with the will-be 6 year old when I officially start 1st grade work with him, maybe this summer, but I also think it would not be "beneath" the interest of a 4th or 5th grader (fwiw, my son probably reads at a 5th grade level). It truly is a living resource in that regard, and not just because it is narrative in nature.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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kristacecilia
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 2:37pm | IP Logged
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My second grader does his LOF independently, as well! Sorry, I should have made that more clear.
I do read it aloud and do the questions orally with my K-er. He is ahead in math and loves LOF, but we are going to stop after Butterflies because it's getting too advanced for him. He is doing Math Mammoth 1 and we'll do some other living math reading instead of Fred for awhile, much to his dismay.
My second grader reads the chapter alone, does the questions on a paper, and then we go over them together. He also reads about about a 5th grade level like Lindsay's son.
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Krista
Wife to a great guy, mom to two boys ('04, '06) and three girls ('08, '10, '12!)
I blog at http://kristacecilia.wordpress.com/
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AmandaV
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 4:27pm | IP Logged
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CrunchyMom wrote:
Life of Fred is a good fit for us, at least for my oldest. He is fiercely independent and likes to learn on his own. Somehow, my teaching him something upsets him. He feels like I'm *doing it for him.* He wouldn't even let me read him books until he was 3.5. I really like Right Start math conceptually, but with it being so reliant on me (almost nothing can be done independently), his independence and my lack of discipline made it difficult to implement. |
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My son is the same, but also distracted... still figuring that one out. We use MEP, which is teacher directed, but very interesting. Just hard to fit in all the teacher directed activities. It would be great to off set that with LOF, and maybe some MM at some point to keep things moving when I can't spend as much time as I'd like.
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Amanda
wife since 6/03, Mom to son 7/04, daughter 2/06, twin sons 6/08 and son 7/11, son 1/2014
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kristacecilia
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 7:23pm | IP Logged
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I do love Math Mammoth for its self-directed nature. With so many little ones it's hard to try and do a lot of teacher led subjects. I am still trying to do Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding with the K-er and 2nd Grader and it's so slow going because I can only get my act together and not be completely derailed by the toddler occasionally.
I love MM. And LOF.
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God bless,
Krista
Wife to a great guy, mom to two boys ('04, '06) and three girls ('08, '10, '12!)
I blog at http://kristacecilia.wordpress.com/
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AmandaV
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| Posted: May 24 2012 at 3:19pm | IP Logged
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Really thinking of switching to MM...I need self directed but I really like MEP.. Do they get higher order and challenge with MM? What level are your 2nd and third graders in? I was thinking of getting the 1st-3rd grade set to use with my upcoming 1st grader too... But I've had free and that would be plunking down $60!
Please, help me think this through...
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Amanda
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: May 25 2012 at 5:21pm | IP Logged
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To the person asking about where to start: because of the way the concepts in Life of Fred are laid out, the author recommends everyone start with Apples (the elementary series are alphabetized - that only took me a month of figure out )
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4Real Forums : Living and Loving Numbers
Topic: 2nd grade living math
