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SeaStar
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| Posted: Jan 18 2010 at 2:42pm | IP Logged
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Where do you store or keep your math balance? There is just no denying it is big and takes up a lot of room to be left out on a shelf. My dc often ask me to get it down for them, and then I feel bad for not having it out where they can reach it all the time. But once you've picked up those blue tiles about 20 times, you reach your limit  . I've even had a bowl or a bag to keep the tiles in, but they seem always to be hanging on the scale when someone bumps it.
Any ideas?
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Jan 18 2010 at 3:21pm | IP Logged
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May I post another question for RightStart math users?
Do your kids really remember the songs? Do you? I have a hard time recalled the detail of the song that is actually important, and I think that my son does as well. For instance, Yellow Is the Sun. He is completely stuck on remembering 8, 9, and 10. Basically he knows "Salty is the sea, 'something' is 5 and 3." etc, etc... Which, isn't very helpful. He can count objects to ten, but just. can't. remember. The 5 ands for 8, 9, and 10.
I spent all last week drilling him, not for too long at a time. I let it go for a while and recently tried to pick it back up, but I can't see going further until he knows that. Should I skip to some geometry and come back to arithmetic?
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Marcia
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| Posted: Jan 18 2010 at 4:45pm | IP Logged
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my balance is kept in the closet. I agree messy messy....
I made 8.5x11 sheets of paper that are my simple drawings of each part of the Yellow is the Sun song. My second child colored them. They also have the equation that the song shares. We lay these out as we sing the song to help link the song to the visual part of what we sing. I suspect you could use the cards that are fingers and lay them out the eight one with the five and three as you are singing to reinforce.
I find playing some of those games for those early years are well worth the time investment. Now that I have older girls who have finished it, they play with the 5 year and he loves it. They even pretend to loose.
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Marcia
Mom to six and wife to one
Homeschooling 10th, 7th, 5th, 2nd, PreK and a toddler in tow.
I wonder why
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KauaiCatholic
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| Posted: Jan 18 2010 at 4:50pm | IP Logged
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math balance: wow, I thought I was the only one struggling with this! I, too, store it out of reach and wish I didn't have to. as it is, the other tiles are so often used for creating forts, battlefields, etc. I had to hide the weights. 
Yellow is the Sun: I asked my son if he remembered this song, and he said oh sure! and started singing away. but he dribbled off around 8, too.
guess this hasn't been much help. looking forward to other answers.
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 Viviane
Grateful mama of Jonah Augustine ('01), Sophia Marie ('05) and Luke Dominic ('10)
We can do no great things; only small things with great love. -- Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
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KackyK
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| Posted: Jan 18 2010 at 5:05pm | IP Logged
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I keep the balance up high, on top of a book shelf. They just ask for it, so it's not out ALL the time, but up so they can at least see it and remember it and ask. I have also put "15 minutes with math balance" in their workboxes sometimes.
As for the Yellow is the Sun song...we don't sing. It's said like a poem around here. I can never remember it personally, so we just read it each time. Otherwise we don't do any of the songs. I have been using RS for about 3 years now, and we don't do songs or games (I'm real fun aren't I?) but they seem to be just fine without. Thought I'd throw that in there so you know you don't have to beat yourself up about some of those extras.
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KackyK
Mom to 8 - 3 dd, 5ds & 4 babes in heaven
Beginning With the Assumption
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JennGM
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| Posted: Jan 18 2010 at 8:13pm | IP Logged
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LOL, Melinda. We just pulled our balance out. I could barely get it out of the box and that was my first thought -- where the heck do I put this? We have it on top of a shorter IKEA Expedit bookshelf. The Balance is the neatest thing -- I wish I had something like this to explain math to me as a child. My son wants to use it all the time. But it sure is cumbersome!
My boys (even the younger one) loved the early songs and caught on really fast, but we sang it all sorts of places. We're a singing bunch over here. The hand movements came after learning the song, and those weren't totally grasped. I think you can move on without totally grasping the hand gestures. While RS builds on the learning, I often see the next step reinforces the newer material.
We also don't do the games very much. I'm glad to see a veteran has had no problems. I see my son grasping and loving the material so we move on. Lots of the material feel like games to him, anyway.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Jan 20 2010 at 5:40pm | IP Logged
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I'm also so glad to hear I'm not the only with scale issues. I keep thinking we are so clutsy because we keep knocking down the tiles. But, I agree- it is one cool learning tool! 
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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lovemy4
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| Posted: April 24 2010 at 2:39pm | IP Logged
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Hee hee....I am late to answer but had to laugh since this has been my issue with a toddler on the loose...mine is kept on top the fridge.....
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Mom to 5! Four here, one with Him.
DS 6 DD 6 DS 4 DS 15 months
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4Real Forums : Living and Loving Numbers
Topic: Right Start Math users...
