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cmmom
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| Posted: Feb 21 2011 at 8:02pm | IP Logged
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Just wondering... I don't see too many posts on here about real, living math, and I'm just wondering if anyone on here is trying to do something like Gnomes and Numbers. I was hoping to see people doing really exciting things w/ math, such as Kitchen Table Math and the like. We do Math-U-See at my house, and I've done a combination of unschooling math approaches using incidental teaching and strategic child-centered approaches. I've also done more structured workbook approaches and found them to be dreary and pure drudgery. I was hoping for some exciting inspiration on these boards -real ideas with real, living math. I can share some of my own, but they aren't a "scope and sequence" approach. Rather, they are just random math activities that I have just come up with on the spur-of-the-moment. I've also been a bit inspired by my friend who is a math major who unschools! Cmmom
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Mackfam
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Non Nobis
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| Posted: Feb 21 2011 at 8:14pm | IP Logged
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Here you go. 71 results just searching the phrase "living math".
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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cathhomeschool
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Texas Bluebonnets
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| Posted: Feb 21 2011 at 8:23pm | IP Logged
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Sounds like your approach to math is similar to mine and to a lot of moms here. We use MUS intermingled with puzzles, blocks, games, turbo twist, lots of living math books, and of course the "real life" math of cooking/etc. The archives have lots of website, book and game ideas. Jen's search results are a great place to start. Feel free to post your ideas as well.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Feb 21 2011 at 9:21pm | IP Logged
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I guess, too, for us "living math" is just something we intuitively do since it is so much a part of life.
My kids are always adding and subtracting as they set the table or prepare food or fight over toys  . They are always informing me of exactly how many deer they just saw or how many pinecones they just found or how many of each thing there are for each person and how many are left now that they gave some to their brother.
When they put their toys away, they are often discovering new ways to sort legos, blocks, etc... by type. The tangrams are in with the puzzles and played with rather than "assigned."
My husband and I regularly engage in their natural tendency to do this. My boys come from a long line of engineering Germans  , so perhaps they have more of an internal drive to explore these types of concepts on their own than average? But for us, it never really seemed necessary to intentionally supplement our math with more "living math." We just "live math" and encourage our boys to solve problems on their own in our home.
I find our math program (Right Start) which is Montessori based is very much oriented toward math becoming something innate and "living" through its use of manipulatives and the like. I like having the "scope and sequence" laid out for me. I supposed I could use something like fun plastic dinosaurs rather than the plain colored squares, but I'm not sure that would be any more effective at this point.  I do know that there are many people here who use a more "pure" Montessori approach to teaching math without a set curriculum to follow, and you might find inspiration there.
Also, I don't know if you've read Ruth Beechick, but her book http://www.amazon.com/Three-Rs-Ruth-Beechick/dp/0880620749 lays out an approach to teaching elementary math in the home without the use of a text. Perhaps this would help you find the approach you desire.
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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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guitarnan
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| Posted: Feb 21 2011 at 9:44pm | IP Logged
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We've tried a number of math programs (oops, I made a pun, sorry) and Teaching Textbooks has really clicked with us. It has the narrative approach (that my children can read or listen to) plus the problem-by-problem solutions that help us over the hard parts.
To make math come alive, we do:
Lots of cooking (fractions, changing measurements to increase the number of people we're cooking for, etc.);
Math stories (picture books when the children were younger, now more informative bios of scientists and mathematicians, plus discussions with my father, who taught calculus at Caltech and studied under Richard Feynman);
Building things - my son is addicted to Legos, but we have also completed home improvement projects and sent my son off to learn woodworking (great for math calculations) with his grandfather. His most challenging project involved building a TV stand shelf that had to sit on and match our existing stand but allow room for our DVR box to sit under the TV.
Sewing projects also teach children to do calculations and envision layouts...plus, you get to use or wear what you make! Sewing With St. Anne is a marvelous book for families with little sewing experience.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Erin
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| Posted: Feb 21 2011 at 10:56pm | IP Logged
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I love combing the Living Math site for ideas and for their book recommendations  Recently my dd really struggled with multiplication and I selected a number of their books to help her past this hurdle. Living math books are a great way to foster a love of maths.
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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JennGM
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| Posted: Feb 22 2011 at 7:45am | IP Logged
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I was going to repeat all my suggestions in this thread. We love using living math books and just living learning. Life is about math.
Right now card games, Yahtzee, and football scores are applied math.
We absolutely love RightStart Math, which is based on the Montessori approach. This fills all my dh's needs for tangibles, visuals, manipulatives, fun games, etc. without adding extra distractions and non-related topics or visuals. I will be sad when we finish the series.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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4Real Forums : Living and Loving Numbers
Topic: Gnomes and Numbers
