I was seriously patting myself on the back the other day. Not only had I sketched out a solid lesson plan for the homeschooling week, it was a good plan; full of activities I thought would be both enjoyed and particularly educational - the holy grail combination that I suppose teachers everywhere must seek on a daily basis.
I was particularly puffed up about math day because we were making manipulatives! Manipulatives are objects that students move around that symbolize mathematical units and help children learn math on a deeper level. In my world manipulatives are the items I drool over when I drop Xi off at her Montessori school. Their manipulatives are tidily organized on trays, made of wood and other aesthetically pleasing materials. I'd like an extra couple thousand dollars so I could buy up an entire catalog of these tools.
(Anyone want to start up a Homeschool Tool Library in Missoula?)
But I'm also crafty and creative, so my mind turned to options already available in our house. Before I knew it Echo and I were hunkered down making our own math tools.
We used these little plastic beads ordinarily placed on templates and then ironed until they melt and hold the shape of a star, heart, fish etc. We have a bunch of them. We also used wire I had on hand that was purchased from the hardware store.
We leave the beads loose to symbolize single units, string ten on a wire to form sets of ten, and bind ten sets of ten for a hundred pack.
Echo was so thrilled that she could add large three digit sums just by breaking down the numbers into units, tens, and hundreds and counting them back up. I was thrilled too! Homeschooling triumph!
But here is the humbling part. The part of homeschool that I always forget about: Kids learn what they are interested in, when they are interested in it. So here I was expecting some serious math computations to take place when Echo skittered off to build a stick man out of "naturey things" she had collected.
And around the corner comes big sister Xi, eager to grab hold of some pliers and make math manipulatives herself.
Sigh. Accept. Embrace.
One kid skitters away uninterested, another tumbles along quite interested. One part of my mind screamed: BUT THIS ISNT IN THE LESSON PLAN! and another part soothed: CHILL OUT. LEARNING IS HAPPENING ALL OVER THIS PLACE, LET GO AND EMBRACE THE MEANDERING ROUTE.
I loved having Xi in the mix. She was not only cementing her understanding of these math concepts but also mastering the skills of needle point pliers and wire bending and troubleshooting. Homeschool! And of course big sister's interest sparked Echo's interest anew and quite suddenly both girls were assembling.
Of course when I make a set I am in it for efficiency, seeing how fast I can gather and finish a set of ten. Because after all I have my gaze turned toward making some sets of a thousand and that takes a lot of freaking beads! But children are better at the zen approach to tasks. They instead were choosing colors carefully, making pleasing patterns, and looking for just the right selection for each set. And I couldn't help chuckling as each girl, counting aloud of course, would mess up the tallying of the other. Again and again and again.
Then, because they are kids, and because I am being offered many lessons on letting go of personal agendas when it comes to the education of my children, these two eventually left the wire and math behind and used the beads to make earrings instead.
Sigh. Accept. Embrace.
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The course is six weeks long. $55 per person/couple. Includes a group phone consult, email support, and community. It's a go-at-your-own-pace private blog-style format so anyone anywhere can attend.
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