Making Math Fun!! - The Number Ladder Game

Both my goal and my daughter's goal for this homeschool year is to have more FUN with math. Well, I think this morning we got off to a very good start! A veteran homeschooling friend of mine gave me the most wonderful book, The Number Jugglers Math Game Book. This morning we sat down and learned how to play the Number Ladder Game. Believe me when I say you NEED to learn how to play this game!!!

As chance would have it, after we played the game, I knew I wanted to write a blog post about it. When I sat down at the computer to look up the book, I found a whole site dedicated to the book AND the full instructions for The Number Ladder Game on their site! You can even play the game by yourself on this site! Yippee!! My day just keeps getting better. :-)

Basically, the game involves making simple equations with number cards. You have to come up with an equation to equal whatever rung of the ladder you are on. In this equation we were trying to come up with the number 33 to balance out our equation. I made extra cards for the game that were plus, minus, and times signs. I would also, the next time we play, make parentheses -- we just grouped things verbally today and it was ok, but I want to be more clear next time. This was (5x5)+8=33

Even my five year old could play (with me assisting him on some of the rungs). I was astounded and so happy. My daughter discovered some neat patterns in her ladder, and also figured out that having a 10 card was a commodity. But, my son discovered having a 1 card was not so shabby, either. If you are confused, read the instructions to the game and play and it will make perfect sense!

Our ladders got pretty tall! In the end, Miss B got up to 38 rungs and then we quit.... but you see she has a smile on her face -- and it's math time! Hooray!

Maybe games like this aren't any big news for some of you, but for me, I WISH I would have learned math a little more like this. I would take this game over flashcard drills (or worse pages of written drills!) of addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division any day! I am excited to explore the rest of the book. My friend told me all of the activities were great, so bring on the math!

Lemonade Stand Math

A couple of weekends ago my husband and daughter spent the afternoon at my father-in-law's house. When they came home, my daughter was so excited to show me this old cash box granddaddy had given her.

He told her he remembers his father (who died when my father-in-law was a young boy) always keeping insurance papers in this box. Well, anyone who knows my daughter well would understand how excited she was about this box - she right away came home and put all of her money in it and declared she had to have a lemonade stand. It was literally almost 100 degrees outside and the last thing I wanted was to supervise this project. (I know, what kind of a mother am I?) We told her to wait until the following weekend and my husband agreed to take charge of the venture.

Later that week, Anna and I went to the Dollar Store and purchased 2 sets of cups and 2 containers of lemonade - an initial investment of $4. She had wanted me to just pick the things up at the grocery store, but I told her it would be cheaper at the Dollar Store and she also needed to use her own money to purchase supplies. That night at dinner, my husband turned it into a mini math lesson, talking about how much she would need to make to turn a profit, pricing per glass of lemonade, etc....

Last Saturday came and it was HOT and people were THIRSTY. Anna helped me measure the water for the lemonade (how many ounces are in a cup? how many servings will one small container make? which containers should we use?) Anna got herself ready at the top of our driveway.




The first person to come was the mailman, and he of course got his for free. After that several people stopped by and after about an hour, Anna had collected $5.50 --- only a $1.50 profit for all that hard work?!?!?

After approximately another hour, she had sold more lemonade and had a total of $8.00, which meant she had made a total of $4.00. Anna and her dad cleaned up the lemonade stand and when they got inside daddy explained to her that she still had all of her supplies and it would be easy to set up shop another day and make money again. Her venture had been a success, and I think dad really had a good time helping her.

And guess what? Monday when I went to get the mail there was a $1 in the mailbox with a note that said, "For the lovely young lady who served me lemonade on Saturday - thank you! From your mailman". What a great lesson for Anna to see that sometimes when you are generous, good things come back to you.

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Math - the Necessary Evil

The only thing that truly intimidates me about homeschooling is math instruction. I did OK in math throughout my school career. I even got an A in Educational Statistics a few years back when I was working on my masters. It is the teaching of math that scares me. And, as you can tell from the title of the post, I really am not fond of math.

Hopefully, however, all of that is changing! Last year my daughter did very well with the Horizons math materials sent in our Sonlight Newcomer package. It is, admittedly, a very rigorous math program with a sprial approach. I love the way things are reviewed constantly, and new concepts introduced so subtly the student never even realizes they learned something new. The teachers guide is thorough and left no questions in my mind. If I had a question about something I just Googled it, asked my husband, or went to Math is Fun for a little help. Since we began homeschooling last December, we are just halfway through the Horizons 3 math program and will pick up where we left off in just a couple weeks.

For my Kindergarten son math is going to be interesting. He already adds, subtracts, tells time - in fact, he is obsessed with the clock. "Mom, my swimming lesson is at 2:00. It is 1:15 now. We need to leave in 35 minutes." I have some math games and books on hand to use with him once we start our official schooling. I also found some great books (can't remember who suggested them) in a series called MathStart. They are cute storybooks that each illustrate a math concept. For him, math right now isn't a subject in school, it's just something fun that occurs every day in many different situations, so I'd like to keep it that way for him. AND, I'd like my daughter to get a little more of the games and fun aspect of math, too.

As time progresses I will share some of the math ideas we use in our homeschool, and I'll be searching for new ways to make math meaningful and NOT have it be the necessary evil in our homeschool!

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