I am making an effort to have a more integrated curriculum for Robin. It seems to make sense when the math, history and literature are coordinated. So, for the month of February, we have been reading "Little House on the Prairie" and then using the setting of a pioneer family to come up with story problems that help review his math so far. This was greatly inspired by Melisa Nielson's "A New Land" story in her Waldorf Math book. I love her math book, it really helps me see how to make the math lessons creative and interesting. I have been able to take the lessons from Robin's K-12 curriculum and then teach the concepts in a way that Robin eagerly accepts. It is such a great change from the boring worksheet type lessons and really much more relevant to reality, as in real life this type of math is always more like a story problem. It's funny, because when you are actually connected to the story it doesn't seem like a dreaded chore. The story problems that we come up with revolve around characters and situations that Robin is already interested in (Ma & Pa, Mary & Laura) and so he really cares about the answer. Before, when presenting the story problems from the textbook, he wasn't interested at all and found it really hard. After all, why should he care about "Jimmy" and how many colored fish he can put in 5 different bowls? (And who has 5 fish bowls anyway?! Lol!!)
3 comments:
I love to see this!!! Awesome. Your drawings are great.
Many blessings.
So glad math is coming alive for your family. Melisa's book has been a blessing for my family as well. I think when you said, "When you are actually connected to the story it doesn't seem like a dreaded chore," you summed it up so perfectly!
Im so excited to find your blog! I have been enjoying reading your post!
I liked your comments on math. That is such a hard subject for me. I ordered Melisa Math book just a couple of weeks ago. Im excited to keep reading. Thanks for your post it has been inspiring.
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