Great Resources: Multiplication Mosaics

Amazon

  I started the school year with fresh resolutions to help my daughter memorize all her multiplication facts.  I had a nice pack of multiplication flash cards to help us, and we worked very hard for about three weeks - until we got sidetracked by other projects.  I tried a few times to pick back up on the flashcards, but I wasn't able to get them into our school day on a regular basis. 
  So I was very excited (probably more than my daughter) when she unwrapped a package from Grandma and pulled out this book: Multiplication Mosaics by Evelyn Christiansen.  I quickly added it to my lesson plans for the second semester, and we are now merrily working our way through the book - and memorizing math facts at the same time!
  The book is set up as a fill in the blank.  Each problem is set up in the following manner: 8 X __ = 16 (orange).  The student must fill in the missing number.  Then using the multipliers she finds the appropriate box and fills it in with the listed color.  If the student works each problem correctly, the chart quickly becomes a beautiful pattern or picture. 
  There are 30 mosaics in the book, so we don't do one every day - I reserve them for days when we have lighter math lessons.  So far we have made trees and flowers, dinosaurs and trucks.  It is fun to see the pattern emerge as we work each problem.
  The problems are presented in a fairly sequential order, so most of the first patterns are colored in the bottom left of the grid.  As we have progressed, adding problems that take us into the 7 and 8 multiplications facts, the patterns have spread across the grid.
  And the math facts seem to be sticking pretty well too.  Where she often had to stop and calculate problems like 4 X 6, now my daughter fills those in quickly and moves on to the harder problems. I haven't told her this, but she is also getting some good practice plotting items on a graph.
  The publisher, MindWare, also has books for addition, subtraction, division, decimals and Pre-Algebra.  Each book is $12 or $13.  You can find them on Amazon.com or on Fat Brain Toys.  Fat Brain Toys has sales pretty often so keep your eye out for a better price.
  If you or your student are discouraged by flashcards, I highly recommend Multiplication Mosaics.

Logic - Or What Do They Teach in Schools These Days?

Pinterest

"Logic!" said the Professor half to himself. "What do they teach in schools these days?  There are only three possibilities.  Either your sister is lying, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth.  You know that she doesn't tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad.  For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth."    -  The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

  This is one of my absolute favorite parts of the entire Chronicles of Narnia series.  I love how Peter and Susan, trying to be so mature in the way they handle their squabbling brother and sister, go to Professor Kirk for advice, and he stands them on their heads with logic, forcing them to think through the situation rationally.
   Until this fall, I quoted this to my kids a lot.  One of them would draw a rather nonsensical conclusion from a conversation, and I would wonder aloud, "What do they teach in schools these days?"  But as I was mulling over our curriculum for the current year, I was rather chastened to realize that as my children's teacher, I am the school and perhaps I should stop wondering why logic is not taught and teach it already!
  So why teach logic?  In short, because it doesn't seem to come naturally to many people.  Some people are really good at putting two and two together.  They can look at an argument for or against something, compare it with information they already have and reach a logical decision or conclusion.  For other people relating information they are receiving to information they already have doesn't seem to happen easily, if ever.  And I have noticed with my own children that this is something I must guide them in rather than expecting this skill to be innate. 
  Learning how to think and reason and come to rational conclusions really is the basis of all learning.  Without the skills to consider a topic and compare it with other information, memorizing facts and dates is useless.  It is learning how to apply those facts and dates to the issue at hand that is important.
  And so, as we go through our English and our Math and Science and Social Studies, I try to show my students how what they are learning builds on what they already know, and stretch their minds to further applications of the principles we are learning.  I am trying to connect the dots of all the things we discuss into a cohesive education that will prepare them to go into the world with good thinking skills.  And along the way I am trying to help them learn how to connect the dots for themselves so that even when their formal education is over they will go on adding to what they have learned.
  This year I picked a couple of books that would help me teach more formal logic. These books use examples to explain how to think about various arguments which are presented.  For example, my daughter just finished a section on "All Statements".  In an all statement, students are given a sentence which applies to an entire group (All cats are mammals) and then asked to evaluate a second sentence based on the first (This animal is not a mammal; the conclusion then is that the animal is not a cat.).  It seems very simple to spell it out like that, but learning on simple sentences helps students to identify the same structure when they are confronted with more complex arguments.
  As an added benefit, my kids really look forward to our logic lessons (it is the first thing they want to do on Friday mornings).  They enjoy looking at the words and learning how they relate to one another.  They enjoy seeing the patterns and sequences in the logic book, and I gladly apply them to our other subjects when it seems appropriate.

What about you?  Do you teach logic?

 

Connecting with Other Homeschool Families

Pinterest

Community Question:

  My family lives in a rural part of the state and we attend a small church without many children.  Co-op classes or sports programs are not a good option for my family.  How can we connect with the homeschool community?

  You may not be as alone as you think.  There are support groups all over the state that get together on a regular basis for activities, and unlike co-ops and other classes, there is often no fee to join or participate.  Check out the support groups page on www.schea.net to find a support group in your area.

  Try your local library.  Libraries are a great source of fun, free activities.  Our library offers activities specifically for homeschool students at many of its branches.  They also have a great variety of offerings for all ages from toddler classes to family film nights to knitting groups.

  Consider taking part in some of the statewide events coming up this spring.  The Home School Day at the Capitol is coming up on April 30^th.  All events are free, and if you get the code from the SCHEA website the week of the event, parking is also free.  Homeschool families from across the state will be there so this is a great time to connect with other families - and you never know you might just find that some of them live nearby.  All the information is on the SCHEA website: http://schea2.azurewebsites.net/

  In a similar vein, the Teach Them Diligently conference is coming up April 3-5 in Spartanburg.  Admission is $65 for the whole family, and there are plenty of events planned for the kids as well as the parents.  For more details check out the website: http://teachthemdiligently.net/locations/spartanburg-sc

  Be sure to check out the recent ads page of the blog for other events coming up.

  Finally, if you are looking for a little encouragement for yourself, consider getting involved in one of the online communities for homeschoolers.  Our curriculum provider has a forum where parents can ask questions and connect with other parents who are using the same books.  I did a quick search of general homeschool forums and found several to choose from.  Please do note that while the internet can be a great place to connect with people, you should be careful about giving out personal information.

  These are just a few ways to get involved in the larger homeschool community.  But I'm sure there are other ideas out there.  If you have an idea for connecting with the community please comment below.

Why It Matters - A Word from the Administrator

   Written by Martha Freitag        

            This has been an interesting week in the PHEA office . . . one where someone is asking the question, “Why does it matter?” while someone else is experiencing the pain of finding out the hard way that it really did matter.  What is ‘it’ you ask?  RECORDS.  Records and more specifically turning them in to PHEA.

            This week we have had two families wanting to register with us.  They have high school students – seniors actually which makes the issue even more critical.  Neither wants to turn in grades to us, so they are asking, “Why does it matter?”

So here is the answer to why it matters.  First, we all know that the home schooling law in South Carolina requires us to do semi-annual progress reports.  By the time your student is in middle school, these reports should be in the form of numerical grades.  (The exception to this is with our special needs students.)  This means you do have the records, so the real question is, “Why do we have to send them in?”

Most of you know this is a fairly new policy for PHEA so let me explain how it came about.  All home school associations are accountable to the State Department of Education.  When they make a law or give the authority to another entity to make the rules, we have to abide by the laws and rules.  These laws and rules (especially the rules) are subject to change.  When they change, we have to change as well.

One of the laws is that we must use the South Carolina Uniform Grading Policy (SC UGP).  We began helping parents with transcripts as the SC UGP can be confusing to work with.  Around that same time, the Commission on Higher Education (CHE) changed the rules of how to apply for the Palmetto Fellows Scholarship.  Originally home schoolers could apply directly to the CHE for the scholarship.  There were so many issues with the GPAs and transcripts that the CHE made a rule that home schoolers could only apply through their associations and just like that we had to change.  In order to apply for the scholarship, the associations had to provide a class ranking.  As leadership at the CHE has changed, so too has the interpretation of the rules that are in place governing this scholarship.  It has gone from 1) telling the top seniors and just providing the names and school districts of the rest of the seniors (no addresses or other identifying information) to 2) doing a GPA for all seniors to 3) doing a class ranking for sophomores, juniors and seniors (because students can qualify in each of those years) to 4) providing a document to the CHE stating our policies on who and how we do the class ranking.  We have to abide by this if we want to be able to nominate students for these scholarships.  So a large part of why it matters is because PHEA has to follow the law and the rules.  When a family does not follow our policies, they actually put the entire association and all its members in jeopardy.  The State Department could revoke our status as a legal association.

There is however another reason, much closer to home for why it matters.  As home school parents, we pour our heart and soul into preparing our children for the life ahead of them.  We would not intentionally do something that would make their future more difficult, but sometimes we are too short sighted and do not follow through with paper work.  I have had countless parents tell me, “My senior is not planning to go to college, so we don’t need to do a transcript.”  This brings us to the family who learned the hard way why it matters.  Every year we receive requests for older records, sometimes from the parents, sometimes for the students themselves.  It may be that there was a fire or flood that destroyed the records or it may be as simple as the parent not keeping the records once the student has left home.  This week we had a young lady ask for copies of her transcript and diploma.  When we went to the file, we had nothing for her.  We checked the family’s file and they were not registered with us during her senior year, though they were registered both before and after that.  We have no record that the family home schooled or that the girl graduated.  Our hands are tied – we are unable to help her because her parents did not follow through with the paper work.  And here is the really rough part, the girl graduated in 2004!  Now, ten years later she needs her records and there are none.

None of us knows what the future holds.  We may have a student that we know for sure will not be going on to college when they graduate.  We do not know however if in the course of their lives, they will decide they do want to go on.  If they do, they will need access to those records.  It is not only for college either, that they need the records.  More places are requiring a copy of the high school diploma for employment.  Also this week, we had a mom call us asking if she could come pick up the diploma she had just ordered rather than waiting for it to come in the mail.  Her daughter graduated in December and was already working.  There was a new law passed that people employed in this field must have a copy of their diplomas in their work files.  If she did not bring it by the next day, she was going to be fired.  We have had graduates contact us to get their records to: to go on to college, to work in their chosen field, and to join the military, even to become a New York City fireman (after 9/11). This young man had graduated from college but the NYC FPD rules required the high school diploma.  Since none of us can tell our children’s futures, we need to do everything we can to make sure they can pursue whatever dream God leads them to.  So next time you sit down to fill out those horrible class ranking forms, do it lovingly, knowing you are making sure your child will have access to their records even if it is ten years from now.  It matters!