Beyond Math

when you think of 'math', most people think of traditional math equations. 2+2=4 but math is so much more. it is a broad subject with so many interpretations. its all around us and most people dont realize how much there really is.
for kids, mathematics includes spatial awareness, shapes, colors, sorting, sizing, matching, patterns, balance, measurements, number concepts. all of these things are building blocks for those real traditional mathematical equations we normally think about (and the kids will eventually learn those).

so, how do my kids use math everyday? from MGT activities to playing outside? to watching tv?

since starting Mother Goose Time, Mr A has become more aware of patterns. he actually turns it against me while getting dressed. i usually tell him that he needs to get himself dressed and his comeback remark is "but its a (AAB) pattern. youre the A and im the B." he varies his pattern sequence depending on how many clothing pieces he has chosen.
Mr A uses patterns while climbing trees. we have a low tree in our front yard that the kids like to play in. its fairly easy for them to get into. sometimes Mr A forgets how to get up. i remind him climbing is a AB pattern using your body. his hand is A and feet are B. move one hand then one foot at time and stay close to the middle of the tree. sometimes he goes AABB and ends up looking like a sloth because hes upside-down.

one day Mr A pulled several different trays and counters and said he was setting up a sorting activity. i dont know what kind of sorting happened, but he came up with it on his own. lol. sometimes you just gotta go with it.

we actually dont have cable tv. so the boys watch shows on the ipad or tablet. shows like Umi Zoomi, Mickey mouse clubhouse or little einsteins are always introducing or reinforcing shapes or numbers and other basic concepts. although they are cartoons, i dont mind them watching because they have some educational merit.

mathematics is constantly introduced in the MGT curriculum through activities. we are given counters, number cards, shape matching cards and various other things that help the boys enhance mathematical skills.

Exploring Like an Astronomer

Today's focus topic is Astronomer. Mr A reviewed the colors and sizes of stars while playing with these foam manipulatives. i was excited that he remembered them all on his own. these mats dont last long in our home, meaning they loose interest quickly. Mr A is good at matching but has never really been into these shape cards throughout the months.i'm not sure why.

so, Mr A resorted to stacking. he stacked all of the stars in a pile in size order and grouping the colors together. even though he does not utilize these math number cards and constellation cards... he's still using his mathematical skills to size and sort. while stacking we found out that these foam stars moved easily with someones breath. so the boys blew them down. (they were solar winds blowing the stars through the universe. lol) the blew them over several times. Mr Z came over for this part of the activity. he is usually busy with his cars or toys and come over to participate in certain things that he has interest for... or look super fun. anyway, stars were everywhere. and that gave me another idea...

i set up a container on the floor. Mr A tried to drop the stars in while standing on the coffee table. he noticed it was easier to get the small and medium stars into the basket and got more in. they dropped straighter and the large stars kind of went everywhere... they caught more wind/had more resistance.

we made our own "scratch paper" aka space paper. and of course we had to use our star shaped crayons we made here at home a long time ago. after coloring the paper we painted it black. now we're waiting for it to dry to scratch out some designs.

Mr A made his own telescope from a cardboard tube. Mr Z however, was in his own world playing with tractors, so i did it for him. =) we explored some constellations through our new telescopes.

we also played Go Fish with our constellation cards since we had a pair of each. Mr A and i played several rounds until Mr Z decided to just hand out the cards to everyone.

i must be honest, i have really failed on preparing the lessons/activities these last few days. although, the improvisation of some of the activities were great hits today. i guess, you dont have to have it "all together" all of the time. knowing the limits of your kids and knowing the interests of your kids helps a lot.
i am so grateful for this program and for being able to stay home and do it with my kids. its definitely a learning experience for all of us.

UPDATE:
the scratch paper did not work out for us. the paint would not scratch off. the instructions didnt have measurements of paint vs dish soap. plus i let the boys do all of the painting, so it may not have been thick enough. we tried popsicle sticks and toothpicks to scratch and neither worked. i'm not sure what happened exactly. but that part of the craft did not work out for us.

we also blew up some balloons and the boys chased them around the house. the balloons were asteroids and they had to keep them from hitting earth (the ground).

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The Balancing Moon

We had a great Day 1 with Mother Goose Time but the rest of this week has gotten away from us so far. We've had errands and attitudes. We've tried to do activities but they just haven't been working.

Tuesday, i pulled out our solar system. We spun the planets around the sun while singing (to the London Bridge toon) "the planets spin around the sun, around the sun, around the sun. The planets spin around the sun, in our solar system". We also watched videos of solar flares on YouTube. The boys were amazed. As the gas exploded and then got sucked back into the core. see video here. we watched this video too... well, i did.

Wednesday was about our moon. I got out this fantastic game included in the curriculum this month; Balancing Moon. Mr A was determined to get all the pieces on the moon. He tried for over an hour and changed his method of stacking several times to figure it out. They even thought outside of the box for a second and stacked them to make a tall tower.

Before bed also, i found Mr A playing again and muttering to himself, "this should go here... oh that doesnt work... this piece here..."

Mr A is a great problem solver. He figures out a solution quite easily most of the time. He loves puzzles. I think thats why he enjoys this game so much. Its a challenge for him.

I had plans on looking at the moon last night with our telescope but the boys weren't feeling well and were in bed by 630pm.

(Yesterday we had a tie-dye date with friends too. We let the bags sit in the sun and looked at the condensation that had happened inside)

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BLAST OFF!

Here is a little bit of how i set up our Mother Goose Time things around the house. all of these pieces are laminated, besides the calendar and daily focus page below. i have the letter sets up in random order to make my 4yr old work a little bit harder at remembering them; instead of just reciting the ABC song.

i have all of these visuals at kid height. My 4yr refers to the alphabet strip often when he cant remember what a letter is. both the boys love putting the day on the calendar each morning. we refer to the world map quite often as well. we love being reminded of all the shapes and colors we've gone over in previous months, so i keep those up all the time too. i taken almost all of the wall space for our MGT stuff. it dont think it bothers my husband too much. our house looks like a preschool.

 

Well, today was the start of a new unit, Blast off to Space. We began with exploring our theme poster. we counted the star shapes and Mr A found 17.

from the dollar store, i got some glow in the dark stars. we sang "5 little stars, shining so bright, one shot off into the night" and shot them into a dark bathroom with a finger-rubberband slingshot. the boys loved this hands-on reinforcement. we made shooting stars.

we learned about the 3 colors that stars can be. we acted out their sizes too. we stomped around loudly, waved our arms up high and yelled "red-giant". we curled our bodies to the smallest size we could and squeaked "blue dwarf". then we walked around normal and said "yellow-medium".

i scattered the pictures of the stars around the room. Mr A rolled a die and i told him what star to collect. he ran around as fast as he could and gathered 3 blue dwarfs... or whatever the number.

then we did some patterning with the cards.

the boys made their star wands. Mr A added too much glue for the glitter, so they have been drying all day. we havent actually used them for anything yet.

while the boys were playing freely, they brought out the archery set. i decided to cut out some stars from construction paper and tape them on the bullseye. so, Mr A shot at the red giant, yellow mediums and blue dwarfs for a little while.

today, we tried out the dance n beats dvd this morning too. it was a whining fest for a little while. Mr A refused to participate and Mr Z just sat on the couch. the boys just watched me do the "twinkle twinkle little star" dance. finally A joined me for a few more songs.

for me, mother goose time has been a life-saver on keeping my kids busy during the day. the focus word for this month is patience. i personally, need to work on this. we have fun together as a family. but i find that my patience and low tolerance for certain things doesnt allow the kids to get a full experience. i think most of my intolerance and impatience stems from a messy house and feeling like we have too much stuff that doesnt get utilized. i feel the house is a constant mess and with that, i dont want the kids to make a mess while doing activities. once things get "out of hand", i get impatient and clean up the activity. i think i'm going about things the wrong way. i know theres a better way to handle that type of situation. anyway, i guess patience starts with me. since i am at home with kids all of the time, they learn about life and how to handle it from me. patience is key... one of the keys to having fun and happy children. i need to be more patient. if i could drink patience by the cupful, that would help.

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