Learning As We Go!

In case I forgot to mention it, this is our first time homeschooling. I had planned on following the Easy Peasy schedule since it is totally free but for some reason it didn't seem like enough. I'm currently waiting on some books and programs I ordered for Language Arts to arrive. I should have most of them today and I will do a separate post on those later.

Today we focused on math - specifically The Number Line. C is pretty sharp when it comes to math. We are using the Light Blue Grade 1 from Math Mammoth and so far I am happy with it. He flew through the kindergarten review and the beginning Level 1 topics: Two Groups and a Total, Learning "+" and "-", Addition, Which is More?, Missing Items, and Sums with 5 and 6. Some of it he learned in kindergarten last year. We came to The Number Line yesterday and he was familiar with it While he isn't having trouble with the addition equations that accompany a number line, for some reason he gets confused when having to demonstrate the equation on the number line. For example:

If he is given the equation 2+4 he knows the answer is 6 but when he goes to show the equation using a number line, he will do odd things like count one tick mark as two numbers or he'll show the first part of the equation fine (2) but then he adds 6 more jumps rather than the 4 if that makes any sense. I tried making a small chart and using playing cards to make it seem more like a game.

It didn't go over too well so we stopped there. Today I tried using our Mala easel from Ikea. I originally bought this for the kids to play with but I'm discovering it's one of my favorite "classroom" tools! Anyways! I tried using this today and C continued to make the same mistake of inserting the answer into the addition equation. So I tried using just a blank number line with only 0 and 10 labeled. It ended up working! While he didn't do 100% he improved greatly. Maybe all those numbers just get in the way. I did notice that if he just focused on the answer instead of doing separate jumps for each part of the equation he did better.

Of course P was enthralled by this number line and wanted a turn too. She just turned 5 so I'm letting her take the lead as far as what "grade level" we work at. The other day we worked on adding using our hands and she just didn't like it too much so it didn't go far. She was adamant about having a turn with the number line. I started off with a shorter number line of 0-5 and kept it simple and she did very well!

I even tried to trick her by using a 0 but there is no fooling her!