For this math block I deviated from our normal
curriculum and used Marsha Johnson's files for inspiration.
She has the most spectacular files on her yahoo group
Waldorf home educators.
This block focused on the four processes, columnar adding
and subtracting, the times tables, and working with the abacus.
All of the information was brought to Matthew through a collection
of stories in Tales of a Chinese Grandmother, by Francis Carpenter
I told two stories a week and introduced concepts based on
these stories. He enjoys math very much and this block
was fun for him. This was a bit of review and
mostly solidified multiplication. We all had fun learning
the abacus. Tom had to take over this area for me!
I thought it was hard, Matthew seemed to really like it.
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| Counting large numbers on his Chinese abacus |
We also took time to review last years foreign language.
I tried something new this year, and we bought a language program
for the computer called the learnables. It's o.k. but we
don't use it as often as we should and the one on one
with the teacher was a lot better. We are going to sign him up
for the Chinese language classes again asap. For now
we are reviewing from his class material and using the
program.
Although I know yoga did not come from China
I thought we could become more zen like incorporating it
thus, we have begun our mornings with a 1/2 hour yoga
video. Even the baby does it with us :)
To bring in the littles more we crafted Chinese dragons
and panda bears. We learned a little about the
Chinese new year traditions and the giant panda.
We spent time painting and learning new technique.
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| Matthew's castle- Perspective |
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| Wesley's clouds- pulling paint from the paper |
For read aloud they almost finished the book
By Grace Lin
This book comes HIGHLY recommended from our family.
If you are looking for a chapter book to read aloud to
your second or third grader this is very good.
Every morning I hear all about what happened to Min lee
We also enjoyed the snow!!!!
Until next time
~blessings
