Chinese Math block

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.

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.

Matthew's castle- Perspective

Wesley's clouds- pulling paint from the paper

For read aloud they almost finished the book 

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

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