Putting Together my Planner for the Coming Year
An Inside look into my previous planners from 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade, and a look at our past Middle School/High School planner as I prepare my planner for the coming year. I was putting together my planner for the following year and thought it would be a good time to share with you how…
Window Star Math
Window stars are one of my favorites, because of their beauty. I hardly ever use them for math, but there is so much math present in them. This week for bonus material, I’m giving you a videos with instructions on folding stars and tips and tricks in making them. Below that is a PDF file…
An Overview of Cuisenaire Rods
Cuisenaire rods are my favorite math manipulative. This is because they translate the math so clearly. In this video, I go over a highlight of different ways that the rods can be used. Time Stamp: 00:37 Staircases02:10 Addition04:41 Subtraction06:21 Multiplication12:28 Division16:47 Factoring20:39 Fractions31:38 Exponents35:39 Algebra
Developing Number Sense for Fractions
Adding Fraction for Game Points in our Homeschooling We’ve been playing a RightStart matching game for percentages and fractional equivalencies. The way that we have been calculating our scores for this game has been by adding all the fractions from the pairs. There are many activities that I have in my math curricula Fractions Year…
Grade 5 Freehand Waldorf Geometry: Ellipse Exercise
We’ve been working on our freehand Waldorf Geometry block the last couple of weeks. Check my Geometry highlights on Instagram for more. We are using pushpins as string to first draw a circle from the center, and then moving the focus outward from the circle to see the changes in the circle. It’s a cool exercise just by…
Exploring Rules of Divisibility through Patterns in the 100-chart and Digit Sums of Multiples
Rules of Divisibility. How did we decide what they were? That’s where we are headed in our math journey at the moment. I’ve talk about going back, reviewing, revisiting, or doing an activity more than once. This repetition brings depth to our math journey. We are doing just that again in preparation for reducing fractions…
The Shapes of Numbers — Exploring Prime Numbers through Eratosthenes’ Sieve
The sieve of Eratosthenes is one of my favorite math exercises to do with kids, and it’s a great intro into prime numbers. It eliminates numbers through the multiples, leaving primes on the 100 chart. We usually use block crayons, because there is a definite pattern on the 100 chart for multiples, and block crayons…
Sophomore Year in Review
Whew! High school has been a whirlwind for us, but homeschooling high school is definitely doable. I just have to mentally prepare myself by realizing that there will be lots of changes through the years. He shifted gears midway through the academic year, which I talk about in the video. We used a variety of…
Fourth Grade Year in Review
This was such a fun video to make. I had just finished looking through the kids portfolios in preparation for their annual evaluation, and then looked through photographs of the year to add to the video. Looking back at the year allows for me to see how much we have accomplished in the last year.…
Planning our Fifth-grade Freehand Geometry Block
I’m planning my daughter’s fifth grade year for next year, and I’ve gotten distracted by her free-hand geometry unit. Why do I say distracted? Well, that is currently scheduled as the last block of the year with 10, yes I said 10, previous block in front of it. But really, who can blame me?! Waldorf…
My Favorite Educational Apps
The homeschool world abounds with opinions on electronics. Some think that electronics should be limited, while others think that electronics should be embraced. My family falls somewhere in between. We do limit our screen time at my house to encourage and promote outdoor (and indoor) play, but I do use them for educational purposes occasionally, especially on…
“Notice and Wonder” with Cuisenaire Rods for Homeschool Math
Today for math we did one of my favorite activities, though I will admit, it is not always my children’s favorite. My daughter, now 10, build a structure with the Cuisinaire Rods, and then we did a “notice and wonder” activity. The structure that she build for today was a pyramid. I could have guessed…
An Inside Look into our Homeschool Math Journal
Some homeschoolers keep a common place book. Some homeschoolers keep a language arts book. We keep a Math Journal. Because I’m not teaching math from a curriculum, keeping a math journal helps us to keep track of where we have been and thus where we are going. When we are stuck on a challenge, we…
Finding Perfect Numbers
Yesterday’s was all about Perfect number. It’s not how pretty the number is, or how well you like its form. It’s not even about if the number is your favorite. Perfect numbers have a distinct definition. A perfect number is a number whose factors (not including the number itself) add to give the number itself.…
Comparing Rods for Fractional Relationships
In this activity we are comparing each rod to each of the others to see the fractional relationship. It looks overwhelming, but it’s not. The first couple of rows or columns are the most challenging and after a pattern emerges, and it becomes much easier. Having said that, this comparison did take us three to four…
How Homeschooling is Different than the Brick and Mortar School
My father-in-law, a retired high school science teacher, sat across from me in our living room at their last visit discussing all things education. If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know I love to talk homeschool. It was a fun and lively conversation, mostly about teaching science, when the topic of discussion turned…
Making Math Fun
You know I love math! Today I’m sharing some of the best parts of math. So if you and your child are struggling with math, add these in. Don’t dare say, “We are taking a break from math today to do this project.” What I am showing you is real math. What we teach our…
Using Songs and Music for Homeschooling
“Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning to you. Our day is beginning. There’s so much to do. Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning to you.” This song was the song that I sang every morning with each of my children when we started our our circle time when they were young. It was a great…
Games – Late Elementary
THIS IS A 4-PART BLOG SERIES ON GAMES. IT INCLUDES GAMES FOR PRESCHOOLERS, EARLY ELEMENTARY, LATER ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL. THIS POST CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS THAT WILL HELP YOU FIND THE GAME EASILY. These are my favorite games suitable for late elementary. I really like to have games that cover a range of…
Games-Early Elementary
THIS IS A 4-PART BLOG SERIES ON GAMES. IT INCLUDES GAMES FOR PRESCHOOLERS, EARLY ELEMENTARY, LATER ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL. THIS POST CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS THAT WILL HELP YOU FIND THE GAME EASILY. We have shifted from our normal structured homeschool style to a more unschooled style of homeschooling for the summer. With…
Educational Games: Preschool
This is a 4-part blog series on games. It includes games for preschoolers, early elementary, later elementary, middle school and high school. This post contains affiliate links that will help you find the game easily. We’ve found ourselves needing a little more family interaction lately in place of all our separate screen time during this…
Golden Age of Islam (Middle Ages) Resources and Activities
Ramadan Mubarak! Though we are not Muslim, we have several friends and followers that are. I am saddened that they have to celebrate their holy month in the middle of the Corona pandemic. In honor of the month of Ramadan I’ve compiled our resources and activities for the Golden Age of Islam Unit that we…
Tree Unit Resources, Games, and Activities
New Blog Post: I’ve just finished a blog post going over the resources, game, and activities for our Tree Unit. This has been such a delightful unit. There is the usual list of games and book with details of our favorites and what each book contains in the post. In addition though, I go into…
Using Cuisenaire Rods for Fractions
This is a math series follows our unit for introduction to fractions in grade 3. This is one of several. Look for the others by searching “fractions.” This post contains affiliate links. Day 10 It’s was our first day from spring break, so we started out homeschooling slow with only two tasks: nature study and main…
Paper-folding Fraction Activity
This is a math series follows our unit for introduction to fractions in grade 3. This is one of several. Look for the others by searching “fractions.” Though we are not completely finished with the number line work, it was Friday and the end of a busy week, so we were both looking for something…
Fractions on a Number Line
This is a math series follows our unit for introduction to fractions in grade 3. This is one of several, and I’m combining several days into one post. This part of the unit all involves number line. Day 3 My intention for our fraction work was to continue with our circles, but it was so…
Fractions-Circles
This is a math series follows our unit for introduction to fractions in grade 3. This is one of several, and I’m combining several days into one post. This part of the unit all involves circles. Day 1 We opened our fractions unit with cutting circles. I precut 8 different colors of circles, 3 of…
Quality of Numbers
I love math. I always have. I think partly because I was able to see the magic of the patterns through the humdrum of algorithms and worksheets that were mundanely fed to us in school. I was lucky in that. So many cannot, and math becomes a tedious bog to drudge through each step…
5 Ways to Liven up your Homeschool Journey
Homeschool feeling bogged down. Here are 5 ideas to help. These techniques will help to solidify the information your children are learning.
Patterns in the Multiplication Chart
*A note about the numbers. In this piece to try to keep things clear, when I speak of the multiples or a particular number, I am writing the numeric symbol for the number i.e. “9.” If I am not talking about the number but describing an amount, I am spelling it out i.e. “three…
Multiplication Circles
Last year sometime the oldest and I did a short unit on multiplication circles. Here are some resources for that unit. The first thing that I had him do was do the multiplication circle for the 2’s table and 3’s table. For the 2’s table, we connected the dots of the number we were multiplying…
Making a 100 Chart for Math
I adore Grimm’s Counting with Wooden Number Chart, but I couldn’t move past the $140 sticker price, though I think it’s well worth it. Still I really wanted a 100 chart like this, because we will be using the 100 chart a lot this coming school year for my youngest. I wanted something “whole brained”…
An Inspiration in Math for One Small First Grader
With everything there are trade-offs. It’s the same for homeschooling. Sometimes when I am planning I come across an activity or discussion that I think would work so much better in a group dynamic. It doesn’t happen too often, but often enough. Sometime, like with physics for my 13-year-old son this year, I just decide…
Making a Skip Counting Number Wheel
I was lucky enough to be advised by older and wiser homeschooling parents than me that after my children could count proficiently to 100, I should teach them to count by 2’s, 3’s, 4’s and so forth. It worked so very well for my first child, and so with my youngest now going through kindergarten,…
The Math Book by Clifford A. Pickover
I am loving this book! Each day after our math lesson, we read a page from this book. It had been a gateway to arithmetical adventure. Today it had us discussing and researching the 4th dimension. It has also led us to experimenting with abstract Calculus concepts, studying the statistics of dropping toothpicks, magic squares,…
Turtle Tessellation Tiles and Pentagon Spirals
We are finished with our homeschooling year. Well…almost. We didn’t get to math this year, and so as we shift our focus to more fun, and a less strictly academic theme to our schooling (because who are we kidding? Homeschooling is a lifestyle; there really is no “summer break,”) we will be doing our math…
Using HABA Orchard for Math
The cooperative game of Orchard is used to teach more, less, by how much, and graphing.
About Me
Hi, I’m Della. I’m passionate about homeschooling, and I want to share it with you.