Math and Science

I'm in love with Singapore Math! I knew just from reading the description in WTM that I would like it.  I was a math person in school, and this seems to teach like I think.  Sometimes it may not teach in the most "traditional" way, but when you really think about what they are doing it is usually training them to think about math like an adult. Singapore Math is more about learning math Concepts instead of memorizing facts.  (Although, they do remind the parents that the children need to be practicing enough that they will end up memorizing the facts.)

I'm not an expert on Common Core, that was way after my time, and not having kids in public school, I'm really out of the loop on this.  But from the little I've seen on facebook and such it seems that the math that is being used in schools to align with the Common Core standards seems to teach similarly to Singapore Math. Which if I understand correctly is just an Americanized version of the curriculum taught in schools in Singapore, hence the name.  Actually, Singapore was one of the countries they studied to come up with the math standards for Common Core.

So I give that disclaimer to say, if you are homeschooling your child because you don't like the way math is being taught in public schools, this may not be the curriculum for you.  However, if that's you I would encourage you to at least look through a book, because I think that a lot of parents don't like this "new math" because they don't understand what their child is doing.  But you are the teacher now, so you are going to be the one with the teacher's guide (and the answers).  Singapore has some of the best test scores in math in the world, and it's not because they are studying to take the test (like a lot of other countries including our own).  So, they might be on to something here.

A lot of people use Saxon Math.  It's probably the most common among homeschoolers.  I had to teach from Saxon Math in an elementary placement when I was in college, and it left a really bad taste in my mouth.  If it is still the same, if you want a very structured, traditional math book that tells you exactly what to say, go with Saxon. Hey, different strokes

Here was a real activity we did last week.  They showed a picture of a penguin family of five.  Some were big, some were small. Some were lying down, some were not.  I think one was maybe outside of the nest or whatever the rest were in.  Anyway, they gave him the picture and said how many number bonds can you create with this picture.  So aloud we would say "There are five penguins. Two are adults and three are babies."  Then he would record this answer numerically.

Sound confusing?  It isn't really and the teacher guide is super helpful.

Science
Science this year is biology.  We are learning about animals, the human body, and in the spring, plants.

Here are our main books.  Science to me, the way it's laid out in WTM is the least structured.  We are learning about animals right now we do about two animal groups a week.  We've talked about what a mammal is and have started to learn about some mammals.  I haven't ironed out exactly how we are going to do work with science.  Sterling really needs handwriting practice and narrations are not only good for handwriting but writing skills.  (Narrations are just the kids retelling what they've learned in writing form.)  At the same time he wants to recall so many more facts than he has the patience to copy.  I have a binder for science right now and we have been letting him copy a sentence to put in his binder and then draw a picture.  However, I think I may start recording all that he says by my own hand and including that as well.

These are some extra books I've picked up for when we get to the body.  In Classical Conversations this year Sterling will be making a life size body with all the bones and inside parts.  I loved that we were going to do that this year, because I was planing to do something like that with him at home and now I don't have to.  Much of our CC memory work is about the body and body systems this year, too.  I'll talk about on the Classical Conversations post how we line up and don't line up our work with CC.