Math Card Games

I was talking with my sister this evening and raved to her about a book
I got a week or so ago that supplements our math curriculum. The book
is called Math Card Games, 300 Games for Learning and Enjoying Math. It
covers numeration, addition, clocks, multiplication, money, subtraction,
division and fractions. The book is about 175 pages long. Logan and
Delenn have both really enjoyed playing some of the games -- and it is
obviously for elementary age kids -- probably grades K-4 is my guess.
After coming in from swinging on Friday, Logan asked to play "Go to the
Dump" and Delenn chimed in "me too!" Always a great sign, right?!

Cynthia (and anyone else) here is the link for what I would recommend...
this includes the book, the cards to play the games, and a small abacus (price, $50).
(You can also buy them individually, ie. just the book, but you really
do need the cards).

http://www.activitiesforlearning.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=12

Cynthia, I couldn't get that link to work above for some reason. Try that and if that doesn't work try this and click on Math Card Games.
http://www.alabacus.com/pageView.cfm?pageID=306

Or go to Products, and in the blue box Games and Puzzles, Elementary Games, then click on Math Card Games.

And if you're interested, here's more about our math curriculum, Right
Start Math: http://www.alabacus.com/pageView.cfm?pageID=265

Quick Update about the one-year-old Elora

We've been meaning to mention that Elora is communicating more and
more. She says "Uh-oh" and "drop," "MumMum" and signs "all done,"
"more," and "dog." She easily makes her wants/needs known (pointing,
nodding and shaking her head). She has a great sense of humor (she
likes to get us chuckling by sticking her tongue in and out repeatedly
like a lizard). She is very into books now (no surprise if you read the
post below!) and continues to dress up in everyone's hats. She loves
Boomer and has very animated conversations with the dog; she "talks" to
Boomer in a way that is different to any of the rest of us. Elora often
takes a toy to Boomer and tries to shove it in her mouth. That's great
when it's one of Boomer's toys, but not so great when it's, say, a
stuffed animal or a Lego or something (we're working hard to teach
Boomer only to chew on her own toys).

Elora is quite demanding at the moment. She is very clingy to Mom,
though we're not quite sure why. She's working on another tooth, but I
think it may be more related to the fact that she's only napping once a
day now for the most part (and is tired by the end of the day). On a
good note, Elora has been sleeping through the night for a couple weeks. We can hardly believe it!!

We try to keep a smiling, upbeat face about life here in the DingoDen,
but truthfully anything that bumps the norm around here sends us into a
tailspin and stresses us out. For example, we found out that they want to do some renovations in our house (knocking out the wall between the living room and kitchen to make it an open style -- and knocking out the front wall to enclose the front porch thus making the living room bigger). The changes sound marvelous, but the thought of packing up and moving house for a while pretty much makes us quiver. We know this is just our time of life (having a walking, interested, lively, yet clingy, needy toddler while homeschooling and so forth). There's very, very (very, very...) little time for ourselves and we're sure not equipped for anything else off the beaten track. We simply don't have any extra time to give anything more. Sigh... We'll keep you posted on those renovations.

Reading at the DingoDen

If you haven't read Jim Trelease's inspiring book, The Read Aloud
Handbook, you should! It's a wonderful book that encourages everyone to
foster a love of reading in their children. We're book-a-holics in my
family (my Mom, an English and Woman's Studies professor, had of
thousands of books in our living room which were housed in beautifully
crafted bookshelves with roller doors made by my Dad). Anyway, Auntie
Cynthia said that one of the units her (homeschooled) kids enjoyed in
Kindergarten/First Grade was reading through the Caldecott Medal and
Honors winners. Logan and Delenn have really been enjoying these
books. (Thanks Cyn! Thanks Grams!) Here are a few of the Caldecott books we read this last week:

Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type
Blueberries for Sal
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The Stray Dog
The Paperboy
A Tree is Nice
Ten, Nine, Eight
Saint George and the Dragon
Officer Buckle and Gloria
One Morning in Maine
The Big Snow
No, David!
The Emperor and the Kite

We also read a couple of Bill Peet's books such as How Droofus the Dragon Lost his Head. I highly recommend most any of Peet's books.

We're always in the middle of several chapter books (which we read often
during meals/snack times). Right now we're reading The Sleeping Giant
of Goll in the Secrets of Droon series, Sepron the Sea Serpent in the
Beast Quest series and have started reading the Magic Tree House series
again with the first book, Dinosaurs Before Dark.

And believe it or not, we read lots of other story books as well.

Delenn was very excited for her first dance class

Delenn's First Dance Class

Delenn had her first dance class. The parents came into
the room with the kids and then were asked to wait
outside. Apparently while we were in the other room
there was lots of fun to be had -- skipping, tiptoeing and more!

Oops--Found out the dance studio had a no-picture policy. We
removed the pictures so no one is offended.

Pizza Party and Play at Sammy's

Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You...

Feb. 3, 2009

Elora's Sun Birthday Cake

Decorating Their Cupcakes

The kids wanted to decorate their own cakes for Elora's
birthday. Elora got really mad when she wasn't up at the table
to join in the fun!

Elora had a blast this morning...

Kindergym has started back up again

What a day at the Clay Pans

You have probably seen our pictures of the clay pans from
a few months ago. We were riding bikes and flying kites.
After all the rain of the past couple months, the clay pans
have been full of water (about 1 foot or so deep). We spent
a couple hours playing in the water -- lots of fun was had
by all!

Frolicking in the Mud!

Fun at the Clay Pans

Logan at swim lessons

Do you remember Midi, the Magpielark baby?

Back on Boxing Day, Dec. 26, a young Magpielark was blown
out of its nest. After hanging with us for the afternoon, we took
her to Aunt Nic and Uncle Peter's place to see if they could help
her survive. (They had rescued a Magpie a year or two earlier
and knew how to care for a young bird.)

Logan named the bird Midi and with Nicola and Peter's tender
care it survived. They invited us over to visit Midi who is very
comfortable around people.

Visiting all the critters

Aunt Nic and Uncle Peter have a whole collection of critters
to get to know -- in addition to Midi, the Magpielark there is
Stuart, the Magpie, 3 cats and 2 dogs! The kids enjoyed
visiting all of them. Alex (the cat below) did surprisingly well
with Delenn and Elora. Alex can be rather feisty!

1-Delenn with Midi
2-Elora with Stuart
3-4 kids with Alex

The kids got to feed and hold Midi

Uncle Peter was very patient with the kids and
really encouraged them to go slowly. As Midi became
more and more comfortable she let Logan hold her.
Delenn (who moves more quickly!) got to feed her.

Dinosaur Math Tracks

Dinosaur Math Tracks -- a great game that teaches place
value of 1000s, 100s, 10s and 1s as you move your dinosaur
herd around the board.

Trip to the Desert Park

Jan. 7, 2009

A Fun Double-Digit Number Game -- Sunny Side Up

Today we played Sunny Side Up -- a great game for those learning the
double-digit numbers. It's an actual game we got from Grams and Gramps,
but could be used with normal dice too. I doctored the game to play with
Logan. Here's how we play: There are 5 dice -- numbers 1-to-5 and a
sunny side (6 could be your "wild" number). Each person gets a sheet
with 9 numbers on them between 1 and 55 (using only the digits 1 to 5)
-- I typed the sheets up myself. For example, one sheet has the numbers
41, 54, 32, 13, 43, 25, 4, 5 and 9. Each sheet is different (I made a
whole bunch at once to save for later).

Directions:
1) Roll the 5 dice
2) Determine which numbers you can cross out
3) Sunny Side can be used for any digit

Delenn made lemon scented play dough and both Logan and Delenn enjoyed
that for a while today too.

Yesterday we went to the clay pans (where you've seen pictures of us
riding bikes and flying kites). With all the rain we've had this year,
the clay pans are full of about 1 foot of water. The kids and adults
thoroughly enjoyed splashing around in the water. Hopefully I get a
chance to put up pictures later today!