Cotter Tens Fractal

Looks kind of like a Christmas tree...

This is something LMS and I did in math (we're using RightStart Math Level B), and is a great way to visualize numbers.

The huge triangle is made of 10 smaller triangles.

Those triangles are in turn made of 10 smaller triangles, and those triangles are also made of 10 smaller triangles.

Confused yet?

We glued 10 small triangles onto a medium triangle and repeated for a total of 100 medium triangles. The small triangles represent ones, so if there's 10 ones in a medium triangle, a medium triangle represents 10.

We then glued 10 medium triangles onto a large triangle and repeated for a total of 10 large triangles. Since there's 10 ones in a medium triangle and 10 medium triangles in a large triangle, a large triangle represents 100.

We then glued 10 large triangles onto a giant triangle. Since there's 10 of them and each one represents 100, the giant triangle represents 1000.

1000 small triangles = 100 medium triangles = 10 large triangles = 1 giant triangle

If I'd thought about it ahead of time, I'd have used a different paper for all the small triangles, which would have made it easier to see each individual triangle.

This took a lot of time and a lot of glue sticks, but was pretty interesting. I will admit that this is the first time I'd heard of a Cotter Tens Fractal (at least that I remember), so I'm already learning new things!

Have you heard of a Cotter Tens Fractal?

Sunday Funny

having fun at the park

Earlier this week I looked over at LMS, who was quietly doing her Japanese- filling in the Hiragana chart. I noticed she'd written the characters very lightly, so I asked why she'd done that.

"Because it's invisible ink!"

Of course, why didn't I think of that?

Glass Mosaics

As I mentioned yesterday, Little Miss Sunshine had lots of fun at the Irish music day camp she attended.

One of the crafts they made was little glass mosaic tiles. Most of the kids did four leaf clovers or random designs or such, but not LMS.

She did Sleeping Beauty and Malificent.

I think the horns on Malificent's head are a great touch.

The silver things are windows.

I love the detail and how she planned out how it was going to look. The other kids used grout on theirs, but she wouldn't grout hers because it would ruin it. I couldn't figure out why she would insist on that, but once I finally saw it, I realized what she meant.

I love how she uses her imagination!

Irish Music School Day Camp

crappy lighting + not-so-great camera = less than clear photos. this was the best one I managed. I'm not sure why LMS's hand is in front of her face, but they're lined up to do a soft shoe dance.

LMS attended a day camp {her first!} two weeks ago. It was a week-long version of the Irish sampler class she'll be taking in the fall, and she loved it!

They did crafts (painted t-shirts, made mosaics, painted round cardboard boxes to use as bodhrans, and made fairy dolls), danced (soft shoe for the younger kids, soft shoe and hard shoe for the older kids), sang, played tin whistle or fiddle, played the bodhran, cooked (scones and Irish soda bread), and learned a little Irish. The last day the parents came in the afternoon and got to watch the kids show off what they'd learned.

The Little Miss chose to do tin whistle for the camp, but will probably do fiddle during the regular class. Below is a video (my first- hopefully it works!) of her group playing Hot Cross Buns on the tin whistle. It reminded me a lot of elementary school recorders, but the older kids had a lot better sound quality and didn't sound like recorders.

This was an interesting experience for me. I dropped LMS off at 9 and picked her up at 3. The hours in between were just for me- no schoolwork (we used one of our vacation weeks that week), no running off to this activity or that one, just time to do my things.

It gave me a taste of what my life would be like if she attended public school.

She'd be gone all day and I'd have the house to myself.

Initially that sounds like a nice thing, but reality sets in real quick.

It would be very quiet.

And lonely.

But I would probably have finished up all my projects a long time ago, because of all that time to myself.

Or maybe not. I actually wasted (?) a lot of time reading and not feeling guilty about it. I found out in high school that I am much better at managing my time and being efficient when I am busy (cross country season, for example) and have to budget my time.

However, I wouldn't change our decision to homeschool. It was a nice change of pace, but I like having LMS home with me- she's such a funny kid- and I still manage to get a lot of projects done (eventually).

First Grade

LMS sounding out words in one of her favorite books. She LOVES anatomy books and we have quite a few now, of varying degrees of difficulty. Do we have a future doctor on our hands?

Yesterday we started first grade.

Yes, our summer was short, but we'll be taking breaks throughout the year, so we're not missing out.

And who really wants to be outside when it's really hot and muggy? Not me. I'm all for staying inside and enjoying our air conditioning. When it cools down we'll take a break and spend some time outside.

As I've mentioned before, we're using the curriculum suggestions from A Well-Trained Mind. So what are we studying this year?

Reading, writing, spelling, grammar, math, science, history/geography, music, art, Japanese, and religion.

Yes, we will be busy, but each subject doesn't take very long when you're working one-on-one, and not all subjects are studied every day.

I was going to hold off on the Japanese for a few more years and start Latin next year, but a lady who's originally from Japan recently moved into our ward and I want to be able to take advantage of a native speaker to practice with (I'm super rusty), and figured it would be a good opportunity for LMS as well.

We've already decided on some extra-curricular and enrichment activities, the rest will be decided on as time passes.

We're continuing violin lessons, and after Labor Day LMS will start soccer again and an Irish sampler class that includes instruction in Irish language, dance, music (bodrhan and fiddle or tin whistle), and singing. Yes, I wish I could take this class, but it's only for kids, unfortunately.

After soccer is over, we might do some ice skating lessons or some skiing (I'd like to do both), but we'll have to see how our schedule is.

I don't think we'll be doing any co-ops this year because our schedule is already too full. Maybe next year.

When do your kids start school?

Betsy-Tacy

source

Not too long ago I was in a homeschool book store, looking for next year's books. I didn't find any of them, but I did find Betsy-Tacy and Tib, and Betsy and Tacy go over the Big Hill. I remembered hearing them mentioned in "You've Got Mail", so I bought them. A buck a piece, I think?

I started reading Betsy-Tacy and Tib to LMS (we finished the Little House books), then realized it was actually the second book in the series. So I requested the first one (Betsy-Tacy) from the library and started over. We're now on the third book (Betsy and Tacy go over the Big Hill) and we're enjoying them.

LMS likes to pretend that she's playing with the girls as I read about their adventures. She even reminds me to add her name to theirs: Betsy, Tacy and Tib and LMS walked to school. Too cute :)

Have you read the Betsy-Tacy books?

School year evaluation

exploring a local river with friends

So how did the past school year go?

Reading
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons worked well, but didn't teach reasons for why some e's are long and some are short, along with other rules. I've read that criticism elsewhere and plan on using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading in first grade to compensate.

Writing
We zipped through the Zaner-Bloser workbook in less than two months. We'll continue using ZB, but will take it slower and will do additional practice activities, like we did this year.

Math
I really liked the Math-U-See curriculum, but it wasn't working for LMS. Unfortunately I didn't realize this till February. We did a quick switch to RightStart Math and then did some catching up so we could still finish on time. That wasn't necessary, but I wanted to try to make up for confusing her earlier in the year :)

Music
LMS started violin lessons in the fall. We occasionally listen to classical  and Irish music. We finally bought a piano in the fall and she plays her violin lessons on the piano. We'll start formal piano lessons in another year or so.

PE/Sports
We did fall and spring soccer, ski lessons, three kids fun runs, and four weeks of swimming lessons. We also have weekly park days with friends (I'm not always the best at getting out and going to parks, so having a scheduled time works well for us).

Art
Nothing formal- just fun with paints and crayons and glue and the sewing class at the co-op in the fall.

Science
Physics class at the co-op in the fall, farm animal class at the co-op in the fall, nothing too extensive this year.

We took a pretty relaxed approach to school this year and learned a lot from it. In the coming year we'll be changing how we do some things as well as adding more structure to the subjects that we didn't pay much attention to this year. My main goal for LMS in her kindergarten year was for her to learn to read and to make good progress in her math skills, which she did. I didn't want kindergarten to be high stress, and I think we did a pretty good job of keeping things low key.