I have finally figured out why I HATE teaching math to my little crowd...
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It is because it is like the lima beans in the mixed veggies...you just can't sneak them in!!!
I can sneak in literature by reading them good books...I can sneak in phonics and grammar by READING THEM GOOD BOOKS!
I can sneak in art, by you guessed it....reading them good books..
History, science, ...yep...good books.
Music can be listened to in the car...in the house...at concerts...
Again, I can sneak it in so that it is just life as usual. I can sneak in science projects or lessons with my garden, or baking....or a great experimnt kit...
BUT MATH!!! UGH!!!! Oh the D-R-U-D-G-E-R-Y!!!!!
show me three...now two more...there ...that makes five....ad nauseum!
I do not know how to sneak math in...nor get my kids to memorize their facts....we could use living math books.....or games....or manipulatives until i get nuts...but they just KNOW it is math....and spit it out!
Oh boy! And well, math is important....like eating your veggies....
So, how can I sneak it in??? and still have them excel????
I have done pretty much all of them throughout the years...and it is not the program...it is not mastery vs. spiral....it is not conceptual verses fact memorization...it is just MATH.
My kids do not like it...It is not interesting or applicable to their little lives no matter WHAT I do, except pay them...LOL...and I do pay them ....sometimes...a penny a problem...a dime for a word problem!
I beg, cajole, whine, force, pretend to play with them, make all kinds of manipulatives, make up funny word problems....but no matter what I do...I can't disguise it. It reminds me of the story of the little boy who hated kreplach.
Once upon a time there was a little boy who hated kreplach. Every time he saw a piece of kreplach in the soup he screamed, "Aaaaah, kreplach!" So his mother decided to teach him not to be afraid of kreplach. She took him into the kitchen and rolled out some dough. "Just like a pancake," she said. "Just like a panckae," said the little boy. Then she took a piece of meat and rolled it into a ball. "Just like a meatball," she said. "Just like a meatball," said the little boy. Then she rolled up the meat in the dough and held it up. "Just like a dumpling," she said. "Just like a dumpling," said the little boy. Then she dropped it into the soup and put it in front of the little boy, and he screamed, "Aaaaah, kreplach!"
So, for my little boys...it is AAAAAAHHHH MATH!
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Not even reading "The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-time" works? Or watching a movie, like Flatlands? That must be frustrating.
It sounds like they're picking up on your desperation about math. If you like it, so will they.
My mum would figure out our weekly allowance using math based on our age: doubled then divided by 100. I wasn't interested until I got a bit older and noticed the change every year around my birthday. I'd keep track of it too and look through toy magazines at stuff I wanted (but never bought). I started doing math on my own so I could project ahead how much money I'd make from my paper route, then later other jobs. It was the precursor to budgeting.
Try introducing your kids to spreadsheet programs like Excel for keeping track of the movies they watch, what year it was released, rating from IMDB.com, AFI info, etc. It's mathy, but not overwhelming.
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