Math Skills: Patterns

Of all the early math concepts, learning about patterns was my favorite. "Oh look, it's a pattern," became a frequent phrase in our family. I was about to say, "in our house," but the truth is patterns are everywhere. In the grocery story, in the hardware store, in the library, at the museum, you'll find patterns in books, on the floor, on the walls. I guess people like patterns.

Books About Patterns

Pattern Bugs by Trudy Harris

This story has beautiful artwork and poetry. The bugs, the frames around the pages, and even the words of the poetry follow patterns.

Pattern Fish by Trudy Harris

Like her book on bugs, there are visual and word patterns throughout the book.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle

This is another book with rhythmic word patterns along with a fun theme.

Activities with Patterns

Activity #1

Point out patterns everywhere you go. Walking up some brick steps to get to a museum, I noticed the bricks were laid in a special pattern, and once we got to the landing, the pattern changed. I pointed this out to M & R, and they were hooked, finding patterns everywhere. "Look, mom, it's a pattern," they would say excitedly. You can find patterns on almost anything:

* Wallpaper

* Clothing

* Food Labels

* Book Covers

* Quilts

* Floor Tiles

Activity #2

Take a nature walk. Observe patterns in nature (i.e. leaves, spider webs, flowers, animal tracks). You can even build a nature journal documenting the patterns that you see.

Activity #3

Watch for word patterns in books, poems, and songs. For example, the Big Bad Wolf says, "I will huff and I will puff and I will blow your house down," or there is the response from the pigs, "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin."

Activity #4

Decorate for holidays and birthdays with paper chains or streamers. Alternating between red and green makes a simple Christmas pattern, or you could use pink, red, and white for a more complex Valentine's Day decoration. Or hang streamers of various colors in a window as another pattern decoration for a birthday party…or just because it is a beautiful day.

Activity #5

Rhythm pattern (clap, stomp, clap, stomp) and action pattern (stand, sit, jump, stand, sit, jump) games can be as simple or as complex as you would like them to be. Take turns with the kids on who builds the pattern.

Activity #6

Using colorful beads, string them on yarn to make necklaces. By now, the kids know what a pattern is, so let the kids build their own designs.

Activity #7

Paint a series of shapes in various colors across a piece of cardboard. Tell a story about your picture using pattern words. Makani painted a series of patterns, calling them animal tracks, and then she painted a storm that wreaked havoc with the whole pattern.

Activity #8

Build colorful pattern towers using interconnecting blocks of various colors.

Activity #9

Weave potholders on a loom. Both the colors and the weaving motion reinforce the pattern concept.

Activity #10
Play with your food! Line up your M&M's in colorful patterns.

Finding Joy in the Midst of Home Schooling

I spoke with a friend of mine about the struggles of home schooling. Like me, she has just started home schooling her oldest daughter who is just a few weeks younger than my oldest daughter. We talked much about our frustrations. She has recently come to a place of peace that I have had at times, and her words of encouragement really helped me find joy in home schooling once again. So I thought I'd share this with you as well.

Home Schooling Rule #1 - Avoid the Ruse of Perfection
Perfection is a carefully veiled lie. It sounds great, but really it saps your energy and causes you to run in circles. The perfect schedule straps you down. The perfect organization system keeps you from stepping outside the box. The perfect curriculum prevents exploration. Perfection is a sterile imitation of life.

Life is changing. Life requires adjustment. Life breathes and grows and makes messes all around you. If you stumble into perfection, you will not be ready for the next problem life throws your way. You will not be ready to adjust to the new needs of your home schooling family.


Home Schooling Rule #2 - Don't Let Your Curriculum Trap You
Curriculum can get boring. Curriculum can be great for one child but completely miss the needs of another. Curriculum can be old and stale and stodgy. The great thing about home schooling is that learning is more than just a text book. Instead, learning is about life. Home schooling is about making learning your lifetime endeavor, and curriculum is just a springboard to many interesting topics.

Your job as the teacher is not to force the kids through their text books. Your job is to bring them to the well of learning and show them how wonderful it is to drink from it. The joys of reading, the wonders of science, the mysteries of history, the excitement of numbers: all these things are naturally a part of a child's wonderment. We just need to fuel it.


Home Schooling Rule #3 - Remember to Have Fun
"If you are not having fun, most likely the kids aren't having fun either," my friend said to me. My favorite learning activity was when we did a unit study on flowers. Sure we read lots of books about the life cycle of the flower and the parts of the flower, but the most fun was when we picked different colored flowers and crushed them on paper. What a colorful mess that was! We added glitter and then cut the paper in the shape of butterflies. Art and science all in one.


Home Schooling Rule #4 - Don't Be Ruled by Fear
When fear becomes our motivation, we make faulty and unhealthy decisions. Fears of failure could lead to over schooling. Fears of the state requirements could lead to an excessive amount of testing. Fears of disapproval from parents, in-laws, and neighbors could lead to putting your kids accomplishments on display in a way that is not healthy. Fears of inadequacy could lead to overcompensating with tough curriculum or too much curriculum. Fears of not finding the perfect curriculum could lead to not picking any curriculum.

See my point? Fear twists our behaviors into something that is not healthy and generally causes us to walk either the road of perfection or laziness. A healthier perspective is to let go of all those fears and jump into the fun of learning, much like a child.


Conclusion
Jesus said, "Unless you become like a little child, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Home schooling is the opportunity to learn what it is like to have the faith of a child again: to love learning, to explore without reservation or fear, to trust that all things will work out in the end.

Introduction to Geography

The book Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney is a great start to geography for young children. The story shows a girl in her room and then a map of that room, followed by a picture of her house and a map of her house that also contains her room. The story continues to pan out to her street, her town, her state, her country, and then the world. This gives children an understanding of where they are in context of the entire globe.

Another good book for introducing maps is As the Crow Flies: A First Book of Maps by Gail Hartman. I enjoyed this book very much when I read it to my kids. You experience the world from the perspective of different animals, then you study the map of each animal's world, and finally you see how these individual maps are pieced together.

These two books can be followed up with an art lesson where the children draw their own maps of their bedrooms, homes, and neighborhoods. M & R started drawing imaginary maps about how we get to our new house (we don't really have a new house; it was just a story of theirs).

For an introduction to the world atlas, the National Geographic Our World, Updated Edition: A Child's First Picture Atlas by National Geographic Society did an excellent job introducing the continents of the world, giving detailed information about the peoples and the cultures. This is a good one to read again and again. Although it is an easy read, it contains so much information.

Once a child has a basic understanding of geography and the continents, National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers, Revised & Expanded Edition by National Geographic is a great resource for digging deeper into the topic of geography. This book packages facts, pictures, and maps in a way that captivates the reader.

I combined these resources with a wall map of the world. We reference this map while reading both fiction and nonfiction whenever the book mentions a country. Also using the wall map as our reference, we conducted unit studies on the people and cultures of each major country, like we did with Russia. Stay tuned to more cultural unit studies.

Sibling Rivalry

When I brought K home from the hospital, M took to her right away . . . just as she had done when R was born. However, R, my tender-hearted girl, wanted nothing to do with her new baby sister, and she wanted nothing to do with me either whenever I held K. It broke my heart.

K is now 2 years old, and R is 4. It has taken me two years to figure out how to build a bond between those two girls. I learned a few tricks from Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too, and I corrected some of my own behaviors that fueled the division. Now R & K play very well together, and K finally has a friend.

1. Pay attention to your own words. What could you be doing to cause the problem?

I noticed is that R frequently gets in "trouble" when K is around. R's disenchantment with the new baby turned to dislike everytime we scolded her for almost hurting the baby. I remember one day the two girls were playing hide and seek in the closet. K was 1, and R was 3. R kept sliding the closet doors open to peek out and me, and I would cringe as she almost hit K with the door several times. "R, don't do that," I think I said. "You almost hit your sister."

R stopped playing and sat down on my lap, "I don't want K here. Make her go away." Oops, this reaction was my fault. She had played happily with K up until that point. Sure, I want R to learn to be considerate of others and to be aware of the needs of others, but on the other hand, maybe instead I should teach K that she should watch out for swinging doors. K cannot be a baby forever. She needs to have the skills to take care of herself too.

I replaced scolding R with praise. "You are playing with your sister. I really like that," I would say. "That is being very friendly." R's face would light up with a big smile, and slowly she began to play more and more with K.

2. Give security by defining boundaries.

I noticed that R would worry about her personal possessions. K often destroyed her sisters' MegaBlock creations, and R did not feel like she could trust K to know what belongs to whom. R did not know whether K would give back her toys, and so R did not want to share. Hey, if I had a special gardening tool, I would not lend it out to someone who I thought would break it or not return it!

So we solved this problem by giving each girl her own room. We were lucky that we had 4 bedrooms. M & R shared a room, and K (being on a different sleep schedule) had her own room. The fourth bedroom was a play room that all the girls shared. I really liked this arrangement because (1) they had no toys in their rooms to make a mess & to keep them awake at night and (2) I liked the whole idea of having a big play room to segregate the mess from the rest of the house.

Although K still went to bed earlier, keeping her separate from her sisters began to seem like a problem. Throughout the day, she was ostracized from their playtime, and we felt like it was time to unite the three. However, R panicked to have K in their room, getting into their stuff, so we decided to separate M & R so that each girl has her own sanctuary.

Sure, I lost my wonderful play room, but R now gets more sleep and is less cranky. M gets to read late into the night, and K is no longer the third wheel. Furthermore, R now keeps her toys behind a shut door, stopping many arguments before they even happen.

3. Recreate the situation with positive words.

The clincher was when R realized that K liked her. K uses a shortened version of M's name to mean "girl," and she uses this name for every girl she sees. K has never called R by name. I think this has bothered R a little. M & K were becoming friends, and R now felt like the third wheel. M would say, "I like K but not R." And this just worsened the situation.

Then a few weeks ago, something happened that changed this whole thing around. R & K both go to the nursery now because our church does not have a class for 4-year olds. You either go with the big kids (ages 5-12) or with the little kids (ages 0 - 4). We didn't like this very much, and so TJ snuck R into the big kid class one day. Sure, R is 4, but she doesn't run around, she can sit still, and she can do crafts.

Well, K did not want to go into the nursery without R. Several other kids came up to play with her or give her hugs, and she would have nothing to do with them. It was kind of like she was saying, "You're not my sister. I am not playing with you."

That afternoon, we told R how K had asked for her and did not want to play with anyone else. R's face broke into the biggest smile I have ever seen, "K likes me." In fact, she said that several times that day.

The next morning, K was grumpy, having been woken suddenly. While I changed K's diaper, R was petting K's head, but K, being grumpy, pushed R away. Confused and hurt, R asked me, "Does she like me?"

I answered with my usual question, "What do you think?"

"I don't know," she said. Her little brow furrowed in concern.

"Yes, she likes you," I said. "She is just grumpy because it is morning and she is awake."

R has not worried about whether or not K likes her since that morning. She happily takes K's hand, and the two of them tromp off together to play. They now have sleepovers sometimes, and R shares more willingly and freely. When R is around, K does not seem to need as much personal attention from me, and I know K has really wanted a friend.

I am just so happy to see my two youngest finally find eachother.

My Letter of Intent, 2008

M will be 6 this summer and starting first grade. So I finally wrote my first letter of intent. Having a loose homeschooling style made it hard to document our curriculum, but I finally figured out what I wanted to use and how I wanted to present it.

Here is what I wrote for our list of materials:

Curriculum & Core Materials

Language Arts
Reading
We love to read and visit the library on a weekly basis, restocking our supply of books and reading material on a regular basis. Along with library visits, we will use the following reading resources:
* Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann

Spelling, Writing, & Vocabulary
We will assign frequent writing assignments to build handwriting and spelling skills. These following books will supplement these assignments:
* A Reason for Spelling: Student Workbook Level A by Rebecca Burton
* Wordly Wise 3000: Book A by Kenneth Hodkinson and Sandra Adams
* A child’s dictionary

Social Studies
Geography
We have a United States map puzzle, and we also have a world map on the wall and will continue to study the cultures of different countries. Along with learning about these cultures, we will use these resources:
* National Geographic Our World: A Child's First Picture Atlas published by National Geographic Society
* The Kingfisher First Picture Atlas published by Editors of Kingfisher

History
We will cover history using the following curriculum:
* History for Little Pilgrims by Michael McHugh

Mathematics
We take a hands-on approach with mathematics, building the understanding of the abstract concepts before applying it to paper. Therefore, we have many learning activities, projects, and games before we do the lessons in the workbooks.
* Math Basics Grade 1 published by I Know It! Books
* Time & Money Grades 1 - 2 published by I Know It! Books
* Count on Math: Activities for Small Hands and Lively Minds by Pam Schiller and Lynne Peterson (Chapters 10, 11, and 12)
* Reader Rabbit 1st Grade Version 1.0 computer program

Science
We take a hands-on approach to science as well, using science experiments along with science handouts and supplemental material from the library. The curriculum from which we work contains 24 different lessons, and we use these lessons as “springboards” to go deeper into the topic.
* Janice VanCleave's Teaching the Fun of Science to Young Learners: Grades Pre-K through 2 by Janice VanCleave
* Janice VanCleave's Big Book of Play and Find Out Science Projects by Janice VanCleave
* The Best of The Mailbox Science First Grade
* Supplemental Library Material

Health & Safety
We discuss safety and fire prevention as part of our family rules and parental discipline. We will continue to enforce the following concepts that Makani already understands:
* why she should wear her seatbelt when she is in the car
* why she should wear a helmet when she rides her bike
* why she should not put a plastic bag over her head
* why she should not put a rope around her neck
* why she should not play with matches or a lighter

We will continue to educate her on these safety issues by teaching her what to do in case of a fire or a tornado.

Physical Education
Currently, we encourage dancing, running, bike riding, and other physical activity. We will continue to encourage this kind of creative play and will also enroll Makani in YMCA classes for swimming and gymnastic lessons.

Fine Arts
We enjoy both music and art within our home. We will continue to explore fine arts education with the following creative resources:
* Garage Band by Apple (music computer program)
* Finale Songwriter 2007 by eMedia (music computer program)
* Music Lessons (piano)
* Classical Music (Mozart, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Beethoven)
* ArtRage 2.5 (art computer program)
* Art mediums including paint, crayons, markers, chalk, and colored pencils
* Craft projects including sewing, building with wood, making puppets, etc.