Proud teaching day - B has my Math mind!

I love Math; it was my favorite subject in school.  But it can be a complicated subject.  The phrase, "It's all Greek to me!" is a perfect description of Math for some people.  In my opinion, the single most important factor in a student understanding Math is the teacher.  I was fortunate enough to be taught by some spectacular Math lovers who wanted all their students to understand  and be successful at Math.  The best ones I learned under didn't use the textbooks to teach us how to do problems; they taught us their own way on the board.  And if a student didn't understand that method, the teacher would pull out a different method and see if the student clicked with that one.  No one was left behind or out of the loop.  I was so inspired by these caring, excited teachers that I wanted to teach Math, too.  (Why I didn't is a whole other story….)

We love, love, love our Math curriculum, Life of Fred.  It's literature-based, meaning B learns about a subject through a story.  Math is brought to him through the adventures of a 5 year old boy, Fred, who is a Math professor at Kittens University in Kansas.  This series answers the most asked question of Math students, When am I going to use this in real life?!  Although some of Fred's story actually takes place in the classroom where he teaches Math, most takes place outside of it, in "real life".  Math is needed and used at the bank, the grocery store, telling time, booking a vacation, paying admission to a museum, planting a garden, decorating a room, everywhere!  Life of Fred shows B over and over the importance of Math in "real life" and entertains him with a story.  He is learning and having fun.  The goal of this Math teacher.

I'm one of those people who don't like to "show my work" with Math if I can do it in my head; and I do a lot of Math in my head.  Over the last 4 years, I've given B examples of how I break big problems down into smaller steps that he can do, instead of being overwhelmed by a complicated Math problem.  B can easily add, subtract, multiply and divide with 5s, 10s and 100s and I've tried to show him to break things down into their 5s, 10s and 100s and multiply or divide something by 2 to help solve a problem.

For example, if Sam made $450/week how much does he make a year?  I can't do $450 x 52 weeks in my head, but I can do $450 x 100 weeks = $45,000 and $45,000 / 2 = $22, 500 earned for 50 weeks.  Now I only need to add 2 weeks of $450 to $22,500 to get my answer of $23,400.

Life of Fred - Homeschool Happens Everywhere

I'm grateful for all the wonderful ideas my friend Julie @ Creekside Learning has given me to homeschool B.  When she told me about the Life of Fred Math curriculum, it sounded like something that was right up B's alley and we gave it a try in the Fall of 2012.  B really loves his Fred!  He does not have to be told twice to work on Math and he does it independently.  :o)  A year and a half later and we're still happy with Fred.

B likes to settle into a niche, under a blanket or find a friend when he does Life of Fred and I posted several pictures of him on Instagram last year.  Julie suggested that I do a blog post, compiling all of these Life of Fred pictures and I knew she'd come up with another good idea.  Of course, then my muddled brain completely forgot about it.  Well, it's almost a year later and I just remembered, so I'm sitting down to post some of these pix before I forget again!

Life of Fred - Our Math Curriculum

This is where B does his Math.

We chose Life of Fred this year for B's Math curriculum.  What I love about Life of Fred is that it is independent study for B.  He reads a chapter or 2 by himself on the days we do Math and answers the questions at the end of each chapter.  Even though he is in 4th grade, we followed the suggestion of the creators and had B start from the 1st Life of Fred book to ensure he is building on all concepts.  My goal is for him to complete the 1st 10 books before we start 5th grade; he started the 3rd book, Cats, earlier this week.  

B loves reading about Fred's life and the adventures he and his doll, Kingie, have.  He's especially impressed with how well Kingie can draw.  ;o)  I enjoy hearing B laugh as he reads and several times, he's stopped to share with me something funny or amazing.

The other means of teaching Math the past 2 years (Math-U-See and workbooks) have not been successful with B, with the exception of flash cards.  At least he's interested in this form of Math lesson and I can't wait to see where he'll be in knowledge, understanding and application at the end of the year.  I'm very pleased so far by reviewing his answers at the end of each chapter.  :o)