Math month

October marked our first math block of the year.  As with the language arts block we did in September, it's been a bit of an adveture, just trying to determine where Dallin is, what he knows and doesn't know, etc.  Some days the lessons were easy peasy, and other days they were difficult, and either way I've had to adjust.  Even though I carefully watched his math homework every day last year once I was pretty sure we were going to homeschool, I still feel like I've been getting just as much of an education as Dallin has!  Then there's been the whole issue of just how different the Waldorf approach to math is.  Things are taught in a different order, and in different ways, so it's been fun to try and incorporate alot of the things he missed along the way and yet not be redundant with things he's already learned.  Anyway, we've done some things this month that he would have done in first grade if he'd been in a Waldorf school, and other things that he probably wouldn't have met until next year.

In Waldorf education, the idea of whole to parts is a foundational idea in the teaching of any subject--especially math.  Therefore, in math, all four processes are taught at once to first graders.  We take a number (the whole) and figure out all the ways we can break it down into it's parts.  Division actually seems to be the most logical step to teach first when you think of it this way!

As is typically done in many Waldorf schools, we used the trusty math gnomes to creatively introduce the four processes of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Now, obviously, Dallin is very familiar with the first two, and had just started to learn to multiply at the end of second grade last year.  But I still had him go back to the beginning in order to learn how all these processes related to one another and to the whole.  (Though of course with each one, we worked with problems that were at his level and not beneath him.)  And the way they are taught in Waldorf, the four processes each have a different character or temperament, which is another creative way of helping the child really grasp each one.

Here are the four math gnomes, each representing a different mathematical process, and each having a different personality, along with the great King Equals.  The math gnomes work to count the jewels that have been mined by the mining gnomes in King Equals' kingdom, and they use their respective processes to get the job done.  Even Dallin as an 8-year-old enjoyed the stories--and the story problems--that went along with each of these.   These lessons came from A Journey Through Waldorf Math by Melisa Nielsen.  On the righthand board are some division problems that we worked out using jewels (glass rocks) and then writing on the board.

We spent a good portion of the month focusing on multiplication.  We started memorizing the times tables back in September, and as of right now, he's memorized almost seven of the twelve.  We did some really fun activities with the times tables!  Below are the multipliation circles that are quite popular.  We hammered 10 nails around a circle on a piece of board.  (You can also do this with twelve nails, like a clock.)  We discovered that if you follow the times table (basically skip-counting), you can make a design with string.

The twos' table

The fours' table

The threes' table

We also made times table clocks to help him remember each table.

 I got lots of practice making chalkboard drawings this month:

This is a fun game from Marsha Johnson's files on the Waldorf Home Educator's yahoo group.  The hiker starts at the top of the mountaint and gets to move down as you subtract numbers (starting close to 100 and gradually getting lower and lower).

My drawing from a story in Melisa Nielsen's math book (it's basically an extended word problem where all kinds of math calculations are incorporated into the story).

And my drawing from another math story, this one covering several days.  As part of this story we learned about--and practiced--finding factors.

We also spent time working on a math main lesson book:

This is Dallin working on his page about Gnome Divide (can you see the cute little gnome I made on the table?)

And here is the final product: one page to draw the gnome and copy the verse, the other page to write down some representative problems.

One of Dallin's pages for the story, A New Land.

Another Main Lesson Book task the next while is copying each times table into the book along with its corresponding division table.

 We've played lots of games this month.  Along with Mountain of Minus, we've played a cool bean game featured at My Little Nature Nest (linked in my side bar).  This one was for working with addition, adding multiple numbers and using strategies to solve the problems.  We also made and played Mancala.  I've also tried to make sure he gets to do problems on the board almost every day, especially in addition and subtraction.  We're focusing a lot with those on being able to do it in his head, and working with larger numbers mentally.

Every day we bring a bit of daily language, where we've been doing tongue twisters, riddles, and memorizing/reciting poetry.

Painting, which Dallin swore at one time he would never want to do and would always hate, has also gone well.  Here we practiced making rainbows with a fun little story.