Montessori Materials

Are you doing Montessori activities?  Here is a guide to basic Montessori materials for home-schoolers.   Do you want to make your own materials? Here are a host of materials to print and use.  Here is a list of materials for preschool.  Montessori At Home has loads of ideas.  Use Craft Supplies for math counters or color matching.  Homeschool Fridays has seasonal materials to gather and make.  Montessori for Babies has even more DIY to try.  This post has great ideas about finding low cost Montessori materials.

Wikipedia

 I taught in both public and private schools. English teachers do not like Wikipedia.  You may not be aware that English teachers do not want students to cite Wikipedia. Ever.  Get your teen in the habit of citing other websites—even when Wikipedia is accurate, which is often is.  Many English teachers, especially in college, will mark down papers citing Wikipedia.

Animal Cams

 I just wrote a post about Animal Cams.  It occurred to me the topic of Monkey Selfies and Copyright would make an interesting topic for a composition.  Here is an article, Who Owns the Monkey Selfies?  Isn’t this an interesting question?  Give it a whirl.  See if you can get your teen to write a paper.

Dry Erase Board

 Have you been making do with Dry Erase Contact Paper?  The dry erase markers can leave traces or shadows after awhile.  We set up 3x4 ft dry erase or whiteboards in our basement for Co-op classes. Now is the time to shop Black Friday deals.  The price to beat on a large whiteboard is $50.  In the mean time, try using a Mr. Clean dry eraser on your existing white board.

Teach with Clay

My science classes make clay models.  (Below is Paul, ten, making an animal cell model with clay.). First, here are some recipes.  Here is a stop motion animated clay water cycle.  You can make Molecules from clay.  Clay isn’t limited to  Science.  Try Map Elevations with clay. USGS has Play Dough Topo—topography.  Let your child make any clay animal. Now instead of writing about how to make a PPJ sandwich, explain how to make a clay Pokémon figure or a panda.  Have your child make up several creatures for her own stop action animation.  Here is an article about making storyboards.  Any type of writing is Composition.  Here are even more ideas for Play-doh for School projects.  BTW, experimenting with different play dough recipes is science.  Take loads of photos while you work.  No one said School has to be dull.

What resources are available at your library?

 Does your local library offer home-school resources?  My home is near Quantico; the local library system has a number of resources.  The local library system hosts home-school classes, too.  Right now, the library has expanded its resources with Learn at Home.  Many libraries have ramped up access to online classes, ebooks, and reference materials, such as academic articles. Here  is the Old Bridge NJ website, the Kanawha County Public Library in Charleston WV, Saginaw Michigan Library, and York County Library, in Rock Hill, SC.  Take a look at their offerings.  Ask your local library if they can assess The Great Courses or Universal Class.  Is there a dedicated section for home-school families?  Is there a Maker Space?  What digital resources can the library access?  With so many families home-schooling, now is the time to see what your library has and can offer.  My husband just picked up a book curbside at our library; there was a flyer.  Take a look.

Great Courses

 Good Will has a nice lot of Great Courses DVDs.  Warning!  These are dry.  Used DVDs are a good way to review the material.

Prescriptive Instruction

 What is prescriptive instruction?  Our little household uses this technique all the time.  Here’s an example.  Paul, ten, asks to differentiate mean, median, or mode.  He confuses radius and diameter or quotient and product,  Paul might miss a math problem.  These situations call for more instruction.  When your child confuses a math concept or adjectives and adverbs, stop and assess.  First, have your child write down terms, definitions, and examples.  Locate practice sets or sentences to diagram.  You are acting as the education doctor and prescribing more work to address and correct a problem.  This approach is key to math success.  Anytime there is confusion, stop, clarify, do a bit of practice before you move on.

Let’s Make Art for Christmas presents!

Update: Amazon has a deal for Faber Castell Museum series for $4.90.  

Our little household make art for Christmas presents.  Paul, ten, is not an enthusiastic artist.  We started last summer.  Paul like to take photos and odd filters.  Some are below.  We put prints on canvas board.  Here is a DIY with instructions.  Paul is doing a number of color by number projects: Colorful Cat, and Colorful Dog— Dean Russo Art. I bought this Marvel Paint by Number kit.  Paul colored it with sharpies instead of paint.  Faber Castell has a good selection of color or paint by number sets.  I especially like the Museum series, with Water Lilies.  Want ideas for art projects?  Start with Dick Blick lessons—which is where I buy canvas panels.  

Used Textbook at Good Will online

 Good Will has a listing for Saxon Math 8/7 kit—a great price!  Good Will has elementary level occasionally, such as this Bible kit.  Check prices on eBay and Amazon.  Try Facebook Marketplace, too.  If you use Apologia curriculum, there is a group on Facebook which lists textbooks all the time.  Good Will stores sell books and textbooks on Amazon, too.  Plan next year’s course schedule and start shopping for deals now.  Below is an example of textbooks on Facebook’s Apologia Group.

Roots on TI 83

 The video demonstrates how to calculate roots; the example is the fourth root of 625.

TI 83 Check Factors of Polynomials

 Yet another video.  This one explains how to graph polynomials to see if the factors are correct.

Augmented Matrices

 Here is a video explaining how to multiply augmented matrices.

How to multiply matrices with TI 83

 Here is a short video explaining how to enter matrices and multiply them with a TI 83 calculator.

Graphing Calculator

 More and more, kids need a graphing calculator for Math.  Try Good Will online.  I recommend bidding on TI 84 or TI 83 graphing calculators.  Be sure the calculator powers on.  The stores on Good Will usually have pictures with the calculator powered on.  Avoid listings that are untested.  Check the shipping cost.  If your total cost for a TI 84 calculator is less than $40, you have a bargain.  Don’t pay more than $25 for a TI 83.  I have bid on eBay, with very little luck.  I bought another used TI 84 on Amazon, which was a terrible deal.  The calculator was gritty.  It did power on; I’m using it as a digital thermometer.  I have had the best luck at Good Will.  Happy Hunting!

Coding

 Our little household has computer as part of the curriculum, especially over the summer.  What do we use?  Paul is ten; his daddy is a software engineer.  Paul started with COJI and MIT Scratch in first grade.  We used Code Your Own Games.  Initially, I sat beside Paul to work through the instructions.  Those days are long gone.  Paul’s daddy set up a STEAM for Paul.  He is learning to program with 7 Billion Humans and Autonauts. Paul uses Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, too.  Typing lessons increase his speed programming.  One of the best programming toys is LEGO Boost.  It is expensive.  Good Will online lists LEGO Boost for much less than $159.  LEGO Boost has five different projects.  Once you complete the robot or guitar the child programs.  Paul liked the Robot and guitar.  We are finishing the auto builder toy right now.  The kitty and excavator just didn’t do much.  Our little household works together on each build because finding tiny Legos is frustrating.  Programming it is all Paul.  Want to try programming?  Start with MIT Scratch.  If your library is open, check out coding books for kids.  Check out your library’s digital collection.  Our local library online has Star Wars Coding Projects available.  Kindle Unlimited also has several Scratch coding books to try.  Below are pix of our latest LEGO Boost project.  It’s about 50%complete.