During a search on Pinterest I stumbled on some interesting Math Art pins and it led me on a searching bunny trail. I created a Math Art Pinterest Board and gathered all the interesting things I kept finding.
My twins are learning their multiplication facts and one of them was really having trouble grasping the concept. I was so excited when I found the Array City pins (there were several different varieties) and I decided to try it.
First I tried it with each twin (separately) on paper. Here is an example.
Then Hosanna and I tried it in Adobe Illustrator. (She loves my Ai software and will use any excuse to use it). In Ai it looked something like this and she had to learn some new skills – how to make a rectangle, copy & paste, align, etc. I love this project because it was using art and technology to learn math. And she got it (mostly because it had the art and tech in it, I think).
Have a look at my Math Art Board on Pinterest and you might just find something fun to help your kids grasp a concept or learn something fun.
How do you run a home business and home school? Finding a balance between work and school is the goal for any homeschool family, but especially for homeschool families that also run home businesses. It is wonderful to be able to have a flexible schedule, but also important to be able to set realistic boundaries (ones that honestly, not everyone will respect or even understand). Do you run a home business and home school? How do you make it work?
Home Business and Home School – Making It Work
Our family has been building Honeycomb Design Studio for the last few years and we have developed a significant client base (over a 100 clients that we love) but we have also had to adapt as we have grown. We are only two people (Jonah and Honey) and we can only do so much in one twenty-four hour period (and I have finally hired two Virtual Assistants).
While it is very important to be adaptable and flexible, it is also important to know where to place firm boundaries. We are working hard to establish some boundaries with our clients and prepare for another level of growth in our business. Most, if not all, of our clients have been extremely respectful of these boundaries simply because they are homeschool mamas themselves trying to set their own boundaries.
Sometimes there are circumstances that require a moving or bending of the rigidness of those boundaries due to time constraints or other unknown variables and we need to be able to adapt to. For our family, that has often meant starting school later, rearranging our school days, doing school on the weekend, or creating a lighter work day.
We don’t like this adaptation to be the norm for us and we are working even harder to keep Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday completely free from direct one-to-one client work. We often don’t even turn on email or Skype until school is completely finished.
So, why am I writing all of this? Well, today was one of those adaptation days. We had to schedule an urgent client meeting before school even started. We could have chosen to cancel school for the day (since my sister and her kids are coming to play this afternoon), but instead, we chose to continue on and just get as much done as possible.
It is a relief to know that the schedule is set. We just need to go through the Family Workboxes (aka our buckets) and do a little bit in each subject and we will get through the day and when the timer goes off signalling the end of our day, it is what it is.
Bible
During our Bible time today we read and discussed John 3:16.
Download a PDF of the memory verse poster here – – >View on Store
Math
We went to Khan Academy again today to watch our math video.
Yes, you read that right, we are organizing our homeschool again. We have tried so many different ways of organizing our homeschool, almost as many ways as we have tried to arrange our living room (yeah, that’s a high number). The system we have hit on now is actually working. And get this, it is very easy to use.
I mentioned the other day that we are doing a variation of workboxes – Family Workboxes. Right now we have 6 large buckets and they are labelled as follows: Bible, Math, English, Science, Social Studies, and French. We alternate weeks for Science and Social Studies, and the French bucket also contains PE materials. We hope to start adding in both of those subjects as soon as we are comfortable with our new routine.
In each bucket is everything that we need to tackle that subject for the duration of this term. The buckets include items like: textbooks, workbooks, worksheets, notes (about where to find things online or which books to print from on my hard-drive), games, DVD’s, CD’s, folders full of work to be done and work already done, and any tools needed to do the job.
It has been amazing to open the bucket and just get to work without having to look for everything before we can get started. This has simplified my life. Seriously, you really have no idea how this has simplified my life. The kids are not allowed to touch the buckets – except for school – and before, things had a habit of disappearing. Now everything is where I leave it and as I expect it to be when we start school. This is such a blessing.
I can see future benefits too. I can print things and slip them into the buckets to weave into current or future lessons. I can gather games or experiment bits and pieces to put in the buckets to help us learn in a more hands on way.
I would love to hear how you organize your homeschool. Please leave a note in the comments.
Bible
During our Bible time today we read and discussed Proverbs 20:11.
Download a pdf of the memory verse poster here – – >View on Store
Math
We went to Khan Academy again today to watch our math video.
In No Boring Practice, Please! Spelling we are “still” working on syllables. Just like yesterday we will be doing word building games instead of doing written crosswords. I wrote the syllables of the words on cards and gave them clues so they could build the words. (I did take pictures, but they turned out all blurry so I am not including them here).
We read the information page on syllables from Natural Speller by Kathryn Stout.
We deviated from our Comic-Strip Grammar for the day and I created a simple worksheet on pronouns based on one found in Grammar a Step-by-Step Approach. I had to print it on pink paper and the boys were not too impressed with that.
Science
Today we did our first reading from our new science book : Machines & Motion.
After conducting some experiments with a bouncy ball, we ventured on to YouTube to have a look at some videos related to things that came up during our discussion:
Throwing A Baseball
Gravity Hill
A Few Questions For You
What are you currently studying in science?
How do you measure progress and understanding?
What is one thing you would change about your homeschool this year?
