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By Mom Unplugged, May 12, 2010 5:34 pm

Do you have a reluctant math student? Unfortunately I have two of them.  My 7 and 9 year-old are stuck in that very tedious phase of math where everything seems to be all about drilling problems.  According to her recent parent-teacher conference, my 4 year-old on the other hand, currently spends much of her time in the “math environment” of her Montessori classroom.  As her proud Mom, I have of course already planned out her future career as an engineer!

The foundation of math can be pretty boring.  I remember that from my school days.  Fortunately I ended up loving math later, and even took it in college.

I keep thinking, if only there was some way to make it clear to them that math can actually be really cool later on, then perhaps they’d be willing to slog through this early stuff until the light bulb comes on for them as it did for me.

Fortunately I recently discovered the math stories by Theoni Pappas.  I bought Fractals, Googols, and Other Mathematical Tales (that’s some of the cool stuff!) and The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat (my kids love cats).

I have begun reading the fractals book out loud with my oldest daughter. We have read several chapters and she keeps wanting more!  Each short chapter has an easy and creative explanation of a different complex, mind-bending concept presented in story format.  Often there are related activities to do, or puzzles to solve.  At the end of the chapter is a highlighted box with more complete information about the concept, usually involving history or practical applications.

The Möbius strip was one of the real WOW chapters that we have read so far (see our photo above).

Will these books turn my children in to math-lovers?  Who knows, but they are fun!

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By Mom Unplugged, March 2, 2010 4:59 pm

Teachers and parents, are you looking for a fun and different math activity for your students or kids?  Then you’ll be happy to learn that tomorrow, March 3rd 2010, is World Math(s) Day!

Teachers can sign their classes up to participate in this online math contest with same-aged students (5-18 years) from around the globe for a chance to win prizes.  Individual students or homeschooling families can register too. This year for the first time there is even a category for teachers and parents who want to join in the fun.  Plus, it is all COMPLETELY FREE!

Here is how it works:

“Students play at home and at school against other students around the world in live games of mental arithmetic. Each game lasts for 60 seconds and students can play up to 500 games, earning points for each correct answer. The students who answer the most questions appear in the Hall of Fame. Students cannot select their level but will move up as they progress.”

(“About World Maths Day,” from the World Maths Day website)

So far there are over 2 million students from 37,000 schools in 200 countries registered for tomorrow’s event.   The goal is to beat last year’s world record of correctly answering 452,681,681 questions!

I had fun just browsing the lists of students and classes registered from an amazing array of locations.  It would make for a great geography lesson in addition to the math fun!

Head on over right now and register your students, children, and yourself!

LINKS:

World Maths Day 2010 Website

World Maths Day 2010 Official Blog

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By Mom Unplugged, September 30, 2009 6:55 pm

There it is.  The Enchanted Bookshelf.  It looks pretty ordinary, doesn’t it?  And believe me, it is not usually that tidy.   Despite its modest appearance, this humble bookshelf has been key in inspiring my 7 year-old son to read.

The bookcase is right next to his bed, within arm’s reach.  He doesn’t even have to get out of bed to pull a book off the shelf.  I keep it well-stocked with a varied supply of books of different degrees of difficulty.

Obviously I make sure that there are many books at his reading level.  I also throw in some that are more difficult in order to pique his interest and tempt him to challenge himself.  I add a few that are below his level for those days when he wants to breeze through an old favorite.  I’d rather have him read something a little easy on occasion, than read nothing at all.  On the bottom shelf I put a few big, heavy kids’ encyclopedias and books with lots of photographs that are fun and interesting to leaf through.

The shelf’s spell has brought my son’s reading level from barely Bob Books last fall to beyond the Magic Tree House Series (by Mary Pope Osborne) in just one year.  In fact he recently devoured Vacation Under the Volcano non-stop and proudly announced that he has now read all 28 books in the original Magic Treehouse Series.  For the last few nights, he has read The Children of Noisy Village (by Astrid Lindgren).  Now he appears to have moved on to Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, which is one of the more challenging temptations on the shelf.

If you want to give this a try, here are some tips:

• Shelf must be within arm’s reach of bed and preferably facing the bed so the titles are easily visible.

• Keep it well-stocked.

• Vary the reading level.  Most books should be at your child’s current level, plus some more difficult books, and some easier books.

• A basket of children’s magazines on the top is a nice touch and adds even more variety to the reading selections.

• Don’t let the shelf stagnate.  Keep restocking with new books as your child’s skills improve.

• If there is a TV in your child’s room, get rid of it so reading is the ONLY available activity in bed!  (Plus, the electromagnetic waves from the TV will suck all the magical energy out of the Enchanted Shelf.  :-)  )

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By Mom Unplugged, August 30, 2009 9:55 pm

The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project was geometric.

Inspired by this article from Family Fun we made geometric string patterns.  However, not being able to resist changing instructions, we did it a little bit differently.

The article uses painted wood panels and nails.  While this would certainly produce a sturdier and probably more striking result, I didn’t want to mess with sawing and painting, so I came up with a simpler alternative: foam board and straight pins.

You’ll need foam board, colored yarn, scissors, and pins.

Cut the foam board into a 12 inch square.  The edges were messy so I bound them with red duct tape which actually made a nice frame.

Trace around a dinner plate onto a piece of paper to get a perfect circle.  Cut out the circle.  This will be your pattern for placing the pins.

Fold the paper circle in half four times and unfold.  You should have 16 evenly spaced creases.  Lightly tape the circle to the center of the foam board.

Stick a pin in at the top of each crease touching the edge of the circle.  The pins will be sticking out pretty far, but that will give you lots of room to wrap the yarn. (NOTE:  We experimented with cutting the pins in half to make them shorter, but they kept falling out and didn’t leave enough room for multiple strands of yarn.)

Remove your paper pattern and choose your yarn.

Tie the end of the yarn onto the top pin (the “12 o’clock pin”, let’s call it number 1).  Create a repeating pattern and wrap your yarn.  For example, moving clockwise, skip two pins and wrap around number 4, then go back to the next pin over from the “12 o’clock pin” (number 2) and wrap, moving clockwise, skip two more pins and wrap, etc.  This pattern would be: 1, 4, 2, 5, 3, 6, 4, 7, etc. (NOTE: Pattern in the photo below is different, don’t get confused!)

Work all the way around the circle.  When you are finished you should have a nice design.  Cut the yarn and tie the end onto the last pin (should be the 12 o’clock pin).

Tie a new color onto the 12 o’clock pin and proceed with a different pattern.  Any pattern at all is fine as long as it repeats itself all the way around the circle of pins.  We found that three different patterns were all the pins would hold comfortably.

The article suggests putting a dab of glue on the knots.  We didn’t bother, but probably would have if we had gone all out and done the wood and nails method.

My 9 year-old daughter loved this so much that she made two other little ones in the corners of her board:

My 3 and a half year-old enjoyed it too.  I gave her a small piece of foam board, stuck pins in for her, and told her to do whatever she wanted.

This was the result:

She was very proud and couldn’t wait for me to take a photo!

USEFUL TIP: Remove all cats from the room. Much to everyone’s aggravation, Pita The Adventure Cat enjoyed this project tremendously:

OTHER IDEAS:  You don’t have to use a circle.  Try triangles, squares or rectangles.  Try different numbers of pins.  If you really want to get fancy, you can even make these in three dimensions!

LINKS:

• This is a fun project for math teachers to use with their classes to teach points, lines, segments, circles, and tangents.

• Math Cats-String Art – Patterns and ideas

• Who Invented String Art? – History of string art

• Bézier Curve – “String art takes into account the mathematical ability to create a curve from set points using a series of straight lines. When straight lines are put through at least two points in a pattern, Bezier curves emerge, giving the illusion of rounded shapes, when in fact no curved lines are used.” If you are really into math (or computer animation), Google “Bézier Curve” for lots of technical information on this string art-related topic!

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As always, if you did a geometric Unplugged Project, then please leave the link to your actual post below.  If you didn’t do a geometric project, then please do not link.  You can read more about how to join in here.  We’d love to have more participants!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be:

Ocean

Have fun and please join us!

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By Mom Unplugged, July 3, 2009 1:40 pm

Most parents would agree that dinner preparation is the toughest time of the day. We are worn out and the kids are tired and crabby.  The easiest solution for a hard earned bit of peace is to plunk them down in front of the TV or a video in order to cook without “help” or having to play umpire.

On really bad days, I sometimes find myself too easily wanting to resort to the distraction of a video, especially with my 3 year-old who of course wants to “help” with everything, including dinner. So whenever I come across a new trick to happily and easily occupy her, I am eager to share it with others!

Several years ago I picked up some colored plastic threading and counting frogs at a yard sale. I have used them for everything from math homework to French lessons, but I just discovered a new game that my 3 year old loves: “Find the Frog!”  This is proof that we don’t need something complicated or expensive (or electronic) to entertain and teach a child.

Our frog friends come in three sizes and six colors. I simply tell my 3 year-old what to thread, for example, “medium blue,” and she does it with joy! Sometimes I get fancy and say “three large orange,” or “one small red and two medium green.”

This is so simple that most of you are probably saying “Umm … what’s so special about this?” But since it never occurred to me that this game could entrance my daughter for an hour at a time, it might not have occurred to a few of you either.

Plus, consider these benefits:

• I can work in the kitchen while playing this game with her (or be lazy and sit on the sofa and read a magazine).
• The game teaches colors, numbers, and sizes.
• Children practice remembering and following increasingly complicated instructions.
• The threading is an excellent exercise of fine motor skills.
• You could play this with almost anything that threads:  beads, thread spools, colored pasta, or buttons for example.  (Great for creatively repurposing household items!)
• Variation for non-threadable items:  have your child place certain items in an egg carton, container, or selection of dishware.  For example:  “Two blue buttons in the glass” or “One large seashell in the red bowl.”
• Make this an activity for your “Mommy I’m Bored Box!”

For more easy ideas, please read these posts about other very simple toddler pastimes that have worked for me:

• Beans – The Perfect Toy?

• How to get by Without the Electronic Babysitting Box

• Great Resource for Keeping Young Toddlers Busy!

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