Science & Math

We have more life! Juan's cilantro suddenly started sprouting! Because it is growing in a dome, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to review water cycles again.

 Excuse my lack of artistic abilities. The kids understood and enjoyed the lesson.

 I printed this out to hang on our refrigerator. 

 My plant is continuing to grow.

 Unfortunately there is no change on the kids' plants.


We started a new math program for Jayden.  He enjoys math very much. He is constantly thinking about numbers. He is adding, subtracting, and even multiplying them all day long. Whenever he learned a new concept we would build on it with lots of worksheets. He ended up dreading math time because he thought it was becoming boring. So instead of letting his passion for math die out, I decided we needed a new approach to math. Originally I was planning on using Math U See, but after receiving the book and reviewing it, it did not seem like a good fit for him.

I wanted to find a curriculum that explained the "how" behind the math. I also wanted a curriculum with a mastery approach so that as math gets harder, Jayden's foundation in math can help him through it. He is awesome at picking up new concepts and just going along with methods, but I want him to have a more in depth understanding of what his answers really mean. I didn't want anything with an overwhelming amount of math problems per page because Jayden doesn't like to do a page of work that has too much work on it. I also needed something that would fill in any gaps that he has in math. My final criteria was that it needed to fit the common core standards. I know that these standards are controversial (and after much research I believe it is with good reason) but we will be using them as a guide to make sure the kids are on track. After a lot of searching, Math in Focus seemed to be a perfect fit!.

MIF is broken up in half with 2A being for the first half of the year and 2B for the second part. The pages are colorful enough to not be boring, but have plenty of empty spaces so that it is not overwhelming. There are visual representations for most of the problems, which explains the concept of the lesson.

I gave Jayden the assessment test and he scored into the 2B book! I decided to still purchase 2A so that we could review earlier concepts that he learned, but this time go more in depth. I am sure that if we are focused, Jayden will be able to complete 2nd grade math in a few months.

 Some of what book 2A covers:

• addition and subtraction of numbers up to 1,000
• how to write out numbers in word form, standard form, and expanded form
• multiplication
• division
• metric measurement

The best part is that he LOVES it. He is excited about math and always wants to start with it!

Caitlin still loves Time4Learning. Our membership there ends in June and we are contemplating whether or not we want to resubscribe. While she loves it, she also loves to sit down and work in her notebook or workbooks (when she is in the mood for school). She is still very young and is not due to enter kindergarten until September 2014. I am not sure what we will be working on during that time, but it may not be anything too structured since kindergarten is not mandatory. She is still learning to read and can read some basic words, knows her colors, numbers, alphabet, and is learning to add. I am pretty sure we will continue to just follow her lead since she is doing so fabulous.

Both kids are continuing their Spanish studies with Juan. He has taken his role quite seriously and even set up a notebook with his lesson plans. ;)