Math Notebooking and Variety

One of the benefits of homeschooling is the ability to structure the lessons for your child.  This year, notebooking has become a favorite tool of mine.  It's become such a great way to encourage art work, writing skills, and original thought.  I've incorporated notebooking assignments into reading, science, history, and even math.

My older two are doing math on the computer with Teaching Textbooks, and it is working out wonderfully.  However, my second grader was struggling right from the beginning of the school year.  

Math is not the subject that my younger children just naturally "get".  I learned a lot of lessons about math struggles with Laura.  I used several different curricula, reviewed concepts over and over, and often our lessons ended up with tears.  I finally learned to back off, keep reviewing what she did know, and reintroduce tougher concepts later.  Often just waiting a bit helped Laura.  Her brain matured, and suddenly she "got" it, the elusive concepts that just weeks earlier brought tears and frustration. 

Once I quit worrying about Laura being at a certain level, her growth was natural, with steady, slow maintaining and some spurts where she would jump quickly when ready. 

I decided to do the same thing with Megan.  The creation of the math notebook came about because I needed a place to centralize her work.  Using a "bit of this and a bit of that" can feel unorganized and overwhelming. Megan despises workbooks, but by adding a few here or there in her notebook, she actually enjoys them.  

We use a variety of materials so that her learning is varied.  I always find it interesting that we will use spelling, copywork, phonics, and a variety of readers to teach reading concepts; but think one program to teach math... One method... will be enough.  For some children, that is true.  But for others, coming at concepts from a few different ways works better. 

And... This isn't expensive (or more expensive than other programs).  I am using bits of Easy Peasy.  The videos and games are amazing for kids that learn well with visual stimuli. I don't do every thing ever day, but I add enough that it reinforces her learning.  

Last year I purchased a workbook program that contains a lot of drill and kill. Well... It was killing my daughter.  In her notebook, I now just glue a worksheet page here or there that reinforces the other work.   We also do flash cards daily.  I split up the cards by fact families, reviewing older ones that she knows well only once per week, working on newer ones or tough ones daily until she knows them well. 

Often I will look for games or activities that I can add to her math lessons that enable greater understanding. Hands-on, visual kids grasp concepts more quickly when it is more than just numbers on a page. 

Probably the greatest find has been Life of Fred. Megan LOVES her Life of Fred.  Everyday we go on a math adventure with Fred.  Her questions and answers for the "Your Turn to Play" section at the end of each chapter go into the notebook.  

Right now, this is working for us wonderfully.  Megan is learning and can be creative with her learning.  With the variety of methods, she doesn't get bored or frustrated.  In fact, she usually looks forward to math now. 

I am amazed that notebooking and math go together so wonderfully.  But, each day that I plan, I'm looking for variety in learning.  Our math time is not stressful as we do little flash card work with a computer game, maybe a skip counting video followed by a worksheet on skip counting, finishing up with a Life of Fred story and five or six questions.