We love pizza around here…

August 5, 2006

We love pizza around here, which besides tasting good, provides the perfect, hands-on way to learn fractions. And we try to do a few recipes whenever we can. From measuring 1/4 cup of something, to cutting a pie, granola bar or piece of fruit into various equal shapes, I can see how it really instills a love of learning and real life examples in even the youngest child. "Mom, two eighths equal a quarter piece, don't they?" my four year old daughter asked me yesterday. We had not covered that, but her little mind was putting all this fun cutting stuff together.

So often homeschoolers of our generation think everything needs to be in a textbook in order to be taught, and I think a lot of people inadvertently make arithmetic seem like a boring chore to their children. Why have them fill out pages of answers about coins drawn on the page when you can get out a big loose change jar and teach them from real life? Kids love to feel the coins in their hands. And why not start a family fun night if you don’t already do one, where you all play a board game together (little ones can always be on a parent’s team) and count out the moves you make? Building simple furniture, etc. is also a great way to learn measurement. Many veteran homeschoolers used these ideas to instill a love of math in their children, and popular with them was a short little book called An Easy Start in Arithmetic by Ruth Beechick; her ideas show people how they can either supplement a textbook with hands-on learning or actually teach the elementary grades without a textbook. We have this book available in the CH library at the meeting or available for purchase.

For those in Southern California: This Saturday, as a buyer or seller, you child can learn about prices, making change, etc. Join us at the Kids’ Entrepreneur Day and Flea Market in Fountain Valley. We have done good publicity, but please let your friends and family members know; go to www.ochome.org.

Written by Considering Homeschooling · Filed Under Reading News

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