Math Problems

Well, we've hit our first major snag. Our 3rd grader has been having trouble with the Horizons math. It has something to do with the approach because she excelled at Math last year at public school. I let her do some Teaching Textbook samples and she loved it. The only problem is that they don't have the 3rd grade version released yet. She "passed" the 4th grade placement test but I'm hesitant to buy it and have a similar issue with her. Right now I am having her study her multiplication facts and if the 3rd grade version isn't out when we are done, then we'll take our chances on the fourth grade. I wonder if Sonlight gets them as soon as they have them on the Teaching Textbooks website?

I found a couple of free multiplication games online: multiplication.com
Coolmath4Kids (looks like you can print flash cards here as well)

I'm sure there are more but those are just a couple I came across quickly using ye 'ol search engine.

Notebooking the 50 States

I decided to included a study of the US states to supplement the girls' American History unit. I mean they just go together, right? I began searching the web and came across a fantastic lens in Squidoo. Jimmie has really written a a wonderful resource. Check out all her lenes if you want to learn about notebooking or lapbook. Most of my links are from her lens. A few of my favorite links for this study include:

1. 50 States Notebooking Lens by Jimmie - Lots of info, freebies, printables, pics. Also instructions for a salt dough map.


2. Notebook Nooks State Study pages on Currclick - Individual pages for each state. These cost around $20 depending on if there is a sale running or not.


3. Our 50 States Email Newsletter - Sign up to get a weekly newsletter about 2 states. Easy way to organize and lots of info and printables. Sent by date of admittance into the union.


4. Printables for each state. Includes map, puzzles, coloring pages. The state bird and flower pages are really beautiful.


5. State information - Great, easy to find info from Enchanted Learning.


6. Crayola Coloring Pages - Cute pages include state bird, flower, and flag


7. Information on Native Americans by state.

I also joined a yahoo group to exchange postcards. This seems like a great group where kids exchange postcards from other states. I can't find postcards anywhere, though. Seriously, if Wal-Mart doesn't have it I just don't know where it is. Visitor's Bureau, perhaps? I really think this would be a fun thing for the kiddos. They could be writing letters and mailing as well as learning about the states. Now if I can only remember to find these while I'm out.

I figured for a 3rd grader it would be fine to simply color the pages from Crayola. She also likes to do a US map floor puzzle. Here she is working on her pages and showing off a couple of her favorites:

Rachel's work is a little tougher for a 6th grader. She does a few pages from Notebook Nooks notebooking pages. She has to find the state on a US map, find a few facts about the state, and color the state bird and flower. Plus, I've included a Native American study. Using this website she prints out the state map of Native American tribes to include on a notebook page. Then she picks one tribe from that state and writes a couple of paragraphs about them. She is also collecting state quarters.

When we are finished I think we will have a cute notebook filled with great information.