YouTube Math

Some of our favorite math YouTubes.

The picklets learned the Greek Alphabet in 10 minutes with this video. They recited the alphabet to everyone they saw after learning it.


Learning Pi--we celebrated Pi Day last year. The picklet could recite quite a few digits of Pi after that day.



This is exactly how the picklets learned their Roman Numerals. When I went to see Heywood Banks in concert I told him. He patted me on the back and said, "I am truly sorry for your children." That was NOT a reference to homeschooling but to the fact that I exposed the children to him. It was quite funny.


Inches, Feet, Miles--Once again something educational from Heywood.


Seasons of Love--Love this song. Everyone needs to know how many minutes there are in a year.


Archimedes--This is a very well put together song and you learn quite a bit.


Say That Funky Number, Math Guy. Al G Bra is HILARIOUS! He gets into his math and it makes us laugh and laugh!


Mathonna The Mathematical Girl--another one from Al G Bra. If you like Madonna, you will like this.


The Rappin' Mathametitian: The Number Line Dance teaches all about the number line.


The Rappin' Mathemetitian So Many Lines...talks about different lines. It is great!

Learning to Fly, part 2

After completing the Learning to Fly study and lapbook, being the homeschool mom that I am, I looked online to find something else to further our study. I found a really neat airplane experiment on Kids DO Science. The unit went over methods of science, saftey, vocabulary words, animal facts and thinking skills. It also included worksheets and follow up questions in which I re-wrote because they were geared toward a classroom setting.

I printed off the instructions and the picklets were let loose to make 6 paper airplanes in various weights of paper.

These airplanes are named after animals found at the Upper Three Runs Creek, near the school where this lesson came from. Dragonfly, grasshopper, big brown bat and bald eagle are a few.

After the construction, came the fun part. Luckily, we were at the gym the morning of the experiment and had plenty of room for the flying.

It is a must because a lot of throwing, testing and measuring were in store.
They learned that scientists use centimeters when they measure because it is easier to do the math, so the picklets measured in centimeters.

At the end of testing the distance these airplanes flew the picklets filled out some questions, averaged out the distance and made some bar graphs.

Then they re-tested after changing the variables. They added weight with paperclips, added additional folds, turned a fan on...all kinds of different things. They also recorded the distance on each of these.

In all, this experiment is probably their favorite of all time. When else do they get permission to spend three hours throwing paper airplanes? Of course, I know they learned quite a bit in the process of it all. :)


(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
All Rights Reserved

Mindsprinting

On the Mindstprinting website.

Dear MINDsprinting Users:

These are very difficult times for all: school budgets have been cut and other forms of tutoring have become unaffordable. And we have been very encouraged by the many schools and families actively using our FREE programs. However, the FREE site is so new that we haven’t had enough time to grow to the size necessary to be self-sufficient. In other words, the recent economic turmoil has negatively impacted us too, such that unless we are able to immediately (i) obtain major sponsors, (ii) obtain other funding, or (iii) greatly increase the number of enrollees, we will soon be forced to shut down.
We are doing everything we can on our end and we appeal to you today for your help. If every parent and teacher: tells their friends, families, and co-workers about the site and urges them to enroll; emails/writes companies in their area who might be willing to become a sponsor; or contacts their local newspaper and television stations urging them to do a story; perhaps together we can save MINDsprinting and its wonderful FREE programs from disappearing. All of us continue to hear people say they want to do something to improve education. Well hopefully we can get those same people to help us save FREE tutoring!

I need your help my fellow homeschoolies. I really want (read NEED) Mindsprinting to stay on the net AND stay free. Check out number three up there. If they can greatly increase the number of enrollies things would be better. Could you please check it out and pass on the website to others you know who might be able to use it? This is really working with the picklets. They all love it! Thanks! Gerky

Math for Girls

While at the library I checked out The Math Book for Girls and Other Beings Who Count by Valerie Wyatt. Yesterday Sweet and I started working from it. The book is very cute and very hands on.

The first project was Giant Feet. Sweet drew her foot and measured the dimensions.
She then had to multiply the dimensions by 5 to reveal how big a giants foot would be.
Easy and fun!

The second project was perfect proportions. She measured from fingertip to fingertip and compared that to her height. She measured the distance from her shoulder to elbow and compared that to the length of her foot and she held her elbow to her body to see if it lined up with her bellybutton.

It turns out that artists use math to draw perfectly proportioned characters. It also turns out that Sweet is pretty well proportioned according to what Nora (the fairy godmother from the book) taught her. I can't wait to see what the next lesson brings!


© 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Make Something Cool Project 4

Our forth project for Make Something Cool was to make this Murabaraba game and learn how to play it. Murabaraba is a game from Lesotho, Africa. It is said that shepards invented this game and played while watching their flocks. Good things come from learning to play this game. It is good for critical thinking and geometry skills.

Sweet glued popcicle sticks together to make the game board and put the dots in the right spots. For the game pieces she cut popcicle sticks into pieces and painted them Hawkeye colors. Though those went into the garbage and beans will be used the next time.

After the game was finished she and I learned to play it. If you want directions on how to make the game and how to play it you can find them here.

As a footnote I would like to say that she beat the pants off me at this game. Everytime I thought I had set her up it turned out that she actually set me up!

Discovering Pi

The picklets discovered pi by measuring the circumference and diameter of round items. We used this worksheet from Enchanted Learning, some string and rulers as well as our math skills to discover that a little over three diameters equals the circumference.

Measuring the zuccihni crab cakes proved to be a little more difficult but they got the job done!

Garden Pizza

This year the kids had the option to grow a pizza. Intrigued they listened intently and readily thought it was a great idea! I found plans that I liked at a couple of different places. You can find a PDF that includes a pizza sauce recipe here and a 4-H instructional here. But if you don't like either of these, just do a search and you should have no trouble finding instructions you like.

The kids decided on 6 slices of pizza. Tomato, green pepper, mixed pepper, parsley and basil. They measured out a 4 foot square at the end of garden A. They roped it off and then made a circle shape with stones.They found the middle and after practicing reading the sundial they made, started to measure out equal slices.The problem...they couldn't figure out how to get 6 equal slices.No matter what they did the slices were uneven or the wrong number. So, they decided to add extra onion and spinach to our pizza.I had to sit back and let them work this out on their own and it was killing me. But I love spinach on my pizza so all is well with the world.

After everything was planted the kids watered their creation and are waiting patiently for the day they get to use the ingredients to make homemade pizza!

©2008 The Homefront Lines

Pokemon Learning League

This is reposted from my former blog. Some of the links may not work.

In a previous post I debated the pros and cons of buying into the Pokemon Learning League membership offered by Homeschool Buyers Coop. This was a very tough decision for me as 1) I have threatened to ban Pokemon from the house and 2) the price was out of our one income "league". I don't have anything personally against Pokemon but if I hear the kids talk in Pokemon voices one more time I just might puke and that is no joke. In the end I indulged the Picklets and thanks to the Coop saved over 50%!

I can tell you right now buying that has been one of the most successful investments of our homeschooling career. Having the picklets beg to do school work has been a blessing. I have heard such phrases as: "Can I play Pokemon Learning League?" "Mommy! It is MY turn to learn and he is STILL on the computer!" and "Guess what Ash told me today?" Aren't those the words all teachers/homeschooling moms want to hear, minus the whining? I am in pickle heaven.

The Learning League offers lessons in Science, Math, Life Skills and Language Arts. The lessons range between grade levels 2-8, roughly. In each of these lessons Ash and his buddies teach a subject in fun and Pokemonical (I made up that word) ways. After watching a short video the kids then apply the knowledge they have acquired to answer the questions and (hopefully) to everyday life.

I could write about a lesson and let you read it BUT why don't you click on over to PokemonLearningLeague and try one out yourself? That would be much more productive than reading step by step instructions by a rambling homeschool mom who has had too much caffeine today.

While checking out the site you will find immediate positive reinforcement for correct answers. Gentle reminders are given for incorrect answers including the chance to try again. This really helps with the kids self esteem and let's face it, being told by Ash that your answer is wrong is MUCH better than being told by mom.

One of the neatest features, I think, is that I can go into administrator mode and get a report on each of the picklets that shows what lessons they have done, their score and percentages. I can then print said report out for their portfolio. A parent/teacher can assign certain topics and due dates for up to three students with each membership. A teachers guide and student worksheet is also available for download on each lesson if the teacher would like the added reinforcement. State Standards are available (for every state but Iowa...:-P) and are available through state, grade and category searches. The only problem I seem to be having is logging out of one account to sign into another. About 4 out of 10 times we can't sign out without rebooting the computer. That is a big hassle when we are in a time crunch.

I whole heartedly recommend this for any Pokemon fan out there. For my "Pokemon Pirate Spy", as I like to refer to Dill, it was THE answer to allow Pokemon everyday of the week for him and peace of mind for me! I am gonna stop patting myself on the back now by ending with, "Yeah me!" LOL