Murderous Maths

Murderous Maths are a wild and wooly ride into the problem solving world of mathematics. Written by a Brit (with his entertaining British wit), they help kids connect to math through a clever narrative as well as very do-able projects. My kids are enjoying them so much!

This morning we worked on dominoes and pentominoes. The pentominoes are just as their name suggests: five square figurines that can be put together in endless combinations. We tried to make the suggested rectangles and found it impossible to create our own, in spite of the fact that the 6 x 10 shape has more than 2000 possible arrangements. It was discouraging on one level (not succeeding indepently) but thrilling to be in the chase and working so hard on it. I plan to bring out our little pentominoes each week until someone succeeds. Perhaps repeated attempts will bring success.

The interesting thing about this project was the way it roused interest in every kid including Johannah and Noah. I'm discovering that learning through manipulatives and story really works for all our kids.

Caitrin and I read Anno's Magical Seeds and Anno's Counting Book. The first is a challenging multiplication story that Caitrin handled fairly well until almost the end when even I lost track of how to manage so many numbers. I liked that part of the story was about the magic of the life of the seed. I also really enjoyed thinking about the exponential growth of numbers (savings) when left to grow and multiply.

We also read Sinbad since this is one of her favorite stories of all time. This author (Ludmila Zeman) also illustrated the book. Her notes about her choices and preparation for the illustrations was as fascinating as the story itself. She immersed herself in Persian art, rugs and illuminated manuscripts. No short cuts to excellent work anywhere!

Caitrin read to me from Frog and Toad and then copied a section for copywork.

Liam is writing a postcard and two thank you notes. He's using ink. He still struggles with hand control but has greatly improved this year already. I love seeing him so much more ready and willing than last year. No struggle between us - only with the writing itself. And so far, he is looking much better at it.

Catirin copied a note she dictated to me to Shevawn and Mairin.

I hope I can do some more original writing this year with both of them.

Jacob played the math games with us too, then read more Sherlock Holmes (h'es got two stories to go) and studied chemistry. He is also doing a dictation passage from Sherlock Holmes. And he is keeping up with MUS.

Liam and Jacob played for a long time on one of their computer games and Jacob explained to me all the strategy concepts they feel they are learning from it. I think he got into explaining them because we talked so much about strategy during the pentonimoes game.

After dinner, Jon, Liam, Caitrin and I played a game of Apples to Apples. We then watched "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" on Disney.

Caitrin helped me bake two pumpkin pies which are now cooling to be eaten tomorrow. We cleaned up the kitchen and family room.

Fun day!