It’s that time of year again: Back to School! Unless you homeschool year round, you are probably gearing up for a new year (or have already started!). And while I enjoyed some summer travels, as well as the many lazy days, late nights and relaxed mornings, fall is nearly upon us and it’s time to get back to the structure and accountability of school. And I’m excited about that! I was not, however, ready to jump right back into a daily, structured homeschool routine!

Before I share my back to homeschool tips, just know that the main point of the whole article is this: do what works for you and your kids in this season. What works for me might not work for you. And what worked for you last year might not work this year, and that’s ok! So let’s dive in!

*Please Note: This post contains affiliate links which help support the work of this site. Read our full disclosure policy here.*

I’ll be honest, when my kids were little, there were definitely years when the transition from summer to a structured homeschool routine was incredibly difficult and stressful.

But over time, I learned tips and ideas from other homeschool moms to make things easier (and more fun!) when it’s time to start a daily homeschool routine again. So I hope these tips help you too!

So before we got started again, I did some things to prepare to set us up for a great first week and a great homeschool year.

08/2020 UPDATE: After a weird and hard year, easing into a new routine is going to be more important than ever! If you are stepping into homeschooling for the first time, or doing distance learning at home, I hope some of these tips are useful and encouraging for you!

7 Tips to Prepare For a Daily Homeschool Routine:

1. Be Realistic

Even though I would love to get up at 5 am and be super productive and get all the housework and blog work done and then have a delicious hot breakfast ready for my kids at 7 so we could start school, that’s just not me. I know that I am not a morning person, and I do not want to set myself (or my kids) up for failure!

So our routine and mornings look a little different, and I’m ok with that. I know that the first week would be an adjustment, so I do not plan overly full lessons, and we don’t even start on Monday. Mondays are hard and the kids are always tired, so we ease into things on Tuesday or Wednesday. The first week is about having fun and getting used to a daily school schedule again!

I also focus on having a daily plan & routine rather than a daily schedule. In other words, we have a structure or order of things we do (breakfast and morning prayer, then schoolwork, then lunch, etc.) but not at a specific time.

This means I don’t stress out if one day we start at 8:30 but then the next day we start at 9:30. Whenever we get up and going, we just follow the same order of activities until it all gets completed. Now I’m not constantly feeling like we’re “behind schedule.”

2. Prep meals ahead of time

Something that always helps take the stress out of our first couple of weeks is stock my freezer with meals. I wanted our first few school days to be as smooth and enjoyable as possible. And one thing that I absolutely hate and that stresses me out is cooking dinner. I struggle to come up with ideas and then I struggle to tear myself away from my work or my kids to go chop and slice and cook.

This was super simple thanks to my friend Sharla’s freezer meal plans! She shares tons of great tips to make it simple, and the meal plans include simple directions and grocery lists, making planning easy!

Another thing I did when my kids were little is to make lunches for the whole week on Sunday. I know this may sound crazy, but lunch always became a stressful time of day, and always took more time than it should because I tried to get the kids to clean up while I fixed lunch. The problem was, they needed my help/supervision to clean up, and so the whole process took a lot longer than necessary and often resulted in frustration and yelling.

So by having lunches ready, I could focus on being with the kids and guiding them through clean up, and then we would go down for lunch together.

Now that my kids are older (middle/high school), this is not an issue. They don’t need me to supervise clean up or make them lunch, so things are much smoother.

But if lunch time ends in frustration or melt downs, prep on Sunday night! A few tips that helped me back in the day:

• Use a whole loaf of bread to make pb&j sandwiches, then put all the sandwiches back in the bread bag and stick it in the fridge.
• Chop up a variety of fruits and veggies and keep them in the fridge
• Bag individual servings of crackers/goldfish/chips (whatever your kids like) and store them in the panty

Then you’ve got easy to grab lunches ready each day!

3. Have a Morning Routine for Yourself

When you homeschool, you spend all day, everyday with your kids. And although this is one of the amazing benefits of homeschooling, the reality of it is also incredibly exhausting, especially for an introvert like me. So even though I am not a morning person, I DO make sure I have at least a half an hour of quiet with my bible and a cup of coffee before joining the kids for breakfast. This time allows me to wake up, spend time with the Lord and prepare myself for the day ahead.

These days, my kids are older and more independent, but I still need a few minutes to myself in the morning. Since my high schooler takes art at a local school, we have to be out the door at 8 am. So I just make sure to bring my coffee with me and have some quiet time in the car while she’s in class!

What you need to do to start your day on the right foot will look different than me, but that’s ok! Figure out what it is that you need and make it happen. Maybe for you it means a chance to exercise and shower, or read that book you’ve been neglecting. Whatever it is, take time to make it a priority.

Need help getting into a working morning routine? Try Crystal Paine’s Make Over Your Mornings course. It has made a huge difference to me this Summer as I’ve had to make adjustments and prepare for our new normal as we start school again!

4. Have an Evening Routine

One of the biggest things I learned from Crystal’s course was the importance of an evening routine. After looking at our weekly schedule, thinking through my goals for our year and finally accepting the fact that I am not a morning person, I came up with a handful of things that we could do in the evenings to set us up for better, less stressful days.

I then discussed it with my husband, and together we came up with a plan to get several things done in the evening. For us, it includes washing the dishes and cleaning up the table and chairs, sweeping the floor and wiping down the kitchen. Having everything clean and ready for breakfast in the morning has been hugely helpful. (Remember I said I wasn’t a morning person??).

Now that my kids are older, they are part of the evening routine. They help handle the dishes/clean up dinner. They do a quick sweep of the school area/living room to put away their things. And they do a quick run of the vacuum. With everyone doing a little bit, it takes no time at all, but we wake up and start our day with a clean(ish) home!

5. Make it a Celebration

To help make it clear to my kids that we are transitioning into “school mode” and that with that comes certain responsibilities, we always make the first day of school a big deal. It doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming, but having conversations about what it means and how things will change, and having a family celebration to get them excited makes a big difference. They then know what to expect and have a lot of fun!

My friend Pam Barnhill of Your Morning Basket has a fun tradition of grabbing donuts on their first day of school, which I think is an excellent tradition, and a really easy way to make the start of school a fun celebration!

6. Start Your Homeschool Routine Early

No matter when we plan to “officially” start our school year, I start getting my morning routine, evening routine, and earlier bedtimes in place a couple weeks before. This was especially helpful when my kids were younger, but it’s still true now.  This gave me time to figure out what our routine needs to look like and make it a habit before adding daily school lessons into the mix.

By taking baby steps and coming up with a realistic plan, I have been able to have a great first week and ease the transition for many happy years now.

7. Be Prepared

My friend Shelley from STEAM Powered Family is also gearing up for a new year. Her best piece of advice? Be Prepared! She states,

“My goal is to have a big picture plan for our first few weeks. I’m leaving a lot of room for flexibility and I’m including a lot of fun! My goal is to know the material and start our year introducing the lessons we will be learning in a way that gets my boys excited to learn more.”

(I will admit, I am still working on this!

And most of all, relax!! One thing I have learned over the years is that our life, schedule and routine do not need to look like anybody else’s. It needs to look like whatever works best for us!

And the same is true of you. Figure out what works and go with it, and if something isn’t working, try something else!

The post 7 Tips for Easing Back Into a Homeschool Routine appeared first on Math Geek Mama.

How fluent are your kids with math facts and computation skills? Do you want something fun and engaging, yet challenging for their mind when schools are closed? It’s important to keep up mental math skills like adding, subtracting and multiplication or they will be forgotten. It’s also a good workout for the brain to be challenged and to look for new strategies and build number sense as they try to work out different problems.

*Please Note: This post includes affiliate links which support the work of this site. Read our full disclosure here.*

What’s Included in the Download:

This collection of mental math challenges includes a variety so you can use this with multiple ages or easily differentiate.

First, you will find two addition and subtraction challenges.

Next, there are two challenges involving addition, subtraction and multiplication.

For older kids, there are two challenges involving addition and subtraction with integers (positive and negative numbers).

And if that’s not enough of a challenge, or your kids start to get bored with this, the download also includes a blank copy so that kids can design their own mental math challenge for friends or family.

How to Use the Mental Math Challenge:

On each challenge, the “starting number” is left blank, so you or your kids can pick a new number each time.

In this way, you can differentiate for different students using the same math operations by giving larger or more difficult starting numbers.

Although this is a “mental math” challenge, I have left spaces blank in between each operation so that they can write each answer down as they go (to keep track of where they are).

But all the math computing must be done in their head.

If your kids enjoy these challenges, try printing on card stock and then laminating, or slide it into a page protector to easily erase and use over and over.

For an Added Challenge:

If these exercises are too easy for your middle or high school students, there is also a blank challenge card included.

You can use the blank page a couple of ways. First, you can create a page tailored to their specific needs, using larger numbers, more difficult computation or even fractions and decimals.

Or you can give the blank page to your students they can create their own to challenge each other.

Another GREAT challenge for any age is to give them a blank page and see if they can create their own challenge that will always end with the same number (meaning, whatever you choose for your starting number will be your final answer, no matter what number you choose).

This is a great introduction to algebraic thinking and operations.

(HINT: The key to that is to make sure every operation you write in the path gets “canceled out” or “undone” somewhere. So if you start with “add 5”, somewhere along the way you also have to have “subtract 5.”)

{Click here to go to my shop and download the complete set of Mental Math Challenges HERE!}

I hope these are fun and helpful!

If your kids love a fun and unique math challenges, they may also love this set of hands on logic puzzles using pattern blocks! This huge collection will keep their brains busy for hours!

If you’re looking for logic puzzle challenges for older kids, try this collection. A Year of Logic Puzzles includes fun themed grid and sudoku puzzles for the entire year, for ages 9+.

The post {FREE} Mental Math Challenge for Kids: Exercise Your Brain! appeared first on Math Geek Mama.

*Please Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links which help support the work of this site. Read our full disclosure policy here.*

Second Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices:

Reading/Literature:

As I shared last year, we love using the Memoria Press literature guides. I will be continuing this year with their second grade curriculum, and we’re so looking forward to the great books we’ll read! This year we’ll read classics from Beatrix Potter as well as Little House in the Big Woods (and more).

I love the literature guides because they are so easy to use, encourage vocabulary and comprehension, and make planning simple for me.

Spelling and Phonics:

We’re also continuing with All About Spelling this year. We’ll probably spend the first week or so reviewing the words and rules from level one, but then we’ll dive into level 2.

This program has also been super easy to use and has helped my daughter tremendously with her spelling.

We have a set of magnetic letters that we use to practice before writing the words out on paper, and she loves it!

In addition, I have a daily language review workbook that is great for reviewing all kinds of language skills. It’s short and sweet, and gives her some independent review practice each day.

I also have several Explode the Code workbooks, so some days I will probably change things up and let her work in these. Luckily, I found several at our homeschool curriculum fair for $1 a piece!

Latin:

This year we’re going to try something brand new to all of us: latin. I feel like this will be helpful in future language learning, so we’ll give it a shot! We’ll be using Prima Latina which is also from Memoria Press.

I don’t know any latin, so this is going to be an adventure. But this curriculum has received great reviews and is written specifically for young children. So I’m excited to give it a try!

History:

This year I’m going to spend some time each day reading through The Mystery of History, Vol. 1. I’m excited to read through this with my kids and learn along side of them. I love history, but struggle to remember and keep track of dates, people, places, etc.

I’m also going to have my daughter work through the Draw and Write Through History books. She absolutely loves drawing, and these books seem to go along well with The Mystery of History. (I thought we would use these last year, but never got to it. Now that her cursive is stronger, she’ll go through them on her own.)

They include cursive copywork summaries that she can use to practice her cursive handwriting, which she enjoys.

(Last year, I taught her cursive with this simple to use New American Cursive workbook).

Math:

Last year, I worked through the Singapore grade 1 books with her. I saw such tremendous strides in her understanding and number sense, we will be continuing with Singapore this year.

I am completely in love with this program, and she loves that the workbook pages include fun review and practice.

If you’re interested in Singapore math, you will need the textbooks (A and B) as well as the student workbooks (A and B).

Also available are “Home Instructor’s Guides” (A and B). If you don’t feel confident teaching math or switching to this curriculum (which doesn’t include much explanation in the textbook itself) I highly recommend purchasing the instructor guides.

Here are other math programs that I’ve used if you’re looking to compare:

• Math-U-See Primer Review (Kindergarten)
• Redbird Mathematics Review (Kindergarten/first grade)
• Mr. D’s Math (high school courses)

Science:

Because my kids are still young, we don’t have a formal science curriculum. Instead, I pull from a variety of resources, or encourage impromptu science lessons based on things that interest them.

Some of our favorite resources:

• Green Kid Craft kits: these are so simple to just pull out and use together. No prep or research needed. All the materials are included, as well as a simple explanation of the science.
• The Curious Kid’s Science Book by Asia Citro. This book is PACKED with fun, hands on science lessons and explorations. And most use materials we already have around the house.
• Magic School Bus books and videos: my kids also love the Magic School Bus. We have a large collection of books, and they love to watch the t.v. show on Netflix.

Bible:

Finally, we also try to spend time each day engaging with God’s word. Sometimes this simply means reading from one of my favorite children’s bibles: The Gospel Story Bible by Marty Machowski.

Sometimes, we will spend time working on scripture memory and going through their AWANA journal.

And this year I also hope to complete this Missionary bible study by Kim Sorgius. I like to mix things up, so right now I’m thinking we will have “Missionary Monday” and spend a little time each week going through this study.

We also participate in Bible Study Fellowship, so my two youngest kids will go to this with me each week.

And I think that’s everything! Whew! We are going to be so busy, but it is such a joy to be home spending this time with my kids everyday and learning alongside them.

Want to see our first grade curriculum choices? I shared this last year, but will mostly be completing the same curriculum with my son this year.

What are your curriculum choices? Share in the comments! I love learning about great curriculum!

The post Second Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices appeared first on Math Geek Mama.

*Please Note: This post contains affiliate links which help support the work of this site. Read our full disclosure policy here.*

To assemble this set of foldable 3D shapes: 

I highly recommend printing the nets on stock paper rather than regular paper. I have tried it both ways, and regular paper is just too flimsy.

After printing, simply cut out the 3d shape nets on the solid lines.

If you’ve printed on white card stock as I have, take some time to get creative and color or decorate the shapes before assembling them! This could make a great math art project!

If your students are older, have them label the different parts of the shape (face, edge, base) before assembling to use as a reference throughout their study of shapes!

This will help them see and learn math vocabulary.

Then, carefully fold each tab so that it can be used to glue the shape together, and fold each side of the shape.

Finally, glue each side together. I suggest adding a few dabs of glue to each tab and then hold it in place for a few seconds before gluing the next tab. This will help make sure it stays together.

You can also use tape if that’s easier for you (or you don’t have glue).

Once all the shapes are assembled, you can use them however you like, depending on the age of your kids!

Learning ideas for foldable 3D shapes:

• Discuss math vocabulary such as polyhedron, face, edge, prism, etc.
• Compare the shapes by counting number of faces and edges or other characteristics
• Use them to go on a 3D shape hunt: find the shapes in real life
• Compare the different pyramids and then compare them to the great pyramids of Egypt (combining math and history!)
• Use the nets to learn about surface area and volume
• Use them along with the book, Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone to learn about Euler’s formula (see more free resources to use with the book here!)
• Or simply as a fun math art project!

This set of geometric nets is FREE to download and contains the following three dimensional shapes:

• Cube
• Rectangular Prism
• Triangular Prism
• Cylinder
• Triangle Based Pyramid
• Square Based Pyramid
• Pentagon Based Pyramid
• Cone

In addition, this set includes a foldable copy (with tabs) to allow students as young as preschool build their own models, as well as geometric nets without tabs to be used for any other purpose in the geometry classroom!

For instance, let students measure the nets to explore surface area with these FREE surface area lessons (surface area of prisms and cylinders and surface area of pyramids and cones)!

{Click HERE to go to my shop to get the foldable 3D shapes Printable Pack!}

Hope you find these helpful and FUN as you explore three dimensional shapes!

Looking for more 3D shapes fun? Try one of these resources:

• 3D shapes games printable pack
• Exploring 3D shapes with a 3D drawing pen
• 3D shapes and their nets worksheets

The post Foldable 3D Shapes {FREE Printable Pack!} appeared first on Math Geek Mama.

One of the most important concepts introduced in pre-algebra (or algebra) is integer operations. I can distinctly remember learning “the rules” and fun little tricks to remember them. But I also remember wondering why in the world subtracting a negative means you add! So when I saw this method to introduce adding and subtracting integers, I knew I had to try it.

*Please Note: This post contains affiliate links which help support the work of this site. Read our full disclosure here.*

Understanding integers and especially how to correctly add, subtract, multiply and divide integers is a skill that is essential to higher level math. Unfortunately, in my experience, adding and subtracting integers is something many students struggle with all the way through high school.

When I was teaching juniors and seniors, even if they used their calculator for computations, they would still struggle and get wrong answers because they didn’t understand the concepts (or how to correctly type them into the calculator).

Whether students never actually understand the concept in the first place, or they simply forget or confuse the “rules,” by the time they are in high school level classes, they are relying on their calculator.

Now you might be thinking, “Who cares? Just let them use a calculator!” Well, the problem with that is that the calculator is not as smart as we are! If you input something incorrectly or don’t use the correct parentheses, the calculator will get it wrong (especially when multiplying or dividing).

Therefore, I think it’s incredibly important that students master these skills early on in middle school, without learning “tricks” or “rules” so that they will be more successful down the road.

And that is why I have put together this lesson on adding and subtracting integers and exploring what happens when you combine positive and negative numbers!

Adding and Subtracting Integers with Credit/Debit Tables:

The basis of this lesson is on representing numbers using a +1, -1 table. In other words, each +1, -1 pair will equal zero, and then the value of the table will be the ones that remain.

This will likely be a new way of thinking about and representing numbers, so spend time teaching and exploring the tables first. Step 1 of the lesson gives students a chance to practice “reading” them, but if it seems like there is still confusion, stop and work out more examples and have kids make up their own examples before moving on.

Step 3 begins to guide kids through what happens when you add positive or negative ones to the table.

This is the real “meat” of the lesson. The goal is to help them see that adding negatives is the same as subtracting, and subtracting negatives is the same as adding (because your +1 column will now be bigger).

I would also combine each of these examples with a number line to really help students see how the number changes as you add or subtract negative and positive numbers.

This lesson includes teaching tips, a student hand-out and complete answer key.

Hopefully after looking at integers this way, students will have a solid understanding and tools to use to solve problems, even if they forget the “rules.”

If you enjoy this lesson, become a Math Geek Mama+ member and gain access to the entire library of engaging math lessons like this one, hundreds of math games and low-prep practice worksheets for grades 5-8!

Learn more about Math Geek Mama+ right HERE.

I hope you and your students find this helpful!

{Click HERE to go to my shop and get the Adding and Subtracting Integers lesson!}

Add if you need more practice, grab this free integer operations game!

And if you like this lesson, try one of my other Algebra lessons:

• Introducing Absolute Value
• Exploring Exponent Properties
• Understanding the Distributive Property

The post Adding and Subtracting Integers {FREE Lesson!} appeared first on Math Geek Mama.

Ahhh, summer.

A time for vacations and catching fireflies, trips to the pool and firing up the grill. While there are probably endless images and activities that come to mind when you think of summer, I’m willing to bet that doing math just isn’t one of them.

But the truth is, for most students, summer is a time when all the important math skills they worked so hard to learn throughout the year are completely lost. So here are some SUPER simple summer math activities that will keep your kids from being bored (and keep them learning!).

*Please note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and help support the work of this site. Thanks for understanding! Feel free to read our full disclosure here.*

Fun and Simple Summer Math Activities:

Read through the different types of ideas below to find some summer math activities that are right for your kids. There are ideas for games and puzzles that won’t even feel like learning, along with outdoor games, hands on activities, simple printable pages and more!

Play with Math Puzzles:

• Work on Sudoku puzzles. Kids too young for them? Check out Kidoku Puzzles | Krazy Dad
• Try Magic Squares or a Magic Triangle | What Do We Do All Day
• Play with these Pattern Block Logic Puzzles
• Challenge each other to Mental Math Races
• Create Jumping Mazes (inside or outside!)
• Put together these Fraction Puzzles, Telling Time Puzzles or Money Puzzles

Take Math Outside:

• Have an even and odd number beanbag toss
• Practice important skills with Water Balloon Math | No Time for Flash Cards
• Make a hula hoop clock to review time related problems | Creekside Learning
• Build 3D shapes with sticks | Creative Star Learning
• Play Marshmallow Shoot and Measure | No Time for Flash Cards
• Have a shapes scavenger hunt (Want more of a challenge? Look for 3D shapes instead!)
• Play Sidewalk Chalk Number Line Race
• Practice measurement in your flower bed or garden | The Educator’s Spin On It
• Heading to the beach? Use sea shells for counting, sorting or a fun memory game | No Time for Flash Cards
• Try a fun twist on a classic: Skip Counting Hopscotch
• Play Puddle Jump, a simple, easily adaptable game

Related: 6 Little Known Benefits of Taking Math Outside

Learn Math with LEGO:

• Work on place value with LEGO | The Science Kiddo
• Explore addition & subtraction with LEGO
• Explore multiplication & division with LEGO
• Build a rocket powered Lego car | Frugal Fun 4 Boys
• Play LEGO Baseball (and discuss statistics!) | Teach Mama
• Practice double digit addition and subtraction | Real Life at Home
• Create LEGO Duplo Puzzles for your kids to put together
• Prove the Pythagorean Theorem with LEGO bricks

**Looking for more LEGO math ideas? Check out 30+ easy ways to learn with LEGO Math!

Play Math Games:

• Incorporate math into family game night with  Sum Swamp , Hi Ho Cherry-O, Monopoly Junior, or if you have older ones, here’s another list of games | Planet Smarty Pants
• Play with a Calculator (hint: NOT to do math calculations) or try these fun calculator riddles | And Next Comes L
• Play Strike it Out for adding and subtracting fun | Teach Mama
• Play Math Twister to review any and all math facts
• Use this simple game to review any math facts (all you need is a piece of paper!)
• Let the kids “play store” with their favorite books or toys to practice adding money and making change (Here’s a great Play Money Set)
• Use a Hundred’s Chart to play Euclid’s Game or Hundred Chart Nim | Let’s Play Math
• Play this “Jack and the Beanstalk” multiplication game | Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational
• Play Multiplication Dash, another printable multiplication game
• Play a math card game
• Make a DIY Mancala Game and play together

Read Math Story Books:

• Learn with the “Sir Cumference” math story books
• Read Bedtime Math (or Bedtime Math 2) together each day and discuss (it doesn’t have to be a bedtime! We are currently reading a little each day at lunch! Read my full review here.)
• Read and play with Ten Apples Up On Top
• Learn about money with Pigs will Be Pigs
• See math in real life with Math Curse
• Explore fractions and patterns with The Lion’s Share
• Learn about triangles with The Greedy Triangle
• Practice problem solving with The Grapes of Math
• Tell time with The Grouchy Ladybug

Looking for math books by topic? Check out the math read aloud lists below:

• Math books about counting
• Math books to explore place value and large numbers
• Math books to learn about addition & subtraction
• Math books to understand multiplication & division
• Math picture books to make sense of fractions
• Money math picture books
• Picture books about time and telling time

Math Around the House Ideas:

• Create a STEAM Bored Jar for activities throughout the summer |  Left Brain Craft Brain
• Explore summer STEM Ideas specifically for middle school
• Practice counting with watermelon seeds (or other fruits)
• Have a weekly estimation jar challenge using small toys, balls or household items (encourage your kids to make educated guesses and work on estimating techniques)
• Get in the kitchen for fun with math and cooking
• Explore math with Q-Tips
• Play with math and Skittles in PreK-1 or math with Skittles in 3-5

Printable Summer Math Games & Practice:

Looking for some summer-themed worksheets? The activities below are a fun way to easily work on targeted math skills as kids work their way through the maze, solve the riddles or cut and paste numbers. The best part? Just print and play!

• Ice Cream Counting Mats: Play Dough Math Play | Numbers 1-20
• Summer Counting Cut & Paste | Count to 20
• Summer Math Mazes for Grades 3-4 | Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication & Division
• Camping themed Ratio & Proportion Challenges
• Summer Algebra: Solve Equations Riddle Pages

Reviewing important math skills doesn’t have to be boring, time-consuming or expensive! Use items you already have on hand, grab some books at the library or make up fun games to play outside to encourage young learners to keep thinking and problem solving all summer long!

Got any other FUN and simple summer math ideas to prevent learning loss and still have a fantastic summer?? Share in the comments!

The post Engaging Summer Math: Easy, Hands On & FUN Ideas appeared first on Math Geek Mama.

*Please Note: This post contains affiliate links which help support the work of this site. Read our full disclosure policy here.*

A common topic covered in early Algebra is exponents.  Certain properties, how to use them, etc. There are numerous properties that are true and useful when working through complex Algebra problems, and so it’s necessary for students to know these and be able to apply them correctly.

I believe, however, if you just take one class period to let students work through this investigation, rather than simply listing the properties out for them, they will be much more successful in the long run!

I would also encourage you to look for meaningful applications for students to use what they learn and apply in context. This introduction lesson does not include application problems, but it is important, after helping students see how to use and manipulate exponents, to use these properties in meaningful contexts.

This is not a comprehensive look at exponents, but focuses on four specific exponent properties that are the most common.  Feel free to add others to this if you need to cover this topic more in depth in your classroom.

To Use This Exponent Properties Lesson:

This lesson is simple and low prep, meaning you can just print and go! Teaching tips and answer keys are included, but for the most part you can hand this to your students and let them try things out and explore on their own.

Then you can go through the discussion questions together.

In each step of the investigation, students are given an example and then some problems to try on their own.

By working out the problems themselves (using repeated multiplication) students are then able to see the patterns and (hopefully) articulate the particular property demonstrated.

The goal is for students to realize that by using what they know about exponents, they can work through and solve any problem, even if they don’t always remember the rule.

Because as you know, I’m all about equipping students with problem solving tools and strategies rather than memorizing rules!

Once they have finished the investigation, there is a reference page for students to fill out and write notes on for future reference.

{Click HERE to go to my shop and download Exponent Properties Investigation!}

*Psst! Did you know this lesson and SO much more is included in my Algebra Essentials Resource bundle? Click the graphic below to learn more and purchase this huge resource!

Did you enjoy this investigative style lesson? Try one of these similar Algebra lessons:

• • Introduction to Absolute Value
  • Exploring Integer Operations
  • Understanding the Distributive Property

The post Investigating Exponent Properties {FREE Lesson!} appeared first on Math Geek Mama.

*Please Note: I received this curriculum for free and was compensated for my time in writing this post. All opinions are entirely my own, however, and I was not required to write a positive review. Read our full disclosure here.*

A Little About Zeezok Publishing:

This company was founded by homeschooling families out of a desire to provide high quality and affordable enrichment curriculum.

As they state on their website, their vision is simple: to publish top quality materials that will complement your educational needs.

Their hope is to enrich, educate and edify children through the use of their materials, and I have found the Music Appreciation curriculum to certainly be those things for my kids.

How we learned multiple subjects at the same time:

This curriculum was so much more than I was expecting. Not only does it provide fun and engaging read alouds (seriously, at one point I stopped reading and they cried, “NOOO!”) that introduce my kids to musicians who have made lasting impacts on music and history, but it includes topics such as history and geography, latin, science and more.

In learning about Bach, for instance, we learned a little about Germany and the geography of the country, we learned some latin phrases that Bach used to sign his pieces, various types of musical instruments, and listened to a variety of classical music pieces that he wrote.

And that doesn’t even cover everything that’s included, that only covers the activities I chose to do! (Remember, I’m all about keeping it simple!)

How to learn math through Music:

In addition to incorporating all kinds of fun music and history aspects into our homeschool, I was able to use the music we listened to to practice math skills with my kids.

As someone who has always been very involved in music (and also has a deep love for math), I believe the two go hand in hand.

There’s a great deal of math involved in playing (or singing) a musical composition, and I used to use music to explore linear equations and systems of equations with my algebra students.

Because my kids are young, we kept things simple.

When listening to Bach’s pieces, we would count the beats.

I helped them create a (simple) timeline of certain events in Bach’s life.

We looked at a few different pieces and talked about the time signature and the number of beats in each measure. We then practiced skip counting (by 2’s, 3’s and 4’s) to find the total beats in that particular piece of music.

We also made a graph comparing the number of beats and of different pieces of music. This was not always perfectly exact, but it was great practice for them.

After analyzing the graph (the most beats, least beats, how many more, etc.) we talked about the speed of the songs and how just because one has more beats doesn’t mean it will be a longer song (it may be played much faster).

For older kids, you could also use various music notes to compare and add fractions.

Read more: Elwood Third Graders Hone Their Math Skills with ‘Mozart Math’

In addition, studying and learning music has been proven to improve reading and math skills, and have a positive impact on students’ confidence!

Overall, using the Zeezok Music Appreciation curriculum has been a wonderful experience for our family! It is simple to use, nicely laid out and definitely kid-friendly.

I look forward to weaving this into our curriculum for years to come.

What’s included in the Zeezok Music Appreciation Curriculum:

• Student Activity Book (This also includes a lesson plan outline that I loosely followed)
• Music Discs (includes 5 discs of classical music that go along with the lessons)
• Lapbook Printable Resources (this disc includes resources you can use to create lapbooks for each unit. We did not do this because I don’t typically use lapbooks, and I wanted to keep things simple)
• 7 different Composer Readers (This make fantastic read alouds)

If you can’t afford the entire curriculum, you could purchase the set of readers and the music discs and it would still be a wonderful asset to your curriculum.

And of course, follow Zeezok Publishing on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or YouTube for helpful tips and more reviews!

Want more ideas for “Music math?” Check out this post from Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational! It includes a free printable for a GREAT exploration activity!

Do you have experience using this curriculum? What has your family thought of it? Share with others, it’s always helpful to hear opinions of those who have used it!

The post Learning Math (and more!) with Music appeared first on Math Geek Mama.

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What is Pi Day, you ask? Well the number pi is a constant which represents the ratio between the circumference and diameter of a circle. The value of this number is often rounded to 3.14.

Therefore, each year Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3.14) by learning about circles and ratios and measurement, as well as irrational numbers such as the number pi.

Looking for ways to learn and explore with your kids? I have created a fun and free math lesson for understanding the number pi which is great for middle or high school students.

Reading the book Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi is another great way to introduce kids to this fun number! (Plus, get free lessons to use with the book when you subscribe to my email newsletter).

Want even more ideas? Check out my “Pi Day Goodness” page with dozens of links to ideas, games and free resources to explore this super cool number!

Pi Day Sing Along:

And of course, it’s always fun to sing of the wonders of the number pi and the fun of pi day, so here is a Pi Day Sing Along sheet to help you get in the spirit of the day!

This download includes 2 pages of black and white song lyrics to the tunes of familiar songs such as “Jingle Bells,” “Happy Birthday” and more!

{Click HERE to go my shop to download the Pi Day Sing Along!}

So start counting down and get excited! Pi Day will be here before you know it!

The post Pi Day Sing Along {FREE Printable!} appeared first on Math Geek Mama.

This lesson is intended to be used together with the prisms and cylinders lesson, but helps students take their learning a bit further as they now have to consider cones (which do not have all flat faces, like the other 3D shapes).

The worksheet included in the previous lesson can be used throughout your surface area unit to allow students to work out problems by thinking logically about surface area rather than using a formula.

Included in this FREE download are teaching tips, a student handout and discussion questions with answer key. It also includes printable nets for a pyramid and a cone.

You may also like this set of 3D shape nets, which includes the net of 8 different 3D shapes. These can be folded together to provide a visual of the shapes, or they can be used flat as a way to measure and explore surface area.

{Click HERE to go to my shop to download the Surface Area of Pyramids and Cones Investigation}

I hope you find these helpful, and be including sure to grab these 3D shapes practice worksheets as well!

And if you like this surface area of pyramids and cones investigation, be sure to grab my other hands-on geometry lessons:

• Exploring Volume Investigation
• Which Cup Holds the Most Hot Chocolate (real life volume exploration)

Happy Teaching!

The post Exploring Surface Area of Pyramids and Cones! appeared first on Math Geek Mama.