Learning By The Way

Moriah, Samuel, Toby and Elsie will be starting new math books as soon as they come in the mail. We have been using a hodgepodge of books picked up here and there, and for the first time are going to be using an actual curriculum- Singapore Math.

Last week the three older children spent a considerable amount of time working through 20 pages of placement testing to find out which workbook I should order for them. To my suprise, they are all going to be in the same book, Singapore Math 3A. There are a few things they are clearly more advanced in, such as fractions, but they haven’t covered division and geometry in the depth the 3A book does, so we will be starting there. Elsie is starting in the first book, 1A. In case you are wondering, yes, these numbers do correspond to grade levels. In Singapore. What does this mean in US grades? Something different, which I don’t care about. Grade levels are completely unhelpful in our learning environment, and we haven’t ever needed to use them.

 I have heard very good things about this curriculum and we are all eager to get started. For now, though, they are finishing up their other math books.

We’ve worked up a new morning schedule, which went smoothly this morning, and I think is going to help us get more done in shorter time. We had a slightly shortened version this morning though, as we headed to Bradley Park for a picnic lunch and playtime with 3 other families from church.

When we arrived at the park, there was a guy with a metal detector working his way around the playground, sifting through the sand. Soon he joined a group of mostly young adults to the side of the playground. While we waited in the car for our friends to arrive, we tried to make up stories as to what possibly could be going on. Most of the people left, but when we got out of the car, there was still a man and woman with metal detectors methodically searching the sand around the play equipment. Of course I inquired what they were doing, and it turns out our stories weren’t very close. They were instructors for a crime scene investigation class at Illinois Community College. They had planted bullets and silver dimes in the sand as a training exercise for the students. The class being over, they were doing cleanup to find the things the students had missed. The children enjoyed watching them finish up their work, and then enjoyed playing with friends on a beautiful, breezy spring day.