Homeschool WAHM

Teaching Math Fractions

2007-11-06T17:16:00.001-08:00

Teaching math is fun when you can combine the lesson with something your children love. My son Loves pizza so I went out and bought a pizza and burned it as you can see. But, he sat patiently while I explained to him that the whole pizza equals 1. So...

Whole pizza = 1

I cut the pizza in half lengthwise and explained to him that there were 2 pieces that now made the whole 1. Now

1/2 + 1/2 = 1

I cut it again this time across to make 4 pieces.

1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 +1/4 = 1
OR--
1/4 + 1/4 = 1/2

He wrote down what he was taught and I let it at that. I told him to "go for it" and he ate 1/2 of the pizza.

We'll repeat the fraction lesson with pumpkin pie, another favorite of his, tomorrow. This time I'll explain 1/3.

This makes it more interesting to learn his fractions which is a pretty hard subject to grasp.

1 Whole pizza

1/2 + 1/2 = 1 whole pizza

1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 = 1 whole pizza

Guided Swimming Lessons

2007-10-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

Something that both of my children absolutely Love is swimming, the water,the ocean, the pool, the beach, they love it all! My son taught himself to swim and my daughter was just in the beginning stages when we started homeschooling.

One of our homeschooling moms turned us on the Guided Swimming Lessons with Auntie Nani at the Kahului Pool. Since my children started the have excelled by leaps and bounds with swimming. Auntie Nani has a way about her that is calm and sets the children at ease.

My daughter who was soooo afraid of the pool due to a past incident with a group is now swimming in the deep. The other day she learned how to lift her head up for air while doing the stroke.

My son is like a fish in the water! He is truly in his element even though he is a Taurus, an earth sign. Maybe he has Pisces or Cancer rising? He has aspirations to go for the Junior Life Guard program now. In time, I told him, in time. I truly believe his reaching that goal.

Money Math

2007-10-28T10:52:00.001-07:00

The fun of homeschooling is seizing the opportunity to teach at every turn. Yesterday my daughter gave my son some loose change for some favors he did for her around the house. This morning he showed it to me and I took that time to help him add his money.

How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sushi Roll

2007-08-21T22:54:00.000-07:00

Setting up a more organized schedule

2007-08-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

Today we went over some of the things we'd like to accomplish with learning. These are some of the things we came up with:

Language:
Every week they will be given 10 words to study. The words will be centered around a book that we are reading together. Most probably a self improvement book like "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff." I'd like to integrate a lot of their learning with anything that also offers them good guidance on how to live a life of confidence which requires self esteem. Self improvement books is one way to accomplish this. They will learn to spell the words and be tested on it. They will learn to define the word and use it in a sentence. The sentence will be structured in such a way that a person reading the sentence can get a general idea of the meaning of the word. They will also use the words in a story.

Cursive writing:
They will create a story of their own and write in cursive writing. At that time I will teach them punctuation and proper grammer.

History:
Because they are Hawaiian they will be studying the history of our people and getting reconnected with their culture. I will be reading to them the Hawaiian Cosmogenies, the history of how the Hawaiians migrated here, what they brought with them as far as food items, plants, and religious ways. I will be checking into Hawaiian Language for all of us and we will also delve into hula dance which is a significant and important part of our heritage, culture, and beliefs.

I'll also take them to study the Petroglyphs around the island and if we can raise the funds I'd like to take them to the other islands not only for Petroglyphs but for historical sites as well as museums.

Science:
Ongoing will be the study of bugs which Richard has been interested in since 1st grade. Rel just recently developed a fascination for bugs as well.

Whale season is coming up and since they have always had a passion for studying whales we'll be concentrating on that during whale season.

Astronomy and weather are other interests they have as well as dinosaurs and bones. Richard wants to get a skeleton of a fish and put it together.

Astronomy - We stayed up all night trying to catch the meteor shower on the 12th but only saw like 6 shooting stars that night. We fully expected to see a shower but we did have a lot of street lights around us. This prompted Richard and Rel to look up meteor showers and what they're supposed to look like. Richard also borrowed a book from the library today so we can really dig into information on meteor showers.

Astronomy also as it related to the ancient Hawaiians who plotted their course here using the stars and the planets.

Health:
--meditation: Richard and Rel will learn to quiet and calm their mind to the point that even in a crowded area with lots of noise they can hear themselves think above the chatter, most importantly, they will learn to stop the negative chatter in their heads that was put there by outside influences (myself included I'm not perfect!).

--Tai Chi: Richard and Rel will learn Tai Chi as a well rounded, balanced exercise that burns calories, stretches the muscles, and relaxes the body.

--Yoga: More stretches that will balance the mind and body.

--Foods: Ancient Hawaiian ways of gathering food and eating. Good nutrition, the importance of fibre, etc.

Math:

Richard and Rel will be given worksheets that will teach them fractions, multiplication, division, and I hope to get them into basic algebra by the end of the school year.

Fine Arts:
I'll be contacting the Lahaina Arts Society to see if Richard and Rel can attend lessons on Plein Air painting.

Both will explore lessons on playing the guitar.

PE:
Guided swimming lessons at Kahului Pool. Richard aspires to take the Jr. Lifeguard class. He is an excellent swimmer.
We will also be exploring horseback riding and the obvious...surfing!

Self Esteem and Confidence

2007-08-11T00:10:00.000-07:00

One of the most delightful things that happened today was witnessing the confidence of my 2 children slowly returning just by simple activities performed during our PE pool day. Richard has never really learned how to catch. When the ball comes towards him he closes his hands too slowly to catch the ball. Today he caught the ball and the beaming smile on his face! If only I could've capture that smile with a camera! It will be embellished on my mind forever and ever! We continued to practice and that's one of the things I plan to do with him. Throw balls and let him catch it and throw it back to me.

Rel had an experience at the swimming pool a couple of years back. We go to the beach often and she can swim fairly well in the salt water. Thinking she could swim well she jumped into the deep end of the pool during a Pals field trip and started to sink. She was really embarrassed and never swam in a pool again. I started taking her for guided swimming lessons where she slowly regained her confidence. Today I took her to a pool that is 3-3 1/2 feet deep. She practiced everything she learned at her swimming lessons and I was able to witness her gaining even more confidence. It's the most wonderful thing to witness.

This is the thing about school, the focus is on academics. Although academics is important to a certain point, what will help my children to be successful as adults is their confidence in themselves, their self esteem.

These are just some of the reasons I choose to be a work at home mom (WAHM) and seeing their accomplishments helps me to...

Stay Motivated Forever!

Geography

2007-08-10T22:41:00.000-07:00

My children and I play this game, inspired by Richard because he had to study the names of the States for geography in school. It's a fun and simple game but really hard. We usually play this while riding in the car. Rel gets out a tablet and pencil or pen. We name all the states until we guess all of them. It's really fun and it really tests just how much us adults know too. Don't worry, Richard and Rel named a whole bunch of them! No fair! They were studying it already!

There's so much more geography to study. Next week Thursday we plan on a trip to Kepaniwai to look at all of the different ethnic homes there. Kepaniwai is a beautiful park with a clear water streams. I'll post pics when we go. Until then you can look up these 2 sites for more information. Iao is a sacred place...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kepaniwai
http://www.hawaiiweb.com/maui/html/sites/kepaniwai_park_heritage_gardens.html

Math for Richard and Rel

2007-08-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

I think we got the math lessons down pat. It's been decided (by me) that we'll use math worksheets. I found a wonderful site where I can download free math worksheets

http://www.googolpower.com/content/

and another one:

http://www.math-drills.com/

Richard is adding together 3 rows of 3 and 4 digit numbers. He was having trouble at first so I gave him a bunch of pennies to help him with the problems. For example he has this problem:

2833
6403
+7242
______

For the last column he makes a 1st row of 3 pennies, a second row of 3 pennies, and a third row of 2 pennies. He counts all the pennies and puts the appropriate number under the last column carrying any number that needs to be carried. He does that with each column until the problem is done.

My mistake is that I gave him a worksheet with 100 problems on it and they are very small. It looks a bit overwhelming and because he still has some problems with his fine motor skills he can't write as small as the print.

To solve this problem I've taken 10 problems, copied and pasted it onto Word, and enlarged the fonts.

Rel was given a 4 multiplication charts each with different numberings. She was to go through and fill in all of the blanks. She got through the 1st chart all the way and almost completed the other 3 charts. I think I should do the same with her. Divide the work into 4, one for each day instead of cramming it to her all at once. I realize she needs to be ahead of this math. This is just a review for her and a refresher so when we go onto division and fractions it'll be easier. I contend she'll be doing algebra by the end of this school year.

Hawaiian Sea Turtle Hatching

2007-08-09T11:39:00.000-07:00

My children and I have always had an interest in turtles or Honu as we say in Hawaii. This interest is a common interest with many, many people from all walks of life. I'm so glad I joined the homeschool association on Maui with Lanet A. at the helm. She is a wealth of information and resources for the rest of us. One of the resources she shared was the Hawaiian Sea Turtle hatching event that I was able to take my children to witness.

Here are some pictures that Richard and Rel and I took of the baby turtle before it went out to sea.

There were 98 eggshells counted.

Rel's picture

Richard's picture

By the time it went into the water it was already to dark to take pics. Flashes were not allowed.

Richard and math

2007-08-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I gave my son a math test. He was to find the missing numbers in an add & subtract problem like the set below:

8+3=11
11-8=3

He did very well, out of 28 problems he only got 3 wrong. He knew what he was doing, obviously, since he got 25 correct but sometimes his mind slips and even though he knows the right answer he writes the wrong number.

So, I circled the ones he got wrong and he began to get upset at me telling me that nothing was wrong and he followed my directions so it should be all correct. I had to have him recall that I told him that he did a GREAT job but even so it's good to see where we err so we can work on it if we don't understand. All he could see was that I was telling him that he made mistakes, he wasn't concentrating on the fact that he overall did GREAT on the test. After taking time to talk to him he calmed down, took his paper and made the corrections.

I know that Richard's teachers at Lihikai elementary from the 3rd grade to the 5th grade were excellent teachers but with a classroom full of SpEd children it isn't easy to give so much one on one attention to each student. I know that each teacher really loved and cared for Richard too and I'm so thankful for their caring and their patience with him throughout his elementary years.

We always talk a little before bedtime and this really surprised me. Richard said "I Love math." Just like that, matter of fact. I wanted to cry! I did cry.

Logging communication with schools

2007-08-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to log that I received a call from Gail T. at Maui Waena school asking about Richard and whether he would be attending. I returned her call at appx. 10:43am to let her know that I submitted a Letter of Intent and the OCISS-4140 form to the school but if they didn't receive it she could call me and I'll submit another one since I keep copies. I feel sure they received it and have not lost it.

where the wild things are

2007-08-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

this is a story about a boy named max. but his mother always calls him wild thing. it was dinner time and max said to his mother i'll eat you up. max was sent to bed without any dinner. he dreamed of his own privte boat that said max on the side so he said for years and weeks until he reached where the wild things are they road at him they rolled there eyes at him finaly they showed him there teeth. until he said be still and tamed them with a magic trick. max was made king of all wild things max cried let the rumpums begin and they all danced under the moon. then he sent them to bed without any dinner. then when they were all asleep he said i need some one who cares about him. he could smell his dinner. he setup to go home. then wild things said come back we will eat you we love you so. max said no and went for years and weeks until ho got home. he saw his dinner in his room and it was still hot. report by richard crisostomo. story and pictures by maurice sendak.

Richard and his finger muscles.

2007-08-06T10:56:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of my son Richard writing a book report on our computer. He absolutely gets into this. The muscles on his fingers cramp up so when he writes his fingers tire. He starts to cry and when people don't understand what's happening to him he's forced to write. Most people think he's playing them. People have been thinking he was playing them since he was 1 yrs. old! He must be a genius to know how to play people from that young age. Panic...must make it constructive. No actually, first people thought that he ignored them when they called him. After a series of hearing tests it was determined that Richard needed tubes in his ears. He's 12 yrs. old and still has tubes in his ears and is constantly getting ear infections.

Ok, let's get back to the picture. He can't get enough of writing. Knowing that he can write without his fingers cramping up allows him to really free his imagination! It's wonderful and I love it! You'll be hearing more from Richard I'm sure! He always tells me these great stories that he makes up verbally and now he can write them. The only thing I'm concerned about is he gets so stuck on spelling the words correctly. Yes, that's important but the main thing is for him to get his brain churning! I won't correct his spelling on his work. When he grows older and writes he can hire an editor!

Just joking DOE, I sure don't want my children taken away from me because of that above sentence. They are being taught spelling. In fact, they had their first definitions test yesterday, yes, on Sunday, at night. That is another post.

Making Toys!?

2007-08-06T10:17:00.001-07:00

I've been reading a lot lately about toys that are being recalled. I have some little grand nephews that I get pretty worried about because they're in that age range where they put things in their mouth.

The other day while visiting with other homeschooling moms on Maui we reminisced about the old days where children made their own toys and maybe that's what we'd have to start doing. Don't get me wrong, I love to shop for toys. If I had to work it would be at a toy store because really I'm a kid at heart. This is not about me though. This is about my children right?

Both Richard and Rel have been to field trips to our wonderful Sugar Cane Museum (see link at right) in Kahului Maui. The museum not only houses the history of the factory and its workers but also the children. In the yard they set up areas which show what the children "back in the days" would do to entertain themselves. My children loved it but then went home to play with their store bought toys.

So, I started to save cans and they've made those telephone things and had a blast! Just recently they made a set of can stilts I guess you call it. These cans are 2 beef stew cans (when I've had a really busy day that's what I sometimes fix for dinner or lunch). I put a hole on either side of the cans with a nail and hammer. Rel measured the rope. Rel pulled the rope in the can and then out. Don't tie a knot she said, each child ties a knot according to the size of their feet. "Oh" I said. She took the other end of the rope and repeated the process with the 2nd can. Voila! You have a perfectly fun and inexpensive gadget to have fun with!

Here she is cutting the rope after measuring it. She didn't use a measuring tape she just eyeballed it. Notice how she weaved the rope into and out of the can.

See how she tied it? Not too tight on the feet.

Walk!

Richard trying it out. He was able to adjust the rope to fit his feet.

See how he pulls up on the rope while walking? It's a little exaggerated in the pic but you get the idea, there has to be some tension.

Applesauce Cinnamon Ornaments, Math, Exercising Fingers

2007-08-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

Every year we make applesauce cinnamon ornaments for Christmas. This year we're getting a head start because we're selling them at the craft fair. This batch that Richard and Rel are making is strictly for their own use though. Not to sell unless they want to.

With this project Richard learned math and he also had a chance to exercise his fingers which still tend to tire easily. For this reason it is hard for him to write manually but he just flies on the computer keyboard!

Here's the recipe we used for this batch. It makes a small batch enough for one child and 12 large ornaments.

1 c ground cinnamon
1 tbsp allspice
1 tbsp nutmeg
2 tbsp white glue
3/4 c applesauce

We don't have our 3/4 measuring cup for the applesauce so Richard used a 1/4 cup. He now knows that 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 = 3/4 and he had fun learning that. More to projects to come with math as I am quite concerned about his math.

Here's Richard adding the dried ingredients in a separate bowl. The recipe said to use ground cloves but we improvised and used Allspice instead. You can do that, you can substitute ingredients but make sure you use ground cinnamon.

Mix all the spices up good.

Add the glue to the applesauce.

And blend really well.

Now add the dried ingredients to the applesauce and glue.

Richard has to knead the applesauce cinnamon dough to a sticky like consistency. If the dough is too wet he adds more spices and vice versa.

Roll the dough out to a 1/4 inch thickness.

Use cookie cutters to make shapes. Here Richard is using a Gingerbread Man cookie cutter. He also used a prim heart, start, and small pumpkins.

Rel decided to make a snow man so we're trying it out to see how it dries. We used beads for the nose, eyes, and buttons. We used cinnamon sticks for the arms. As I write this the bottom and middle balls are cracking so now Rel and I are figuring out how to fix that. It's really cute. Just look at the next picture.

Rel has her heart set on selling this at the crafts fair. It really smells so warm and Christmassy!

Math and Cooking Lessons

2007-08-05T15:27:00.001-07:00

Rel loves to cook and has aspirations to become a chef when she grows up. So we do a lot of creating with food. She's made a slide show on how to make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sushi Roll taught to her by Mrs. C. Nishimitsu, her 1st grade teacher, at Lihikai Elementary School.

She also made a slide show tutorial on how to make Strawberry Shortcake which you can view at my Candle WAHM Blog.

This is her Famous Barbecue Sauce Recipe for Baked or Barbecued Chicken Wings. She's asked me to add pictures to make the tutorial clearer for the reader. When she makes it for parties it gets wiped out!

Ingredients & Materials:

1 lb. Chicken Wings
2c BBQ Sauce
1/2 tsp Tobasco (more or less to taste)
2 tbsp Soyu Sauce
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1/2 c ketchup

Bake chicken for appx. 1 hr. or until done (you can also bbq the chicken) on 350 degree oven. While chicken is baking mix the ingredients for sauce.

Sauce Ingredients

Use 1 cup measuring cup 2x to make 2 cups

2/2 divided by 2 = 1/2 cup

2 Tbsp. Soyu Sauce
using her Strawberry Short Cake measuring spoons

Add 1/2 tsp. Tobasco to give it a zing!

1/2 tsp. black pepper is perfect!

Drop it in and begin to mix the ingredients

Good Job Rel!

Mom finished baking the chicken wings.

Rel adds her Famous Barbecue Sauce!

Dinner is served!

Rel also learned how to cook rice that night, a Friday night, and cooked rice Saturday night as well. I made the corn on the cob. Our meal was complete and we chowed vigorously!

A Drop of Blood

2007-08-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

Not very many people know this but we have red cells in our bodies that carry oxygen. Oxygen is apart of the air witch we breathe but although we can't see it doesn't mean it's not there. The red cells carry oxygen all over your body.The red cells carry oxygen to your brain,your heart,your stomach,your bones,your muscle,your lungs, and intestines. White cells are also in your blood too. White cells are much bigger than red cells.There are thousands of white cells in one drop of blood.White cells protect you against disease germs.The white cell wraps itself around a disease germ and eats it so the germ cannot harm us. Little people like baby's that weigh 24 LB.s only need 1 1/2 pints is a little less than 1 quart. Big people need much,much more blood than baby's like people who weigh 80 LB.s so that means he has 5 1/2 pints of blood so that is a little less than three quarts of blood. A grown up who is 6 ft. tall and weighs 180 LB.s has 11 pints of blood so that is 5 1/2 quarts.

I got this info from Paul Showers and his book A Drop of Blood
I chose to write about this book
because I am being home schooled and my mother is making us read books and I chose this book and since I love these kind of books I chose to write about this one.
Rel Sparks

THE ENCHANTED FOREST. arthor , ricard crisostomo

2007-08-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

ONCE UPON A TIME IN A ENCHANTED FOREST THERE WAS A PRINCE. HIS NAME WAS ERIC. ERIC IS ON HIS WAY HOME. HE RACHED THE CASTLE. HIS FOTHER SAID ERIC YOU HAVE A VREY INPORTANT MISSION ERIC SAID YES FOTHER. THE NEXT DAY ERIC SET OFF FOR HIS MISSION. HE WAS ALMOST THERE TO SAVE HER A DRANGON BLOKED HIM. HE FOUGHT WITH THE DRANGON. HE KILLED THE DRANGON. AND SAVED PRINCESS IRA. AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER. THE END.BY RICHARD CRISOSTOMO

www. scholastic books shrek 2

2007-08-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

shrek got mrried to fiona and they lived at the swamp after the wedding they went hansel's honeymoon hideaway then they went to far far away fionas dad was very angry shrek was very angry as well at dinner they were fighting fiona started saying shrek and then she siad mom then the mother siad harlod then harold and shrek siad fiona at the same time then the nable steed siad donkey and then the roast pork fell and fiona was crying and harlod was even more angry. report by roprt by richard crisostomo

george washington

2007-08-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

george washington was bron in virginia 1732 at that time virgina was one of the thirteen colonies the colonies belonged to the country of england young george grew up on fram he loved to ride horses and cath fish george had many brothers and sister he looked up to his older brother lawrence lawrence was a soldier he fought for egland george also wanted to be a soldier george did not go to school he was taught at home george practiced his hand writng by copying rules of good manners onto a book at age sixteen george went to live with lawrence their fram was called mount veron he danced at parties and practiced his good manners he had never been happier at age seventeen rigeorge had a very importatnt job he measured land using special tools the land of amrica was still new people needed to know where the rivers fortest and moutins were by kimbrelyweinbereger illustrated by bob doucet

report by richard crisostomo

This is the book Richard chose to read for his reading time. I had him do a report on what he remembered from the book. He rattled it off to me so I had him blog about it. He was a little uncomfortable with not remembering how to spell certain words but he went for it anyway. I was really proud of how he was really into it even ignoring his sisters pleas to go play outside in the rain!

He came to me and asked me about copywriting and should he put the author's name and the illustrator's name. I said "yes" and asked how he knew to do that. Both my children piped in "you always tell us about copywrites!" ok, I'm not a big fan of plagarism. My children will learn to write in their own words, use proper punctuation, and sentence structure.

It was not my intention to correct spelling or any other grammatical error. Instead I wanted him to focus on what he read and to relay the important points to me. Notice one of the things he focused on was the fact that George Washington was taught at home. From that we came up with a good idea. George Washington taught himself to write by copying words for a book. Richard has a hard time writing sometimes because his finger muscles start to hurt. I think that if he can copy words from a book that interests him it might take his mind of the hurt. It's worth a try....my son is soooooooooooo worth it folks! All children are soooooooooooooooo worth it in my opinion.

Reading

2007-08-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today we were supposed to work at the crafts fair but due to wishy washy weather we did not go. Instead, we made a shopping list and proceeded to go grocery and sundry shopping. I haven't gotten to the point where I teach my children more money per ounce but that's on the agenda.

I'm thinking of following a more structured curriculum for right now. Today they read "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" by Richard Carlson, PH.D. Rel read Chapter 1 and Richard read Chapter 2. Small chapters but lots of big words! and deep lessons that are good to learn at a young age.

Both Richard and Rel are excellent readers so I'd like to focus on comprehension of what they read and definitions.

Comprehension: For Ch1 they were asked to write a sentence on their comprehension of Ch1. For Ch2 they were asked to verbally tell me what they thought Ch2 was trying to tell them.

Definitions:

Ch1:
1. proportion
2. justified
3. confrontation
4. incident
5. maintain
6. criticism
7. dividends
8. commit

Ch2:
1. absolute
2. perfectionist
3. tranquility
4. conflict
5. eliminate

For each chapter we had a verbal definition test. Richard did quite well to my surprise. Tomorrow I'm giving them a multiple choice test on the definitions.

Right now they're both reading a book of their choosing, what interests them while I type this. I'll post the titles later. So far by the questions Rel is asking me I gather she's reading her book on blood. Mom is plasma a liquid substance? Yes it is it has something to do with blood.

I chose the book "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" because they get upset at the smallest things with each other. This way I get some reading, comprehension, meaning of words, spelling, AND self-improvement in. And I also benefit from hearing the words from the book again!

Later, Rel will make her famous baked chicken wings with her special barbecue sauce that she loves to make for parties! I'll be posting her recipe with pics and all!

Craft Fair

2007-08-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

Today we were supposed to go to the crafts fair but due to rain I cancelled out. Now it seems to be clearing up but you never know from one moment to the next on Maui. Instead we will prepare a menu, a shopping list, and shop for food. We'll also discuss the importance of healthy eating (until we swing into MacDonald's drive thru!). Sorry can't help it!

We'll also spend time making crafts and looking into possibly selling them on eBay or Etsy.

Reading

2007-08-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

I read a chapter to my children from a mystery book before bed time. They absolutely adore when I read to them. Before reading to them we discussed some of the things we'd like to accomplish. One is to take them to the local library on Tuesday after the pool where they will receive swimming lessons. There they can borrow books that interest them, read them and tell me a little about them.

There's so much we want to do:

sewing
cooking
astronomy club
whale sanctuary
visit a fire station and slide down the pole

and...

Ho'okipa

2007-08-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day for socializing with other homeschool families on Maui. I was able to meet 2 moms from Maui and we talked about our children, money, crafts, astronomy, surfing, music, almost everything under the sun, well, we were under a shaded tree.

Our children in the meantime were interacting and getting to know each other. It was a great time to pick each other's brains about topics such as making money at home and types of homeschooling. I am especially interested in unschooling.

Transaction

2007-08-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

We went to the bank to cash a check. My daughter read the sign business transaction and wanted to know what transaction meant. This is how I explained it to her:

trans: means to move something from one place to another
action: means any kind of movement, not staying still

So transaction means to make a movement to send something from one place to another. In this case, I'm cashing a check. The action, I sign the check, the trans, I hand it over to the teller, the action she stamps the back, the trans, she hand me money. Transaction.

Then my daughter asked "yes, but what is a BUSINESS transaction?" Sigh!

My son caught the tail end of our conversation and was curious to know what transaction meant as well so my daughter, equipped with full knowledge of the meaning of "transaction" explained to him what it meant.

Learning Percentages

2007-08-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

This is how my children are learning percentages. We collect plastic bottles for recycling. They get 10% each of the total collected but they cannot get the money until they tell me what 10% of the total is.

They also receive 10% of the sales I make at craft fairs after the rent is paid. To earn this 10% they also have to help with sales which also includes setting up the display.

After they receive their 10% they have a little box they put their money in. The log onto their ledger the date, description, debit, credit, and balance. The balance column should match the total money in their box.

I taught them how to take 10% of the total to get the amount they earned. They started with $10.00. Take the decimal point and move it forward once. Cross out the last number if it is less than 5. This gives them $1.00.

I also taught them the longer, harder way which is to change 10% to .10. Multiply the total of $10.00 by .10 to get 1.00.

After a couple of sessions of the 10% I'll move onto 20% which will entail more multiplication.