kitchen table math, the sequel: Summer Suggestions

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Summer Suggestions

The schools sent home their usual advice on how we parents can keep our kids skills up over the summer -- I'm supposed to encourage my kids to look for patterns, keep a journal, do estimation at the grocery store, and of course, read.

I figure KTM readers have far better suggestions for long car rides and rainy days at the beach.

Here is one of our favorites to get things going:

Stump Mom Dictionary Game -- you need 1 dictionary per person playing. Everyone thumbs through the dictionary looking for a word you don't think the other person knows. Write it down, trade papers, and see who can define their word first. My kids have gotten amazingly fast at finding words in the dictionary. They were very cool on this one at first, but now it's one of our favorites, especially since Mom chooses words that kids love -- bodily function and gross humor. It adds a whole new level to their vocabulary (latest cool find -- haruspex). To make it harder, the older kids have to use the word in a sentence.

9 comments:

Tex said...

I love this game! Not only for kids, but also for adults who love words. (I hesitate to say this, but it sounds like a good drinking game.)

I’m going to invest in a few pocket dictionaries so we can play this when we’re out and about.

Me said...

Cool!

I once played a variation that was fun. Only one person had a dictionary at a time and they would find a word and state the definition -- which could either be the actual definition or some definition they'd just made up. The object was for the others to decide (without looking at a dictionary) if they were telling the truth.

IIRC, you got a point for each person you stumped.

Ben Calvin said...

My 7 year old son is doing a Mad Minute math sheet each day, and practicing his piano.

We are looking to add writing out a passage each day to keep his handwriting up, a weak point for him.

I should say this is all thanks to my wife -- I'm afraid I'm working all day so it falls solely on her.

Jack loves the Mad Minute. Using the kitchen timer he thinks of it as a big contest.

Anonymous said...

Summer Suggestions: I call it "drill & kill" the reform balanced way ...

D got several sheets of single math facts (which D is well beyond this in Kumon - triple digit addition, still working on double digit subtraction)

When I offered to return the sheets to the school (for someone who really needs them), D offered up this solution: "S can do them."

S is his younger sibling in pre-school. Who actually can do those sheets, albeit with manipulatives - but thats a preschooler.

K got two sheets home and we parents were told to copy them so that K can do the same two sheets all summer long.

K being earnest and overly respectful, completed both sheets in under 10 minutes.

No copying needed. K is beyond this too in Kumon work.

Drill & Kill - reform balanced style - same sheets over and over and over and over and over and over and over

Oh, did I mention, these are the same type of sheets done over and over and over in class since winter time.

Drill & Kill. Reform Balanced Math Way.

Catherine Johnson said...

I've never heard of that game!

My mom has the board version (I've forgotten what it's called) - and it's hilarious, because my dad, who I'm sure has Asperger's will apparently write whole paragraph-long exegeses of his made-up definition and then be mystified as to why everyone knew he was bluffing.

Catherine Johnson said...

Ben - do you like The Mad Minute??

I've never sprung for the book because it's so expensive, but it looks fantastic.

I may have to add it to my collection.

Catherine Johnson said...

You know - the handwriting business gives me an idea.

Maybe I'll have Christopher do a "copybook."

I don't know what a copybook is, but assuming a copybook is what you use to copy passages from books you like into a separate book of your own sayings, that could help with handwriting, reading, and to some extent writing.

His handwriting continues to be a mess.

I had him on a remedial handwriting program way back when (summer after 4th grade) but we had to stop - math, spelling, & vocabulary took up all his time.

Catherine Johnson said...

I think the board game is Balderdash.

http://www.amazon.com/Mattel-B9176-Balderdash/dp/B000096RBO/ref=pd_sim_t_2/103-8301603-7903019?ie=UTF8&qid=1182708651&sr=8-1

Catherine Johnson said...

Balderdash probably isn't bad for writing practice, come to think of it...

You trick people in part by mimicking a dictionary style as perfectly as possible.

The one time I played I WON!

HAHAHAHA