How Many 16ths of a Pizza Do You Want?

"How many eighths is equal to two fourths?"  My son stares at the colorful triangular blocks on his desk and taps his pencil.

I never know if he's thinking when he does this or if he's just imagining what he's going to build on Minecraft later.

I ask him, "Are you thinking?"  Sometimes I get a nod, but today he just continues to stare and tap.  He is completely lost in space.  That's when I decide to go to plan B.  We take a break.

After break he finally gets the answer, but I'm still not convinced that he really understands, so I make a mental note to come back to it another day.

When school is finished the boys do their normal things like play Minecraft, chase each other up and down the hallway,  and throw rocks into a nearby river.  Then we go and return library books in order to avoid paying late fees, and since it's Friday afternoon and I don't have any other plans for dinner we stop by to get a take-and-bake pizza.

While I'm ordering our family size stretch Half pepperoni, half sausage, green pepper, and onion, the Anchor salutes to everyone who walks in the door and the Free One squeezes himself into the small space between the window and the bench.  Hey, they're just doing their part to further the weird and unsocialized homeschooler stereotype.  When I finally get them to sit quietly on the bench like good, well-behaved children ought to, our pizza is ready.

*** Oh ya, here's a Papa Murphy's tip.  You can always find a coupon on the Retail Me Not app on your phone.  And,  I always do the survey and get a free cheesy bread every time I get a pizza.  That way I have some cheesy bread to be used at some point during the weekend.  I can't even tell you how many times I have fed cheesy bread and fruit to a bunch of little cousins while they were playing at our house.  Probably like 3 times!***

Later, at home, as the pizza bakes, the smell of melted cheese and sizzling sausage makes me think of fractions.  Don't you always think of fractions when you smell pizza?  I call the Free One over to the stove and ask if he wants to help me cut the pizza.  He's pretty excited about that, so I begin giving him specialized instructions on how to cut a pizza.

Step by step instructions to say to a novice pizza cutter who is also learning about equal fractions:
1.  Cut the pizza in half.
2.  Point to one half of the pizza.
3.  Now cut it into fourths.
4.  How many fourths is one half of the pizza?
5.  Next, cut it into eight pieces.
6.  How many eighths is equal to one half?  How many eighths is equal to two fourths?
7.  Now cut each piece in half so you have 16 pieces.
8.  How many 16ths is equal to one half?
***While you're giving instructions don't forget to write the corresponding fractions on the microwave door with a dry erase marker.  

I would have gladly let my son continue to cut the pizza slices until they were the size of carrots, but he didn't need to cut them any smaller because he began saying things like this: "...and nine-eighteenths is equal to one-half, and ten-twentieths is equal to eight-sixteenths..."  No more staring and tapping!
 

Then I asked him, 

"How many sixteenths of a pizza do you want?"

How To Use Prompts in Teaching and Parenting

Prompts can be very helpful in teaching, homeschooling, and parenting.  I found this really great article to share with you all about 9 ways to use prompts for children on the autism spectrum, or any children!   

A Complete Guide For Using Prompts To Teach Individuals With Special Needs

It would have gone better if I had known how to use prompts...

Seven sets of eyes stared widely at me as I told the story of Moses.  Some of the children sat on their knees, some sat criss-cross-applesauce -we called it "Indian style" back then, but I'm told that's not politically correct nowadays.  The children were quiet and attentive.  Their wide eyes suggested that they were thoroughly engrossed in the story, but what came next revealed what was really going on inside their little brains.   

I ended the story and started the review.  "Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt.  Who led the Israelites out of Egypt?"  Blank stares...  I try again, "Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt.  Who led the Israelites out of Egypt?"  Hooray!  One hand goes up.  "Um...  My uncle has a boat and I'm going to go on it today."  O... kay...  Time to color.

I was a freshman in college when I volunteered to be a preschool VBS teacher.  It had been at least twelve years since I was a preschooler who never went to preschool, I rarely babysat, and I was the youngest in my family so I really had no experience with preschoolers to speak of.  I loved the Bible though, and was excited for the opportunity to share it with the children.  Unfortunately, those preschoolers probably didn't learn much from me that week.  

Looking back I think:  I should have used more visuals, hand motions, or props to engage them in the story.  I should have had them repeat key words and phrases, let them act out the story.  I should have use prompts!  I could have said, "His name starts with an M.  It starts like this:  'Mmmoooosss...'"  If I had thought to use pictures, I could have pointed at a picture of him, or taught them a motion.  Instead, I just read the story and got blank stares. 

Now that I've been a teacher for several years these things are almost second nature to me.  I use prompts in my teaching all the time.  With my own kids I use prompts to help them learn without feeling too pressured or discouraged.  I don't expect my kids to get the answers right the first time.  Instead, I use prompts to help them and review until they know the answers without being prompted.

Prompts can also help in parenting. For example, I have three signs in the bathroom that say, "Please flush."  Do the signs work?  Well, that's debatable.  Timers are another favorite prompt I use in parenting.  I use timers to teach taking turns, getting chores done quickly, and hygiene training like teeth brushing and sitting on the toilet long enough for something to come out.  Chore charts, eye gestures, and even common questions like, "Are your hands where they're supposed to be?" are all examples of prompts that can be using in parenting.

So how about you?  Are there other ways you use prompts in your teaching, parenting, or homeschooling? 

Teaching With An Abacus

Do you know anyone from the U.S. who learned to do math on an abacus?  Neither do I.  

However, I do know that in countries like Japan and China where the abacus is still used, young children can do very complicated math problems at lightning speed using these skewered wooden beads.  I've seen videos of them, and the beads make such satisfying clicks!  

I also know that countries like Japan and China consistently have the highest math scores in the world while the U.S. trails dismally behind them and many other countries.  I'd tell you exactly how far behind, but I don't have enough fingers to count.  You can check out the stats for yourself here:  International Math Scorecard .  

So, I'm not a math whiz, but I can put two and two together, and what I get is that there is something to this magical mathematical apparatus called the abacus.  

A couple of years ago I saw a montessori based math curriculum at a homeschool conference that used an abacus just like this one below.  (If you want to buy this you can click on the picture and it will take you to the store that sells them.)

But, I'm cheap (I'm not proud of it, but I am) and I rarely make on the spot decisions to buy things, especially when it comes to curriculum, so I didn't buy it.  I really did like the concept of the abacus, though.  So the next time I was browsing around at one of my favorite stores (Ikea) I saw that they sold a really sturdy, kid friendly abacus.  I bought it because the price was right and it didn't come with shipping costs or the burden of a complete curriculum attached.  


As you can see I marked the groups of fives with a black strip of tape which could have been done much easier with a Sharpie, but, I guess I had some time on my hands and nothing better to do so I cut strips of black tape and stuck them on each little individual bead.  Now, as I type this out loud I realize that I should have just bought that abacus at the curriculum fair!

Anyway, I've been using this as another hands-on approach to addition and visualizing numbers.  I teach the number 6 as 5 beads and 1 bead, and 7 is 5 and 2, 8 is 5 and 3, etc.  It's been really beneficial.  I would like to use the abacus more, but seeing as how I never learned to use an abacus myself, I'm kind of at a loss.

So, I'm learning more about how to use an abacus and I am amazed at how simple it can be once you "get it."  Take a look at this website, http://www.abacusmaster.com/ watch the videos, test your own abacus skills.  I just did and I think I'm sold on the concept.  In fact, I just might turn the stiff combination on my padlocked pocketbook and actually buy one or two of these soroban Japanese style abacuses (or is it abaci?).  

At any rate, I do want my children to have a much better foundation in math than I did with all the time-wasting counting of fingers and what not, and I think the abacus just might be the way to go.  Here is another website that sells Soroban instruction books:  http://mathabacus.com.   So check it out, let me know what you think, and if I commit to going the total abacus route I'll blog about it and let you know.

XtraMath! Mastering the basics.

I'd like to introduce you to a gem I recently found.  It's called XtraMath, and this is where it's at:   https://www.xtramath.org/  Actually, a fellow homeschool mom introduced me to it, who found out about it from another homeschool mom, who probably found out about it from another homeschool mom, and so it goes with homeschool moms.  But, this is definitely not limited to home schooled families.  Any child (or parent, or teacher for that matter) can benefit.  It is a free online program that quizzes you on your basic math facts.  You know:  the sums, the minuses, the times, and the divides.



Here's how it works:  
1.  You sign up for a free account.
2.  Enter your childrens' names.  A teacher can even enter all the names of children in the class and use it in the classroom or as part of homework.
3.  Click the green arrow and get started.  It's that simple!!

It's designed so that your child does this everyday.  It will go through a series of short quizzes and will even tell you when you're done for the day.  If you get the problem wrong you get a red X.  If it's right you get a green √.  If it's right and you did it very quickly you get a yellow smiley face : )  When the whole chart is covered with smiley faces you get to move on.  You even get progress reports automatically e-mailed to your inbox showing your child's scores and the dates they participated.

It's all automatic!  And the best part is that I don't have to flip cards in front of my son's face day after day watching his eyes glaze over as he forgets what one plus one equals because he is so literally bored out of his mind.  My "Free One" loves it!  It's exciting for him to try to "beat the clock."  He gets so excited when he gets smiley faces.  There were even a few hoots and hollers from him today.

I even signed my self up for this and have been doing this every day.  I plan on convincing my husband to do it too so we can get a little contest going.  Who am I kidding?  I know he would win.  But, I think it would be fun anyway.  (Maybe if I practice for a while first, I might have a chance.)

Moms, teachers, everyone...this is a no brainer!  Do the math!  Click on the icon below and sign up today!