Gladdest Hours

The Blessed Mother oversees Math Lessons

When the girls told me a couple weeks ago that they "loved" math time, I thought it was because they liked "Mr. Steve" from Math-U-See.  Now, I know it's because the Blessed Mother is in charge. 

The girls doing some Math-U-See under the watchful eye of Mother Mary. 

Mary watching over Madeleine's next problem.  Also noteworthy is the fact that Mary is sitting on a burp rag. 

Erika deciding what to do next.

She even serves as a pencil holder.

 

 

(I wish I would've brought my Mary statue to math classes when I went to school; I may have liked it better.)

Mats

I started having the girls use mats a few years ago, and it has really helped to contain their work and give each child  independent work space.  We keep them folded in a small wastebasket container on a bottom shelf.  They are simply throw rugs, found at various stores.  Here are a couple pictures of them working on their mats.

Erika sorting some buttons:

Dorothy Jo doing some work with her lacing shape beads:

 

Here is a thread about mats from the 4real board a few months ago, and one going on right now , where there are a couple links about introducing mats.

ETA one very important aspect of mats.  During "mat activity" the 15-month-old is in one of three places: the backpack or sling, the playpen, or her crib sleeping.   When Caroline is wandering free, mat activity is not possible!   

Welcome to our Fabric Store

I think I've been making too many trips to the fabric store lately. 

Here is the fabric selection:

Seamstress Erika has made her selections carefully (all while holding her baby):

She brings her fabric to the cutting counter:

Where the "cutting lady" will lay the fabric out:

Note the measuring tape attached to the table.  Also of note: The cutting lady's questions such as, "What are you going to make with this one?"

Seamstress: "Oh, a summer dress for my daughter and maybe a shirt for my cousin."  (which is especially funny because my daughters don't have any cousins.  Yes, I know, this is PRETEND! But it's still funny.) "I was going to make underwear, but I couldn't find the size."

Cutting Lady: "Oh, that will be beautiful.  I really like how this fabric has pink and then little green dots and it goes like 'this' (hands waving in the air).  I think I'll make a tablecloth from that tomorrow." (Great....matching dresses, shirts and tablecloths.  Why didn't I think of that?)

Seamstress: "Yes, I'm leaving for to see my mother in a few days and I could use a tablecloth too" (what?????%$#%) 

On with the task at hand.

Measure and cut.  Seamstress Erika wanted "187-and-a-half-quarter-yards of this one please" :

There is a "baby cutter" too, who just stands around grabbing at everything.   

Seamstress Erika then "leaves" the cutting counter. The cutting counter is then miraculously transformed into the cashier counter. Here is the cashier (the cutting lady's twin) waiting for a customer:

Adding it up:

Various discussions take place about important things like the weather outside, scissors and babies.  Then the question: "Are they all your yours?" 

Answer: "Oh yes, and I have 13 more at home.  They are the ones who are getting the new hats from the fabric." (Hmmmm...I don't remember talk about HATS, only shirts, dresses, underwear and tablecloths.  This is one busy-mama!)

Money transfers hands:

Bag it up:

"Thanks for coming in.  Have a nice day. Good-bye!"

"Good-bye."

 

Today's Math Lesson

At the dinner table tonight:

"Dad, since we have 5 girls and 1 boy in our family, how many brothers would we have to have to make the boys and girls equal?"

Me - tensing up, back straightening, jaw and fists clenching, toes begin to wiggle. I get a "pass" here, right?  Caroline is ONLY 10 months old, for goodness sake!

With a bit of help from the green beans as manipulatives, they figured it out.

Erika pronounced, "We need to have four boy-babies to get an equal number of boys and girls in our family!"   

Dorothy Jo (3) said, "But der's not vewy much woom for fow mo babies! SOME kids would HAVE to sleep with mom and dad in da big bed!"  Pause.  "Oh, I guess, I wiw!"

There, then......it's settled.  Four more babies (boys of course), and Dorothy Jo sleeps with us.

Cranberry Thanksgiving

  This is our third day reading Cranberry Thanksgiving, (from Five in a Row) and the girls adore this book.  I would not have guessed that they would appreciate it so much and want more, more, more.   This book is truly becoming a “living book” in this household.  It has led to many discussions about cranberries, cranberry bogs, whiskers/beards/facial hair, large fireplaces/firepits/firewood, cold weather, recipes, lonely and poor people, men wearing ties, “trilling,” stealing, hair styles, grandmothers, Thanksgiving, etc. 

Here are some of the things we've done while "rowing" Cranberry Thanksgiving:

• Made cranberry bread to eat at our Cranberry Tea Party
• Sang “We Gather Together”
• Laughing about Mr. Whiskers saying “How about some more?”   (This has become a regular phrase while eating, followed by lots of giggles)
• Found pictures of cranberry bogs and cranberry bread on the internet

And then, this whole morning was basically dedicated to making letters, counting and adding cranberries.  This wasn't exactly the plan, but it just sort of took on a life of its own!

Here are some pictures from our Cranberry Math Morning Extravaganza:

Counting as per Mommy's directions:

Making letters (M,A,D) with cranberries:

Erika - Matching Math-U-See Rods to number of berries:

Dorothy Jo doing whatever she wants:

Madeleine's steps - counting out berries as she lines them up.  How many berries total? 

Hmmm...starting to get the "10 plus 1,2,3" concept:

Erika did this FOREVER:

An Arial View of "Cranberry Math":

And, there you have it!