Hi JBDad,

As the school year comes to a close, I was thinking of your family the other day. How did it go? I recall the waters getting turbulent towards the middle?

Dazey

Sorry I missed this the first time! I was just getting ready to post a question about math resources. I've been lurking, but for a variety of reasons, I've been relatively quiet lately. I do appreciate you asking though!

We've been very busy the last month as our family grew by +1. Everyone is doing great. We broke a long standing tradition of boys and DW and I finally have a girl (the reason we tried for number 3). We had serious genetics working against us and we were plesently surprised.

DS6 ended the school year on a little bit of a rocky note. We're trying to figure out what to do for next year, but for now it looks like we're going to try the public school system one more year. You may or may not recall that DS6 has a sleep apnea problem that may be amplifying his emotional reactions, particularly during school days (he sleeps an incredible amount and then wakes up tired). We have surgery next week to see if we can clear that up. That may be making school days a little difficult for him--that and he is a bit bored.

We're planning on getting another evaluation this summer because now he's old enough for the WISC. We're going this based on our observations and the fact that the school pyschologist said that the SB-V wasn't a great test for his type of thinking.

I have to say... after school got out, his interest in diving deep on certain subjects has really exploded. I wouldn't mention this in other forums, but I think school is holding him back a bit. He got Murdous Maths books for Christmas and really hasn't had much interest in them... until now. Since school has let out he's been ripping through them! Number games that we used to play have turned into full blown alegbra equations that he does for fun. I'm pretty exhausted right now so I won't go completely into it, but I am thinking that for next year I have to get a little more assetive on at least the Math aspect of it. He's also becoming a little more self aware "Daddy, I'm clever with math." (Okay we also indulge the boys with Doctor Who so they get their dose of English proper.)

I will definitely post more very soon. I'm looking for other math resources like alegebra word problems for the unschooling that we're doing.

Thanks for asking! I am still around.

JB

Dear JB,

Congratulations to you both on your new addition! I hope all five of you are getting settled in and enjoying your new darling, getting a little sleep, treasuring this precious time together...there's nothing quite like those wonderful newborn days, when you're all getting to know each other...magical.

Glad your little guy is having so much math fun! Have you looked at Don Cohen's Calculus By and For Young People Age 7 and Up? Harpo had some good times with those books a while back--I've been thinking we should revisit them again. (Cohen's site is www.mathman.biz ) There is also some fun stuff at www.mathartfun.com , and also at www.gnarlymath.com (I even love the site name!).

All good wishes for the surgery next week--do keep us posted if you have a minute, and let us know how he, and you all, are doing!

peace
minnie

Congratulations, JBDad

JBDad, thanks for sharing the joyful news! Hope the sleep situation improves for you and your family.

P.S. Great websites Minnie

See, I knew I should have posted to the group sooner! Thanks for the math suggestions.

CONGRATS JBDAD!!! Our 3rd was a girl after 2 boys. The inlaws had 3 boys so everyone was happy to have something different lol.

Back to math: how about Zaccaro's Real World Algebra?

Congrats JBDad! And it's so nice to hear an update.

Congrats JBDad!!! Girls are so much fun and she's lucky to have 2 big brothers! Don't be surprised if she seems into their stuff more than things geared to girls. My DD is 2.5 yrs younger than DS and she loved all toys for boy until about 4.5y. At 18m she could name all the Thomas trains and at 2y, built her first items with Legos! She's definitely more into both girl and boy stuff now but will still play with whatever her big brother is in playing with.

Another website: AOPS resources Several intro to algebra books, etc. Might be more appropriate in a few more years but at the rate that your little guy is going, sooner rather than later seems more likely!

Good luck and get some sleep!

Congrats JBDad, Great news!!!

Congrats on your new arrival!

Yay! Hug your wife for me!

I'm going to be trying Painless Algebra by Lynette Long with DS8 this year. You may recall that I liked her geometry book for him. I haven't used this yet, but it looks good and seems like a good place to start. I think it's a simpler-but-not-dumbed-down place to start than the AoPS stuff. A good intro, I think.

I hope!

> Painless Algebra

My DS9 found this book and it got him started on algebra. He loved it and I used it to re-learn stuff so I could teach him.

You may want to get a textbook or something else that will provide a lot of problems (textbooks are cheap on half.com). At a certain point, I found that having ready-made problems (plus answers) was more efficient than making problems up and working out the answers.

Val

Kriston - thanks for the resource. Will be checking out Long's offerings. AoPS might be too tough of a place to start. Thx again!

I completely agree, Val. Long's books don't give much in the way of practice problems. I have seen this as a pro at DS8's stage, but it could be a definite con under different circumstances.

Since I've approached geometry and algebra as a first pass for a younger kid in a spiral-ish curriculum rather than a "he's done this for high school credit," going light on the practice problems is fine. But it certainly wouldn't be appropriate for all kids in all situations.

As you rightly note, though, it is easy enough to supplement with more practice. And I think she does a good job of making stuff clear without oversimplifying.

My DS will be going to a school that will teach him algebra/geometry formally next year. They recommended Algebra: Structure and Method (Brown, author). I found it on half.com for a few dollars for anyone who's interested. It's the basic algebra textbook used in a lot of schools.

I've been happy with it (bought it two or three months ago).

I also made heavy investments in graph paper for DS for graphing. This seems to be one of his favorite algebra-related activities (presumably because it combines art and math). I've had fun writing series' of progressively outlandish equations for him to graph. Some require taping sheets of graph paper together and the results can be wide parabolas or goofy curves.

Val

Thanks for the book tip, Val!

I think DS8 will love graphing, too. DH's brother (both of them engineers) teases DH that he graphs everything. I suspect the apple won't fall far from the tree.

LOL!

Congratulations on your baby girl! How are the big brothers adjusting?

If all you want are word problems you can solve using algebra, then Singapore Challenging Word Problems should be sufficient. Even though they want the student to solve the problem without using and algebra, you can go ahead and solve them using algebra. I think any book from the 4th level up should do.

Talking about math, I got the next level of Zaccaro (for elementary and middle school students) and cannot wait to use it. I waited too long with the previous level and before I knew it most of the material was way too easy for DS6. The middle school level includes equations with 2 variables, cosine, acceleration, slope of the line of tangent, Venn Diagrams, and other really cool things.

Congratulations on your new arrival

A website with math puzzles etc. that my son enjoys is http://nrich.maths.org/public/

The murderous maths website is also also lots of fun according to DS7.

Val: Are you sure it's the Brown author for AlgebraI: Structure and Function? For that book, I usually read from mathy types that it's the Dolciani author you want. She wrote the books initially I think, then in later years Dolciani and Brown are listed together, and then just Brown. The older versions (Dolciani) are the ones recommended most often, so much so that it's usually just called Dolciani. The older versions are said to be more rigorous. Now, some don't use the Dolciani versions until later b/c they are using it w/ much younger kids and it would be too much for even very advanced kids. NOw this is all just my reading, none of it is first hand. I'd love to hear what you think of the later versions. Mathematically Correct did give only 2 algebra I texts the thumbs up and it was Algebra I:Structure and Function and Foersters and it was a later edition of Algebra I: Structure and Function.

Re: Algebra books.

I'll check when I get home (am at work).

Val