The kids groaned when I told them we were going to keep up with math this summer, but teaching them long division and multi-digit multiplication again in the fall made me groan. So, I told them we'd do a handful of problems each day to which they promptly said, "That just means five!" :) "Okay," I acquiesced, "that's how many we'll do." In thinking of how to make math more enjoyable and less drudgery for the kids over the summer, I decided to make math question containers.
So, I made five jars (Costco nut/chocolate containers) each with different points: addition/subtraction, multiplication, division, story problems, and miscellaneous. The miscellaneous container has problems relating to units of measure, time, Roman Numerals, temperature, and averaging. One night while watching Lord of the Rings, I just cut out small pieces of paper and wrote out a problem to match the jar. The story problems I copied (on a copier, not by hand) from the back of our Abeka workbook which had extra problems if needed. Then, I crunched them up and put them in each jar. It is amazing how much more enjoyable math is if you get to reach your hand into something and pull out an unknown problem.
Another aspect to this is that each day when they have completed their problems, they are to put their answers into some turtles they made at VBS this week and for each one that is right there will be a little treat the next day-M&Ms, Smarties, Gummy Bears, computer minutes, or whatever else pops into my brain. I figured my kids will not grow up to be candy addicts with just a couple of those per day. :)
VBS finished up this morning, and I haven't been feeling the greatest this week so I took a pretty long nap this afternoon. When I woke up, the kids had completed 10-15 of the math slips and had them waiting for me, without be instructed to do them. That was a good thing to wake up to! Let the fun begin...
The kids with their turtles
Some of Hannah's papers...
The treats (some were from other things as well)
