Inclusive Homeschool

There’s lots of math worksheet and online practice sites, but the one I like the most goes by the name – what else? The Math Worksheet Site! http://themathworksheetsite.com/

It’s a free resource, kinda. You can use the generator for all the operations for free, but the membership adds to the types of problems you can create. For a fee of $20 a year or $2.50 a month – and they do have monthly membership – you have additional types of problems to generate.

For example, for addition, the free side allows you to generate a number of addition problems in horizontal, vertical format and the types of digits and number of digits you want to add. The membership allows you to create problems with missing addends and perhaps others. I don’t know yet, but that one sticks out.

Still the free side has lots to choose from, and you can customize your worksheets to a greater degree with those than other sites I’ve come across. This is important to me.

The operations and topics covered are: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, mixed problems, fractions, measurement, graphing, telling time, one hundred chart.

Now, I’m not a worksheet mom. Don’t really care for them, but with math, I have found it helpful to use specific worksheets geared to whatever concept we’re working on and just for reinforcing math facts. It’s nice to be able to tailor make them myself. Brhiannon needs a lot of building of foundation work before moving on in math.

Also, because of the way my work schedule runs there are three days in a row that varies each week where I don’t have her. I have to be able to send something down with her or she will have no exposure to math or language arts, and those are precisely the subjects that she needs consistency in. These custom generated worksheets are the ticket for her. I’ve already used the free addition sheets, picking the numbers to add and the numbers I wanted them added to.

So far I’m only using the free part of the site, but I will probably purchase a membership, because I want to generate a greater variety of problems….and because I’m a curriculum and resources junkie.

Tags: generator, Math, Resources Free, Resources Paid, worksheets

I just discovered this math site tonight http://illuminations.nctm.org/ that is an absolute treasure trove of resources.

It’s divided into four major sections: activities, lessons, standards and web links, and covers grades pre-K to 2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.

The standards are number and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis and probability. The online activities are a lot of fun, though I did have one page freeze up on me using my Firefox browser.

I can’t wait to do some of these activities with Brhiannon when she comes home. She is more of a hands on and visual learner, and using more than one approach, utilizing as many of her senses work best for her. I anticipate her really enjoying this site. Brhiannon has not had a positive experience with math, and has developed a…oh, shall I say, dread, for doing math?

I have to be honest and say part of the reason for this is because of the inconsistency of academic practice between her two homes. It’s one of my greatest frustrations. Another part is because she is very right brained and she operates on her own time table. I must confess that I have periodically succumbed to pressure to “keep her up to state standards”, pushing her into abstract learning before she was psychologically or neurologically ready.

Between the two, she has developed a lack of confidence and self esteem in all things mathematical…except when she doesn’t know they’re mathematical. Which is another reason why I love another site so much. I’ll post on that one later.

For now, I want to say I think http://illuminations.nctm.org/ is a valuable resource and I’m very pleased to have discovered it. Rather than go through most of the site myself before posting, I want to post it now and give you the opportunity to explore it yourself!

I’d love to hear what you think – what you like best or recommend from this site. I’ll revisit this site and make further posts concerning which activities we like or find most helpful.

Happy learning!

Tags: Free Resources, Math, virtual manipulatives