Math through Literature

 Despite being an avid reader and history buff, I actually did not mind math until my Pre-Calculus class in high school.  That class about killed me.  Literally.  I crashed my car through the school parking lot getting to a 6 am tutoring session for extra help. Up until that point I loved seeing the pattern in numbers and really had fun with math.  Something about the absoluteness of mathematical rules, the utter lack of gray area, really appealed to me.

 I'm well aware that it can be tough to see the beauty in numbers when faced with intimidating pages of equations.  This is a collection of books that will really help you enjoy math. Seriously.

 The following books cover a wide range of audiences, so I'll do my best to suggest when they may be most helpful.

1 is One by Tasha Tudor

 Oh, we love this one so much, and it's not just the gorgeous illustrations.  "1 is one duckling swimming in a dish.  2 is two sisters making a wish."  It's hard to imagine a more lovely way to introduce a little one to their numbers. Bonus - this book goes up to 20.

Anno's Counting Book by Mitsumasa Anno

We are huge fans of Anno in our home and this book is perfect for the younger set.  The first page has  nothing on it - a barren winter landscape.  This is zero. Then we see one tree, one house, one bird, etc. As we move throughout the year each page has more sets to count.  That's what my son loved about it compared to other counting books.  Of course, I also love the simple, clean pictures that are the trademark style of Anno.

Anno's Counting House

 I warned you of our love of Anno.  This one is so much fun.  The preface encourages you to gather some gems or pebbles in two colors to keep track of the ten little boys and girls that move from one house to the other.  The cutout windows make it even more fun!  Thoroughly engaging and imaginative.  And a great way for little mathematicians to learn the properties of ten.

Countablock by Christopher Franceshelli

 We like all of the books in this block book series (especially the Dinoblock), but this is the one I wish I had when my older boys were learning to count to 100.  It's fun and engaging.  The pictures are so modern and graphic compared to the ones above, which is a fun visual change, too.

One Hundred Angry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes

100 hungry ants are traveling single file to a picnic when the littlest one notices that it's taking entirely too long to reach their destination.  He suggests two lines of 50, then 4 lines of 25 and so on.  This is a fun little tale to teach about grouping for the younger set.

Math-terpieces by Greg Tang

Greg Tang has a great series of books that help build math mastery by teaching a variety of math skills, like grouping, adding to an easier number in order to subtract, and finding patterns.  His books are great fun and we can always find a few at our library.

Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens by Cindy Neuschwander

 This is another great series that is easy to come by at our library and suits a wide range of elementary students.  This particular volume is invaluable for gaining a concrete understanding of place value. When we started 5th grade geometry we revisited Sir Cumference and the first Round Table because it is such an easy way to remember the vocabulary of circles (Thank you, Lady Di of Ameter and Radius).  The Dragon of Pi was also wonderful for this age.  You can find a volume in this series to help make most any math concept come alive!

One Grain of Rice by Demi

Demi is another household favorite around here and this one does not disappoint, in fact, it may be our very favorite of the list.  A greedy rajah has hoarded all of the rice while his subjects are starving. A clever girls outwits him by taking her reward as one grain of rice that doubles each day for thirty days.  The rajah quickly goes from laughing to scratching his head as the amount of rice she receives each day is carried out of the palace.  Here are a few pictures of Will figuring out how many grains she received by the end of the month.  He was smiling at her cleverness and his astonishment of how big the number grew!

Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar by Mitsumasa Anno

This is great fun to keep track of the growing number, and will definitely require a pencil and paper as the number quickly grows.  This book teaches !, or factorials.  1 island has 2 countries which each have 3 mountains which each have 4 walled kingdoms.... We used this book last year once my third grader learned his multiplication tables and it was great fun for us all. The fifth grader got in on the action as well.  I won't list any more Anno math books, but we also love Anno's Magic Seeds, which, of course, grow exponentially.

String, Straight-Edge, & Shadow by Julia E. Diggins

  We came across this book last year while my son was studying Ancient Egypt as a block in Waldorf Grade 5.  This book does indeed explain how the rope stretchers of Ancient Egypt found a way to make perfect right triangles but it starts with even more fundamental geometry.  The first two chapters beautifully describe the patterns and numbers found in nature and man's special sensitivity to recognizing them.  Diggins tells wonderful stories in this book, such as how she guesses that early man figured out how to draw a perfect circle by watching a beast of burden tied to a stake walk around and wear a path into the ground.  This is a book we definitely have on hand for older elementary grades to go with Ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greek studies, and even beyond,  but I think the early chapters are a beautiful read aloud for younger elementary age children. 

BONUS:

The Boy Who Loved Math by Deborah Heiligman

 I listed this as a bonus because it doesn't really fit the same category as the other books.  It doesn't teach a practical math strategy or encourage you to work out a problem.  It does provide a very engaging and inspiring story about an amazing mathematician!  We went through a period when my middle son was about 4-5 years old where he requested this book constantly.  It's definitely worth a read for older elementary kids too.

  These are our ten favorites, so far!  I'm sure there are many more that we should be using.  I'd love it if you share your families' favorites in the comments.

Artist Study: Henri Matisse

  We took a long break since our last Artist Study on Vincent Van Gogh, but we got back on track with our goal of covering 3-4 artists this school year.  Henri Matisse has been a favorite of mine since I was a little girl.  I can vividly recall seeing his masterpiece, One Thousand and One Nights, on a visit to the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.  I was eager to share my love for his vibrant paintings and bold collages with the boys.

  We began our study much like the last one, but without the helpful Simply Charlotte Mason portfolio of pictures, because there is not one available for Matisse.  Luckily, there are so many great resources appropriate for children.  One of my favorite is the Usborne Book of Famous Paintings (disclaimer, that link is to my Usborne store, I finally became a rep after buying so many amazing homeschool books).  You can see the book below; it is open to the page about Matisse's Harmony in Red.  It has been a lifesaver for starting discussions about what to notice in paintings.  Here we discussed the painting within the painting and how no one really know if it is a picture or a window because of the frame.

  We set up our own still life with a table, a chair and lots of fruit.  I encouraged the boys to add in some patterns in the style of Matisse rather than painting our plain gray walls.  They also inserted a window/picture just like Matisse after a quick demo in which I illustrated the geometry Matisse used to make the three dimensional frame (two nesting rectangles with 45* lines at each corner). 

  We also used the Matisse from the Taschen collection as a reference book to view the vast illustrations of his work.  Other than that we used picture books, and, boy, are there some fantastic ones out there on Matisse!  The Iridescence of Birds by Patricia MacLaughlin was instantly deemed worthy of purchasing for our home library.  

  Another favorite picture book was Drawing with Scissors by Keesia Johnson and Jane O'Connor.  This delightful book is told from the point of view of Keesia; she selected him to do school project on and the information about his life and art is relayed in a very engaging style.  

  We also read Colorful Dreamer by Marjorie Blain Parker and Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winters.  These both enhanced our study and were enjoyed by all.

  I had every intention of ending our unit with a cutout collage project and we just ran out of steam.  Our unit lasted about a month of twice weekly reading or painting, and everyone was ready to move on before we tackled it.  Will requested Leonardo da Vinci for our next artist, so we will have a combo artist/scientist study next!

Art Appreciation: Van Gogh

  With a background in art history and a lifelong passion for creating and enjoying art, it really surprised me when I realized we were more than halfway through our first year of homeschool without ever having studied any art. Certainly, we had made a great deal of art, we just had not spent any time really studying famous painters or works of art.  Somehow I happened upon a lovely book, Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories by Michael Bird, and we began incorporating art history into our weeks.

 
  I love how each chapter (arranged chronologically) highlights a masterpiece, from a cave painting to a Byzantine mosaic, and tells the story of its creation.  These tales quickly became an integral part of our morning circle time, and they still are, but this year I was determined to do more.

  I decided to try a picture study from Simply Charlotte Mason and ordered the Van Gogh portfolio. I really wasn't sure if a guide and eight nicely printed art prints were worth the price, but the quality is very good and I don't regret the purchase at all.  So far we have used the biography as well as the talking points and information for three of the works and plan to study a few more. I must have had sunflowers on the brain because I bought a bouquet at Trader Joe's and then realized they would be the perfect prop for our own still life painting session.

  We also have been reading some picture books from the library about Van Gogh.  Camille and the  Sunflowers is the hands down favorite.  It's such a sweet story and teaches the importance of accepting and loving people that seem "different."

  We fit art into our rhythm by incorporating it into our morning story time; just ten minutes once or twice a week.  Painting is such a soothing thing for my boys that we tend to do that in the afternoons when it can be hard to start up school again after a lunch and free play break.  They are eager to paint their own versions of Starry Night, so we will attempt that this week. Van Gogh will remain our focus for a few more weeks, so if you have any resources to share please do so.

Morning Basket

This spring I came across the phrase 'morning basket' a number of times. I decided to try to work a morning basket into our homeschool time since we were doing something similar anyway.  We have started each morning with a picture book this year (see some of our Favorite Picture Books) so we decided to just expand that time by reading from a few other sources. What we read from changes each day, as I like to switch them out each week for new inspiration.

 I've found it to be a great way to touch on different subjects that I feel like we never get to.  Like art history.  I never thought we wouldn't ever seem to have time for a subject I absolutely love!

  We've solved the art history problem with a lovely book titled Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories.  Each chapter covers a different artist, work, or period and tells a story from the point of view of the artist.  The chapters are just a few pages and include the artwork discussed as well as delightful illustrations of the artist working.  We have really enjoyed adding these stories into our morning routine and read a new chapter most days.  The fact that the chapters are chronological and jump across the globe is a bonus.  You sure can tell a lot about world events by what the artists are making and who is hiring them.  Chapter topics include the Terra Cotta Army, the Parthenon, the Stained Glass of Chartres, Angkor Wat, and the bronze casters of Ife, Africa.  There are 68 chapters and they span cave drawings to Ai Weiwei (probably best known for the "bird's nest" stadium for the Beijing Olympics).

Vincent's Starry Night definitely shows up the most in our morning basket, but we really just read anything interesting that I come across, and I'm trying to nudge the boys into helping me pick out things that they are interested in.

  The morning basket idea works really well for books that can be read in small chunks. I love that I can flip open a lot of these books and just read a page or two while the boys color or model:

• Women in Science
• A Life Like Mine
• The Joy of Swimming
• Beastly Verse
• Walking the World in Wonder
• City Atlas
• 26 Fairmont Avenue

  That last one is a chapter book by one of our favorite authors, Tomie de Paola, and the kids thought it was hysterical. We have added most these books to our home library, and so I included links to Amazon, but please remember it's a good idea to check your local library first!  We always attempt to "try out books" before we purchase.  

Do you have any favorites that would be fun to add into our morning basket?  I'd love to hear your ideas!  Or, do you already do a morning basket?  How does it work in your home?

Favorite Picture Books

  Our favorite way to start the day is with some breathing exercises or yoga, an intention for the day, candles and a storybook.  Sometimes we read it cuddled together on the couch.  Sometimes we read it sitting at the work table.  We read lots of different types of stories and don't worry about them fitting in with any of our other subjects.  These are just for fun.  They have beautiful pictures, or words.  They are seasonal.  They might remind us how to be a better person, or give us something to think about.  They might just be funny.

  How do we choose our book each day?  Sometimes we just are attracted to the cover at our library, or we already have it at home but haven't read it in a while. Most of the time we heard about it from a friend or a blog post or Instagram blurb.  When I see an interesting book recommendation, I go immediately to our library website and reserve it.  We go to the library at least once a week and having that reserved stack of books ready for us is the most amazing thing ever!

  Without further ado, here are some of our favorites from this past fall:

This is My Home, This is My School by Jonathan Bean

  We read this on our inaugural day of homeschool and it couldn't have been more perfect!  The illustrations are busy and fun and the text perfectly conveys how I would want to describe our homeschool efforts.  The fact that the author was homeschooled leaves me hoping my own kids have such fond memories of the experience.

On a Beam of Light by Jennifer Berne

  The boys have read about Albert Einstein before, but this book really pays homage to his imagination and creativity in a way that isn't conveyed as well in a traditional biography. It encourages kids to wonder and imagine and ask questions.  It's perfection.

Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford

  The boys had a vague idea of what infinity meant before we read this, but I think the idea is much more firmly planted now.  Uma asks everyone she sees what infinity means to them and the answers vary from an endless line of ancestors to a spaghetti noodle cut in half again and again.  

i carry your heart with me by e.e. cummings, illustrated by mati mcdonough

  A beautiful poem with sweet, whimsical illustrations.  I'm always happy to expose the boys to more poetry and this type of book is a great way to do that.

Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers

  This is my favorite poem of all time and I love seeing it set to such beautiful illustrations.  My favorite page was the old man joyfully making snow angels beside his bewildered horse, although most of them are more serene.

 Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth

  We read all of the books about Muth's lovable and wise panda.  I still think this one is the best.  A mysterious panda moves in across the street and the siblings all come to him with their problems.  He tells them each a tale to gently show them the way.  A thought provoking serires with beautiful illustrations.

The Midnight Library by Kazuno Kohara

  We were first introduced to Kazuno Kohara from her book Ghosts in the House, which was Will's favorite book for at least a year.  Her illustrations are instantly recognizable to us, with their bold use of black and limited color palette. We realized that her books are available in Spanish at our library, too.  We love to find good Spanish picture books to learn a few more vocabulary words and recognize the words we already know. It's adorable in whichever language you choose. When I see this book I think of the turtle happily heading home with a book he has fallen in love with tied to his back. We have reserved her version of Jack Frost at the library and can't wait to pick it up this week.

Seven Silly Eaters by Marla Frazee

  This is an all time family favorite.  The story is very silly and the rhyming text adds to the fun.  Mrs. Peters is exhausted preparing food for her picky brood.  When they decide to give her a break for her birthday, they inadvertently find a long-term solution to her woes.

How Full is Your Bucket? For Kids by Tom Rath & Mary Reckmeyer

  This story takes the abstract concept of how actions and words make us feel and gives it a very concrete visual.  I hope we are still talking about "filling our buckets" when they are in college!

The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie dePaola

  I have a soft spot for Tomie dePaola, as he was one of my favorites as a child.  This retelling of the classic St. George and the dragon tale is wonderful.  Instead of fighting they figure out a fun way to work together and still use their talents.  My boys thought this was the best story we heard leading up to Michaelmas and they were glad to see the dragon didn't get killed.

My Teacher is a Monster by Peter Brown

  A chance meeting at the park allows a teacher and her pupil to interact in a fun way, as the drawings of the teacher morph from monster to human.  The boys think this one is great fun.

A Hungry Lion or A Dwindling Assortment of Animals by Lucy Roth Cummins

  This one is really cute and has a nice surprise at the end.

The Snow Globe Family by Jane O'Connor

  This one is just so fun!  The little tiny family that lives in the neglected snow globe on the mantle is just hoping someone will give them a good shake.  They haven't had a real blizzard in years.  The only excitement is from the occasional flurry when the maid does the dusting. 

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg

  The illustrations are superb. The tale of the boy searching for a runaway dog will leave you wondering.  A perfect combo for a book that will stay with you.

The Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett

  This has been a family favorite for years.   When Treva hikes up the mountain to visit her cousins she encounters one troll after another along the way.  They all want her dog.  She manages to tempt them with her lovely mittens, hat and sweater to get him back.  Finally, she runs out of trinkets to ransom the dog with.  The boys love the greedy, fighting trolls and delight in the heroine's clever way to deal with them.  

The Bear's Song by Benjamin Chaud

  This is a book that gets read often in our home.  Mostly to the three year old, but the older boys are happy to listen.  They love finding the bear cub and bee on each page and absorbing all the details of the Paris scenes in the illustrations.

Home by Caron Ellis

  Beautiful, whimsical illustrations of all kinds of houses, both real and fantastical.  A great prompt for drawing homes.

Happy Reading!