I find that The Univ. of Chicago’s Everyday Math needs home supplementation, especially in math facts. I recommend Daily Word Problems and Singapore Math. We use these for summer math.
Author: Pragmatic Mom
I am a mom with three kids and a husband living in Newton, MA. I graduated from Harvard University with a degree in HIstory and Science. I went to The Anderson School of Management at UCLA for my M.B.A.My background is entrepreneurial. I started several companies and currently serve on three boards including for my elementary school and preschool. I was a SAHM for nearly 8 years, and went back to work part-time just recently. Now I work almost full time as a WAHM for a consumer electronics start-up in Boston.My blog is my outlet to read children's literature which is my great secret pleasure, and to document any interesting and/or useful information that I acquire as I parent. My kids are quite active and pursue many interests collectively including soccer, gymnastics, rhythm gymnastics, karate (Chung Kook Doh), ice skating, Chinese, Spanish, flute, piano, T-ball, book clubs, and art. In my free time, I have been doing kickboxing, vinyasa yoga, zoomba, and I am trying to learn Spanish as well.Learning about SEO and how to blog has been a really fun enterprise albeit very time consuming. I started a bloggers group that meets weekly called www.coffeeshopbloggers.com. The S.O.S. on SEO. We share our collective frustrations and knowledge from blogging.Now you understand the Type A parent I am...hence the tagline my blogger friends came up for me for my blog:Type A Parenting for the Modern World
DIY Math Games Invented by Kids (2nd-5th grade)
2 fun and easy math games invented by 8-year-old kids for adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing and exponents.
Caught in the Act … of READING
Thank you to everyone who sent in a photo! There are such great photos this week!!! I always need more so please keep them coming to pragmaticmom.com(at)gmail(dot)com. Thank you!!! It is always fun for me to see what old friends are up to and meet new folks. This week, I have a old work colleague who left to pursue other endeavors. She took the gorgeous black and white photo and even her snapshots are amazing as she is a portrait photographer! I met another mom friend, author Melissa Wiley, at KidLitCon 2010 last fall and we both vowed to get All of a Kind Family books back in print. She was responsible for single handedly getting the Betsy-Tacy-Tib series back in print so I have recruited a heavy hitter to my cause! Thank you again to everyone and hope you all have a marvelous Monday!!!
Because of Winn Dixie Book Club activity
My favorite KidLit book in the whole world, Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, was a very successful and fun 3rd grade girls’ book club. The activity was to make lollipops which was a sneaky education in the science of cooking and to bake dog biscuits.
Best Boy Characters in Books (You’d Let Your Child Date)
This list can also be seen as a testament to authors who create characters so real, deep, and nuanced that we fall in love with them, if not for ourselves, then for our children. And I can safely say that no one else is consumed with creating this kind of list!
Top 5: Using Electronic Devices to Get Kids Reading
As a parent whose youngest (and only 6-years-old!) is already attempting to spend every waking hour in front of a screen, I thought I’d suggest some ideas for getting reluctant readers excited about reading in the vein of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” Or a corollary: “Let’s be sneaky and use electronics as a Trojan horse to present reading in a different light.” I’ve been blogging about these ideas that I’ve discovered over the past year and I’m pretty excited about them. Let me know what you think and if they work for you.
Learn Chinese Words with Bingo Game
The nice people at Kingka gave me their game to try out. I have a lovely Chinese tutor who my kids like a lot. She keeps them motivated by sticker charts that earn small prizes plus stickers for each lesson well done. She also gives them homework. I don’t speak Chinese (1 year Chinese school flunk out), so I had my tutor play Kingka with the kids. She really likes this game.