No Words, Just Passions

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How To Find Math In Real Life.

 Here are some of my cheerful Unschoolers this morning. Biggest brother is playing Monopoly with little sister and littlest brother. So much adding and counting! Rylan is teaching Lincoln how to count on. For example. Linc rolled a 5 and a 3, so he starts with 5 and count on 3 more = 8. Now, time to practice his one to one correspondence/counting skills with moving his airplane 8 spaces. Plus, who doesn't enjoy playing with money? What an awesome biggest brother they have! Which do you think children would get more out of? A counting worksheet or hands on and having fun playing Monopoly with their biggest brother?

Another math source that happens naturally at our house is playing card games.  Poker games are excellent ways to teach many math skills. We don't play games/cards, etc.... every day, but I wanted this post to be about how Math comes in naturally as we live our lives. Fridays are our Perkins Family Fun Night and we usually have fun food (make your own tacos, pizza, etc..) and play games: Monopoly, Poker, Scrabble, etc...So for us, those games do come into play naturally as we live our lives. However, I'd like to share some other ways that we purposefully teach our children Math through just living our life day to day.

Nolan and Dad playing a quick game during 21 during lunch....

and then everyone wants to join in. 

A Quick Peak At Percentages: 

Taking advantage of eating dinner out is an excellent way to share with your children all about percentages. When it is time to tip the waitress share how to figure out 10% of  the bill. To calculate a percentage in your head, start by breaking the percentage off into smaller units. For example 25% is 10 + 10 + 5. 30% is 10, 10, and 10. Now you have numbers you can easily work with in your head. You can find 10% of the number easily by one of two methods. You can either move the decimal point one place to the left or you can drop the last number. Dropping the last number sometimes gives you an estimate, though, if that number is not zero.  Simple. So, 10% of $100.00 is $10.00. 10% of 20.00 is $2.00. 

 So for example, this Pizza Hut receipt total was $15.18. So, 10% of this total would be $1.51. We just dropped the last number. We don't pull out the calculator or official worksheet. We just pull out a clean napkin and pen and do a few examples IF they need a visual. Then, we ask them what they think 10% of the total on the receipt is. They usually figure out 10% pretty easily and quickly. Then, we explain that it is common to leave 15% for tip when going out to dinner. 

So, how would we figure out 15%?

 We already have 10%, so we just need to add another 5% to =15%. So if we cut 10% in half, then we'll know what 5% of the total would be . So, let's see 10% was $1.51, so half of $1.51 = .75(ish), so now we take our 10% ($1.51) and add our 5% (.75) which equals our 15% ($2.26). Yay! They just figured out percentages! If they know how to calculate 10%, then any percentage can be calculated. 

So, to challenge our kiddos, we give each of them a challenge in calculating the tip whenever we go out to dinner. We may ask our 6 year old to do 10% and our 15 year old to figure 17.5%! They enjoy the challenge. Of course this transfers over to shopping and sales too! 

Once, when Rylan was 12, we went sofa shopping at the consignment store, just him and I. I asked the clerk if a certain sofa ($225) was on sale and he told us it was 25% off of the original price. The clerk took out a calculator from his pocket to tell me the sale price would be and before he hit equal Rylan said, "It would be around $170." The clerk checked him and couldn't believe it! He was impressed and asked if he was a genius. Rylan just said, "Um, it was easy, but we homeschool." It made me laugh and know that we have given him a skill that will be useful in his life, not just in a Math book completely unrelated to real life situations. 

Estimation and Rounding and Running Addition in our Head:

Go grocery shopping!  We have a large family and live on a food budget. So, when we go food shopping we have to keep a running tally in our heads to be sure we stick to our budget.

So, when we go to the store we do tons of math. 

Example, bananas are .49 per pound. Gideon Weighs them....then estimates that the bananas are around 2 lbs, so we will pay about $1 for the bunch. Next is beef. The package is $4.66. So, he rounds $4.66 to $5 and adds it to the previous $1 for bananas  Currently, we are $6 into our shopping. Now, we spend hundreds of dollars in one trip, so sometimes Gideon may help me for a while and then want to be done..and that is ok! I continue without his help. However, he just did more rounding, estimating, and adding than most kids do in a week of public school math AND he did it all in his head! 

Now, I don't purposefully decide "We are going to learn rounding today." Um no, I don't do that. First of all, that takes too much planning on my part and makes my brain hurt just thinking about it. Unschooling is a way of life, so we take advantage of opportunities that occur during our day...everyday! We don't TEACH, we TALK. So, if Layla decided she wants to buy a toy with her money today and she only has $3, then as she shops and I take the opportunity to talk the prices of each toy and how to round them to the nearest whole dollar and she continuously will ask herself, "Do I have enough to purchase this item?" See.....easy..and real life. 

Look around. Open your eyes. 

Math is everywhere! 

Use it. Talk about it. Think out loud. When you get gas, get back in the car and vocalize how much it was per gallon times how many gallon you got. Or better yet, tell them you have $20 to buy gas with. How many gallon can I buy? Then, have them go purchase the gas. Will they receive change? Do they have enough to purchase some candy or gum for themselves?

When you cut pizza or cake, talk about how many you each get. How many slices to cut? When you bake, double, triple the recipe, or 1 1/2 times the recipe...and then, talk out loud about the conversions.

When we go grocery shopping the three boys often get $20 and have to work together to buy snacks for the week (or two). They compare ounces, prices, use coupons, weigh options, and collaborate together to come to a consensus on what snack options will last the longest, they'll get the most from, etc... I am always amazed at their motivation and ingenuity on what they have bought. Sometimes we will assign one child to plan, purchase, and prepare dinner for the evening and give him a budget of $10-$15. They love this and come up with some scary and some awesome meals!

Math is everywhere. 

As some of my boys have growing into young teens and full grown teens, Math has taken a different turn. They've opened bank accounts and handle their own registers.  They calculate tithe, savings, and spending o their own. They research retirement. What the yearly salaries are of future careers they are interested in. What are taxes? How much do they take out? What will that leave me with? They work and save for camps. Calculate how many months at the pay they receive will it take to make all the money they need for camp. My oldest became interested in the stock market. He follows stocks. He went to China and had to convert his US money to Chinese currency. He purchased items in China using the conversion factor to be sure he was getting a good deal and not taken advantage of. Math opportunities will grow the more your children grow. 

Math really is everywhere. So don't TEACH math, explore it, talk about it, use it, think out loud about it, and soon you will realize that they have filtered sooo much math through their fingertips and brains in and through real life experience than they ever could through black and white curriculum. 

Marshmallows, spoons, and shish kabobs?

Layla and Lincoln found bags of old stale marshmallows (left over from a youth group game) while getting cereal out this morning. Well, we can't let those go to waste! Layla decided to get out the shish kabobs and started to build...shapes..and swords,...and bridges,....and pyramids, ... Nolan, my 12 year old decided to join them and made really cool structure!

Of coarse one thing led to another and the catapults were built.

Lots and lots of catapults!

Gideon started creating all angles of catapults to determine the perfect trajectory to hit the window on the other side of the room. There were lots of trial and error to get these simple machines to launch the marshmallows where they wanted them to land. Some went straight up. Some went straight down. Some went backwards even........ Gideon finally found the perfect angle and applied enough kinetic energy to reach the window! Then, he decided to open the window and see how much energy it would take to get the catapult to launch the marshmallow out of the window. BINGO! 

Don't ya just love Science? 

And that is just life...having fun and learning along the way! 

What does Unschooling look like?

At breakfast this morning Layla was drawing and asked where paper comes from?  After talking about it I asked her if she wanted to make recycle paper today and of course her response was an enthusiastic YES!

So, off starts  life ...I mean "school."

We needed panty hose to make our screens for our recycled paper and since this was Layla's project she had to buy them. Out comes the piggy bank....This is using math skills in real life, not some worksheet....I mean it's "MATH" time.. ..... Counting money...How much is a dime worth? How many make a dollar? Counting by 10s...same with quarters...25, .50, .75, $1.00....Ok, got enough! Let's go! 

 Off to the store....jiggity jig!
Found the panty hose.....how much are they? $2.59, so let's estimate...Whats that closest to? $2 or $3? Estimating always comes with shopping with Mom..every time. Then she found a treat  she wanted to purchase too. How much is it? $1.19. What is it closest to? $1 or $2? Do we have enough money to buy them both? We have $7, and $3+$1= $4 (estimate), so YES! We have enough! Time to check out!

This is my favorite part. I love watching people's face when they realize my 6 year old is going to count out her money to pay. No rush, take your time dear. :) This time, the cashier was actually a homeschooler too, so that was awesome!

 What? Is this socialization that is taking place...real life socializing...with real people in real situations? Eeek! Scary!

 Home again home again..jiggity jig!
Now comes the fun part. Of course to know HOW  to make the paper we have to READ the instructions on how to make recycled paper.  Again, it's not forced. She reads most of it alone and I help with parts that are difficult. No pressure...just life.







 At first she chose to mix all kinds of colored tissue paper just to see what color it would make once it is all blended up. Then, we started talking about colors. If we mixed certain colors they'd make a whole new color! She was an expert at this because she is artsy, but my 3 year old was amazed..."It's MAGIC!" he said!

Time to measure the water and add it to the pieces of paper....time to blend it up into PULP. What is pulp?

 Pour it out...oooo look at all the pulp! Lots of yellow and a little bit of blue made some pretty green!






 We placed our panty hose over some picture frames we had around the house. ..tied a knot at the end and tada! Paper making screen! Ready to sift out the pulp!

 Some of our pretty paper hanging to dry over night!

Well, now that the paper is dry it is time to make some cards and letters to our friends and families. She made some into books, letters, and drawing master pieces! Of course no one made her write the letter to Nana or the books with fantastic sentences all on her own! She wanted to because who wouldn't want to decorate such pretty paper with words to share with a friend? 

Once she finished her letter heart for Nana, she got an envelope to mail it. This prompted a conversation about the correct way to address an envelope and why. We couldn't just write, To:Nana.  If it wasn't addressed correctly then the mailman wouldn't know how to get it to Nana. So, we talked about our new address and why we have a P.O.box and not a physical mailing address (we live in a tiny town). Then, she counted out more money to purchase a stamp and we were off to the post office!

AND that is how a day of Unschooling begins.....

So, to review....What did my "Kindergardener" do today?

• saving/spending
• counting by 10s
• counting by 25
• how many dimes= $1
• how many quarters=$1
• adding money
• estimating
• rounding
• subtracting
• reading to find what she is looking for at the grocery store
• reading and understanding prices
• communicating with a proffesionals (cashier and post office worker)
• counting out required money to pay
• paying with money
• counting change
• Reading directions
• Following directions
• creativity
• review of primary colors
• mixing colors = hypothesis and testing her theory
• measuring
• definition of recycle
• Where does paper come from?
• patience (waiting for them to dry)
• writing
• correct spelling
• phonetically spelling
• communicating by letter
• writing a book
• titles
• punctuation
• capital letters
• addressing an envelope
• reviewing our address, city, and state
• abbreviation for Utah = UT
•  socializing with real people at the post office and grocery store
• self esteem and pride in what she accomplished all by herself
• independence to try new things

So, as you can see, she really didn't learn very much today and would have experienced and received a much better education by sitting in a desk in a room for 8 hours completing worksheets (said sarcastically).

NOPE, we didn't fill a bucket today, WE LIT A FIRE!

How to be a Mom

Layla, age 6,  wrote a book today and just gave it to me. The title is "How to be a Mom." It made me laugh. It is four pages long and on each page it says a simple sentence. They are: "Cuk (cook) for my fmily." "Hav a hspin (husband)." "Hav a bab (baby)." "Clene (clean)." She loves to make books. The pictures crack me up too. The picture of "Have a baby." is complete with placenta. FYI- I am 7 months pregnant, so most of her pictures have a baby and placenta in them right now. lol. You can tell you homeschool (and homebirth) when your 6 year old draws a placenta in her pictures and knows its function. lol

What Inspires You?

Books are what inspire my 8 year old son Gideon, especially all the Classics! In the past five months he has read Kidnapped, Picture of Dorian Gray, Three Musketeers, Swiss Family Robinson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man,  and Moby Dick.  Today, he completed the novel Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne and decided to plot out what countries he'd visit when he grows up and travels around the world himself! Of course all of that planning and plotting led to ALL kinds of unique information about each country.....then to what they ate..what their flags looked like... then why countries chose the colors and symbols for their flags......finally, ending in why the US flag has 13 stripes and 50 stars! Unschooling is lighting the fire, not filling the bucket!

Update on life - May 2012

ROUGH DRAFT (mistakes)

Sitting on the front porch reading God's Word this morning as my daughter is sitting on the sidewalkk holding our letters and waiting for the mailman. After the mailman came, she decides on her own to become a mail-lady. lol She gets out her paper, pencils, markers, and many beautiful colors and begins writinf letters to all of our neighbors. She places them into envelopes and adds a sticker (stamp) to the corner. How is this a picture of unschooling?
1. She is mimicing real life.
2. She is choosing to write. No one is forcing her or telling her what to write or how long. She has the intrinsic motivation to write multiple letters by herself.
3. She is sounding out.
4. She is asking " how to spell this or that.."
5. She is learning how to label and address an envelope.
6. She is learning what a stamp is for and where it is required to go.
7. She is learning about how society works and what a mailman (lady's) job is.
8. Asking questions that spur on more questions that spur on more questions, etc...
9. She is learning puncuation.
10. She is learning social ettiquite.
11. Becoming independent of me by walking to the neighbors and delivering her mail.

Layla washing carrots after working in the the neighbor's garden to get them..

She love to cook and wants to be a chef currently. She loves to garden.


Gideon has been practicing his unicylce again and is getting better and better. I am always amazed at his extreme abdominal muscular control to stay vertical on this gadget. To see his continued determination and perserverence every time he falls down and then gets back up and tries again to go a little farther is inspiring. I believe this also shouts ~Unschooling~. Fallilng down and getting back up over and over again on this unicycle until he is happy and content with conquering it builds character in him for future trials.

               He has memorized the names and locations of all of the states in the USA through collecting the US state quarters. This has become a fun time between his Daddy and him searching through every quarter that comes into this house.
 Through collecting quarters he has discovered what a Mint is and where they are located. Through each quarter's state design he has taken the time to figure out what they are known for (NC=first flight,  We have been planning a trip to New York and when we announced it to the children, Gideon quickly spoke up and stated that we would need to travel through Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania to get there!) He learned all of that just from collecting quarters? He enjoys collecting and studying about all coins and lately has been very interested in African coins. He has decided to start collecting them when he's finished the states.
             He informed me today that He has decided to live in the African Savanna when he grows up because he wants to see cheetahs. All of this coin research on the internet and made him a better speller too. In order to research it, he must know how to spell it. His reading comprehension is through the roof due to reading and learning about things that interest him. His ability to retain what he reads and then explain it in his own words days or even weeks later shows that he has truly read and digested the material and facts and understands what he is reading.
He has a love for anything Indian, especially Cherokee Indians. He has recently been researching and studying about the Trail of Tears and President Jackson who made the decision to remove the Indians  so that we could expand the railroad. Gideon is full of information from this period in History.
Gideon has learned to read piano notes and play piano in the past, but has now decided he wants to pursue guitar lessons.
         This morning while taking a run with his brother Nolan he found some sort of egg (already hatched.) Of course, finding this egg led to wondering what kind of egg was it? Where did it come from? Through researching types of eggs found in NC he came to the conclusion it was a House Sparrow bird's egg. And it's biggest predator was house cats. Well, between my three neighbors we have 6 outside cats around here. Feeling this fresh, broken, egg he discovered that it had a very different feeling than the eggshells in our fridge. This one felt softer and finer. It could easily be torn and it also smelled really bad.

Nolan loves audio books and has decided to start recording himself reading his favorite books aloud. He really wants Gideon to read one of his favorite books, The Red Pyramid, and decided to record himself reading it to him. Although Gideon is an avid reader and is capable of reading it solo, he has enjoyed listening to Nolan's audio of the book while he reads along. Through Nolan recording is audio books his inflection, tone, to differentiate between characters has improved greatly  His fluency has increased and his nervousness about reading aloud to others has decreased. I believe he reads out loud better than I do. Listening to him read the story draws you into the story and gets you caught up in each character. He recently finished reading Great Expectations for the third time. He always asks me, "Where Pip and Stella 'together' (relationship) in the end when they said they'd always be friends and walked into the sunset?"  After reading Frankenstein he admitted that it was the scariest book he's ever read and informed me that the author wrote it on a dare because the boys told her she couldn't write a scary story since she was a girl. Interesting....

Nolan has always been stout, but recently he has put on some weight. On his own, he has decided that he wants to become "more agile and quicker"  so he can play airsoft better. To do this he inquired how can he loose weight and gain muscle. He created his own exercise routine of running around the block four times each day and cutting back on bread and his favorite sauces (ranch and ketchup). He's also put together his own calisthenics and invited his brother Gideon to join him.
I am very proud of him choosing to care for his body in a healthy way. When we reward our body with exercise, we feel better.

Mr. Chuck and Nolan

As always Nolan loves to work on engines. He gets the chance to learn about cars, engines, and how it all works together by apprenticing under our neighbor who is a mechanic (Mr. Eddie). He desires a part-time volunteer opportunity in a mechanic shop where he can really soak up what he is gifted in. We are praying for the Lord to provide that.
Harmonica is still his instrument of choice although he has relaxed on practicing or leaning anything new lately with it.

Over the last 3 weeks Rylan has been raising $5,000 to pay for a mission trip to China with Teen Mission International that he wants to go on this summer.


He has been required to raise the money himself and found a great way to do it. By playing piano at the local BBQ restaurant. The owner, Gary, has been very encouraging to Rylan and a real blessing in making raising the money for China possible.

 Rylan is a self-taught piano player and plays by ear.
He is very talented and practices about 4 hours a day. He is always tinkering on the piano. Lately, he has really been into creating piece soft music. He enjoys using the synthesizer  which is not my favorite (Hello 80's called..), but does continue to play me my favorites from time to time. I am so jealous of his gift to play piano. Perhaps one day I will learn to play?
He volunteers at the local daycare every Tuesday and through this has had many interesting observations that I believe will forever shape the way he parents in the future. He has developed relationships and a love for these kids and feels very torn with the fact that they are in daycare, separated from their parents, for a majority of the day. It has created an appreciation in him that he has a mom that is at home to care for him, teach him, and encourage him everyday.