Tag Archives for " Homeschooling "

They come out of nowhere …

You’re standing in the grocery store line … or at a family gathering … or at the park …

And someone lays a “really tough” homeschool question on you.

How do you respond?

What do you say?

No worries -- I’ve got your back. Here’s what you do ...

Transcript

Hello! My name is ToriAnn Perkey, and from my homeschool to your homeschool, today I want to talk about how you answer the really tough homeschool questions - the really tough ones, the ones that they come at you out of the blue maybe from a family member or a person in the grocery store line and you just kind of like, “Well… ???

They're hard, and we don't all get the same tough questions, but if you're homeschooling, you are going to get tough questions. So, how do you answer them? How do you answer those really tough questions in a way that makes you feel okay?

Well, you guys, here's the deal. There's no perfect way to answer a really tough question, and because there are so many different kinds of homeschooling questions, I can't really give you the perfect answer for any of them. I can give you some, and we could go on and on and on about those, but I want to talk more about the way you answer a tough question matters almost more than what you actually say.

Here’s the deal. When you answer a question, the way you say it, the tone of your voice, your body language -- those matter way more than the actual words. So, if you get asked a really tough question -- the kind that just throw you for a loop -- and you're like, “I don't know and I'm really worried too” and everything in your voice and your body language says, “I've no idea what I'm doing, and I think I'm destroying my children, and it's a train wreck at our house, and don't even come in my front door because you would see the dishes in the sink, and then the Cheerios all over the floor, and you would see that we haven't folded laundry in 3 weeks, and homeschooling is a train wreck but I just …” -- okay, if you do that, guys, guys, everything about you screams, “I have no idea what I'm doing and it's a train wreck.”

But you can get the same question, and if you can find it in you to stand strong with your feet firmly planted and your shoulders back -- even if you don't feel this -- like you are faking it. Pretend -- you're pretending, you're pretending even if you don't feel it -- and you say, “You know what? You're right. That is a tough question.” And label it a tough question. Say, “Here's what I'm currently thinking. Here's what I'm currently thinking,” which gives you space to change your mind, which gives you space to say I'm still figuring that out. Even if I'm just still figuring that out -- but here's what I'm currently working on or here's what we're currently doing.

Confidence in your voice and in your body language and the way you present that information -- what you're communicating to that other person is “I've got this. I've got this even though I have dishes in the sink, and there's Cheerios all over the floor, and I haven't folded laundry in 3 weeks. I've got this even though we just spent 2 weeks watching screens because we were sick. I've got this even though parts of my life are kind of messy and chaotic and I'm a hot mess. Even though … I've got this.”

If your body language says that, then it doesn't really matter the words you say to answer that really tough question, because what they hear is “I'm confidently handling that really tough question.”

So, that is my recommendation for you. And if you don't feel confident -- like if you're still learning the confidence thing -- I'm here to tell you pretend, pretend. Pull back your shoulders, plant your feet, look them in the eye, and take a deep breath, and say, “That's a really tough question and here's what I'm currently thinking.”

If you can do that, their energy will shift and everything will go more smoothly.

I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos every week so that you can be a super successful and confident homeschool mom.

Save for later by pinning to your favorite Pinterest board!

It can be soooooo painful!

You sit down and ask your kid to write ONE sentence … one little sentence …

And it turns into begging … “PLEEEEASE … anything … something …”

And they look at you like you with a blank stare -- or they start to cry -- OR they throw their pencil across the room.

BUT - it doesn’t have to be that way! You can work on “writing” without having it turn into a battle or a cry fest.

To do it, you have to break writing down into its parts and pieces, figure out what’s working and what isn’t, and then focus your efforts on what’s going to make the most different.

And today -- I’m going to tell you how to do just that!

NOTE: I mention LOTS of different resources in today’s video. If you want to check them out, here are some links:

Spelling Resources

Sequential Spelling Books

Sequential Spelling Online

All About Spelling

Handwriting Resources

Handwriting without Tears

Storytelling Resources

Tell Tale Game

Rory Story Cubes

Transcript

Hello, my name's ToriAnn Perkey, and from my homeschool to your homeschool, today I want to talk about what you can do and think about if you have a reluctant writer.

I'm talking about those kids who are in elementary school particularly who you say, “Okay, just write a sentence. Just write a sentence.” And they're like, “Oh, I don't want to write a sentence.” And it feels like you are extracting blood from a stone if you ask them to write anything.

Or they get started, and they just seem to sit there forever, and you know that they have great ideas because they can tell them to you, but they won't write them.

Well, today I want to talk about how writing is actually divided into four different sub-pieces that all have to come together to make a writer who can write. And sometimes what happens is developmentally a kid will be ready for two of the four but not the other two. 

So even though you know they can write, they're actually not ready to write.  So, we're going to talk about that today. This is a topic I feel really passionate about because I know that if you push writing too soon, and you're too hard on it, you'll have a kid who - when they hit an age when they might have an amazing thing to say - will hate writing, and they'll just say, “I hate it. I don't want to do it.” And you don't want that to happen.

You want your kids to graduate into an age and a mental space where they like writing and they're excited to write because there's so much good that happens with writing.

So, let's talk about this. What are the four different subtopics that go into writing?

They are spelling, handwriting (or typing is kind in there) … but spelling, handwriting - because most kids don't type at this age - sentence and paragraph structure, and then ideas. And as you can see, you need all four of those to be able to write a sentence on a piece of paper.

You say, “Hey, tell me a sentence about what we did yesterday.”  They have to be able to spell - or at least they think they have to be able to spell - but they have to be able to spell to some extent or you won't have any idea what they're writing. They have to be able to write it - physically write it. They have to be able to structure the sentence in such a way that it actually translates from their brain into something coherent on the page, and they have to have an idea of what to write.

That's a lot of different skills for kids to wrap their brain around, and you might have a kid who's fabulous with ideas. I mean, FABULOUS with ideas, right? They will tell you stories and their dreams and this happened and this happened, but when you ask them to write, they can't because handwriting is hard. Or maybe they're worried about their spelling, even though you've told them it does not matter what it's spelled like, you just want them to put it down! You don't know.

And so my recommendation is this. If you have a kid where these four skills are not coming together seamlessly -- and it does happen -- some kids just kind of pull these skills together and they just write. Yay, for happiness and easiness! But for the kids where it's a little bit trickier, my recommendation is to pull the skills apart and work on them one-on-one, because you don't want to have ideas stagnate while handwriting is being worked on.

So you want to be able to work on them separately, have ideas continue to grow, have the handwriting catch up, or get to the point where the kid can type and then that helps, and then you can put all the skills back together.

There are resources that specifically target each one of these. You don't need to do all of these resources if things are working or if you see that the skill is already developing, but if it's not developing, then finding a resource that specifically targets one of these skills is a really great idea.

For example, if you're working on spelling, then you're going to go find a curriculum just for spelling, and there's a couple that I'm really, really fond of.  One is called Sequential Spelling, and you can do that with workbooks, or they now have an online version. Yay, that we're using.

I really like sequential spelling - and this isn't a review about that - but I like it because it just approaches spelling in a different way for holistic learners, and I guess I'll leave a link to that so you can go check it out. Another one that's super popular with spelling is "All About Spelling," which is a very different style of teaching spelling, but it uses a method that works well with dyslexics. So, these are some different resources. 

If you're struggling with handwriting then the bar none hands down best way to work on handwriting for a kid who's struggling is a program called Handwriting without Tears, and I'll leave a link to that as well. In Handwriting with Tears, we have now been using it with just a couple of my kids. The other ones didn't have any trouble, but a couple needed to work on handwriting, and it is definitely the best program I've seen. I don't get any pushback. Super, super simple, and I'm not even using the teacher guides. We're just using the student manuals. Just a little side note.

If you're working on sentence and paragraph structure, then the best way to work on that is to actually practice having them tell you the sentences and then watch you write them or type them. Have them practice speaking the sentences before they have to write the sentences.  Say, “You know what? I need you to say that in a complete sentence.” Help them learn to structure. Correct their grammar. Correct those things as you're talking to them. So, narration and dictation - and there's lots of resources out there for that, and you can even just use the scriptures or a picture book.  Narration and dictation are really, really good for that. I don't have a specific curriculum for that. I just wanted to let you know.

And then ideas - oh my goodness - I don't know of anybody really struggles with kids having ideas and things to write about when you pull these other skills out. But on the off chance that you want to just burnish those skills a little bit, I love using storytelling games for this.

Storytelling games are all verbally done. They're not written, and they allow the kids to definitely, definitely, definitely practice creating stories, being creative, pulling their ideas out of their head and into a space where they can be enjoyed and experienced together without all of the other things. I have reviewed several storytelling resources over the course of doing this - making these videos - and I will link to those so you can go check out my reviews in the review section, and my videos that specifically talk about those resources.

So, there you have it. There you have it. Break down those writing skills into four separate distinct categories, and if you do that, you are definitely going to find that you can augment the ones that are working, take away the ones that aren't - not take them away, but actually focus on them and help supplement them and bring them up so that in good time all of those skills will come together and take a reluctant writer to a writer that's actually writing.

I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos every week so that you can be a super successful and confident homeschool mom.

Save for later by pinning to your favorite Pinterest board!

practice spelling … nope!

And then there are times when a kid will sit down and just do their assignment.

No whining. No crying. No begging.

I wish I had a crystal ball to explain why sometimes it’s easy … and sometimes it’s not.

But I don’t!

What I DO have is a simple sharpie trick that seems to help (at least some of the time!)

(P.S. This trick ALSO works wonders if the Sharpies get into the hands of your artist 2 year old!)

CLICK HERE for some cool, colorfu​​l sharpies for your homeschool.

And if you a whiteboard like the one I show you, you can find it here.

Transcript

Hey guys, I'm ToriAnn Perkey. From my homeschool to your homeschool, today I want to talk about the simple Sharpie. Sharpies are permanent markers and, oh my goodness, they can be the bane of every mom's existence. If you've ever tried to get Sharpie off the wall or anything else, you know that this sucker is very, very permanent. I know this because I had a certain daughter who wrote all over her bedroom and all over my sheets and her sheets with a Sharpie.

Yeah, not fun.  

But today I want to talk about how you can use a Sharpie, a simple little Sharpie, to make homeschooling so much more fun. Your kids will want to learn. As I'm doing that, I'm going to show you a little trick that's like magic. It seems like magic, and it's made such a difference, and we've used it tons in my homeschool.

So, the cool thing about a Sharpie is it is permanent … except if you apply alcohol to it, you can get it off, which is why you may know that if you take a Sharpie and then you draw on something and then take a dry erase marker and draw over it, it will often pull the Sharpie off.  I know, super cool. So, I decided that I would figure out if I could use a Sharpie on a whiteboard without the dry erase marker and have it work -- and it does.

So, let me show you. So, I have these cool whiteboards, and this side is plain and this side is lined, and we have used these tons because they have the line size we've done a ton of our handwriting assignments on these and my kids use this side to do math. It's a lot like having a slate from like 120 years ago -- little chalkboard slates they used to carry around -- only we have these whiteboard slates. What's really fun is I can take the Sharpie and I can draw all over the whiteboard and because it's Sharpie it doesn't come off. It's permanent.

My kids can do a handwriting assignment or a math assignment or whatever they need to do, and they can then come show it to me ... particularly the handwriting side but either way … they can show it to me, and it doesn't rub off accidently. And particularly for lefthanders when they're writing, and they will write this way, right? And then their hand will smear it while they're writing.  

But then if you take rubbing alcohol -- and I just bought this container to put the rubbing alcohol in. You do have to have the highest concentration of alcohol you can get. So, you want a 91 percent alcohol.

You take the rubbing alcohol, and you take either a rag or a paper towel, and you can put the rubbing alcohol on the rag or the actual whiteboard and then you go like this. Do you see that?  Do you see that? It's like magic, and off it comes. 

What I love is that Sharpies have this amazing kinesthetic feel. So, not only do we use black ones, but we get all the colored Sharpies. And my kids who maybe were a little resistant to do handwriting or were resistant to do math when you can write on a surface there's something about Sharpie or dry erase marker on a whiteboard surface that just is so fun and so tactile, and it shifts the learning, and my kids want to do their assignments because they're drawing with colors and they're drawing here. 

You can get Sharpies in fine point as well as in the -- well, fine point and then extra fine point. And now that I can buy even extra point, we can do even more complicated math and things that take a much finer writing because you have even just a finer point that you can write with.

So, there it is -- the Sharpie with a dry erase board. So much that we've done in our homeschool with those two humble tools. Ninety one percent alcohol, use a paper towel or a rag.  Simple, simple, simple. (Just so you know 91 percent alcohol also gets Sharpie off bunk beds. Who knew?)

So, I'm going to give a link up above or down below. You can check out the Sharpies. You can check out the whiteboard that I recommend on Amazon, if that's something you want to incorporate in your homeschool. Really, really fun. Super cool.

I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and from my homeschool to your homeschool, I bring you these videos every single week so that you can be a super successful and confident homeschool mom.

Save for later by pinning to your favorite Pinterest board!

But we were still homeschooling. And even AFTER she slept through the night, the other three children took their turns waking me up.

Aching legs … bad dreams … croupy coughs.

It seemed I went FOREVER without sleeping.

And we still homeschooled.

But there were times when I was soooo tired, that the thought of doing ANYTHING extra was more than I could handle.

Enter today’s science resource! (duh duh duh!!!!)

I’ve used this awesome series over the years to feel like we were “doing” science when I just couldn’t muster the effort to “do” science.

And even if you’re sleeping blissfully through the night, these are amazing for those days when kids are sick or you just need a little extra time to do something … anything!

Seriously … who doesn’t need that?!?

CLICK HERE to check it out for your homeschool.

Transcript

Hey guys! It's ToriAnn Perkey here. From my homeschool to your homeschool, I get it! Sometimes you are tired. I know because sometimes I am tired. As a homeschool mom, we are doing so many things, and sometimes, well, the days don't go as planned.

The baby doesn't sleep through the night. We don't sleep through the night. The teenagers are coming home late. Whatever it is, and we are exhausted.  We've had kids yelling or running, or it's just not been a good day, and we realize we've got to do some science.

Whether you're trying to hit all of those earmarks every week for your curriculum or your report that you need to do, or you just realize that you'd like to shake it up a little bit and you've got to fit some science in. But you are too tired to get out all of the equipment and doing a science experiment, and like …. okay ... just the thought of it when I'm tired is way, way too much for me.

Which is why I'm going to show you a resource that I use on the days when I'm so tired that science is not an option.  It is called Magic School Bus. Oh yes.

So, these were books. They were turned into movies, and they are on DVD, and you can buy the complete set. You guys ... this is a lot of science! Now, for some of us, we grew up with Magic School Bus, right? And we know all about this. But for those of you who didn't, let me tell you a little bit about what makes Magic School Bus so amazing. 

So, the idea is that there's this crazy teacher called Ms. Frizzle, and the kids in the class -- whenever they have a science question or something that they're learning about -- rather than sit in class, she takes them. She puts them on the magic school bus, which can shrink or grow humongous or can sprout wings or can go in the ocean or can fly in outer space ... whatever ... and the bus takes these kids on adventures, so that they are embedded into whatever science topic it is that she wants them to learn about.

Oh, it's so much fun. Every episode ran on PBS, so it's like a 30 minute -- well, it's probably like a 25-minute episode. Perfect amount of time. I used these when I was too tired for science. I was also using them for a long time when we ate lunch. I would just put in the DVD. We'd watch it while we ate lunch.

It was an easy way to slide science into the day. They were learning so many things. And what I love about Magic School Bus is except for the solar system one, which was made before Pluto was declassified as a planet, every bit of the science is really strong science.

They're going to be talking about photosynthesis. They're going to be talking about molecules. They're going to be talking about the physics of simple machines. They're going to be talking about the geography of volcanoes and the different parts of the earth. It covers the gamut of elementary science and every disc -- so, if I open this up, you'll see that there are 1, 2, 3, 4 -- oh, there are numbers at the bottom. There are eight discs in the complete set. Eight discs and every disc has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 episodes. So, 8 x 7 is a lot of episodes, right? Fifty six. That's like an entire year of science plus some!

Aaaah, I love it!  But what we would do is when the kids were sick, or we were tired -- we would watch when we're tired. But if the kids were sick, sometimes they would watch several in a row because during the day I'd say, “Well, if you're sick. You need to watch something educational.” And so they would pull out Magic School Bus.

My teenagers still pull out Magic School Bus because it's that much fun. It's fun. It's engaging. They've got lots of characters. I love the fact that they can be watching something. They can be learning the science. And then we can follow up with that with more knowledge --  with maybe, if we want to do some kind of experiment later on. I'm not saying you have to, but if you wanted to.

There are lots of extensions to this series because it was so popular, but you don't have to get any of the extensions. But I highly recommend that you check out the DVDs because they are really, really helpful for being, honestly, a successful homeschool mom, because there are times when this is all you can do. When all you can do is open up the DVD player, put the DVDs in, and close it. And Magic School Bus is one of the things that's really tricky to find online. Believe me ... if I could find it on YouTube, I probably would just watch it on YouTube, but you can't. They religiously, religiously make sure that this content is copyrighted and protected. So, if you really want to have access to it, you got to buy the DVDs. Totally worth it.

Ahhh, okay, I love it. So, if you're interested, make sure you check out the link up above or down below or wherever it is based on where you're watching this video.

I'm ToriAnn Perkey and from my homeschool to your homeschool, I bring you these videos every single week so that you can be a super successful and confident homeschool mom.

Save for later by pinning to your favorite Pinterest board!

But no longer! I know what to do to stop thoughts like this before they completely derail my homeschool.

So if you’ve ever thought -- or are thinking right now -- that you’re failing your kids, this video is for you!

Transcript

Hey guys! ToriAnn Perkey here!  From my homeschool to your homeschool, do you ever worry that you're failing your kids?

Do you ever worry like you sit up in the middle of the night and you think, “I'm destroying my children?” It's totally normal to think that. I wish I had a dollar for every time the thought “I think I'm failing my kids” has gone through my mind. And it usually happens when your kid isn't reading when you think they should be reading. Or when they've gotten really upset when you've given them assignment, and they've stormed off to their room, and you think, “That's it. This isn't working. I'm totally failing.”

Or when you hear how somebody's gotten their kids into college at 13, and kid after kid after kid is doing that. Or this kid's going to school and this amazing thing. Or they just built a rocket in their backyard, and your kid's fiddling with popsicle sticks, and you think, “I'm failing my kids. Where are the homeschool kids that are doing all these amazing things and giving TED Talks and changing the world, and my kids don't even want to do a lemonade stand?”

Yeah, it is so easy to think, “I'm failing my kids,” and I've been there. But I want to tell you there's something I do whenever this thought flits into my mind that has really, really helped me. So, I'm hoping that it will help you. 

If you ever think, “Oh, I'm failing my kids,” I want you to remember they aren't your kids as an accident. They didn't just come to you because the stork randomly picked your house and dropped your kid off on your front porch. You have your kids for a reason, and you're homeschooling your kids because you felt that this was the best choice for your kids.

You are the kind of mom who cares about your kids, and they didn't come to you by accident. They came to you on purpose. They are with you for a reason. And if they are with you, then you aren't failing them. You are trying. You are trying hard. And you're getting up every day and trying again. Mom, that is what matters. It matters that you show up bit by bit.

The kids that we get, the package we get, the difficulties that we work with -- it's all part of what was supposed to happen. And when we put all those pieces together, and we put the kids and us and homeschooling in the mix, there are days that don't go well.  There are things that don't go well. But when I remember ... when I remember ... that they're mine for a reason -- they're mine because the Lord knew that I was going to take care of them -- that I was going to look for answers -- that I was going to figure out what was best for them -- then I feel just a little bit better, because I know that tomorrow I'll keep looking for answers. I'll be asking questions on Facebook. I'll be reading books. I'll be watching videos. I won't quit until I find what's best for my kid, and I've seen that over and over and over again.

When I talk to you in the park -- when I talk to you at a school event -- when we're all gathered together, I've talked to you at a field trip ... what I find over and over again is you love your kids, and you are trying so hard to find what's best for them. And that tells me that you are not failing them. You are awesome.

So, the next time that little scary thought flits into your brain, I want you to say, “No, I am not failing my kids because I am finding answers. I'm finding answers. I may not find them right away, but I'm finding them.” And I tell myself that a lot because I'm always looking for answers. I'm always solving problems. I'm a homeschool mom, and so are you.

I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos every week so that you can be a super successful and confident homeschool mom.

Save for later by pinning to your favorite Pinterest board.

But then I caught myself.

And I instantly knew how to turn myself around before I spiraled into the abyss of despair.

And that’s what I want to teach you in my video today.

Transcript

Hello, my name's ToriAnn Perkey, and from my homeschool to your homeschool -- Are you secretly sabotaging your homeschool? I know, I know, you're doing your best. You're trying your hardest -- feels like you are doing everything you can. And yet it doesn't seem like everything's going like you wanted to.

You look around, and you think, “This is a train wreck.” Well, let me tell you, there might be something you're doing that is secretly sabotaging your desire to have a successful homeschool, and you don't even realize it.

So, let me ask you a question. Do you ever get on social media -- Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram -- and scrolling through your feed, you find yourself thinking, “Oh, I'm failing?” Or, “Oh, I could never do a homeschool activity like that.”  Or, “Why do her kids want to read and mine just want to play with their Pokémon cards or their Barbies?”

Do you ever find yourself comparing ... comparing that these homeschool moms look amazing? That everything's happy. That everything's going well, and you aren't? Do you ever watch my videos and think, “Oh my gosh, she totally has it all together? What's wrong with me?”

Newsflash! I do not have it all together. I promise, I promise, I promise no homeschool mom does! But we all fall into this trap of comparing. Now, I want to ask ... is there ever a time where you're also scrolling through your feed, and you see something and you're like, “Ah, that's a great idea, I want to try that?” Or, “Oh my goodness, I'm so glad that her 10 year old just started reading. I feel like we're going to make it.”  Or, “Oh my goodness, they are traveling, and their kids are with them, and they're doing all these cool exciting things. We could do that too!”

Why is it that sometimes we look at Facebook and social media across the board, and we get jealous, and other times, we get inspired? Well, I want to tell you what the distinction is because understanding this will help you stop sabotaging your homeschool by comparing yourself with all of the other things going on around you.

The distinction is this -- It's all going on inside your head. You're looking at the same feed. You're looking at the same stories as everybody else, and there's not a whole lot of difference in the stories or the person who's sharing it. It's how you interpret the stories.

If you look at a story or a picture or you hear someone talking in the park or at a co-op or anything like, and they start telling you something or you see something and you think, “Oh, I could never do that,” then you start to get jealous. Jealousy comes from when you think it's impossible for you to reach that thing that you're seeing.

But if you see something and you are inspired, it's because inside your head you think, “I could totally do that. I could do that if we did this and this or if I learned how to do this.” Or, “Oh, we're already so close to that. I just have to tweak this.”

That's why some people can look at a really cool craft for a homeschooler and be jealous because they're like, “Oh, I could never do crafts or my kids will never do crafts.” And other moms can look at the exact same craft and go, “Ah, that's so cute. We should totally do that tomorrow.”

It has to do with whether or not the mom feels like it's hopeless or something totally doable.  That's the difference. And you're sabotaging your homeschool if you are looking at things in a mindset of “That's impossible. It would never work for me” because it turns all your insides into this yucky, negative place where you feel bad about yourself because you're not doing certain things.

And I'm here to tell you nobody does everything on the internet in their homeschool. I don't do 99 percent of the things that you see on the internet in my homeschool, and I have a successful homeschool.

Successful homeschools do not come from the kinds of activities that you do -- whether it's a specific curriculum or a specific book or a specific philosophy. That's not what makes a confident, successful homeschool. What makes you have a successful homeschool is when you feel good about what you're doing, when you feel confident.

And if there's something that isn't working, you go solve it. When you're inspired to move forward. When you see ideas and they inspire you to come up with your own ideas. That's the difference. That's the difference between a sabotaged homeschool and a successful homeschool … it’s how you're thinking about it in your mind, not what you're actually doing.

So, if you catch yourself feeling jealous, stop and think, “Do I want to do that? Do I really want that?” Because if you don't want that, then stop being jealous because you don't want to do it in the first place. If you do want to do it, then shift into, “Well, how could I make that happen? How?”

The minute we open the door that it's possible is the minute that our life can start to change, and we can start to move into a learning, growing, changing place. And that is the essence of being confident -- is knowing that you can figure things out.

So, I want to encourage you. Encourage you to be paying attention when you're flipping through your feed or you're listening at the park -- how you're interpreting the things around you.

Are you jealous and maybe sabotaging and don't even know it, or are you inspired? And the really cool thing is the next time this happens, you can decide whether you're going to be jealous or be inspired. It's really that easy.

I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and from my homeschool to your homeschool, I bring you these videos every week to help you be a successful, confident homeschool mom.

Save for later by pinning to your favorite Pinterest board!

But that’s okay! Because my job is to facilitate a great education … not be the teacher for every subject.

As my kids get into the higher-level math, I find other AMAZING mentors and teachers to help teach them.

But before my kids get there, I make sure we set a good foundation. That means focusing on thinking skills that help prepare them to do higher level math.

And today, I want to share a  math resource that we have used for years in my homeschool to build those skills.

These books teach a foundational skill for higher-level math AND they are super fun to sit on the couch and read!

CLICK HERE to check it Greg Tang's books for your homeschool.

Rather keep reading than watch? Scroll to read a transcript of the video.

Transcript

Hi everybody! It's ToriAnn Perkey here. From my homeschool to your homeschool, do you want your kids to do well at the higher level math? I'm talking past the addition, the subtraction, the multiplication, and the division. I'm talking about algebra. I'm talking about trigonometry. I'm talking about those really high level concepts that make them do well on the test that get them into college ... that help them do well in college. Do you want your kids to do well in higher level math?

And whether your kids are going to college or not, this is an interesting question to ask because higher level math is all about learning how to think. And if you know how to think, you're going to do better at whatever you decide to do, right? So, you want your kids to do better. How do you get them there? How do you ensure that they're going to do well at higher level math?

Well, I am here to tell you it is not just learning how your multiplication tables work -- like not learning how to memorize -- and it's not just knowing how to plug numbers into equations and chug out the answer on the other side. No, it's problem solving.

Problem solving is how you ensure that your kids can go from this level of math all the way up here to this level math. 

And today I want to show you a resource that we've used in my home that I love because it just gets the problem-solving brain working like crazy. It is the book series by Greg Tang, and all the books have different titles. This particular one is called "Math Potatoes." His very first book the one that made him an international bestseller is called "The Grapes of Math," and yes, he does have fabulously funny puns with every single book.

Now, these books are really, really cool. They work for all ages. There are some that are definitely geared towards the younger kids, and there are some that are a little more geared towards the older kids, but my kids across the board have enjoyed them all.

Let me show you how this one works then we'll talk a little bit about the distinctions in the other ones. So, every page is a spread like this. Do you see that? There's a poem on this side, and then some kind of picture pattern on this side. Remember, this is all about problem solving -- specifically visual problem solving -- which makes it great for your visual learners who maybe have a little bit more trouble with math.

So, the poem if you read it, it always rhymes, but it's going to ask them to do some kind of mathematical problem solving without counting or without doing it the normal obvious way. So, for example -- and I won't read the whole poem but basically what they're supposed to do is figure out how many shells -- this one's called Shell Shock -- how many shells are over here. And the hint that's given in the poem is to look for patterns in squares.

So, you'll notice that over here the patterns are such that the kid could count every single one. But if they notice that there are patterns of nine in the squares and over and over again they can actually count up the nine squares. And he mentions in here “Be careful not to double count,” right? Because you don't want to double count this square right here and they're learning -- and then they can find the answer of how many shells there are.

So, they're learning how to think differently. How to look for patterns in their math. And problem solving and pattern finding is key to be successful at higher level math.  So, every single page in this series -- here's one about stars, and it has a different kind of pattern and problem to find. Here's one with peanuts. So, every problem in this book, every two-page spread, has a different kind of problem solving and a different kind of critical thinking, a different kind of pattern finding and pattern finding. Oh, so key! So, I have a couple of other books.

Now, he has -- I didn't bring them all.  He has some that are to help with multiplication, some that help with addition and subtraction.  Let's see … and then a couple -- another one that I really like is one that he calls "Math-terpieces" and what's really fun about this is that he actually patterns his entire poem over a masterpiece work of art.  So you get to talk a little bit about Van Gogh's Starry Night. You can go bunny trail that. Here's your poem, and this one you're supposed to find patterns. Four different ways to make seven. You'll notice three stars or four stars. Counting is important. One star, two star, three and two, and so looking for different ways to group these up to make seven.

Again, patterns, critical thinking, problem solving with a really fun picture book that's full of artwork. Okay, I get super excited. Let's see this one is "Math Appeal," another book that he has, and I love this one again just because it has -- every single one of them is different. So, you're looking for different patterns. Here the kids are looking for focusing on 15s as they count all the geese in the sky. So, how can they find 15s in this picture? How can they find 15s and then group them in different ways?

This series of books, whether you get one or you get all, is definitely going to help your kids have that pattern finding, problem-solving brain that they need to do higher level math well and to feel confident doing it. So, if it's something you think would work for your homeschool, you can look up above or down below. I'm going to have a link somewhere that will help you get to it.

From my homeschool to your homeschool, I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I bring you these videos every week so that you can be a successful, confident homeschool mom.

Save for later by pinning to your favorite Pinterest board!