Diary of a Home Ed Novice: Maths Games and Painting Patterns

Surprisingly we've had a bit of a maths day today. Eldest and Middle both seemed to have got stuck in sections of MathsWhizz that involves rapid basic addition/ subtraction, so I've been thinking of ways to boost their confidence and make it fun again. We have a book of photocopiable Maths games which include one that uses number bonds. I figured it was worth a go, so printed off one to laminate and re-use with non-permanent pens - plus a few extra paper-only copies as the boys all wanted to colour in the 'treasure island' borders... Eldest even added a few extra details to make the game more interesting. Middle particularly enjoyed playing it with me, which surprised me a bit: I hadn't expected much enthusiasm, but he loved it and really got into it. So that's a thumbs-up from us for the 25 Super Cool Math Board Games book.

Youngest meanwhile is still fully enamoured with MathsWhizz. I keep expecting him to hit a wall as he's so young (in my mind anyway) - but no, he's loving it. Actually his brothers were the same at his age - Eldest used to love playing simple adding games in the car, before he ever started preschool even. One of the things that upset me in school was seeing their natural love of maths being destroyed - it's so lovely seeing that returning - and hopefully Youngest won't ever have his natural enthusiasm curbed. Today he had the cuisenaire rods out again... something I associate with the classroom, he just loves playing with. I love it!

Other than Maths, we had a lovely art moment today. I was flicking through my Pinterest board and spotted some lovely paint and oil pastel animal patterns that I showed the boys. They all wanted to have a go, and came up with their own ideas for what they wanted to do - and quickly overtook me with their enthusiasm. I have to admit, I kick myself sometimes for giving them ideas but not being prepared. So there we were: me trying to slow them down while we put the cloth on the table, got the paints out etc; the boys trying to mix paints in the tray before we had paper out to paint on. They certainly weren't interested in waiting for me to demonstrate what to do, so I had to try to help Youngest and Middle to hold their templates still while dabbing paint around them, and I ended up doing mine last, while Middle had fun with more arty stuff...