Creative craft kit

Children ages 3 and up will enjoy using their creativity to make original works of art with materials found in this budget-wise craft kit. I made this kit for my daughter when she was a preschooler, and, with periodic refills, she used it for many years. Open-ended activities such as this offer the greatest opportunity for children to exercise their creative thinking skills. And this kit is portable—so kids can take their imaginations on the road!


Materials needed:

Inexpensive plastic container with handles
Child-size scissors

All-purpose glue

Paper scraps

Glitter or glitter glue

An assortment of craft items

Steps:

1) Purchase a small, inexpensive plastic container with handles. These are available at craft and department stores.

2) Fill the container with an assortment of craft items. Suggestions: plastic goggle eyes, pom-poms, chenille stems, sequins, Popsicle sticks, beads, feathers, foam shapes, macaroni, plastic string.

3) Be sure to include the following basics: child-size scissors, all-purpose glue, glitter or glitter glue and paper scraps. The scissors can have a straight or decorative edge. Include a variety of paper types and textures: construction, crepe, corrugated, tissue, foil.

This kit will amuse a wide range of preschool and school-age children and will last for years. It can be restocked with new items as budget allows. The creative craft kit makes a great gift, too.

Math is money

To borrow from Food Network celebrity Guy Fieri, math is money, as you'll discover when you calculate simple interest:

Interest = principal x rate x time or I = prt

If you haven’t already done so, now is a great time to open a savings account for your child. Use this to highlight studies of calculating interest. Compare interest accrued by keeping money in a regular savings account versus a certificate of deposit. As a result of this exercise, Allegra decided to move money from her passbook savings into a 48-month CD. The difference in interest earned at the end of four years is about $100 at current rates.

This is also a good time to explain how credit cards and loans work. You might develop some exercises demonstrating how much more something costs when interest is factored in. The 100+ Series Standards-Based Math book for grades 7-8 by Harold Torrance offers great exercises in calculating interest, along with other exercises related to national math content standards.
Our main math text is School Specialty Publishing’s Spectrum Math. This text offers brief explanations of mathematical concepts and provides problems for students to solve. Unit tests and answer keys are included. For a more in-depth explanation of math concepts and for historical background on, say, algebra or the Pythagorean theorem, consult Torrance’s 100+ Series Standards-Based Math. These texts will get you through middle school math.

I also love Sue O’Connell’s Math the Write Way, which asks students to verbalize math concepts. O’Connell provides fun exercises requiring students to think, talk and write about math: explaining how they arrive at their answers, justifying their thinking and describing math terms and processes. Good for any student, this approach is especially beneficial to students who believe they are stronger in Language Arts than in math.

Another great book is Creative Problem Solving: Multiple Strategies for the Same Answer by Cindy Barden. As a student, I often arrived at a solution via a different route than the teacher. Unfortunately, most of my teachers seemed to think only one way existed for arriving at a mathematical answer. Consequently, I hated math, even though my ability placed me in the top math classes. And now, déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would say, my daughter began experiencing the same problem in public school. I chalk this up to teachers who don't fully grasp math concepts but who are adept at following formulae and problem-solving strategies outlined in teaching manuals. Fortunately, at our homeschool have the added benefit of tapping into the amazing mathematical abilities of my husband, the engineer, who can see every side of a problem. He enjoys Creative Problem Solving. With fun puzzles and brain teasers, this book demonstrates that while there may be only one answer to a problem, there are multiple ways to find it.

Allegra's take: I find our main math text, Spectrum Math, to be rather dull. Its lessons are almost invariably made up of bare-bones equations and conversions, with the occasional page of word problems thrown in. It usually provides only one formula for finding the answer.

I much prefer Creative Problem Solving: Multiple Strategies for the Same Answer. It has fun activities, often presented in “math story” format, that allow students to explore different strategies and find their own personal strengths. The brainteasers offer an entertaining challenge.

Math the Write Way is well thought out and gives a good opportunity to blend subjects. It is very challenging and really makes you think, a quality that most mainstream math texts lack.