My six year old, Megan, enjoys numbers and counting, so I was happy to receive Math Lessons for a Living Education Grade 1 (Level 1) curriculum to review.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. I was given a free product and compensated for my time writing this article. All opinions are my own.
Master Books Christian Math Curriculum
We love to use Master Books and have been using one of their morning baskets every day this school year. This is my first time checking out one of their math products.
Farm Theme Throughout The Workbook
I think the cover design for Math Lessons for a Living Education Grade 1 is adorable with the geometric looking pig. Megan loves animals, so this is right up her alley. I noticed the next levels have different animals on the cover for each level including a dog, parrot, fox and giraffe.
Looking through the workbook, I noticed that this entire workbook has a farm theme with lots of colorful photographs of animals, garden vegetables, farm fresh eggs and more to make math more interesting.
There Is A Teaching Companion To Help You
In the Math Teaching Companion, there is a section called, Understanding the Method and Approach of Math Lessons for a Living Education. I highly recommend that you read this part as it is very encouraging to a homeschool mom as to why we do this (with a Bible verse reference) and encourages us to keep going.
Keep reading a little further in the “Good-brain” Math section. Here, my favorite part was, “I believe firmly that we are all called to be “good-brain” people in our children's lives… encouragers, allies, and high-standard-holders. Our kids need to know that the potential for greatness is in them because they are created in the image of God. They need to learn to see their education as an exciting adventure – a private journey between them and their Creator. We need to instill the truth of the greatness and accessibility of God so they don't doubt that He is waiting for them to come to Him so He can show them the good plan He has for their lives. We, as parents are the guides for them on this journey.” That sums up my feelings exactly! Well said!
The Teaching Companion is sold separately and you only need this one book for elementary math as it covers levels K through 6. It gives you ideas of how to adapt the course for different learning styles and tells about how you can use flash cards and manipulatives. There are ideas of how to use recipes with math plus math games. This book has 20 recipes with photos and detailed instructions. I have it on my to do list to make the Picarones (Pumpkin Fritters) in the Math Level 3 section. They look so good and I do have some pumpkin in my freezer. There are also Math Readiness or Placement tests as well as solutions pages so you can determine if your child is ready for the next level.
If money is tight, you could just purchase the student workbook because there are gray boxes that say, “Teacher” in the workbook and gives you some ideas to help your child better understand the lesson. But when you can afford it, add the Teaching Companion because you can use it for 7 years and it is so helpful.
Captivating Story Problems
All eight of my homeschooled children enjoy stories. I try to find ways to have more reading time in a day than paperwork. In my 20 years of homeschooling (my oldest is now 25), I have never experienced a math curriculum with captivating stories, until now!
I was pleasantly surprised to find stories sprinkled throughout the workbook. Some of the stories span three pages, including the actual math problem that the story leads into. I think this is a great way to apply math to how we use it in the real world.
If only I had found this homeschool math curriculum many years ago! I think math would have been much more fun. Well, at least the four that I am still homeschooling may benefit from it.
Hands-On Activities
Megan is a “hands-on” learner and loves to handle her math rather than write lots of numbers. She enjoyed having pictures to color.
She also enjoyed doing the mazes, dot to dots, tracing the shape words and using the manipulatives. In the back of the book, starting on page 325 is the manipulatives section. There you will find mats you can use. The book recommends laminating the mats, but I just slid each one into a clear paper protector that has holes to put them in a three ring binder and that worked well. There are also number cards, flashcards and other manipulatives to cut out and use.
Megan Loved The Butterfly Life Cycle
One of Megan's favorite parts of the book was Day 29, how God uses patterns all around us in nature. One pattern is the life cycle. There was a drawing of the Butterfly Life Cycle as an example and a teacher gray box example of the pattern of our day and the book asked Megan to draw a picture of some patterns she found.
That lesson really stayed with her. For several days, she was looking for patterns and pointing them out and telling me about them when she found them. With her toys, she would purposely make patterns. She asked me to get out the pattern blocks for a few weeks and she made patterns with the blocks.
She was also into the butterfly life cycle and wanted to see more pictures of it. We found some picture books of the butterfly life cycle and now we have an order in to get some caterpillars sent to us when it warms up (we are in Wisconsin), so she can see it for herself.
It amazes me how one vivid math example that was part of a math story in the book stayed with her and became a part of her life and spurred her on to learn even more.
Conclusion
I highly recommend you check out this extraordinary math curriculum, I really think you will enjoy it!
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